Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Character Profiles: Marth

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the latest entry in Nintendo's ongoing premier platform fighter series. It's also slated to be the company's biggest release of the holiday season. After almost 20 years of battle between top characters of some of gaming's biggest franchises, Ultimate will bring together every single fighter from every Smash Bros. game to date (along with a few more) in one single game.

With so many characters to choose from, Shacknews is taking a look at each and every one of the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate characters individually, leading up to the game's big release on December 7. Because many aspects of the game are subject to change, including character damage and special move properties, these profiles should not be considered final and can be updated at any time. Any guide that has been updated will be clearly marked.

Here's what we have up so far:
#01 - Mario
#02 - Donkey Kong
#06 - Kirby (Updated 9/8/18)
#15 - Ice Climbers
#23 - Ganondorf
#31 - Snake
#33, #34, #35 - Pokemon Trainer
#38 - Sonic (Updated 9/3/18)
#64 - Inkling

Today, we look back at one of the mainstays of the Super Smash Bros. roster..

Who is Marth?

Marth is one of the faces of the Fire Emblem franchise, standing out as the first of the series' main characters. A noble warrior, Marth can clash swords with the best of them, fighting the forces of Medeus with his trusted sword Falchion, the Divine Blade of Legends.

Now the Emperor of the Altea kingdom, Marth defends his homeland against all sorts of threats from outside its walls. Marth has faced challenges from the dark dragon Medeus, his former friend Hardin, the evil priest Gharnef, and all other sorts of formidable adversaries.

Marth stands out in the Smash Bros. world, because it's where he was first introduced to Western audiences. While Fire Emblem was popular out in Japan for years, Super Smash Bros. Melee was where players out west first got to meet the Hero King with a heart of gold and with a Japanese catchphrase that roughly translated to "Hey, everyone! Look at me!"

(It's going to feel weird to hear Marth speaking English.)

Marth's Moves and Fighter Overview

Casual audiences looking for a top-level sword fighter will often turn to Link first. But Marth has a lot of tools that make him arguably superior to Hyrule's Hero of Time. Those who work to master Falchion are rewarded with some powerful combos and strikes that are capable of KO-ing opponents early and often. The most important thing to remember is that the tip is where it's at. Marth is one of the few characters with a unique "tipper" mechanic, which rewards players who are able to successfully land attacks along the tip of his sword.

Here are Marth's special moves:

• Shield Breaker (Neutral B): Marth charges up Falchion and delivers a powerful slash. At full charge, it's capable of living up to its name and breaking shields. The aerial version gives Marth a horizontal dash, allowing players to use it as a potential recovery option. A fully-charged tipper version of this move is incredbily powerful.
• Dolphin Slash (Up B): Marth delivers a rising slash with moderate recovery distance.
• Dancing Blade (Side B): A more complex special move, Marth can deliver up to four successive slashes, each one able to go a different direction.
• Counter (Down B): This is Marth's best defensive option, as he'll catch any physical attach coming in and retaliate in kind.
• Critical Hit (Final Smash): Marth delivers a killer blow with Falchion, catching any adversary in his path and delivering a KO strike.

As one would expect from Marth, his attacks now have an extra finesse to them in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Shield Breaker is now easier to angle, making it a more reliable attack. But Marth's biggest change is to his Dancing Blade, which is now much easier to chain together. On top of that, successfully landing that four hit combo will reward players with a much more powerful final strike. Players will have to earn it, though, because Dancing Blade is slower to start.

Marth is simply a smoother character overall, with his dash attack able to deal better damage and his aerials all having their landing lag reduced. He isn't necessarily faster, but the smooth transitions between moves make him feel that way.

And then there's the tipper. Marth's tipper range appears to be extended, compared to the previous Smash Bros. game. I mean, look at this!

Y I K E S pic.twitter.com/lMj31GAQPi

— Tylor (@theSirToasty) July 29, 2018

This is good news for experts, as well as anyone looking to learn how to use this character for the first time. Marth is a high reward character, as long as players are willing to put in the work to learn how to use him effectively.

Esports Observations

Right now, the top player in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is Leonardo "MkLeo" Perez. While he's grown into a master of multiple characters, the one that first brought him to the dance was Marth. So naturally, he should have a good handle on what makes him so great in Ultimate, right? Here's Leo working with Marth in an exhibition match, taking advantage of Ultimate's new short hop mechanic to maintain a safe distance with Falchion.

Leo also took part in a Marth ditto against Ramin "Mr. R" Delshad, who was a top Marth player himself back during the Super Smash Bros. Brawl days.

Mr. R took notice of Marth's basic attacks, finding that his jab isn't quite what it was before.

His jab has way less range and seemed harder to cancel into something. I actually never dash attacked once LOL so not sure

— Ramin Delshad (@Mr_RSmash) June 13, 2018

This note on Marth's jab gels with what Samuel "Dabuz" Buzby noted on his in-depth analysis, with Dabuz going so far as to wonder whether Marth's ground game will be as effective as it was before. However, with the lower aerial lag, he does point out that Marth's forward-air will be much stronger and could be borderline broken.

Corey "False" Shin has played some Marth himself and has observed the increase in the character's tipper range.

my impressions with Ultimate:
-Ryu has much better mobility, faster as well
-Marth's tipper spacing seems much more lenient, Melee-esque
-b reversal windows are different, was harder to wavebounce needles as Sheik
-Snake grenade/C4s come out much later compared to Brawl

— false (@fals1fy) June 13, 2018

And lastly, we'll end this with a quick exhibition from Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, one of the Five Gods of Melee. M2K has mastered Marth in both Melee and Smash 4 and wasted little time getting back into one of his old mains. Here he is trying him out at CEO 2018 earlier this year.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is set to arrive in December on Nintendo Switch. Shacknews will continue looking into each of the game's characters from now through the big day, so be sure to come back for more breakdowns over the coming weeks. For even more information concerning Nintendo's latest Switch brawler, be sure to head over to Shacknews' Super Smash Bros. Ultimate walkthrough and guide.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?