Part 33

Unlock Marth in Super Smash Bros. Brawl by playing 10 brawls, clearing Classic mode, or having him join your party in The Subspace Emissary.

How to unlock:

• Play 10 brawls.
• Have Marth join your party in The Subspace Emissary.
• Clear Classic mode.

Marth is a character that everyone should come to understand well for the sole reason that he's obviously one of the best character in the game. Marth has speed, range, and power in a pretty much perfect combination; it's easy to predict that Marth is going to be one of the characters that everyone will have to be ready to defeat if there is to be any hope of long term victory. A Marth player should certainly feel great confidence in his choice for a character; Marth more than almost all the rest of the characters is a guarantee to experience many situations of strength and few of weakness. Also, in the interest of not having to repeat this constantly, I am going to point out now that almost all of Marth's attacks have a sweet spot right at the tip of his sword that deals great damage. Always be sure to hit with the tip of his sword; learning that spacing is pivotal to Marth.

Marth's ground game is mostly centered around his moves that hit over a huge area. His famous forward smash swings in a huge arc from slightly behind his head to down to his feet. This move is slow enough to be punished, but, when it connects with the sweet spot, it kills very easily. Given the huge area this move hits over, Marth can easily rely on it to score many kills. Marth also has a sweeping up tilt that covers the entire top half of his body. It usually pops opponents straight up so it's a great set up for aerials. Marth's down smash also sweeps around him, but it is more like a typical down smash and just sweeps around his feet. It's quite quick and dangerous; it will easily prevent opponents from abusing rolls against Marth. Marth's forward tilt sweeps in the opposite direction of most of his moves as it travels from his feet up to his head, but it has the benefit of being very safe and hitting over a large area. Marth can use this to frustrate opposing approaches very well; abuse it. His jab combo is mostly just a worse version of his forward tilt, but given that it is slightly faster than the forward tilt, it still has some use. His down tilt is just a poke, but it also has great speed. Marth should throw out his down tilt from time to time to poke under shields. His up smash is mostly outclassed by his up tilt and up aerial, but a clean hit from it is quite powerful so it should be used sparingly. His running attack is actually pretty fast too, but since Marth has all these other great moves, he really shouldn't use it.

Marth may be good on the ground, but he's even better in the air. Marth's forward aerial is ridiculously fast, cover (press the cover button to crouch behind walls or objects) a large area, has somewhat decent power, and is quite safe. Marth can do a short hop and follow up with two forward aerials before landing; Marth will want to abuse this frequently to rack up large amounts of damage and to chase opponents off the ledge. Marth's back aerial is slower, but it also has substantial killing power with a sweet spotted hit so Marth can rely on it as a finisher. Marth's down aerial hits over his entire lower body, and it is a spike. Marth should use this liberally when over the ledge for spikes on top of his already great usage just to punish everyone below him. Marth's up aerial is pretty much the opposite as hit hits all over Marth's upper body and knocks opponents straight up. Marth can chase opponents into the skies and get easy juggles with this great move. Lastly, Marth's neutral aerial is a wonderful safety move that hits on both sides of him quickly. Marth can't really use it aggressively, but if the opponent gets too close, this move will send them away and do great damage to boot.

Marth cannot do a whole lot out of his grabs, but his general best attempt is to do an up throw and follow up with aerials. Marth does have one other very odd trick that works on Ness and Lucas very well but can be generally effective on the whole cast. Do a grab and beat up on the opponent until an escape. Regrab immediately and repeat. He will have to very quickly do a dashing grab for most character, but he can snag Ness and Lucas without moving so he can just hold shield and mash attack to do a very long combo on them. It can be escaped if they use a jump to break out of the grab, but Marth gets a free aerial out of that which is definitely to his advantage.

Marth's specials mostly just serve to give him even more great sword based attacks. His Shield Breaker is the ultimate shield punishment move as even uncharged it will take a full shield down to nearly empty. Marth should throw this out once in a while to greatly soften the enemy defenses; it's a solid move. Fully charged it can also be used for recovery, but due to the long charging time, it is not useful at all in that context. His Dolphin Slash is his recovery move first, but it's also a good attacking option second. Marth flies up very quickly and does good damage with Dolphin Slash; use it against hi