History TierInducedScrappy / SuperSmashBros

** Fox is a rather unusual example. He has all the classic traits of a high-tier scrappy; he's undisputedly the game's best character, has incredible speed with some of the game's best comboing capability and KO power (mainly in his up smash and up aerial, and it's common for characters of Fox's caliber to have very weak moves but one-to-two VERY powerful kill moves), has an invincible 1-frame instantly cancellable move that can setup combos and kills or outright gimp recoveries itself, can out-camp almost every other character out in the game with his ridiculously fast Blaster if needed, and is played by at least a third of the playerbase, with many high profile players picking up Fox and dropping their main they used to be known for. However, Fox may be the competitive Melee's community most beloved character, as Fox is perhaps the flashiest character in the game and the epitome of DifficultButAwesome, with the extreme technical skill required to adequately handle his very fast and heavily demanding inputs as his jumping speed and falling speed are very quick compared to other characters (it also helps that with the said extreme falling speed, he's heavily vulnerable to combos and gimps himself, meaning matches with him will feature long combos and quick deaths both ways). As such, while Brawl players bemoaned Meta Knight dittos, and Smash 4 players hated prepatch-Diddy Kong dittos, Melee players don't mind the countless Fox dittos at all. When it comes to competitive smashers who don't like Melee, Fox and the extremely high usage of him is the embodiment of what they dislike about Melee.

** Falco was another of Brawl's perpetual top tiers, who was once considered the third best character in the game. Despite not being as close to his original ''Melee'' incarnation who had a number of differences that set him apart from Fox, he came with some obnoxiously strong attributes that made a lot of players dislike him. Mainly he has a lagless Blaster which shot lasers with transcendent priority (something not noted in ''Melee''), that just like in ''Melee'' could be fired twice in a shorthop to control space and snuff approaches to a ridiculously degree, while having an easy chain throw that worked on nearly every character up to 40ish%, which worked even better than in ''Melee'' due to the physics of ''Brawl''. From there once you get in the first 50% or so of your stock is forfeited if he grabs you. He additionally had Falco Phantasm to quickly and safely get to the other side of the stage while hitting you and continuing to Blaster camp away. Falco's hatedom was mainly held back by the aforementioned characters being even better characters with even more aggravating playstyles, as well as the fact that Falco despite having buffs elsewhere, was not as effective as his ''Melee'' counterpart in what he used to do well.

** Falco was another of Brawl's perpetual top tiers, who was once considered the third best character in the game, with some obnoxiously strong attributes that made a lot of players dislike him. Mainly he has a lagless Blaster which shot lasers with transcendent priority, that could be fired twice in a shorthop to control space and snuff approaches to a ridiculously degree, while having an easy chain throw that worked on nearly every character up to 40ish%, thus meaning once you get in the first 50% or so of your stock is forfeited if he grabs you. He additionally had Falco Phantasm to quickly and safely get to the other side of the stage while hitting you and continuing to Blaster camp away. Falco's hatedom was mainly held back by the aforementioned characters being even better characters with even more aggravating playstyles.

** [[VideoGame/{{Kirby}} Meta Knight]] in ''Brawl'' is the biggest examples of this in the Smash series, and perhaps one of the biggest examples in all of gaming. In short, Meta Knight excelled at pretty much everything to a degree much greater than any other character, with a host of broken ridiculously effective-yet-safe moves that could be spammed with impunity, and the ability to exploit quirks in the game to make him literally untouchable (such as [[http://www.ssbwiki.com/Planking#Planking planking]] and [[http://www.ssbwiki.com/Sharking sharking]]). And again, like many "not-as-damaging" characters, he had a small amount of one-to-two main kill moves with his strong down smash and glide attack (the strongest glide attack in the game), and all of his special moves could help him recover even if they all did put him into a helpless state. Not to mention all of his sword-based moves barring his glide attack had transcendent priority, meaning he can't clash with attacks nor can attacks clash with his (and if his moves are spaced properly, you know what that means...). He additionally had no real consequential flaws (sure he was really light, but with how hard it is to get hits on him while being able to recover safely from anything, you're not killing him easily anyway), outside of a weird aerial grab release animation that left him vulnerable to guaranteed followups when released without throwing him from a grab, which few characters could take advantage of for meager rewards anyway. The result was a character that hard-countered the majority of the cast and won every matchup, and was so good that he was considered in a tier of his own above everyone else. Meta Knight additionally had rather low technical demands and was one of the easiest top/high tier characters to pick up in Brawl, leading to droves of players to main him or use him as a pocket secondary to cover any bad matchups they may have. Meta Knight absolutely dominated tournaments (when the monetary winnings were counted up for recorded tournaments one year, players using Meta Knight won ''over half'' of all the money alone), and players became so sick of him that a very serious push was made to get him banned. After 4 years it finally happened, when the [[http://www.ssbwiki.com/URC#Unity_Ruleset_Committee Unity Ruleset Comittee]] decided to ban him in their unity ruleset. The ban didn't stick though, as too many high-profile players using Meta Knight were opposed to the ban and thus many high-profile tournament organizers ignored it in their major tournaments, which then forced others to not ban Meta Knight in their tournaments so that their players would have a chance at these MK-legal majors. Meta Knight and the failure to ban him is one of most-cited reasons for Brawl's competitive scene declining post-2012 and ultimately being supplanted by Smash 4.

** [[VideoGame/{{Kirby}} Meta Knight]] in ''Brawl'' is the biggest examples of this in the Smash series, and perhaps one of the biggest examples in all of gaming. In short, Meta Knight excelled at pretty much everything to a degree much greater than any other character, with a host of broken ridiculously effective-yet-safe moves that could be spammed with impunity, and the ability to exploit quirks in the game to make him literally untouchable (such as [[http://www.ssbwiki.com/Planking#Planking planking]] and [[http://www.ssbwiki.com/Sharking sharking]]). He additionally had no real consequential flaws (sure he was really light, but with how hard it is to get hits on him while being able to recover safely from anything, you're not killing him easily anyway), outside of a weird aerial grab release animation that left him vulnerable to guaranteed followups when released without throwing him from a grab, which few characters could take advantage of for meager rewards anyway. The result was a character that hard-countered the majority of the cast and won every matchup, and was so good that he was considered in a tier of his own above everyone else. Meta Knight additionally had rather low technical demands and was one of the easiest top/high tier characters to pick up in Brawl, leading to droves of players to main him or use him as a pocket secondary to cover any bad matchups they may have. Meta Knight absolutely dominated tournaments (when the monetary winnings were counted up for recorded tournaments one year, players using Meta Knight won ''over half'' of all the money alone), and players became so sick of him that a very serious push was made to get him banned. After 4 years it finally happened, when the [[http://www.ssbwiki.com/URC#Unity_Ruleset_Committee Unity Ruleset Comittee]] decided to ban him in their unity ruleset. The ban didn't stick though, as too many high-profile players using Meta Knight were opposed to the ban and thus many high-profile tournament organizers ignored it in their major tournaments, which then forced others to not ban Meta Knight in their tournaments so that their players would have a chance at these MK-legal majors. Meta Knight and the failure to ban him is one of most-cited reasons for Brawl's competitive scene declining post-2012 and ultimately being supplanted by Smash 4.

** Marth is in a somewhat similar boat to Fox; he's a top tier with many ridiculous advantages and who is overplayed, but is generally highly liked by the game's competitive playerbase. Some players though are a bit vocal of their dislike of Marth, mainly due to his fast broken grab that reaches a foot in front of where his hand actually touches (which then leads to a highly damaging chain grab on the game's most popular characters, Fox and Falco), and his tipped-sword slashes and easy-to-land down aerial spike (that's quite a bit laggy though) that leads to him frequently taking stocks at very early percents over minimal mistakes. Either way, a skilled Marth can easily keep people out despite the fact that all the rest of his moves are decent in terms of knockback at best, since his sweetspotted moves can rack up damage like crazy.

** Fox is a rather unusual example. He has all the classic traits of a high-tier scrappy; he's undisputedly the game's best character, has incredible speed with some of the game's best comboing capability and KO power (mainly in his up smash and up aerial, and it's common for characters of Fox's caliber to have very weak moves but one-to-two VERY powerful kill moves), has an invincible 1-frame instantly cancellable move that can setup combos and kills or outright gimp recoveries itself, can out-camp almost every other character out in the game with his ridiculously fast Blaster if needed, and is played by at least a third of the playerbase, with many high profile players picking up Fox and dropping their main they used to be known for. However, Fox may be the competitive Melee's community most beloved character, as Fox is perhaps the flashiest character in the game and the epitome of DifficultButAwesome, with the extreme technical skill required to adequately handle his very fast and heavily demanding inputs (it also helps that with Fox's extreme falling speed, he's heavily vulnerable to combos and gimps himself, meaning matches with him will feature long combos and quick deaths both ways). As such, while Brawl players bemoaned Meta Knight dittos, and Smash 4 players hated prepatch-Diddy Kong dittos, Melee players don't mind the countless Fox dittos at all. When it comes to competitive smashers who don't like Melee, Fox and the extremely high usage of him is the embodiment of what they dislike about Melee.
** Marth is in a somewhat similar boat to Fox; he's a top tier with many ridiculous advantages and who is overplayed, but is generally highly liked by the game's competitive playerbase. Some players though are a bit vocal of their dislike of Marth, mainly due to his fast broken grab that reaches a foot in front of where his hand actually touches (which then leads to a highly damaging chain grab on the game's most popular characters, Fox and Falco), and his tipped moves and easy-to-land down aerial spike that leads to him frequently taking stocks at very early percents over minimal mistakes.

** Fox is a rather unusual example. He has all the classic traits of a high-tier scrappy; he's undisputedly the game's best character, has incredible speed with some of the game's best comboing capability and KO power, has an invincible 1-frame instantly cancellable move that can setup combos and kills or outright gimp recoveries itself, can outcamp almost every other character out in the game with his ridiculously fast Blaster if needed, and is played by at least a third of the playerbase, with many high profile players picking up Fox and dropping their main they used to be known for. However, Fox may be the competitive Melee's community most beloved character, as Fox is perhaps the flashiest character in the game and the epitome of DifficultButAwesome, with the extreme technical skill required to adequately handle his very fast and heavily demanding inputs (it also helps that with Fox's extreme falling speed, he's heavily vulnerable to combos and gimps himself, meaning matches with him will feature long combos and quick deaths both ways). As such, while Brawl players bemoaned Meta Knight dittos, and Smash 4 players hated prepatch-Diddy Kong dittos, Melee players don't mind the countless Fox dittos at all. When it comes to competitive smashers who don't like Melee, Fox and the extremely high usage of him is the embodiment of what they dislike about Melee.

** Sheik was once the most disliked top tier in Melee. Sheik has many of the fastest attacks in the game, amazing comboing capabilities, the game's most notoriously effective chain throw (which could even zero-death a few characters), one of the best projectiles in her Needles, and her ridiculously fast yet powerful forward aerial that slaps opponents away on a semi-spike trajectory, making her fantastic at edgeguarding and gimping nearly everyone's recovery in the game (and thus negating her supposed poor KO power, one of the things that were supposed to hold her back). Sheik additionally completely shut downed most lower tier characters; whereas the players of such characters might have some sort of chance against the other top tiers, beating a decent Sheik is nigh-impossible. Sheik is also considered one of the easiest and least technical characters in the game, in a game whose competitive playerbase tends to pride itself on the game's technical difficulty, thus leaving players more sour on her. It was at its worst in early Melee, where Sheik was considered the best character for the first five years (and to such a degree there was once serious contemplation about banning her). As the greater potential of the more liked Fox and Falco were discovered to exceed Sheik, and Sheik's dominance fading, reactions towards her became less vitriolic, though she's still fairly disliked compared to the rest of the game's high tiers.

** Pikachu is fairly notorious for being the best character by a fairly significant margin with no losing matchups, to the point that he's arguably a GameBreaker. The result is, Pikachu is sorta "soft banned" in the Smash 64 competitive community (as in, there's a mutual understanding among players to avoid use him even though it's not disallowed), and thus most players won't use him in tournament, unless they're really trying to win and usually only after their preferred main has failed. Pikachu is additionally negatively referred to as "the Rat".
** Kirby is considered the second best character in the game, and is notorious for his very fast and [[HitboxDissonance massively disjointed up tilt]] that shuts down most approaches, while easily comboing into itself and other moves. Kirby is additionally percieved to be one of the game's "easiest" characters to play, which makes some players dislike him and those who play him even more.
** Ness used to get this a long time ago during the earlier days of Smash 64's competitive play, as he was considered the third best after the former two, and thought to have a combo game that approached GameBreaker levels. As the metagame advanced however, players learned to really take advantage of Ness' easily exploited recovery, and their superior spacing made Ness' lack of reach on his attacks much more apparent. The result is plummeting to being percieved as one of the game's lesser characters, eliminating this perception. A few less-experienced players do still come along though who view Ness as this as they had yet to learn how to exploit Ness' flaws.

** After being one of Melee's most successful mid tiers and a superior clone to Mario, Dr. Mario has fallen to this in his return in Smash 4. Unlike in Melee where the developers apparently forgot to make Doc slower than Mario as intended, they actually went through with it this time, and damn did they make him ''slow''. When handling Doc this time, they added a 0.82 multiplier to the walking, running, and air speed of Mario's values, as well as to his jumping height, while adding a flat 1.12 damage multiplier to all of Mario's attacks that they share. The theory is that Doc moves a bit slower while hitting a bit harder. The result is a character who moves ''even slower'' than the aforementioned Dedede (whereas Mario is one of the most mobile characters in the game), while the flat damage multiplier increase instead of specifically tailored attacks leads to Doc having a significantly worse combo game, that results in his damage output being worse than Mario's despite being intended to be stronger. Doc's KO moves are additionally considered worse than Mario's for being harder to land while being inconsequentially stronger, and Doc has a recovery that is seen on par with Little Mac's and default Ganondorf's for worst in the game. Like Lucina, Doc is considered completely outclassed by his clone Mario, resulting in his perception dwindling even farther. Doc has been getting consistently buffed in patches, but they only been slight power increases to a few select moves, rather than addressing his move significant issues.

* The original ''Super Smash Bros.'' had a couple, though with its much smaller and more easygoing competitive community, reactions to such characters is less vitriol than in other Smash installments:

** Mewtwo got a lot of hate for being such an awful character in ''Melee'' (albeit one of the most popular among casual players), to the point where competitive players signed a ''petition'' to keep it out of ''Brawl''. And then while the casual fandom rejoiced when it came back in Smash 4, it has been hit with this again despite its fairly significant buffs, as most players still find it underwhelming and too awkward to play, while its infamously low weight in ''Melee'' has been inexplicably made even ''lighter'', now being lighter than everyone except Jigglypuff (in a game, where due to the rage mechanic and generally easier recoveries, heavier weight to survive hits longer is more advantageous than ever).

** Bowser has been the series staple lumbering ineffectual MightyGlacier since ''Melee'' and treated/mocked as such. While he had extreme power in ''Melee'', he was so agonizingly slow and pure combo bait, in a game all about speed and combos; the result being a character considered one of the worst characters in the game since its release. ''Brawl'' improved Bowser, by giving him significantly greater mobility and faster attacks with greater reach in exchange for slightly less power, as well as the game's different playstyle being more favorable for Bowser, but after the first year of the game's life, he plummeted through the tier lists to being right above the percieved bottom tier, for much the same reasons as in ''Melee'' as well as his extreme vulnerability to the game's many powerful chain throws. ''Smash 4'' Bowser narrowly avoids this trope; Bowser has been made even faster than his Brawl self while having even more power than his Melee self, with a significantly buffed recovery, and a bunch of new more effective attacks, on top of the newly added rage mechanic significantly benefiting hard-hitting characters that can live a long time and the complete elimination of chain throws. At first it worked, with many players thinking Bowser had the potential to be the best character in the game after seeing extensive demo footage (most notably with the pre-release SDCC [=Smash 3DS=] tournament having a Bowser ditto for grand finals), and Bowser considered high, if not top, tier shortly after the game's release by the general playerbase. Then the first balance patch came that significantly nerfed the new vectoring mechanic, which in turn provided a significant indirect nerf to Bowser. Then the general playerbase has been getting better, and able to exploit Bowser's same old weaknesses like before. Bowser's perception has thus started plummeting in Smash 4 like it did in Brawl, exacerbated by there still being very few competitive Bowser players to show what he's capable of. Despite this, his buffs weren't for nothing; Bowser is nonetheless viewed as a much better character overall than his previous incarnations, hovering around mid-low tier but not bottom tier, and many fans enjoy his new and improved moveset, ultimately saving him from this trope but not completely reversing it. Bowser's low-tier status is so persistent that even the fanmade ''Brawl'' mod ''VideoGame/ProjectM'' heavily buffed him in a similar manner to ''[=SSB4=]'', aiming for true CompetitiveBalance between characters, and he is still considered a lackluster character - to the point that [[http://projectmgame.com/en/characters/bowser his profile on the mod's official website]] notes his "extreme weaknesses".

** Roy is perhaps the most infamous example of this in Melee. Roy is a character with absolutely abysmal design, including laggy attacks with horrendously weak sourspots, few KO moves, absolutely atrocious aerials, limited comboing capabilities while having physics that made one of the easiest combo'd characters in Melee, and a candidate for the worst recovery in the game. This alone would get him heavy derided by the competitive playerbase, but Roy is also a significantly inferior clone of Marth, one of the games's top tiers and overall most popular characters, and casual sentiment is especially favorable to him because of his few KO moves being easily spammed in casual play (especially his forward smash), which led to farther dislike of Roy among competitive players. In fact the great disparity between competitive and casual perception made Marth vs. Roy one of the most heated tier arguments in early Melee, and Roy ended up a bit of symbol for "anti-tierists" to drive up the competitive dislike farther. While Roy didn't return in Brawl, he came back in Smash 4 as DLC, where he has been significantly buffed, to the point of potentially being a tier-induced scrappy on the ''high tier'' end (though the jury is still out on how good Roy actually is in Smash 4, and his perception has been gradually cooling down as more and more players believe his initial perception was overrated).

** Ganondorf is the game's infamously worst character, at one point even being ranked at his own tier at the absolute bottom on the Smash Back Room's tier list (something that even [[JokeCharacter Pichu]] and [[MasterOfNone Kirby]] never accomplished in Melee). In short, much like Bowser in Melee, while he has extreme power, he's waaaay too slow and immobile, while being especially vulnerable to Brawl's exploits, and was one of the hardest hit characters by Brawl's new engine (most significantly, the removal of L-cancelling, which he heavily relied on in Melee, while his aerials weren't given reduced landing lag to compensate). Unlike most low-tier induced scrappies, Ganon's perception is a bit more favorable, as many players find him to be one of the game's funnest characters, and thus play him as a "low tier main" or play him when playing for fun (with a few players even outright maining him in spite of his perception). However, his low-tier status has also added much fuel to the fire for the demand to change his infamous moveset clone portrayal of Captain Falcon to a more canon-adhering moveset. Smash 4 has buffed him, making him a bit more mobile with faster and even stronger attacks, though he's still generally considered low tier, especially without custom moves that address some of his most significant shortcomings (though like in Brawl, he's looked upon more favorably than other low tiers).

** Mario, despite trying to be the iconic [[JackOfAllStats well-rounded]] [[{{Shotoclone}} shoto]] of the game, was also similarly hurt by ''Brawl''[='=]s engine. Ironically, he didn't receive a large amount of nerfs compared to ''Melee'', but with many of the newcomers being highly effective and many characters from ''Melee'' being buffed, Mario ended up being a straight-up MasterOfNone. Every one of his attributes ended up being below-average; his run speed was slow, he had no strong finisher, and all of his attacks were weak; which in ''Brawl''[='=]s anti-combo engine, amounted to him being considered one of the bottom-tier characters of the game. ''Smash 4'' buffed him back up with the lack of the hitstun cap, and also making his attacks combo better, making him largely considered at least a mid-high tier character.

** Palutena, whose default moveset is considered very unwieldy, featuring an auto-target attack that is hard to hit anything with in some situations, a warp recovery that has no effect on opponents, a plain-old counter, and a reflector shield that has little use outside reflecting. Her smash attacks also either have poor range or simply aren't very strong while being very laggy, and her tilts are notoriously for being some of the laggiest tilts in the game with little effect. She can be significantly improved with her custom moves however, where many see her as a potential high tier with them available.

** The Wii Fit Trainers were often mocked for being too ineffectual, mostly for the horrendously poor range on their attacks, many attacks that are outright dysfunctional, and a grab that can't reach short characters. However, with the discovery of Wii Fit Trainer's potent zoning game in their highly effective projectiles, some nasty combos, and their highly effective custom moves, a few Wii Fit Trainer players have made some remarkable tournament placements (including two getting into top 32 at EVO 2015's Smash 4 tournament, which players of many percieved high tier characters failed to get a single top 32 placement). In addition, the 1.1.0 patch gave WFT some buffs (including fixing the grab), which when combined with the prior point, seems to be pointing to Wii Fit Trainer breaking out of this.
** Out of the three flavors the Mii fighters come in (Brawler, Gunner, and Swordfighter) the Mii Swordfighter really stands out in this regard. While the Gunner isn't good, but can be improved with the right custom moveset, and the Brawler has the potential to be outright great if used properly, the Swordfighter has sometimes been labeled as being literally '''the''' worst character in ''Smash 4''. Some early tier lists even consider it so bad that it was placed by itself all the way at the bottom in a tier below everyone else. Problems include generally poor mobility, weak offense, and a lot of lag in its attacks. Mii Swordsman however has been one of the biggest recipients of buffs, and while the previous stigma still remains, many players are beginning to see the Mii Swordsman as a pretty competent fighter.

** Meta Knight additionally got hit hard in a similar manner; being the notorious GameBreaker of Brawl, he expectedly got some heavy nerfs. His massive playerbase from Brawl completely abandoned him, and overstated the effects of the nerfs, with many treating Meta Knight as a low tier character. With Meta Knight's highly potent KO combos being discovered, some buffs in patches, and some premier Meta Knight players emerging with noteworthy success in tournaments, the perception has been reversing, with some now seeing Meta Knight as a potential high tier character. Some more ignorant players however are still perceiving him as low tier due to the nerfs interaction.

** King Dedede, whose polarized ''Brawl'' appearance earned him a spot in the High Tiers folder above, has been nerfed into one of these; in fact, he's currently considered one of the worst characters in the game along with Samus and possibly Mewtwo. With nerfs to his back aerial and grab range (formerly two of his greatest assets), the loss of chain grabbing (formerly one of his greatest strengths ''and'' weaknesses), and very bad frame data on par with Ganondorf without the consistent power to back it up, Dedede is left as a sluggish, underpowered character with the worst neutral game in ''[=SSB4=]'' and a very limited number of KO options. Furthermore, unlike most low-tier characters, Dedede isn't helped at all by custom moves, as they're all inferior to his default specials, leaving him as possibly ''the'' worst character in the game when customs are allowed. Even worse than this is the fact that Dedede was actually ''nerfed'' early on in the game's lifespan.

** Bowser has been the series staple lumbering ineffectual MightyGlacier since ''Melee'' and treated/mocked as such. While he had extreme power in ''Melee'', he was so agonizingly slow and pure combo bait, in a game all about speed and combos; the result being a character considered one of the worst characters in the game since its release. ''Brawl'' improved Bowser, by giving him significantly greater mobility and faster attacks with greater reach in exchange for slightly less power, as well as the game's different playstyle being more favorable for Bowser, but after the first year of the game's life, he plummeted through the tier lists to being right above the percieved bottom tier, for much the same reasons as in ''Melee'' as well as his extreme vulnerability to the game's many powerful chain throws. ''Smash 4'' Bowser seemed like he was going to avert this; Bowser has been made even faster than his Brawl self while having even more power than his Melee self, with a significantly buffed recovery, and a bunch of new more effective attacks, on top of the newly added rage mechanic significantly benefiting hard-hitting characters that can live a long time and the complete elimination of chain throws. At first it worked, with many players thinking Bowser had the potential to be the best character in the game after seeing extensive demo footage (most notably with the pre-release SDCC Smash3DS tournament having a Bowser ditto for grand finals), and Bowser considered high, if not top, tier shortly after Smash3DS' release by the general playerbase. Then the first balance patch came that significantly nerfed the new vectoring mechanic, which in turn provided a significant indirect nerf to Bowser. Then the general playerbase has been getting better, and able to exploit Bowser's same old weaknesses like before. Bowser's perception has thus started plummeting in Smash 4 like it did in Brawl, exacerbated by there still being very few competitive Bowser players to show what he's capable of.

** King Dedede, whose polarized ''Brawl'' appearance earned him a spot in the High Tiers folder above, has been nerfed into one of these; in fact, he's currently considered one of the worst characters in the game along with Samus and possibly Mewtwo. With nerfs to his back aerial and grab range (formerly two of his greatest assets), the loss of chain grabbing (formerly one of his greatest strengths ''and'' weaknesses), and very bad frame data on par with Ganondorf without the consistent power to back it up, Dedede is left as a sluggish, underpowered character with with the worst neutral game in ''[=SSB4=]'' and a very limited number of KO options. Furthermore, unlike most low-tier characters, Dedede isn't helped at all by custom moves, as they're all inferior to his default specials, leaving him as possibly ''the'' worst character in the game when customs are allowed. Even worse than this is the fact that Dedede was actually ''nerfed'' early on in the game's lifespan.

** King Dedede, whose polarized ''Brawl'' appearance earned him a spot in the High Tiers folder above, has been nerfed into one of these, currently considered one of the worst characters in the game along with Samus and possibly Mewtwo. His back aerial and grab range, formerly two of his greatest assets, have been significantly nerfed from ''Brawl''; the loss of chain grabbing also removed one of his greatest strengths ''and'' weaknesses. He also became one of the slowest characters in the game, with frame data on par with Ganondorf, but without the consistent power to back it up like Ganondorf has, leaving him with the worst neutral game in ''[=SSB4=]''. Furthermore, unlike most low-tier characters, Dedede isn't helped at all by custom moves, as they're all inferior to his default specials, leaving him as possibly ''the'' worst character in the game when customs are allowed.

** Samus in every game except ''Melee''. Like Link, she's a beloved and {{Badass}} Nintendo icon. However, in most of her appearances, she has to deal with a lackluster melee game in order to encourage use of her (very limited array of) projectiles, which aren't anything to write home about themselves, while having a very limited combo game and some of the worst KOing ability in the series. To add insult to injury, Zero Suit Samus (her canonically weaker unarmored [[MsFanservice fanservice-y]] form) has been a much more effective character than regular Samus since her debut, as can be seen on the TierInducedScrappy/HighTiers page.

** Mario, despite trying to be the iconic [[JackOfAllStats well-rounded]] [[{{Shotoclone}} shoto]] of the game, was also similarly hurt by ''Brawl''[='=]s engine. Ironically, he didn't receive a large amount of nerfs compared to ''Melee'', but with many of the newcomers being highly effective and many characters from ''Melee'' being buffed, Mario ended up being a straight-up MasterOfNone. Every one of his attributes ended up being below-average; his run speed was slow, he had no strong finisher, and all of his attacks were weak; which in ''Brawl''[='=]s anti-combo engine, amounted to him being considered one of the bottom-tier characters of the game.

** Also on the list of [[ThatOneAttack "Scrappy Final Smashes"]] is the [[TankGoodness Landmaster]], used by [[VideoGame/StarFox Fox, Falco, and Wolf]], mostly because it can airlift players riding on top of it off the stage (which counts as a KO). When parked under a player when they're still recovering from the last KO, you can airlift them again and again for almost unlimited KO's for as long as the Landmaster holds out. And even if they escape the airlift cycle, they still have to contend with you steamrolling them off the edge or hitting them with your {{BFG}}. One well-played Landmaster can take multiple stocks from all opponents and win the whole round. This is not at all helped by the fact that three characters have it as their Final Smash, leading to considerable hate from people who think Falco and Wolf deserved unique Final Smashes.
** [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic's]] Final Smash, [[SuperMode Super Sonic]]. Apparently the developers assumed that he'd be too hard to control, but it's both much more maneuverable and powerful than the similarly controlled Volt Tackle. With a decent amount of skill, this Final Smash is ''impossible to dodge'', and can KO opponents with ease. Like the Landmasters, it pretty much ensures a stock from every opponent, and can even KO them a second time.

** King Dedede, as seen in the High Tiers folder above, has been nerfed into one of these, currently considered one of the worst characters in the game along with Samus and possibly Mewtwo. His back aerial and grab range, formerly two of his greatest assets have been significantly nerfed from ''Brawl''; the loss of chain grabbing also removed one of his greatest strengths ''and'' weaknesses. He also became one of the slowest characters in the game, with frame data on par with Ganondorf, but without the consistent power to back it up like Ganondorf has. This left him with the worst neutral game in ''[=SSB4=]''. Furthermore, unlike most low-tier characters, Dedede isn't helped at all by custom moves.

** King Dedede, as seen in the High Tiers folder above, has been nerfed into one of these, currently considered one of the worst characters in the game along with Samus and possibly Mewtwo. His back aerial and grab range have been significantly nerfed from ''Brawl''. He became one of the slowest characters in the game, with frame data on par with Ganondorf, but without the consistent power to back it up like Ganondorf has. This left him with the worst neutral game in ''[=SSB4=]''. Furthermore, unlike most low-tier characters, Dedede isn't helped at all by custom moves.

** Mewtwo got a lot of hate for being such an awful character in ''Melee'' (albeit one of the most popular among casual players), to the point where competitive players signed a ''petition'' to keep him out of ''Brawl''. And then while the casual fandom rejoiced when he came back in Smash 4, he has been hit with this again despite his fairly significant buffs, as most players still find him underwhelming and too awkward to play, while his infamously low weight in ''Melee'' has been inexplicably made even ''lighter'', now being lighter than everyone except Jigglypuff (in a game, where due to the rage mechanic and generally easier recoveries, heavier weight to survive hits longer is more advantageous than ever).

** Mewtwo got a lot of hate for being such an awful character in ''Melee'', to the point where people signed a ''petition'' to keep him out of ''Brawl''. [[AlasPoorScrappy Ironically]], when he didn't make it into Brawl, people started considering [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Lucario]] a ReplacementScrappy and loudly mourned over his removal. And then while the fandom rejoiced when he came back in Smash 4, he has been hit with this again despite his fairly significant buffs, as most players still find him underwhelming and too awkward to play, while his infamously low weight in ''Melee'' has been inexplicably made even ''lighter'', now being lighter than everyone except Jigglypuff (in a game, where due to the rage mechanic and generally easier recoveries, heavier weight to survive hits longer is more advantageous than ever).

[[folder:'''Low Tier''']]

Being as it is, the fandom of ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros tends to come down hard on characters considered to be horribly overpowered or woefully underpowered.

** A bit after Brawl's release, with the advent of pro Jigglypuff players Mango and later Hungrybox emerging to dominate Melee tournaments with the newfound prowess of Jigglypuff, Jigglypuff became the competitive community's most detested character. In short, Jigglypuff is the antithesis of what players like about Melee; being extremely floaty, relying on walling opponents out and camping rather than on aggressive flashy offense, not having much exciting combos while being the hardest character to combo herself, an amazing recovery that is difficult to edgeguard and gimp, making little use of the game's advanced techniques and being overall an even less technical character than the aforementioned Sheik, and having Rest to get a instant near-OHKO at any time. With Mango dropping Puff for the space animals and Hungrybox continuing to exploit what players hated most about Puff on route to many national wins, Hungrybox would become the game's most disliked professional player in the early 2010s. The pinnacle of this would be the grand finals of Apex 2012's Melee tournament, where Hungrybox's Jigglypuff fought Armada's Peach/Young Link in a nearly hour long set, with all their games almost or outright going to time as they carefully camped each other out, in a game whose fanbase vastly prefer fast offensive matches that end quickly. Needless to say, even though Hungrybox lost at the end, it was seen as a disaster by the Melee community. The outrage over Puff would cool down over a few years, as Hungrybox started winning a lot less tournaments as Fox ended up proving a rather hard counter to Puff, while there remained barely any notable Jigglypuff players outside Hungrybox, and while Hungrybox himself became one of the game's most charismatic and revered players. However, while players don't outright hate Jigglypuff and her playerbase anymore, they still vastly prefer the rest of the game's top/high tiers.

* Meta Knight in ''Brawl'', often considered incredibly overpowered and easy-to-use and formally banned in several tournaments. A major point of his return in the fourth game was him getting nerfed to avoid this.
* Jigglypuff in ''Melee'', aside from its [[LethalJokeCharacter trollish]] appearance, has been recorded as hard to counter, and [[OneHitKill has a finishing move]] that involves it ''falling asleep''. Unlike the other characters in the top tier, its HitAndRunTactics strategy makes it a very unpopular character to watch at tournaments unlike the crowd-pleasing Fox and Falco.
* The Ice Climbers, for having ridiculous grappling potential, and being able to perform the infamous Wobbling technique in ''Melee'', and infinite chain throws on the entire cast in ''Brawl''.
* Olimar in ''Brawl'' is often one of the most hated characters to fight, due to his extremely powerful camping capabilities, and ridiculously powerful, long ranged, and low lag grabs and smash attacks. He was significantly nerfed in ''Smash 4'' for this reason.
* Diddy Kong in ''3DS/Wii U'' for his quick speed and infuriating combos. Already considered to be one of best characters in ''Brawl'', he was made even more deadly with annoying throw combos and his banana peels disrupting players. It got so bad that Diddy players who merely play him to win hate the character and the gaming website Kotaku ran ''multiple'' articles on it. The practice of balancing characters after game release is controversial with some of the fan base, but the {{Nerf}}s he received in version 1.0.6 marked a moment where nearly everyone was happy to see it happen. Even with a further nerf in 1.0.8, he's still considered a highly effective character, albeit one who needs more skill to use now.
* Rosalina and Luma in ''3DS/Wii U'', even after several balance patches. They have always been top-tier and can be very difficult to deal with for many characters, since their [[PuppetFighter duo mechanic]] (similar to the Ice Climbers in games past) is incredibly effective in ''Smash''. By the time Diddy got nerf, players have called her the new broken character and people have cried out for a nerf. It doesn't help that, while she was heavily nerfed in the 1.0.4 patch, she continued to be viewed as a "broken" character, and afterwards got no changes other then a small nerf to Luma's health which was then ''BUFFED'' back near its original health in another patch, which usually has alot of players upset as Diddy Kong and (albit minorly) Sheik have received nerfs while Rosalina & Luma have not.
* Sheik in ''3DS/Wii U'' has been steadily rising as this since the game's launch, having effectively returned to the top-tier position she held in ''Melee''. Access to some of the best projectiles in the game, a nigh impossible-to-punish recovery, a killing move that combos out of most of her normal moves, most of which are blistering fast and safe even on shield, her extremely fast mobility, and her dominance competitively have caused many to outcry for a nerf, despite her getting multiple nerfs within previous patches, leading to some fans saying the [[TheyJustDidntCare nerfs were in the wrong places.]] Others have also complained about how her presence invalidates some characters competitively and how doubles gimmicks that include her are [[GameBreaker "broken"]], such as Sheik + Mr. Game & Watch. Despite this, her history as a well-liked ''Melee'' top-tier, her [[EnsembleDarkhorse popularity as a character]], and the fact that she isn't as blatantly overpowered or braindead as pre-patch Diddy or ''Brawl'' Meta Knight seem to be preventing another controversy of Diddy's magnitude from erupting.
* Zero Suit Samus, who is high-tier in ''Brawl'' and even better in ''[=SSB4=]''. While usually not considered overpowered, many fans take issue with the fact that she is an excellent character while regular Samus (who is more powerful in canon) is a very poor character in both games. It doesn't help that unlike the aforementioned Charizard and Zelda [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap who have gotten better with each patch]], regular Samus has not receive any beneficial buffs outside a minor buff from 1.0.8 [[note]]having her up smash linking better[[/note]].
* Captain Falcon in ''3DS/Wii U'' is somewhat of a Tier-Induced BaseBreaker. He is simultaneously loved and loathed for being an incredibly effective rushdown character with the best dashgrab in the game and insane combo potential; Falcon's supporters attest that he isn't ''the'' best character in the game and that his current level of power is "just right", with his lack of projectiles, his vulnerability to combos, and smaller characters such as Pikachu able to counter him easily. Meanwhile, Falcon's detractors claim that he is incredibly difficult to beat at all but the highest levels of competitive play and that he has far too many kill moves and nigh-unavoidable attacks.
* Roy in ''3DS/Wii U'' is divisive in this respect, similar to Captain Falcon. Many players are happy to see the buffs he got from ''Melee'' that turned him into an excellent LightningBruiser, especially since he isn't considered "overpowered" in competitive play. However, some players find him just as difficult to deal with as Falcon and claim that his forward smash in particular is a "cheap" move, and some fans of the other ''Fire Emblem'' characters with similar movesets (Marth, Lucina and the superficially similar Ike) protest that Roy is ''so'' good that he outclasses and invalidates said characters.
* Luigi in ''3DS/Wii U''. He spent most of his Smash career being a mid-to-low tier character, but in the fourth installment gave him some significant buffs. Most notably in his throw set ups, able to take near any character from 0 to 40% in one combo and having good kill set-ups with them as well with down-throw to neutral air, down-throw to cyclone, and down-throw to back air. Some people claim he has too many good options with his throw set-ups and they make him cheap. The fact that he's pretty easy to use helps as well.

* As a JokeCharacter, Pichu is (intentionally) one of the worst characters in ''Melee''. This is acknowledged by the game itself; ironically, the competitive community has generally considered it ''second worst'' instead of the outright worst fighter.
* Link and Samus, in most games. While they're two of the most popular characters, they're also usually considered among the worst competitively right from their debut in ''[=Smash 64=]'', except for Samus in ''Melee'' and Link in ''[=Wii U/3DS=]''.
* Ganondorf in ''Brawl'' -- dead last on the tier list because although he's powerful, he moves and feels ''extremely'' slow and heavy. Coupled with his controversial portrayal as a MovesetClone of Captain Falcon, this added much fuel to the fire calling for a more complete revamp of his moveset.
* Charizard. Its ineffectiveness, as well as its lack of identity as an individual character in ''Brawl'', contributed to its surprisingly low popularity with the ''Smash'' fanbase. In ''Smash 4'', it was considered one of the worst characters in the game in 1v1 competitive play in early patches for its poor mobility and very laggy attacks, which didn't help its case one bit. However, players like Bloodcross and Trela have shown dominance with Charizard; along with its buffs in version 1.08, this caused arguments on how effective it really is and generally [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap saved it from this trope]].
* Little Mac gets heat due to being entirely dependent on what stage he fights on. Being incredible on the ground and horrible in the air means he's outstanding on flat stages like Final Destination, but terrible on any stage that requires a significant amount of jumping. The result is that it's nearly impossible for Little Mac to have an even match-up against anyone. It's not helped at all that he's used a lot in For Glory, where Final Destination is the only stage.
* Palutena gets this depending on whether customs are on or off. Without customs, she's considered one of the worst characters in the game due to her default specials being considered very highly impractical and her tilts being very slow and punishable. With customs (especially Super Speed and Lightweight), she's considered one of the best and the number one example of customs making a character MUCH better.
* Zelda is considered bottom-tier across ''Melee'', ''Brawl'', and ''3DS/Wii U'' for having poor mobility, weak tilts, unreliable smash attacks (with a common result of the opponent popping out of the multi-hit before the final, damaging, strong hit occurs), hit-or-miss aerials, extremely bad specials (Din's Fire being considered a joke by most competitive players), and a bad grab. A common joke about Zelda is, prior to the release of ''Smash 4'', that her best attack is Down-B[[note]]the joke being, Down-B transforms Zelda into Sheik, a consistent high-tier character.[[/note]] In ''Smash 4'' itself, she is considered an even worse character due to her various unnecessary nerfs and her becoming separate from Sheik. However, she has been [[ThrowtheDogaBone slowly getting better]] [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap with each patch giving her buffs.]]
* Dr. Mario in ''3DS/Wii U''. While he is more powerful than Mario and has better KO power, he also has lower jumps, is slower, and has ''much'' worse recovery. This, combined with the fact that he can't pull off some combos that Mario can, means that many people see very little reason to choose the Doc over just plain old Mario.
* Greninja is a weird example, in that it falls into this trope for being ''mid-tier''. It was initially hyped and praised for being one of the best characters in the game, but was nerfed twice through patches, causing many players to give up on it and play other fast characters such as Sheik and Zero Suit Samus instead. Still, even though it's currently mid-tier, Greninja is usually considered to be around the Top 20.
* While Mii Brawler is known to be viable [[BoringButPractical though a bit generic]], Mii Gunner and Mii Swordfighter are considered the second-worst and worst characters in the game, respectively, [[JokeCharacter with Swordfighter in particular being so far below the other fighters that he gets a tier to himself]]. Fans of the Miis consider this a shame, as [[CoolSword swords are cool]], and the Gunner has a unique fighting style in her projectile standard attacks. It was thought at first that allowing custom moves would help the Miis move up the ranks. Mii Brawler and Mii Gunner do get substantially better. Swordfighter does not.
* Lucina, for being a complete MovesetClone of the already badly-nerfed Marth and lacking his biggest saving grace ([[DifficultButAwesome the tip of his sword having a sweetspot]]) in favor of dealing consistent damage and knockback regardless of which part of her blade hits. Even after receiving a generous amount of buffs through patches, she's still considered outclassed by Marth since his sword sweetspot mechanic makes him much more deadly in the hands of a good player.
* Marth in ''3DS/Wii U'' started getting this after being nerfed due to his dominance in the previous titles. His saving grace, [[DifficultButAwesome the tip of his sword]] wasn't enough to deal with the nerfs he received in ''3DS/Wii U''. While he still manages to be better then the aforementioned [[MovesetClone Lucina]] and both have gotten buffs in the previous patches, he is ''still'' considered outclassed by the other Fire Emblem fighters, Roy, Ike, and frequently Robin.

* Luigi in ''3DS/Wii U''. He spent most of his Smash career being a mid-to-low tier character, but in the fourth installment gave him some significant buffs. Most notably in his throw set ups, able to take near any character from 0 to 40% in one combo and having good kill set-ups with them as well with down-throw to neutral air, down-throw to cyclone, and down-throw to back air. Some people claim he has too many good options with his throw set-ups and they make him cheap. The fact that he's pretty easy to use helps as well.

* Captain Falcon in ''3DS/Wii U'' is somewhat of a Tier-Induced BaseBreaker. He is simultaneously loved and loathed for being an incredibly effective rushdown character with the best dashgrab in the game and insane combo potential; Falcon's supporters attest that he isn't ''the'' best character in the game and that his current level of power is "just right", with his lack of projectiles, his vulnerability to combos, and smaller characters such as Pikachu able to counter him easily. Meanwhile, Falcon's detractors claim that he is incredibly difficult to beat at all but the highest levels of competitive play and that he has far too many kill moves and nigh-unavoidable attacks.
* Lucina, for being a complete MovesetClone of the already badly-nerfed Marth and lacking his biggest saving grace ([[DifficultButAwesome the tip of his sword having a sweetspot]]) in favor of dealing consistent damage and knockback regardless of which part of her blade hits. Even after receiving a few buffs through patches, she's still considered outclassed by Marth since his sword sweetspot mechanic makes him much more deadly in the hands of a good player.
* Marth in ''3DS/Wii U'' started getting this after being nerfed due to his dominance in the previous titles. His saving grace, [[DifficultButAwesome the tip of his sword]] wasn't enough to deal with the nerfs he received in ''3DS/Wii U''. While he still manages to be better then the aforementioned [[MovesetClone Lucina]] and both have gotten buffs in the previous patches, he is ''still'' considered outclassed by the other Fire Emblem fighters, Roy, Ike, and Robin.
* Roy in ''3DS/Wii U'' is divisive in this respect, similar to Captain Falcon. Many players are happy to see the buffs he got from ''Melee'' that turned him into an excellent LightningBruiser, especially since he isn't considered "overpowered" in competitive play. However, some players find him just as difficult to deal with as Falcon and claim that his forward smash in particular is a "cheap" move, and some fans of the other ''Fire Emblem'' characters with similar movesets (Marth, Lucina and the superficially similar Ike) protest that Roy is ''so'' good that he outclasses and invalidates said characters.