A large number of different tier lists exist for the Super Smash Bros. Exceptions, however, do exist, with the first widely accepted tier list for Smash 64 being created by users on GameFAQs , and the most recent Smash 64 and Melee tier lists being created by input from fan votes. The metagame's current state involves what tactics, characters, stages, and other factors make up the most common "decisions" made in tournament play; in other words, how the game is generally being played fast, slow, powerful, combos, etc.
In the tier lists, these decisions help to rank characters, based on how useful they may be in tournament matches shaped around these decisions. Metagames based on either the players' collective actions or a tournament organizer 's rulesets can result in characters being ranked higher or lower on the tier list.
Powerful but slow characters who are easily KOed are typically lower tiered. Faster characters with quick attacks are normally higher tier. An example of the collective playerbase's metagame affecting the tier lists can be seen in Brawl 's tier list and its evolution over the years; on the first tier list, R. As Brawl 's metagame began to advance, however, Meta Knight 's incredible potential led to him becoming the most used character in the game's tournament scene by a large margin, with a notable part of each character's metagames involving how well they could handle the near-ubiquitous character.
The increasing prominence of Meta Knight in Brawl tournaments also affected numerous other characters beyond R. For rulesets determining a character's viability, custom movesets in Smash 4 have demonstrated this in the game's tier list. With custom moves enabled, several characters gained powerful benefits, with Mii Brawler and Palutena especially benefiting due to their ordinarily lackluster movesets; some smashers even thought Mii Brawler was a top-tiered character with custom movesets enabled, as some custom moves allowed the Mii Brawler's approach and combo games to become much safer and stronger compared to its regular moveset.
The ban on custom movesets starting after EVO , however, has prevented the full potential of either character from being explored in Smash 4 tournaments. Both characters have thus far ranked poorly in Smash 4' s tier lists, with Mii Brawler notably ranking 56th out of a pool of 58 characters in the game's third tier list.
The metagame of individual characters is determined by how the players of a specific character use the character within the tournament setting, often in response to the general metagame.
In general, characters with "deeper" metagames, or, more options in the game's overall metagame, rank higher than characters with "shallow" metagames, or, fewer options in the game's overall metagame. In Melee' s early history as a competitive fighter, numerous debates stemmed from the viabilities of Marth and his clone, Roy ; opponents of the tier list generally used Roy as an example of how tiers were irrelevant, claiming that Roy's prowess in competitive Melee was equal to that of Marth.
Ultimately, Marth has since been accepted as the far superior fighter, primarily due to the differing metagame statuses of both characters. Marth boasts considerable creativity in how he can combo, inflict damage, KO, and edgeguard opponents, owing to a safe approach from the distant sweet spot on Falchion, his down aerial spike, and a number of powerful finishers that can KO even if they are non-tippered; Roy, however, struggles to perform as well as Marth in these regards, as he has few viable finishers outside of his forward smash, the placement of the Sword of Seals's sweetspot prevents him from comboing or approaching as safely as Marth, and his off-stage game is considered among the worst in Melee due to his weak aerials and high falling speed.
Melee 's tier list has historically recognised these differences, with Marth frequently ranking as one of Melee 's most potent fighters, while Roy has failed to rise out of the low tiers. Outside of an individual character's inherent characteristics, responses to a character's metagame can lead to differing tier list placings.
In Smash 64' s first tier list, Ness was considered the third-best character in the game, due to his powerful double jump cancel combo potential; later analysis, however, found that despite the potentially high power of his DJC combos, his short range prevented him from easily taking advantage of this.
Later tier lists thus ranked Ness considerably lower from his third-place finish, with the current Smash 64 tier list ranking him as tenth in a pool of twelve characters, owing to his low range, difficulty in winning the neutral game and poor recovery. Conversely, Jigglypuff in Melee initially started off as a mid-tiered character in the metagame, as it had some powerful attacks, but a slow, unwieldy ground game.
Top professional player Mango , however, demonstrated that Jigglypuff's air game was among the most powerful in Melee , and he also demonstrated that Jigglypuff had surprisingly powerful combo and pressure games, beyond what most smashers had previously seen or expected.
Mango and later Jigglypuff main Hungrybox began to take top placings at tournaments with Jigglypuff, with the duo collectively demonstrating how deep Jigglypuff's own metagame was, resulting in it jumping to the top tiers in Melee , including a third-place finish on the tenth tier list and a return to this position in the modern metagame on the current tier list. A character's matchup spread analyses how well they can perform against other characters in the game.
In general, higher-tiered characters have more matchups that are in their favour compared to lower-tiered characters, with matchups against higher-tiered characters having more weight behind them than matchups with lower-tiered characters. In Brawl , for instance, King Dedede has among the best matchup spread against characters that are lower than him on the current tier list 12th , and this matchup spread is actually among the best in the game in this regard; however, he is also countered by many characters that are higher-tiered than him, leading to his current placement on the tier list despite his favourable matchups.
As a consequence, King Dedede has been considered potentially non-viable as a solo main character in the current Brawl metagame, due to his poor matchups against Meta Knight and the Ice Climbers , the top two characters on the tier list.
A matchup against a single character is generally not enough to significantly change a character's tier standing. In Brawl , for example, Toon Link , who ranks 13th, boasts a slightly favorable matchup against the Ice Climbers, who rank 2nd, owing to his ability to potentially avoid the duo's powerful chain grabs as a result of his various projectiles and disjointed hitboxes ; despite this, Toon Link ranks 13th out of a pool of 38 characters on the tier list, due to having an unfavourable matchup against almost every other character that ranks higher than him.
Conversely, in Melee , Peach possesses an incredibly unfavorable matchup against Jigglypuff , owing to Peach's extreme disadvantage in the combo game and inability to effectively fight from behind, due to Jigglypuff's ability to disengage from interactions with no risk. Unlike Brawl Toon Link, this matchup has had noticeable consequences on Peach's viability; due to Jigglypuff's growing presence in the metagame, she has declined slightly, and is seen as a shaky choice for a solo main.
However, this is still not enough to single-handedly make Peach unviable overall, as she is still ranked 7th on the current tier list in the high tier. In general, higher tournament results for characters yields higher tier placings, as winning major tournaments implies that a character has more tools to compete, and thus, a deeper metagame.
The top characters in all four tier lists have all maintained large playerbases and excellent results in tournaments, while characters directly below them also generally perform well or have large playerbases.
Top-tiered characters are also most often used by the game's top players; the top players on both the SSBMRank , SSBBRank , and other power rankings are most often seen using top-tiered and high-tiered characters. Characters towards the bottom of the tier list, however, generally have smaller playerbases and poorer results, with some low-tiered characters lacking any notable representation in tournaments; Pichu , for instance, currently has very few notable players that exclusively main it, and has never finished in the top 96 of any high-level Melee tournament.
Smash Bros. As a result, empirical data on low tiers is sparse; the low tier placings are volatile and move a lot. Notably, Olimar also got a huge bump to be tied to Lucario at 10th, as well as Zero Suit Samus bumping up to 16th as well. Both would hit high tier in later years. This tier list also has Lucas and Ness tied for 28th and 29th. This is the first tier list to not have Captain Falcon last on the list; instead, Ganondorf is last because of his terrible frame data, recovery, neutral game and lack of mobility.
In this list, Wario and Sonic made a large jump. Wario's change is due to the newly-found usefulness of his great air mobility, coupled with great recovery and heavy weight, making him a very defensive character that is hard to KO. Throughout the previous two tier lists, most top-level players perceived Sonic as a bad character; however, dedicated mains showcased his excellent mobility and frame data while simultaneously placing well at high-level tournaments.
In this tier list, their efforts were finally recognized. Donkey Kong fell four slots, R. This tier list once again placed Meta Knight at his own separate tier.
Another noticeable difference was Ness 's rise. Diddy Kong and the Ice Climbers also had a notable rise, now being 3 and 5 respectively on the tier list. Pit also rose four places from the last list. Ike fell into low tier, and Zelda fell nine places into bottom tier - the largest drop of any character in the Brawl tier lists. While Meta Knight had previously set a record for having his own tier at the top, Ganondorf sets a more dubious one by having his own tier at the bottom.
This is also the first tier list to have a spot for Zelda and Sheik used as a pair. Other notable things about the new tier list are Fox 's and Ike 's high rise on the tier list Ike's streak of falling down on each tier list was ended and he returned to his position on the original tier list , Bowser's significant drop and introduction into the low tiers, Zero Suit Samus 's introduction into the high tiers, and being the first Brawl tier list to have a character repeat in the 3 spot with Diddy Kong in previous tier lists, the character in the 3 spot was different for each tier list.
This is also the first tier list where R. Popo and Nana were infamous for their chain grab combo, which results in a slow, annoying death if performed correctly. Once an opponent is grabbed, the player must quickly perform a down throw and then immediately grab again. Since there are two ice climbers, only one of them needs to be close enough to initiate a grab.
The player could then rack up enough damage that eventually an up throw would kill. Kirby had the best recovery in the game, which allowed him to perform attacks off stage that many other characters in the game could not do.
Peach is the only character I put on this list from Ultimate, and I think it is deservedly so. Professional players have been able to perfect her movement, as her ability to levitate can be exploited by the best. She also has a variety of projectiles, solid aerials, and a great counter.
Peach can also pull off some insane combos due to her combination of aerials and the ability to float. When it comes to a professional standpoint, Peach takes the cake as the best character in the game. Although he was eventually nerfed, early versions of Diddy Kong in Smash 4 were very tough to beat.
Diddy Kong had early percent kill confirms despite being a small character, making him hard to match up against. He has some very effective grab combos, a solid neutral special projectile, and an annoying monkey hump side special move.
Diddy was a nightmare to play against early on until Nintendo decided to nerf him after the first patch to the game. He was fast, had strong hit power, edge-guard ability, and had many favorable matchups within the game. He was considered a somewhat obscure character when the game was first released, as most American players were not familiar with him or his game franchise of Fire Emblem.
The protagonist from the Starfox series was easily the best character in Melee. Fox had speed, projectiles, and the ability to pull off some ridiculous combos.
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