Smash 101 Featuring Little Mac! Join Club Reborn today Mac!

[Godot]

I know Robin and Sonic were the most requested in my poll, but I feel like talking Mac today. Especially since he is kinda MY character that everyone associates me with. So let's start from the beginning and learn how to dance like a fly, and bite like a mosquito!

Boxing

Before I start talking about Mac himself, let's talk about the sport of boxing first. Boxing is a fighting sport where foot work, stage presence, footsies, and mobility are all key components to winning a match. Sounds familiar? In boxing there are three types of fighters (four, but we don't care about archetype 4), Infighter, Slugger, and Outboxer. Infighters specialize on pushing and being aggressive to their opponents, they practice Footwork, combination punches, and learn how to feints and fake out the opponent to create openings to take advantage of. Sluggers are often burlier doods who rely less on footwork and more on hitting the opponent as hard as they can. They can also take advantage of their bulk to tank punches and counter attack by throwing a punch that is twice as hard. Lastly we have Outboxers. Outboxing is where you fighting from the a mid ranged distance from your opponent, you focus more on pressuring your opponent and keeping them on their toes rather than doing direct damage to them. Outboxers often win why tiring out their opponent or getting their opponents angry to where they start making mistakes. Those Mistakes are easy to take advantage of!

"Isn't this a video game thread about video games? Why are you telling us about irl Smashing?!? We want to be good at the game, not know more about real life!"

Actually, this is beneficial to know to learning Little Mac. Sakurai and the team at Namco Bandai (who he obviously stole ideas from) **cough cough Steve Fox says hi cough cough** Mac's play style is based around REAL ideas surrounding boxing. He is also based on the whole "Mac fights opponents way bigger than him and has to use his wits to outbox them rather than trying to out muscle them. One mistake and its game over" thing. When people ask for advice on Little Mac, the first thing people tell you is "don't get hit" and don't tell you how. I believe knowing real ideals to boxing can and will improve your Mac game play to where you won't "get hit."

In the Ring

To be a good Mac, you need to learn how to do all three styles of boxing and apply it to smash. In the early moments of the game, you may want to play an outboxing game. Often I would suggest rushing in asap when fighting a projectile, defensive, or set up character who prefers their distance. In this case however, you want to be cautious no matter what. Mac's best Outboxing tool is his forward tilt, which is a basic one-two straight punch. The attack is fast, pokes really well, and is often safe on block meaning people can block it and you won't be in any serious trouble. Mac's Up Tilt and Down Tilt are also really good outboxing tools. Up tilt is good for getting people who try jumping in on you or catching rolls. Down tilt is good for poking past shields. After a while your opponent's shield will diminish and their feet will become vulnerable. If your opponent keeps shielding and running away, don't run after them, slowly approach them. Once you start performing your dash animation, you lose access to your tilts. If you opponent starts pressuring you or you don't feel like you are close to being "in" yet. Take advantage of Mac's Rolls and back dashes. You want to confuse your opponent as much as possible before charging in. One last thing to remember regarding outboxing is respect people with weapons like swords and hammers. They have really long reach while mac's arms do not. Keep your opponent on their toes and keep them guessing. Like Doc Louis always says, "Dance like a fly, Bite like a Mosquito." Little Mac is at his strongest when he "gets in" and Outboxing is the best way to get in. Once you are in, you switch it up to some slugging or Infighting.

I personally suggest moving onto Infighting next since is a great way to build up damage. Once you "got in" you will want to try and do as much damage as possible before your opponent is at "kill percent." If you catch an opponent right in front of you, get them with a jab. If your opponent isn't within jab range, it is often good to go for a down tilt rather than a side tilt. Side tilt is more for poking and punishing rather than damaging. And of course read rolls with up tilts. Like I said earlier doing combos is the best way to squeeze in some damage. Before I teach you guys some, here are some things to keep in mind.

1. Mario and Luigi don't like being combo'd. They can break out of most combos with their neutral air (which is stupid OP imo).
2. Mac, Fox, and Falco can break out of some combo chains with their standing jab. Their jabs are really fast and come out on frame one.
3. Ryu has frame one super armor. The armor can break if you hit him more than once, but it will launch him weird and work as a combo breaker.
4. Characters who are light or floaty like Rosalina, Mewtwo, Yoshi, Shiek, or Jigglypuff are all really difficult to combo. So it is wise not to try anything super risky against them.
5. Characters who are heavy or respect gravity (aka fast fallers) are easy to combo. Heavies can range from Ryu and Ike to Bowser and Donkey Kong. Popular fast fallers are Mac, Fox, and Falco (again).
6. There aren't many true combos in smash. In smash and most fighting games there is something called a "reset" or "tech chase" It is essentially where you put your opponents in an awkward state at the end of a move, and then you read where they will go next. This is called Tech Chase or Reset combos. They look like true combos but they aren't.
7. Some combos are done by combining "Attack Chains". Some attack chains can be pieced together and some cannot. I will go into more detail later.
8. Most people who know how to use Directional Influence or DI, will most likely DI towards the center of the stage.
9. Most of the time when you can combo into Up B, you can just KO punch instead.

Combos starting from a jab.

Yes there is the whole "rapid jab" combo to where you start the crazy punchy animation with Mac's back to the edge of the stage or a platform, you fall and do a side B, up B, or KO punch. Though don't try it unless you are "in the moment." Mac is happiest when he is in the center of the stage. So you probably won't be presented the opportunity often. However, you can catch people with a basic jab really easily. Mac has two jab attacks. The one-two-Flurry of jabs and the one-two-three "gentleman" attack. By using the gentleman, you can do some pretty flashy and high damaging combos by using a technique called "Jab Canceling." Jab Canceling is where you end your jab attack prematurely to do some combos that are sometimes risky. I say sometimes risky because characters with fast Jabs (scroll up and look at point 2) can ruin this combo. One popular option for the jab cancel is to cancel into a grab. In some cases you may need to take a step or two forward to connect the grab. On to the meat...

• A-A (Pause) Down Tilt, Grab.

This chain can only really be used at a low percent like 0-20%. Once you have the grab, I would suggest down throw, back throw, or forward throw. If you go with the down throw route, you can immediately go into up B for fast easy damage. Unless you are feeling risky, go for a short hop, Neutral Air then Up B. Some more intelligent opponents or floatier opponents can screw with the direction they are sent flying, you may want to take a set to the side to catch them before doing the Up B. If you miss the Up B, you can be put at the disadvantage. There is also the show off-y thing where you can try footstooling your opponent after the down throw, fast fall, and hope your opponents don't tech, side tilt, down tilt into another grab, down tilt into up b, up smash into up B, or jab-jab (pause) Up Smash-Up B.

If you go with the forward or back throw, you can dash up to them and then dash attack or up smash them. If you go for the up smash, you can sometimes combo the up smash with an Up B. The up Smash can also be charged or thrown at a delay if you think your opponent are going to recover with a wake up attack. If they tech with a roll or slow wake up, you are mostly safe.

• A-A (Pause) Down Tilt.

This chain is recommended once your opponent goes past 20/30%. You can immediately follow up the chain with an Up B, though there are some other interesting combo options. Like Nair into up B if you want to be fancy, side B for quick easy damage, or you can attempt foot stool shenanigans. or... you can just KO punch. You can also try to go for the reset and punish an opponent's aerial movements with a smash attack of your choice. Up smash and Diagonal up smash into up B tend to be good options, You can also sometimes side tilt or Forward smash to assert your stage presence.

Or you can just ignore 90% of this and just do a KO punch.

• A-A (Pause) Grab.

A lot that can be said here has mostly already been said in the first mentioned combo chain. The only difference here is that this is suggested for much higher percents. This Chain can reliably work even when your opponent is at an absurd damage percent. At higher percents the back throw combo will not work. Down Throw Combos still somewhat work. Mainly the simple Down Throw into Up B combo. At over 100% you may want to try going down throw, jump, then up B.

• A-A (Pause) KO Punch.

Only try this if your opponent is around 30% or higher. They will live if they are any lower.

Reminder: You don't always need to start with the jab to do some of these combos. You can do them if you land any hit in the attack chains. You also will see a lot of combo videos on youtube where mac jumps after down throw or down tilt and follows up with an aerial. Those are try hard combos and are impractical. You don't want to do that in a real match.

Up Tilt Combos

These combos are really helpful, and less commonly seen in "how to Little Mac" videos and thread. Soooo... I guess you heard it here first? These combos also depend on where your opponent is positioned next to you.

• Up Tilt - Side Tilt

This combo is Great for low percents. Especially if you catch your opponent with an up tilt as they are rolling behind you.

• Up Tilt-Up Tilt- Up B

You want to do this if your opponent is right in front of you when you hit them with the Up tilt. Keep in mind that if your opponent is floaty or have a crap load of damage, you may want to do one up tilt rather than two. If you catch people with this as an anti air, you may also want to stick to just one up tilt. You may also have to jump to land the Up B follow up.

• Up Tilt- Diagonal Up Smash- Up B

Works in certain percentages, like 20-40%

Other notable combos.

I kinda covered most of Mac's combo game above, but here are a few other good ones.

• Up Smash or Diagonal Up Smash into Up B.

This is more of a mid damage combo ~30-60% Does quite a bit of damage. I will go into details of when to try landing this smash attack this later when I talk about the Slugger boxing style.

• Dash Attack- Side B.

This doesn't always work and isn't always recommended. Especially since you might accidentally throw yourself off stage like most FG Little Macs do...

Smash Ain't No Joke Mac! Go for the KO! Now where did I put my Chocolate Bar...

Now we move onto the third Archetype of Boxing, Slugger. When going for the KO you will want to go for knocking your opponents off stage as much as possible. Mac's punches are pretty strong, so if you land a punch just right, you can take a stock. Though not all of this can be applied to just taking stocks. Sometimes you will want to be a bit more forceful when fighting rather than trying to be fancy and go for combos. It is harder to combo when you are at a high percent or fighting an opponent who is difficult to combo. In these instances you may want to try reading the opponent and punish their mistakes with your armored smash attacks. If you see your opponent move first, counter attack them with a forward or down smash. If you have your opponent in the air and they are are trying to fall back to safe ground. Try and get them with an up smash or Diagonal up smash into Up B. If your opponent is just falling, there is a chance they may try to Air dodge into the ground. Charge your up smash and take their stock earlier than intended. Mac's Side B can also be used to counterattack some opponent's mistakes or get past some projectiles. As everyone knows about the move, don't do it when facing towards the ledge. Also remember that Mac's KO punch isn't invincible. He can be jabbed out of it. It's also good to know that the KO punch beats Shields, Counters, and Ryu's Armor. Unflinching attacks can tank the punch. So can fully invincible attacks. Here are a list of Fully invincible attacks, people don't realize these exist.

• Bowser's Up Smash.
• Jigglypuff's dash attack.
• Mr. Game and Watch's Up Smash
• Palutena's dash attack and back air.

Also keep in mind that some of the combos I mentioned when talking about infighting can also kill. Especially the Up B ones. There is also Mac's Slip Counter (down B ) and neutral B (not the KO punch one). Slip counter is obviously very risky, and don't throw it out too often. Also don't use it when you are in the air and facing the ledge, or you will die. As for the neutral B, only use it to counter an opponent's stupid mistake. Like when Jigglypuff starts to Roll Out, Captain Falcon does his punch, Ganon does disrespect, or Pac-Man draws a line of Pac-Dots towards you. I also have found some slight use for the move to help Mac get his feet back on the ground when he is launched into the air. I sometimes charge a neutral B if my opponent starts charging an up smash or something to catch me landing back to the ground.

You've Got 'em On the Ropes Mac! Hit them Hard!

Remember when I said "get the opponent off stage?" I didn't mention what to do from there. When most people are off stage, they obviously will be trying to get back on.

I suggest trying to estimate how far you opponent will roll if they roll back on stage and positioning yourself there. Read and punish them with Forward Tilt or Forward Smash. If they roll further than you anticipated, catch them with a down smash, up tilt, or turning around and Side B or Forward Tilt them off the other side of the stage. If they hold on the ledge for too long or try getting on with an attack, punish their mistake with a down smash. It's also worth remembering that if your opponent camps the ledge, (Pac-Man, Wii Fit, and Villager do this) punish them regrabbing the ledge with a down smash. You can also Down smash the ledge if your opponent tries getting back on the stage by attack. Remember Mac's smashes have armor and they can tank wake up attacks. Smarter opponents will try to get back on stage by jumping over your head. Punish this with your Up B. At Higher Percents, you can kill them this way. Also remember that Palutena, Zelda, Shiek, and Mewtwo can Teleport back on stage. Mewtwo, Ganondorf, and Ryu can also punish you if you defend the ledge wrong, so be careful with that. I have seen some people use aerials to mess up recoveries as well as risky side B and well placed counters... but don't rely on doing that.

Don't Give Up Mac!

Mac is a very High Risk/High Reward character, so you probably won't see yourself being in a "I'm barely hanging on" position since you will almost always be "barely Hanging on" even if you aren't even at a high percent. When you are knocked in the air and are trying to get back to your feet, try to land somewhere away from your opponent. Don't land right next to them. They can keep you juggled for quite a while. Smarter opponents will also bait air dodge and the counter. When off stage remember that Side B goes further when it is held. Up B also has some priority and invincibility when used. You can also use your counter as a third jump if your opponent tries gimping you. Be careful with stages like Battlefield, because if you counter you will fly underneath the stage and get stuck there until you die. Smarter opponents will also fake you out and try to bait out your counter as you are trying to use it as a third jump. Mac can also use certain stages to wall jump to recover. So sometimes aiming for the wall instead of the stage is the better route since it helps keep you from being gimped.

As for stage choices, Stages with odd ledges or tilt are bad for Mac since they are hard for him to grab. Willy Woods on the Dreamland stage can some times screw up your recovery.

Little Mac also has bad match ups against Mario and anyone with good gimping tools like Rosalina and Greninja. He also struggles greatly in an environment where customs are allowed. There are several Customs that grant windboxes, armor, better gimping tools, and priority that weaken Mac's competitive play greatly. That is all I have for you guys today If you have any questions leave them in the comments below.