Superguard

From the Super Mario Wiki, the Mario encyclopedia
Revision as of 19:27, February 18, 2018 by TheFlameChomp (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigationJump to search
Goombella countering a Spania with the Superguard in Rogueport Sewers
Goombella countering a Spania with the Superguard in Rogueport Sewers

The Superguard is a move used in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. It is a more advanced version of a Guard. It stops any attack from doing any damage at all, and any direct-contact moves will be returned to the attacker, costing the enemy one HP of damage. This counterattack damage does not stack with other counterattack effects such as being electrified. On indirect-attacks, the Superguard will simply negate all damage, with the exception of a Pokey's body segment throw attack, which will send the body segment back to the Pokey and cause the same amount of damage the attack would've done to Mario or his partner. It will also block any status effects from an enemy attack. X-Yux's immobilizing ability can only be blocked by a Superguard[citation needed]. The counter-attack effect of the Superguard does not work on the Armored Harriers. Neither Mario, his partner nor the Iron Cleft that hit them will take any damage, presumably to force the player to acquire Yoshi to defeat them.

Timing

Despite being incredibly useful, it is even harder to execute than a Guard, requiring a press of B Button 3/60th of a second (3 frames) before contact compared to a Guard's requiring a press of A Button 8/60th of a second (8 frames) before contact.[1] Two Simplifier badges or one Unsimplifier badge will respectively loosen or tighten the window to Guard by 1/60 of a second. If done correctly, Mario or his partner will spin around and words will pop out next to them saying "GREAT" in orange, compared to just guarding, Mario or his partner will just retain a ducked position, and the words say "NICE" in blue.

Notable attacks

Aside from items used against Mario and his allies, the following attacks in the game are those against which the player cannot Guard or Superguard. Additionally, in the Japanese version of the game, none of the Shadow Queen's or Smorg's attacks can be Superguarded.

Names in other languages

Language Name Meaning
Japanese スーパーガード
Sūpāgādo
Superguard

German Konter
Counter
Italian Super difesa
Super defense
Spanish Súper Defensa
Super Defense

Trivia

  • The Pixl Barry's ability in Super Paper Mario is very similar to the Superguard; their animations are very similar (spinning in place), and both require good timing (though Barry's doesn't have to be very precise) in order to deal damage to the opponent and protect the player from damage.

References