History TierInducedScrappy / SuperSmashBros

* '''[[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pikachu]]''', the original GameBreaker of the series, has nonetheless been a notably consistent character throughout the franchise for being the pioneer of the FragileSpeedster playstyle: with strong aerials, great mobility, an insane {{combo|s}} game, and being frustratingly hard to hit due to its size. It's always been well-regarded by the competitive community for being DifficultButAwesome; however, some players (''Pokémon'' fans or otherwise) have openly criticized Pikachu as a "cutesy" KidAppealCharacter, and its detractors resent the fact that it's always been easily one of the best characters in the games, and able to [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomp]] the majority of the cast despite its low canonical strength. A particular point of resentment is that, on top of its strengths, Pikachu is a small character, able to be almost completely untouched by taller characters by crouching (or even ''standing'') under most of their moves.
** In ''64'', Pikachu is especially notorious for being the best character by a wide margin. Along with its trademark strengths, it possesses [[HitboxDissonance awkwardly shaped hitboxes]] and a really good recovery in a game where the rest of the cast have mediocre to just average recoveries by comparison. At first, this resulted in Pikachu being "soft banned" in the competitive community (as in, there's a mutual understanding among some players to not use Pikachu even though it's not explicitly against the rules), though as ''Smash 64'' tournaments have gotten larger and more serious, the soft ban has fallen out of favor and Pikachu's usage is a lot higher in tournaments nowadays, with players like Isai, Mariguas, [=Dext3r=] and wario using it to great success. As a nod to its tier-induced scrappy status, Pikachu is even negatively referred to as "[[EmbarrassingNickname the Rat]]". One thing Pikachu has going against it, however, is its small lightweight body making it easy for a character like Fox or Captain Falcon to send it flying at lower percents, and its falling speed making it moderately vulnerable to combos in a game where combos are everything.
** In ''Melee'', Pikachu would fall noticeably, especially in early tier lists, receiving justified {{nerf}}s to its bizarre hitboxes and losing its fast air speed, which would lead to a long time perception as a low tier. It would later see a major rise on the tier list after some notable successes in competitive play, mostly from Axe, who famously dominated a Fox player with a very quick 4-stock game in EVO 2014's top 8 and would later win Smash Summit 8 in 2019 with Pikachu; nowadays, due to its improved results and despite being a very uncommon character outside of Axe, Pikachu sits comfortably on the perceived top 10 characters in the game.
** ''Brawl'' gave Pikachu some notable buffs, along with benefiting significantly from Brawl's system changes, allowing it to rise back into the top tiers. Its most notorious moves would prove to be its chain grab with its down-throw that can zero to death characters who fall quickly and a jab-lock [[note]]A new mechanic to ''Brawl'' that allows for punishing a failure to tech (pressing shield before landing) with weak moves to trap them. Sequels nerfed it by capping the number of attacks before they automatically return to standing.[[/note]] infinite using its up-b. Pikachu was also said to be Meta Knight's only even matchup, though it's highly disputed, even by its top and by far most successful player [=ESAM=]. Regardless, Pikachu's enormous advantage over most characters has consistently landed it in the high tier since the beginning.
** It once again retained its high tier status in ''Smash 4''. Similar to Zero Suit Samus in ''Brawl'', Pikachu is a character praised for its competitive value but also has a vocal faction of detractors based on its tier status. Its case is even stronger when custom moves are allowed; while normally one of its biggest flaws is its lack of KO power, its "[[UseYourHead Heavy Skull Bash]]" custom side special is able to KO at very low percents yet ''significantly'' faster than the default, and is widely viewed as one of the most overpowered custom moves in the game. Like with Villager's customs (below), Heavy Skull Bash is frequently used as an argument against legalizing custom moves. Even without them, Pikachu is widely seen as one of the top 15 characters, with players like [=ESAM=] and Captain L doing well with the mouse.
** In ''Ultimate'', while it was initially overshadowed by its semi-clone and canonically weaker pre-evolution Pichu, Pikachu still found its way to being a major competitive threat and a top tier that soon shared and usurped Pichu's spotlight, especially after its pre-evolution got severely nerfed in update 3.1.0. This is thanks to its consistently excellent set of strengths and hard-to-exploit weaknesses that made it nigh near-impossible to truly stop as a whole. The moveset changes given to Pikachu only allowed its strengths to be further utilized, with his neutral air being one of the best combo tools in the game with drag-down combos, more auto-cancels and combo ability across the board, a dash attack that now [=KOs=] the opponent at high percentages, and an extremely versatile kit that allows it to play rushdown or keepaway seamlessly and safely. Despite lacking the [=KO=] potential Pichu had, Pikachu's better range, better weight, and greater reward compared to risk (in that it did not receive damage for using its very powerful moves compared to Pichu) soon allowed it to be seen in the same light as Pichu did before 3.1.0. Speaking of this same update, while Pichu got nerfed, Pikachu got a grab range buff, and its increased usage unveiled the sheer strengths and advantages it has against the entire cast. From then to present day, Pikachu's incredible power and strengths have led many professional players to believe that the character is ''at worst'' Top 2 or the best character in the game, which only ignited the ire to "The Rat" once again at a level akin to ''64''.

* '''[[VideoGame/PunchOut Little Mac]]''' competes with Ganondorf for the title of the worst character in ''Ultimate'' by much of the community. Much of his kit was either directly or indirectly nerfed due to the game mechanics change. His combo-tilts have been gutted, forcing him to go for stray hits rather than combos, overshadowing his new access to his grounded kit mid-dash. Most notably, his niche as a neutral-focused, grounded fighter is not only done better by other characters with actual recovery skills, but his neutral is lackluster compared to much of the cast. Even with his recovery buff to his Jolt Haymaker side special and air speed, he's still very vulnerable in disadvantage, with a very poor recovery that is further nerfed due to the airdodge mechanics and the fact that he can only use side special once per recovery, making gimping his recovery even easier than before. Lastly, he only has one out-of-shield option in up smash that is prone to cross-ups. All these stats lead Mac to be a character whose polarizing nature works ''against'' him in the most extreme of ways, causing even the most well-known of Little Mac mains from the previous game to bolt and never look back. He would eventually receive some significant buffs in patch 3.1.0, but he stayed firmly at the bottom in spite of them. His core concept of being dominant on the ground but useless in the air will probably doom him to low-tier status forever; it's very easy to just bait him into doing something unsafe, get him off the ledge, push him away from the stage and let him fall helplessly. The general consensus seems to be without a complete overhaul (or, more cynically, overtuning him to obscene levels), it is literally impossible for Mac in his current form to be buffed or tweaked into usability. However, this hasn't stopped his mains from getting impressive results, with players such as Peanut and Kwaz able to wreck opponents with hit-and-run combos that leave the opponent with no space to breathe. If Mac is doomed to be bottom tier, he's clearly the best of the worst compared to other bottom tier characters in other Smash games.
* '''[[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon Incineroar]]''' is considered a low tier and sees little serious play compared to most of the roster, having similar problems to as Ganondorf in that he's a bit too much of a MightyGlacier to be worth playing over most of the cast. While on paper, his moveset is absolutely incredible, with many fast, high utility, and powerful moves in his arsenal, in practice, Incineroar flops horrendously due to having very bad mobility, including the dubious honor of being the slowest character on the ground in the game and one of the slowest characters in the series, being only 0.02 units faster than ''Brawl'' Ganondorf, resulting in a poor matchup spread due to being combo food and easy to gimp when coupled with his poor recovery. Due to said terrible mobility, many characters can just camp him out in some way and not have to do much fighting themselves because Incineroar cannot catch up to them before they retreat and reset to neutral. In addition, Revenge, which is a frame 3 counter that significantly increases his damage and knockback, loses time when attacks don't connect and the effect goes away entirely if he is thrown. It also goes down naturally, leading players to camp him even harder than usual until it runs out. Incineroar's knockback on his moves are also heavily based on base knockback, not knockback scaling, which means he has more trouble killing than one would think, especially if the opponent is center-stage where it's unlikely any of his moves will kill other than up throw, up smash or forward smash at higher percents. While he did get some buffs, including patch 8.0.0 making Revenge stronger and improving his grappler playstyle by increasing how fast his grabs are, most of those never really fixed his actual problems in his overall design, causing him to still be considered bad even after a year and a half after the game's release. However, similarly to Ganondorf (see above), Incineroar has a similar reputation in that his slow speed but extreme power can end up in flashy, hard-hitting and often impractical (in short, "disrespectful") punishes, making him a crowd-pleaser when successful and thus making him more of a sympathetic tier-induced scrappy rather than a detested one.

* '''[[VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} Steve]]''' was heavily debated at the start of their release, but eventually amassed an enormous amount of contentious opinions until he became known as a high tier DLC character both online and offline. Steve plays extremely faithful to his home game ''Minecraft'': mine around you for resources, then [[ItemCrafting manage them by crafting your own weapons, create terrain by placing blocks to reach new heights or build walls, and even devising your own traps]]. However, it's this faithfulness which has made him despised by many. Thanks to the ability to create terrain, Steve possesses strengths that no other character in the roster has, by creating walls to negate attacks to mine in peace, placing ceilings at the edges of the stage to hinder recovery attempts at worst and outright invalidate them at best, or even using them offensively to extend Steve's combos into the literal sky or creating convoluted traps that result in unavoidable damage, especially if the opponent is at the edge. Steve's frame data throughout his moveset is also surprisingly great, and he can further enhance it by either making it even faster with [[LethalJokeItem Gold weapons]] equipped, or increasing his damage output and kill power to levels comparable to characters like Ganondorf, Bowser, Pyra, Terry, Ike, and high Aura Lucario, with [[InfinityPlusOneSword Diamond weapons]] equipped. Adding to this is a nasty combo game including options such as a jab, an up tilt and up air all of which lead into cutscene combos (and the latter two of which can potentially be unpunishable on shield), a down tilt projectile that's also hard to contest and is plus on block, a rarity for moves in ''Smash'', and his forward[=/=]back airs and his up smash (that doubles as an anti-air and is widely considered one of the best up smashes in the game) as powerful finshers off of these combos — combined with his ability to create terrain, this can allow Steve to achieve ''touches of death'' from ''a single interaction'', in a similar fashion to Luigi, to the point where most competitive players refer to him as "DLC Luigi". And further adding to all of this is Steve's colossal repertoire of options not including the aforementioned ones, such as a down air anvil projectile that deals massive damage, a tether grab, a very powerful explosive in his [=TNT=]s, and —most infamously— his Minecart, a fairly fast command grab that's also a projectile, leading one to get trapped inside and allowing Steve to deliver the pain, and with redstone it doubles as an obscenely fast, frightening [=KOing=] option. Finally, Steve has a fantastic offstage game and recovery, courtesy of his Minecart and gliding mechanic in his Elytra. In a cruel oxymoron, Steve's highly campy gameplan thrives off of non-interaction considering his ability to get stronger over time, thus forcing the opponent to approach, which is [[MortonsFork a dangerous decision considering his aforementioned combo game, frame data and abundance of strengths]], so any slip-up and Steve might as well make you forfeit a stock. All of this said, however, Steve does have a fair share of weaknesses, such as an awful mobility, lackluster disadvantage state (which by keeping him in it, denies him the ability to mine for resources if he's not on plain terrain), and the fact his overabundance of options requires an insane amount of ingenuity to work at the topmost level; however, considering he can build a wall and ceiling around himself to prevent being put on disadvantage as easily, that is no problem. Although his initial reception fluctuated from tepid to poor for some people (most infamously by Izaw), many Steve mains have recently gotten hate due to his incredibly campy playstyle, with some considering the character to carry players as his popularity created a new playerbase among which some players never played the game competitively before. At the first ever major after the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, [=InfinityCON=] Tally 2021, player Jake would place 9th with Steve after upsetting players including Goblin and Mugen, only falling to Kola and Ned, who got 1st and 2nd in the tournament.

* '''[[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 Pyra and Mythra]]''' benefit from the same streamlined transformation mechanics as Pokémon Trainer, but Mythra is considered the better out of the two and was considered a top tier by launch. This is because of her excellent mobility, which is considered some of the best in the game alongside Captain Falcon, Zero Suit Samus and Sonic. She packs ''the fastest inital dash'' in the game and a top 5 run speed and her frame data is absurdly good for a sword character with disjointed hitboxes. She has excellent aerials that can be autocancellable to near spammable levels. Lightning Buster's hitbox is huge and has kill setups from down tilt at higher percents, partially negating her supposed weakness of lackluster [=KOing=] potential. Her hurtbox "pancakes" in her dash animation, neutral air's landing hitbox, dash attack, down tilt, forward tilt and back air making her incredibly hard to hit combined with her general movement options. However, what makes her truly disgusting is [[GameBreaker Foresight]], which comes out on frame 2 and allows her to "counter" any attacks by dodging, spot dodging or rolling, significantly slowing the enemy down similarly to Witch Time; this allows for potentially devastating punishes, as well as working against projectiles, multi-hits and all recoveries that have a hitbox. All of this gives her a fantastic neutral game, a fantastic advantage state and a decent disadvantage due to Foresight. Even with her poor recovery, her air speed is fantastic and she can switch between herself and Pyra consistently, allowing for recovery mixups, making the opponent unsure of how to edgeguard them due to what character could be recovering (This is thanks to the swap-out mechanic keeping aerial momentum unlike Pokémon Trainer). This switch mechanic also allows her to being able to swap to her other self Pyra to make up for her lack of KO power, and to resist up to higher percentages to make use of rage. Pyra works similarly to Charizard within the Trainer's team; although she's generally more niche than Mythra (such as having a worse disadvantage state), she still benefits from extremely powerful disjointed moves with great range as well as the ability to swap to her "sister" almost instantly, allowing the duo to adapt to many situations. ''And'' on top of everything else, the Aegis is a rather easy character to play; in fact, they're widely considered to be far simpler to pick up than any of the Pokémon Trainer's Pokémon, allowing them to forego the otherwise expected DifficultButAwesome aspect of a transforming character that is prevalent with the Trainer. This, combined with [[BreakoutCharacter their immense popularity]] has given the duo a [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome humongous player base]], with players including [=MKLeo=], Cosmos, [=Sparg0=], Shuton, and Kome. In addition, they were also the most overall common and dominant character in the Smash World Tour: Central America Regional Finals and the most common character in Smash Ultimate Summit 3, with [=MKLeo=] getting 2nd using mostly Aegis while [=Sparg0=] got 3rd place. This has caused a lot of people to consider them the ''Smash 4'' Cloud of this game (See Series-Wide for High Tier) with a large amount of the top players considering the character top 3 and the only other character that can rival Joker and Pikachu, resulting in the Aegis drawing significant ire in competitive play for their frustratingly overtuned tools and sheer ubiquity.

* The '''[[VideoGame/{{Splatoon}} Inklings]]''' are quick fighters that have good air mobility and have moves that are both safe and can combo, already making them formidable fighters. But they also have a few things that put them up as one of the game's best characters. First is their ink mechanic, where they can ink their opponents to make them take more damage from attacks (the max being a 1.5x multiplier). Since they have several moves that can ink people, they can easily ink someone and then combo them to deal above 50% damage. Second thing is that their dash makes them swim in the ink, which reduces their hitbox significantly, making them avoid any mid-to-high profile attacks, and their dash dance makes their movement hard to follow, making them very slippery and unpredictable on the ground. They also have an incredibly safe recovery which has a hitbox both on the start of the move and at the end. The last thing is their side special, the infamous Roller, burrows people, giving them an easy kill and mitigating their otherwise below-average killing power. It also leaves a trail of ink that slows down opponents who step on it, giving them some stage control. They do eventually run out of ink, but they can simply run away with their fast speed and find a place to refill ink. They also have issues with range, so they have trouble against sword wielders. The 2.0.0 patch also adjusted Inkling's Roller in that it has a weaker bury effect at lower percents, but can bury longer at high percentages compared to the prior version. Inkling's worst matchups reside in the game's zoners like Olimar or R.O.B., but when one realizes they still do pretty well against several of the game's biggest top tier threats like Palutena and Joker, does it really matter? Overall, even though they have fallen off from launch, Inkling still forms part of the bigger threats of the metagame, firmly residing in high tier.

* After months of debate due to his polarized attributes, many ''Smash'' players have reached a consensus that the OneWingedAngel, '''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Sephiroth]]''', is another high tier DLC character. On the surface, his attributes seem like a losing formula, with laggy moves with small hitboxes, a poor disadvantage state, and a tall frame despite his very light weight. However, as seen with Mewtwo in ''[=3DS/Wii U=]'', these attributes don't inevitably doom a fighter to the lower tiers, and Sephiroth is an example of that. Sephiroth's best attribute is his [[ComebackMechanic Winged Form]], which greatly buffs his mobility, increases his damage, gives him an extra jump and gives him [[ImmuneToFlinching super armor]] on his smash attacks, making him great at comebacks just like characters like Wario and Joker. Winged Form also turns some of his DI mixups into true combos, such as back throw into back air, which has many different uses. What further pushes Sephiroth forward is Shadow Flare: is considered an excellent and extremely annoying move that forces opponents into a SadisticChoice to deal with [[WhyAmITicking its delayed damage]], which the Sephiroth player can predict and take advantage of. Lastly, unlike most sword characters, Sephiroth's grab might be short but his grab game is surprisingly competent for his archetype, possessing no kill throws but a throw that places opponents into a very disadvantageous position and ''three'' combo throws, among them his aforementioned back throw. Professionals such as Tweek and Ned have achieved notable results with Sephiroth and he continues to deliver on that front. On the other hand, Sephiroth is an otherwise beloved character by a good portion of the community, not just because of the sheer positive reception he received for joining the fray[[note]]We're talking about ''Square Enix'' —a company known for [[ExecutiveMeddling being stingy]] [[ScrewedByTheLawyers towards Nintendo]]— allowing the company to use [[BreakoutVillain one of the most iconic villains]] of all time in videogames[[/note]], but also because unlike his fellow ''Final Fantasy'' representative and ArchEnemy Cloud, his clear weaknesses and high learning curve prevent his unique attributes and comeback mechanic from breaking him or making him unfair, resulting in a more patient playstyle, yet he can still pull off some fairly flashy plays, all of which convey some sort of added risk to them. Opinions of Sephiroth are usually mildly positive as a result, and similarly to characters such as Joker, ''Melee'' Fox and ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' Captain Falcon, Sephiroth is more of a tier-induced base-breaking character.

** In ''Brawl'', the Ice Climbers were arguably even worse. The simple reason they were so hated was that they could infinitely chain grab the entire cast but themselves. The result was a grab that equaled instant death, and with ''Brawl''’s slower gameplay with less safe offense, significant buffs in the [=ICs=]' projectiles, the partner's AI being significantly better, and the ability to control both Popo and Nana at the same time, it became ''much easier'' to get a grab with both Popo and Nana active. Their infinite chain grabs do require precise timing to pull off that was too much for many players, but it was little comfort when the best players could pull it off to death with ease. Not helping matters is that the grabs resulted in ''incredibly'' boring games for viewers, as they boiled down to watching their opponent camp the [=ICs=] until they net a chain grab, and then watching them kill the opponent effortlessly. They never did come close to exceeding Meta Knight, and they did have a few losing matchups against non-MK characters who could easily evade their grab while separating them with ease (like Peach and Toon Link), but became even more hated than Meta Knight by the end of the game due to being much less flashy and rather degenerate due to their combos despite being less domminant. However, despite their divisive status, [[AlasPoorScrappy some players weren't happy that they were cut]] from ''3DS[=/=]Wii U''.

** In ''Brawl'', the Ice Climbers were arguably even worse. The simple reason they were so hated was that they could infinitely chain grab the entire cast but themselves. The result was a grab that equaled instant death, and with ''Brawl''’s slower gameplay with less safe offense, significant buffs in the [=ICs=]' projectiles, the partner's AI being significantly better, and the ability to control both Popo and Nana at the same time, it became ''much easier'' to get a grab with both Popo and Nana active. Their infinite chain grabs do require precise timing to pull off that was too much for many players, but it was little comfort when the best players could pull it off to death with ease. Not helping matters is that the grabs resulted in ''incredibly'' boring games for viewers, as they boiled down to watching their opponent camp the [=ICs=] until they net a chain grab, and then watching them kill the opponent effortlessly. They never did come close to exceeding Meta Knight, and they did have a few losing matchups against non-MK characters who could easily evade their grab while separating them with ease (like Peach and Toon Link), but became even more hated as Meta Knight by the end of the game due to being much less flashy and rather degenerate due to their combos despite being less domminant. However, despite their divisive status, [[AlasPoorScrappy some players weren't happy that they were cut]] from ''3DS[=/=]Wii U''.

** In ''Brawl'', the Ice Climbers were arguably even worse. The simple reason they were so hated was that they could infinitely chain grab the entire cast but themselves. The result was a grab that equaled instant death, and with ''Brawl''’s slower gameplay with less safe offense, significant buffs in the [=ICs=]' projectiles, the partner's AI being significantly better, and the ability to control both Popo and Nana at the same time, it became ''much easier'' to get a grab with both Popo and Nana active. Their infinite chain grabs do require precise timing to pull off that was too much for many players, but it was little comfort when the best players could pull it off to death with ease. Not helping matters is that the grabs resulted in ''incredibly'' boring games for viewers, as they boiled down to watching their opponent camp the [=ICs=] until they net a chain grab, and then watching them kill the opponent effortlessly. They never did come close to exceeding Meta Knight, and they did have a few losing matchups against non-MK characters who could easily evade their grab while separating them with ease (like Peach and Toon Link), but became as hated as Meta Knight by the end. However, despite their divisive status, [[AlasPoorScrappy some players weren't happy that they were cut]] from ''3DS[=/=]Wii U''.

** In ''Brawl'', he was unarguably the biggest GameBreaker. Period. [[MasterOfAll He excelled at pretty much everything to a degree much greater than any other character]]: he had two main kill moves with his strong down smash and glide attack (the strongest of the three glide attacks in the game, and stronger than most non-glide aerial attacks as well) despite his "not-as-heavy-hitting" nature, had a host of ridiculously effective-yet-safe moves that could be spammed with impunity, all of his sword-based moves barring his glide attack had transcendent priority (meaning that can't clash with/against other attacks), all of his special moves allowed for recovery despite having a helpless state on all of them, and the ability to exploit quirks in the game to make him literally untouchable (such as [[http://www.ssbwiki.com/Planking planking]] and [[http://www.ssbwiki.com/Sharking sharking]]). He additionally had no real consequential flaws other than his really light weight (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) and a weird aerial grab release animation that left him vulnerable to guaranteed follow-ups 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'', [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome 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 Committee]] 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''.

* While he remains bloated by the significant amount of other infamous DLC characters, '''[[Franchise/{{Tekken}} Kazuya Mishima]]''', the infamous human[=/=]devil hybrid and face of ''Tekken'' as a whole, has garnered a similarly distasteful opinion by some players. Whereas his "fighting game" brethren (Ryu, Ken and Terry) and other similar brawler characters (like Captain Falcon) have been known for being sufficiently sturdy to support their otherwise DifficultButAwesome concept, Kazuya breaks the mold by being a ''super heavyweight'' and, to boot, having access to universal armor and damage-based armor in his smash attacks in a similar vein to fellow super heavyweight Bowser. Kazuya's moveset is extremely extensive, being the largest of any character in the franchise, and not only does he have a move for every situation, a huge portion of his moveset deals double digits of damage (yes, ''per move''). Most if not all of his non-aerial moves also possess some degree of KO potential, and many of them render parts of his body invincible, essentially making such attacks disjointed. Due to his origins as a fighting game character, Kazuya also possesses the same inherent combo ability his peers have, but beefier thanks to his obscene damage output, to the point that when properly mastered, he is able to create touches of death off of a single interaction similarly to Luigi and Steve, especially thanks to moves such as his down throw, uncrouching attack, side special and (Electric) Wind God Fist serving as excellent combo starters. All of this, combined with his endurance, makes Kazuya a terror to face mano a mano and an even bigger one to be left alive past high percentages, especially due to his unique Rage mechanic (not to be confused with the similarly named ComebackMechanic since ''3DS[=/=]Wii U''). Kazuya does have his weaknesses in that his moveset and mobility are rather sluggish, he's very vulnerable to combos, transitions poorly from the ground to the air as a collective result of unique attributes, and his ridiculously extensive moveset amounts to DifficultButAwesome being taken to [[ExaggeratedTrope its logical extreme]]. As a result, Kazuya is rarely seen in tournaments, but given his aforementioned traits and his endless potential once mastered, not everyone is a fan of fighting The Iron Fist of Darkness in person despite being a crowd-pleaser for some. So far Kazuya's biggest achievement was a 9th place at Low Tide City thanks to Brr, but many top player smashers argue he has room to rise even more, and some argue he could wind up as one of the outright best characters in the game should he be optimized.

* While he remains bloated by the significant amount of other infamous DLC characters, '''[[Franchise/{{Tekken}} Kazuya Mishima]]''', the infamous human[=/=]devil hybrid and face of ''Tekken'' as a whole, has garnered a similarly distasteful opinion by some players. Whereas his "fighting game" brethern (Ryu, Ken and Terry) and other similar brawler characters (like Captain Falcon) have been known for being sufficiently sturdy to support their otherwise DifficultButAwesome concept, Kazuya breaks the mold by being a ''super heavyweight'' and, to boot, having access to universal armor and damage-based armor in his smash attacks in a similar vein to fellow super heavyweight Bowser. Kazuya's moveset is extremely extensive, being the largest of any character in the franchise, and not only does he have a move for every situation, a huge portion of his moveset deals double digits of damage (yes, ''per move''). Most if not all of his non-aerial moves also possess some degree of KO potential, and many of them render parts of his body invincible, essentially making such attacks disjointed. Due to his origins as a fighting game character, Kazuya also possesses the same inherent combo ability his peers have, but beefier thanks to his obscene damage output, to the point that when properly mastered, he is able to create touches of death off of a single interaction similarly to Luigi and Steve, especially thanks to moves such as his down throw, uncrouching attack, side special and (Electric) Wind God Fist serving as excellent combo starters. All of this, combined with his endurance, makes Kazuya a terror to face mano a mano and an even bigger one to be left alive past high percentages, especially due to his unique Rage mechanic (not to be confused with the similarly named ComebackMechanic since ''3DS[=/=]Wii U''). Kazuya does have his weaknesses in that his moveset and mobility are rather sluggish, he's very vulnerable to combos, transitions poorly from the ground to the air as a collective result of unique attributes, and his ridiculously extensive moveset amounts to DifficultButAwesome being taken to [[ExaggeratedTrope its logical extreme]]. As a result, Kazuya is rarely seen in tournaments, but given his aforementioned traits and his endless potential once mastered, not everyone is a fan of fighting The Iron Fist of Darkness in person despite being a crowd-pleaser for some. So far Kazuya's biggest achievement was a 9th place at Low Tide City thanks to Brr, but many top player smashers argue he has room to rise even more, and some argue he could wind up as one of the outright best characters in the game should he be optimized.

** In ''Ultimate'', despite his up throw being nerfed to completely remove its kill confirms, Bowser was buffed ''immensely''. To start, not only was Bowser's "Tough Guy" armor was buffed further from the previous game; additionally, the start of all his tilts and smash attacks have damage-based armor to boot, making challenging Bowser's moves terrifying considering their increased power. All of Bowser's specials were buffed greatly, with Fire Breath tacking on heavy damage (it is not uncommon for the move alone to do 30%+ or even 40%+ alone in one setting) when it connects and catches opponents, his Flying Slam command grab being a deadly combination of fast (frame 6, faster than his albeit longer normal grab) and strong, and Bowser Bomb being able to meteor smash opponents and [=KO=] opponents earlier when used normally. Bowser was one of, if not the biggest beneficiaries of the ''Ultimate'' engine change, as his run speed was increased well beyond other increases across the cast to the point where he outruns Marth and Inkling, who themselves are no slouches in the mobility department. The most notable change was that his jump animation went from the longest in the game to a measly 3 frames in line with the universal engine change, making his aerials incredibly strong and useful in battle, with less jump lag and landing lag. His out-of-shield options were buffed as a result of the engine, and this is on top of his Whirling Fortress already being an infamous move that catches any stray attack with no issue. To top it off, Bowser was made ''even heavier'' (from 130 units to a whopping 135), and in tandem with the aforementioned buffs made him a nightmare to KO outside of forcing him offstage, which is a task on its own. These buffs pretty much turned what was once the heaviest and most glacial character in ''Smash'' into a scary LightningBruiser, with so many options to choose from and many of them being reliable depending on the situation. This makes playing around Bowser in the usual ways much harder considering his increased speed can allow him to wreak havoc more easily. It's not unusual to see characters with powerful neutral games or excellent combo abilities (like [[FragileSpeedster Sheik]]) to [[HardWorkHardlyWorks see their hard work to keep Bowser out go to waste from even a single mistake that snowballs into a lost stock]]. As a result of this, matches with Bowser are often deemed as boring to watch, and for some time in early 2020, some players would start to call Bowser's playerbase as "carried" by their character. Regardless of player opinion, in the end, Bowser comfortably resides around the lower end of high tier, unlike his fellow former grappler Donkey Kong (who dropped to low-mid tier), and combined with a solid playerbase and very respectable results, it's not likely he'll be slowed down anytime soon.

** [[TookALevelInBadass This ended up being to be a one-time deal]], however, because as of ''Ultimate'', Shulk's issues have been addressed even further by removing even more of his sluggishness (albeit not entirely), alongside universal mobility buffs to the entire cast. His impressive attack range has been maintained, and as such is harder to challenge thanks to the aforementioned mobility buffs. His most significant buff, however, is having a faster way to reach each of his Monado Arts through a RingMenu instead of just cycling through them (though that remains an option if the player desires), alongside the arts themselves giving him greater [[MultiformBalance boosts (and penalties) to his stats]]. Shulk's improvements compared to ''Smash 4'' has had many professional players now considering him to truly be in the high tiers, or even top tiers, as well as one of ''the'' best of the game's sword fighters. But at the same time, many fear that Shulk [[GoneHorriblyRight was buffed a bit]] ''[[GoneHorriblyRight too]]'' [[GoneHorriblyRight much]], and that, should he be optimized in competitive play this time, he could potientially be considered a "top tier" Scrappy due to even more imposing factors, such as using his Monado Arts Ring Menu to nigh-instantly escape deadly combos, kill confirms, and multi-hitting [=KO=] moves with the [[StoneWall Shield Art]] mid-hitstun, then potentially punish ''on hit'' with the [[GlassCannon Buster and Smash Arts]] during the endlag of an opponent's attack. The stronger utility of his Shield Art, combined with his LagCancel advanced technique, "[[https://www.ssbwiki.com/Dial_Storage Dial Storage]]", have allowed Shulk access to additional options, follow-ups, and punishes with his attacks and Monado Arts that no other character in ''Ultimate'' is capable of. The improvements to all five of his arts in general allow Shulk to press and push his advantage to extremely damaging and oppressive, sometimes outright [=KO=]ing opponents at very obscene percents. It has gotten to the point that some have accused Shulk and anyone that uses him of "cheaters", as they question whether Shulk even plays the same game as the rest of the cast. This concern isn't universal, however, due to Shulk still having such a steep learning curve with his StanceSystem, equally DifficultButAwesome advanced techniques, and having continued struggles with sluggish frame data otherwise, that he remains a rare character to find in big tournaments, let alone consistently achieve high results in them by his playerbase, compared to many players of the other high tiers and top tiers in the game. It is because of this learning curve that Shulk has started to decline in usage, with most of his former players either demoting him to a secondary, or dropping him entirely for more consistent sword fighters such as Roy and Pyra[=/=]Mythra.

%% Both: Mario, Kirby, Ness, Jigglypuff, Bowser, Falco, Pichu, Roy, Mr. Game & Watch, Pit, Dark Pit, Sonic, King Dedede, Ike, Lucina, Pokemon Trainer, Bayonetta, Corrin, Shulk, Pac-Man, and Palutena

** In ''Ultimate'', much like previous {{Game Breaker}}s ''Brawl'' Meta Knight and ''Smash 4'' Bayonetta, Cloud ended up getting nerfs to some of the things that made him reviled in the first place. The biggest change is that Limit can only be held for 15 seconds, which means full Limit Cloud cannot stay a full on LightningBruiser for as long as he wants. However, unlike Bayonetta, whose immense nerfs have led to a poorly regarded status of her, Cloud still lurks in higher end of the tier list due to his power and low learning curve making him more of a SkillGateCharacter. The engine changes also greatly benefitted Cloud, as while his air game was worsened due to the reduced range and duration of his neutral aerial and up aerial respectively, the universal reduction of landing lag allowing a new neutral tool in forward aerial and his offense being more brutal mitigated this. Just like before, Cloud is heavily used during in online play thanks to his powerful punish game and strong neutral. However, as time marched on in offline play, Cloud's usage dwindled due to the fact he got outclassed by most ''Fire Emblem'' characters, namely Lucina because of her well-rounded kit and superior defensive counterplay for certain matchups, and Roy/Chrom due to their overturned offensive power compared to Cloud. However, the update 7.0.0 granted Cloud a very important buff to Limit as his down special now charges the Limit gauge faster than it did in ''Smash 4''; before the update, charging Limit took longer than it did in ''Smash 4'', but the buff drastically shortened the amount of time needed to charge it, coupled with buffs to his up smash and dash attacks which make them more viable kill options. This has given players cause for concern, worried that if the balance team continues to buff Cloud, he might return to his infamous ''Smash 4'' incarnation. Until then, like Snake, Cloud remains a blood-boiling character to fight against, be it casually or competitively.

* After his first good but only decent appearance in ''Brawl'', as well as a lackluster appearance in ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'', '''[[VideoGame/RoboticOperatingBuddy R.O.B.]]''' has quickly risen to prominence for ''Ultimate''. One of the most iconic [[LongRangeFighter zoning]] characters since ''Brawl'', this game gave R.O.B. a few noteworthy buffs that strengthened him significantly, further cementing him as the JackOfAllStats between his zoning brethren. R.O.B. possesses one of the more useful zoning kits in the game courtesy of his Robo Beam and Gyro, and has set-ups into some of his moves thanks to the latter move's property of being an item. His up-close game, while still a bit slow, was given much more utility, with quality of life changes such as higher power, better range, or greater advantage on hit and on shield. His combo ability from ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' remains not only relatively intact, but arguably improved. And that's without mentioning his Arm Rotor; previously one of his more useless moves due to its difficulty in connecting all hits, it was given better hitboxes and better linking angles so that every hit now connects into its final hit, turning Arm Rotor into a devastating finisher that can KO early, shield-poke, and reflect projectiles. Lastly, R.O.B. is heavy and has a great recovery compared to others in his weight class like Simon. Clashing all of this, and the changes to the game's engine, has allowed R.O.B. to break out of his StoneWall status and has turned him into more of a MightyGlacier. He does have his weaknesses, though, such as a susceptibility to combos, juggling and general pressure due to his slow moveset, high weight, and large size, and his up-close game remaining slow. Nevertheless, R.O.B. has amassed quite strong results compared to his other two appearances (most notably Zackray winning The Big House 9 with him), and combined with the various nerfs to some of his hardest matchups in 11.0, R.O.B. is in an even more commanding spot in the meta, and is agreed by most people to be a grueling character to fight against, both casually and competitively. Post-quarantine, and the hate grew even larger with R.O.B. being by far the most successful character in tournament play in the West, with most national tournaments having more then 5 R.O.B.'s get top 64/top 32, making the character extremely prevalent to even greater extents then before.

* The '''[[VideoGame/{{Splatoon}} Inklings]]''' are quick fighters that have good air mobility and have moves that are both safe and can combo, already making them formidable fighters. But they also have a few things that put them up as one of the game's best characters. First is their ink mechanic, where they can ink their opponents to make them take more damage from attacks (the max being a 1.5x multiplier). Since they have several moves that can ink people, they can easily ink someone and then combo them to deal above 50% damage. Second thing is that their dash makes them swim in the ink, which reduces their hitbox significantly, making them avoid any mid-to-high profile attacks, and their dash dance makes their movement hard to follow, making them very slippery and unpredictable on the ground. They also have an incredibly safe recovery which has a hitbox both on the start of the move and at the end. The last thing is their side special, the infamous Roller, burrows people, giving them an easy kill and mitigating their otherwise below-average killing power. It also leaves a trail of ink that slows down opponents who step on it, giving them some stage control. They do eventually run out of ink, but they can simply run away with their fast speed and find a place to refill ink. They also have issues with range, so they have trouble against sword wielders. The 2.0.0 patch also nerfed Inkling's Roller in that it has a weaker bury effect at lower percents, but can bury longer at high percentages compared to the prior version. Inkling's worst matchups reside in the game's zoners like Olimar or R.O.B. but when one realizes they still do pretty well against several of the game's biggest top tier threats like Palutena and Joker, does it really matter? Overall, even though they have fallen off from launch, Inkling still forms part of the bigger threats of the metagame, firmly residing in high tier.

* '''[[VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} Steve]]''' was heavily debated at the start of their release, but eventually amassed an enormous amount of contentious opinions until he became known as a high tier DLC character both online and offline. Steve plays extremely faithful to his home game ''Minecraft'': mine around you for resources, then [[ItemCrafting manage them by crafting your own weapons, create terrain by placing blocks to reach new heights or build walls, and even devising your own traps]]. However, it's this faithfulness which has made him despised by many. Thanks to the ability to create terrain, Steve possesses strengths that no other character in the roster has, by creating walls to negate attacks to mine in peace, placing ceilings at the edges of the stage to hinder recovery attempts at worst and outright invalidate them at best, or even using them offensively to extend Steve's combos into the literal sky or creating convoluted traps that result in unavoidable damage, especially if the opponent is at the edge. Steve's frame data throughout his moveset is also surprisingly great, and he can further enhance it by either making it even faster with [[LethalJokeItem Gold weapons]] equipped, or increasing his damage output and kill power to levels comparable to characters like Ganondorf, Bowser, Pyra, Terry, Ike, and high Aura Lucario, with [[InfinityPlusOneSword Diamond weapons]] equipped. Adding to this is a nasty combo game including options such as a jab, an up tilt and up air all of which lead into cutscene combos (and the latter two of which can potentially be unpunishable on shield), a down tilt projectile that's also hard to contest and is plus on block, a rarity for moves in ''Smash'', and his forward[=/=]back airs and his up smash (that doubles as an anti-air and is widely considered one of the best up smashes in the game) as powerful finshers off of these combos — combined with his ability to create terrain, this can allow Steve to achieve ''touches of death'' from ''a single interaction'', in a similar fashion to Luigi, to the point where most competitive players refer to him as "DLC Luigi". And further adding to all of this is Steve's colossal repertoire of options not including the aforementioned ones, such as a down air anvil projectile that deals massive damage, a tether grab, a very powerful explosive in his [=TNT=]s, and —most infamously— his Minecart, a fairly fast command grab that's also a projectile, leading one to get trapped inside and allowing Steve to deliver the pain, and with redstone it doubles as an obscenely fast, frightening [=KOing=] option. Finally, Steve has a fantastic offstage game and recovery, courtesy of his Minecart and gliding mechanic in his Elytra. In a cruel oxymoron, Steve's highly campy gameplan thrives off of non-interaction considering his ability to get stronger over time, thus forcing the opponent to approach, which is [[MortonsFork a dangerous decision considering his aforementioned combo game, frame data and abundance of strengths]], so any slip-up and Steve might as well make you forfeit a stock. All of this said, however, Steve does have a fair share of weaknesses, such as an awful mobility, lackluster disadvantage state (which by keeping him in it, denies him the ability to mine for resources if he's not on plain terrain), and the fact his overabundance of options requires an insane amount of ingenuity to work at the topmost level; however, considering he can build a wall and ceiling around himself to prevent being put on disadvantage as easily, that is no problem. Although his initial reception fluctuated from tepid to poor for some people (most infamously by Izaw), many Steve mains have recently gotten hate due to his incredibly campy playstyle, with some considering the character to carry players as his popularity created a new playerbase among which some players never played the game competitively before. At the first ever major after COVID-19, [=InfinityCON=] Tally 2021, player Jake would place 9th with Steve after upsetting players including Goblin and Mugen, only falling to Kola and Ned, who got 1st and 2nd in the tournament.

* '''[[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 Pyra and Mythra]]''' benefit from the same streamlined transformation mechanics as Pokémon Trainer, but Mythra is considered the better out of the two and was considered a top tier by launch. This is because of her excellent mobility, which is considered some of the best in the game alongside Captain Falcon, Zero Suit Samus and Sonic. She packs ''the fastest inital dash'' in the game and a top 5 run speed and her frame data is absurdly good for a sword character with disjointed hitboxes. She has excellent aerials that can be autocancellable to near spammable levels. Lightning Buster's hitbox is huge and has kill setups from down tilt at higher percents, partially negating her supposed weakness of lackluster [=KOing=] potential. Her hurtbox "pancakes" in her dash animation, neutral air's landing hitbox, dash attack, down tilt, forward tilt and back air making her incredibly hard to hit combined with her general movement options. However, what makes her truly disgusting is [[GameBreaker Foresight]], which comes out on frame 2 and allows her to "counter" any attacks by dodging, spot dodging or rolling, significantly slowing the enemy down similarly to Witch Time; this allows for potentially devastating punishes, as well as working against projectiles, multi-hits and all recoveries that have a hitbox. All of this gives her a fantastic neutral game, a fantastic advantage state and a decent disadvantage due to Foresight. Even with her poor recovery, her air speed is fantastic and she can switch between herself and Pyra consistently, allowing for recovery mixups, making the opponent unsure of how to edgeguard them due to what character could be recovering (This is thanks to the swap-out mechanic keeping aerial momentum unlike Pokémon Trainer). This switch mechanic also allows her to being able to swap to her other self Pyra to make up for her lack of KO power, and to resist up to higher percentages to make use of rage. Pyra works similarly to Charizard within the Trainer's team; although she's generally more niche than Mythra (such as having a worse disadvantage state), she still benefits from extremely powerful disjointed moves with great range as well as the ability to swap to her "sister" almost instantly, allowing the duo to adapt to many situations. ''And'' on top of everything else, the Aegis is a rather easy character to play; in fact, they're widely considered to be far simpler to pick up than any of the Pokémon Trainer's Pokémon, allowing them to forego the otherwise expected DifficultButAwesome aspect of a transforming character that is prevalent with the Trainer. This, combined with [[BreakoutCharacter their immense popularity]] has given the duo a [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome humongous player base]], with players including [=MKLeo=], [=VoiD=], Cosmos, [=Sparg0=], Shuton, Mr. R, [=Mew2King=], Tsu and Kome. In addition, they were also the most overall common and dominant character in the Smash World Tour: Central America Regional Finals [[note]]There were 3 players who used Pyra/Mythra and all of them got into the World Championship Finals with Nair^ maining the character after failing to get in[[/note]] and the most common character in Smash Ultimate Summit 3, with [=MKLeo=] getting 2nd using mostly Aegis while [=Sparg0=] got 3rd place. This has caused a lot of people to consider them the ''Smash 4'' Cloud of this game (See Series-Wide for High Tier) with a large amount of the top players considering the character top 3 and the only other character that can rival Joker and Pikachu, resulting in the Aegis drawing significant ire in competitive play for their frustratingly overtuned tools and sheer ubiquity.

* Even Creator/MasahiroSakurai's own character '''Franchise/{{Kirby}}''' has been hit with this trope as well, having had a very tumultuous history in competitive play across the series.

** In ''Melee'', despite being one of the best characters in the first game, he was severely nerfed in ''Melee'' and was turned into a MasterOfNone, having awful approach options, the lack of an effective projectile without [[PowerCopying copying one from Inhale]], terrible mobility all around, and generally being poor-to-mediocre in every relevant area; as a heavy nerf from ''64'' to ''Melee'', even his recovery that's supposed to be good is pretty poor because of how easy it is to edgeguard, and due to his greatly decreased horizontal aerial movement (but then again, his infamous combo tools like his up tilt were very broken in ''64'', but sadly were nerfed almost too heavily in ''Melee''). He also has two of the worst throws in smash history with his forward and back throws, which look like they might be decent suicide kills, but are rendered completely useless by the simple fact that you can ''effortlessly escape it with a simple jump''. This leads Kirby to have generally abysmal matchups against everyone else, and a complete lack of any tournament success. His powerful new up aerial and his new Hammer move would not be enough for him to compensate, either.

** In ''Ultimate'', Kirby at launch stood out as a reward-absent character, somehow managing to be nerfed even further from his previous iteration. He struggles with neutral in that he had little to no options of rewarding stage control, and indirectly allowing combos, on a character that has poor range and has to work extremely hard to get in. His throws were also nerfed in KO power and utility, most notably forward throw being near-useless under low platforms like in Battlefield. The game's engine also exacerbated his poor aerial physics, with his long distanced recovery being overshadowed by his slow air speed, the changes to air dodges, and slow-to-start aerials bar back air. This culminated into a character that had little to no cohesiveness from getting rewarded for using his toolkit, making him feel broken (and not in [[GameBreaker that]] way). Even the most renowned of Kirby mains bailed on Kirby, warning other players to simply avoid him. Fortunately, Kirby has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of ''Ultimate''[='=]s updates (receiving changes in 2.0.0, 3.0.0, 6.0.0 and 8.0.0), helping him finally regain much-needed reward and cohesiveness in his kit; his forward tilt's new knockback made it better for granting stage control and can even KO, his up smash became stronger even on sourspot, his Inhale became MUCH faster and the Copy Abilities were made very durable compared to launch, his jab became tied for being the second fastest in the game (at a blinding frame 2), and his neutral and up aerials were buffed in strength and speed. All of this finally patched a multitude of massive holes in Kirby's plans. It was not long after the buffs that Kirby soon gained his first relevant placing at a PGR event, getting 17th at Umebura SP 7, beating even key top players along the way. It is helped that he still has representation by players such as [=JesuisChoq=], RK, and Komota, along with the wave of Japanese Kirby players, such as Ferretkuma and Ron, and other online Kirby players that have appeared as well, such as Jejajeja and the aforementioned Ron. While he is still in the lower parts of the tier list and some of the aforementioned problems remain unfixed for now, the updates so far have given a new light to Kirby, who is now considered to be a much better, more cohesive, and most importantly, an entertaining and rewarding character to play as.

** In ''Ultimate'', despite his down throw getting nerfed into no longer being as reliable of a combo starter as it previously was, overall consensus is that he was made even stronger. It's pretty much agreed that his PK Fire which got buffed does way too much damage and can rack up insane damage and can grab players and go to town on them. His up air, at the cost of doing less knockback than it did back previously, has faster startup and more combo potential. His yo-yo smash attacks had their charging hitboxes restored, and can now even be used off the edge to score some easy kills. Also, he majorly benefits from having one of the best directional air dodges in the game, making his recovery less linear and interruptible. Furthermore, his PK thunder has become even more annoying, as the changes to air dodges make it even harder to avoid. Also, at the highest levels, you will see Ness players make great use of his majorly buffed PSI Magnet, which now has a hitbox that doesn't scale to damage, making a great combo tool, mix-up option, and still having the absorbing power of previous versions. Combine all this with the lag Online and Ness became an absolute pain to anyone who isn't Mr. Game and Watch, Villager or Isabelle. Competitively, his worst matchups tend to be against characters who outrange him, such as most of the Sword characters, or who beat his aerials with their own. He still has his weaknesses, but with 3 Ness mains having made it into Genesis 6 top 48 and several others proving to be a major force in competitive play, he's not a character to be slept on. Overall, due to his already established infamy in the casual scene combined with him actually posing a threat in bracket, Ness remains a hated character to fight regardless of skill level, in a fashion similar to Snake.

** In ''64'', it is considered a mid tier. Thanks to its floaty attributes and its many low knockback attacks, Jigglypuff can abuse them to its advantage in several combos that literally carry the opponent all the way to the lateral blast lines; the generally weak recoveries in this game only add to this. It also has some moves with disproportionate power, like its up smash, back throw, and the famous Rest. However, Jigglypuff is so light and floaty, it is very easy to KO. Not to mention the sheer {{irony}} of being one of the only two characters to lack a rising up special move for recovery (a trait that has clinged on to Jigglypuff for several games and counting), forcing it to rely on its midair jumps and Pound to recover. However, general consensus is that Jigglypuff stands in a favorable spot in the metagame.

** ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' became Jigglypuff's worst tier ranking to date. It got some helpful buffs in the transition, like a larger and stronger hitbox on Rest, and hitstun cancelling being severely nerfed, leading to Jigglypuff initially being theorized to be a better character; some time later, however, the Puff would be agreed to actually wound up as nerfed overall in the transition. Plus, being the lightest character in a game where the rage mechanic exists, and being the slowest character in the game on the ground, the problems against this character simply stacked as the meta developed, landing it in low tier once again. It has one of the worst set of ground moves in the game, with decent frame data all-around and good utility around them, but barely any reach on almost all of them. However, its aerial attacks, while good, aren't that great either, with their reach not being much better than its ground attacks, and being weak or ineffective when they do hit outside its powerful back aerial, which instead has below-average startup speed. This leaves it very likely to get smacked with trades that are almost always unfavorable to it, and forcing it to abuse its fast air speed as the only way to safely go in and out. Its grab game is additionally terrible, possessing the second shortest grabbing reach in the game (as only ''R.O.B.'' has a shorter grab), with no setup throws nor any throws with remotely decent knockback. And while Rest is a viable trump card again with its buffs, it still has little setups into it, and due to characters being able to get KO'd normally off the top instead of being Star/Screen KO'd, there's a significant chance that it will get punished and KO'd itself if it kills an opponent who wasn't on their last stock with it. The worst part about the character, however, is that it has received ''no direct changes'' within the many patches, except for a glitch with Rollout being fixed in the first patch, leaving it in the dust as the power of other lower tier characters creeped up while it remained in its same, weakened state. It is almost unanimously noted as being the worst character in the game, and ranked as the worst character on the current Smashboards tier list, though it does has a few defenders that argue its viability is not as dreadful as it's made out to be, with decent matchups against some of the higher tier characters.
** After two games of being an afterthought in competitive play, it has begun to make a big comeback in ''Ultimate'' after update 6.0.0. The patch increased the hitstun of Pound and decreased the ending lag of down aerial, with the result being that Jigglypuff now has ''multiple'' ways to combo into Rest and even loop its down aerial into ''itself'', gave Jigglypuff a massive boost in damage and [=KO=] potential. However, it is still very light, and Rest will still screw Jigglypuff over if it doesn't kill. It's still very difficult for the Puff to get in against sword-fighters which is its prime weakness, making how good it is unknown.

** ''Melee'' made him the quintessential MightyGlacier, with not much speed to go with his huge size, heavy weight and extreme power. Since the metagame would evolve, his agonizingly slow speed and high weight would become more and more noticeable, making him pure combo bait in a game all about speed and combos. Although Bowser does have a few advantages such his famously reliable "up B out of shield" (Whirling Fortress) and the absolute best ledge getup attack in the game, they didn't compensate at all for how noticeable his weaknesses are, so the result was still a character considered one of the worst characters in the game since its release.

** His ''Smash 4'' incarnation's perception has got a wildly inconsistent perception, but has fared much better overall. Bowser was been made even faster than his ''Brawl'' self while having even more power than his ''Melee'' self, with a further buffed recovery, a bunch of new more effective attacks, and newly introduced [[ImmuneToFlinching armor]] that let him tank attacks that deal low knockback; this is on top of the newly added rage mechanic significantly benefiting hard-hitting characters that can live a long time like him, 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, and Bowser was considered high, if not top, tier shortly after the game's release by the general playerbase. Then the first game update (1.0.4) came and significantly changed the new vectoring mechanic[[note]]Putting it shortly: previously, any attack could be influenced directionally to the opposite side of attack's angle to allow a character to live longer, but the 1.0.4 update changed it so that this is not possible for mainly vertical attacks anymore, (namely those that send at 65° to 115°)[[/note]], which in turn provided a significant indirect nerf to Bowser. The general playerbase [[SomeDexterityRequired becoming better]], and able to exploit Bowser's same old weaknesses like before, didn't help either. As a result, Bowser's reputation began plummeting much like in ''Brawl'', although he didn't completely drop to low tier, and lower-level players still enjoyed his new and improved moveset. Some time later, the 1.1.3 update gave Bowser a massive buff by turning his up throw into a reliable and highly infamous combo throw[[note]]1.1.4 altered it further by increasing its knockback, which set up into certain aerials earlier than before, but also made it harder to kill off of his up air[[/note]], allowing him to chain together his insanely hard-hitting moves off of it, and the result was not only the iconic Mighty Glacier of the franchise now being able to dish out damage a lot more reliably, but now rushing up into the high tiers once again! If characters could play campy and safe against him and avoid his approach with non-issue, they now ''had'' to do so, lest them getting repeatedly pelted with up throw combo after up throw combo, with a pinch of up B out of shield and his other strong throws to mix it up. Along with Donkey Kong, Bowser's up throw being beneficiary of improved combo potential was excellent enough to shoot him up into the high tiers, and with greater tournament results, this finally moved Bowser from his low tier rut, to the dismay of many and the acclaim of others.
** In ''Ultimate'', despite his up throw being nerfed to completely remove its kill confirms, Bowser was buffed ''immensely''. To start, Bowser had armor attributes on his natural movement, titled "Tough Guy". Moves that do little to no knockback can be armored through by Bowser, meaning he can rush at opponents if they cannot hit hard enough; additionally, the start of all his tilts and Smash Attacks have damage-based armor to boot, making challenging Bowser's moves terrifying considering their increased power. All of Bowser's specials were buffed greatly, with Fire Breath tacking on heavy damage (it is not uncommon for the move alone to do 20%+ or even 30%+ alone in one setting) when it connects and catches opponents, his Flying Slam command grab being a deadly combination of fast (frame 6, faster than his albeit longer normal grab) and strong, and Bowser Bomb being able to [=KO=] opponents and break even full shields in one hit when used. Bowser was one of, if not the biggest beneficiaries of the ''Ultimate'' engine change, as his run speed was increased well beyond other increases across the cast to the point where he outruns Marth and Inkling, who themselves are no slouches in the mobility department. The most notable change was that his jump animation went from the longest in the game to a measly 3 frames in line with the universal engine change, making his aerials incredibly strong and useful in battle, with less jump lag and landing lag. His out-of-shield options were buffed as a result of the engine, and as an added bonus, Bowser's Whirling Fortress (up special) became a powerful frame 6 option to catch laggy moves that hit his shield and get them off Bowser. To top it off, Bowser was made ''even heavier'' (from 130 units to a whopping 135), and in tandem with the aforementioned buffs made him a nightmare to KO outside of forcing him offstage, which is a task on its own. These buffs pretty much turned what was once the heaviest and most glacial character in ''Smash'' into a scary LightningBruiser, with so many options to choose from and many of them being reliable depending on the situation. This makes playing around Bowser in the usual ways much harder considering his increased speed can allow him to wreak havoc more easily. It's not unusual to see characters with powerful neutral games or excellent combo abilities (like [[FragileSpeedster Sheik]]) to [[HardWorkHardlyWorks see their hard work to keep Bowser out go to waste from even a single mistake that snowballs into a lost stock]]. As a result of this, matches with Bowser are often deemed as boring to watch, and for some time in early 2020, some players would start to call Bowser's playerbase as "carried" by their character. Regardless of player opinion, in the end, Bowser comfortably resides around the lower end of high tier, unlike his fellow former grappler Donkey Kong (who dropped to low-mid tier), and combined with a solid playerbase and very respectable results, it's not likely he'll be slowed down anytime soon.

** In ''Brawl'', he was significantly differentiated from Fox in ways that were to his benefit, putting Falco among the perpetual top tiers, who was once considered the third-best character in the game. He had some obnoxiously strong attributes that made a lot of players dislike him, such as his lagless Blaster that could be fired twice in a short hop to control space and snuff approaches to a ridiculous degree (which was made worse by the slower worse mobility and weaker offense that made approaching difficult in Brawl), while having an easy chain throw that worked on nearly every character up to 40ish%. From there, once you get in the first 50% or so of your stock, it was forfeited once Falco grabbed you, and since he could finish it with an unavoidable down aerial meteor smash near the ledge, you could potentially die from it, especially as a character with a poor vertical recovery. 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 other characters being even better with even more aggravating playstyles, as well as Falco having some pretty significant weaknesses, such as difficulty [=KOing=] and a poor punish game once you were beyond his chain throw percent, a very poor up-B recovery that essentially meant death for him if he was forced to use it, and Falco being heavily vulnerable to chain throws himself.

** With ''Ultimate'', Falco would get a lot of major buffs to return him to being seen positively. His neutral game is much better than in ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' (though not to the same degree as in ''Melee'' or ''Brawl''), with a much improved Blaster and better mobility, and his punishment capabilities are harsher due to improvements to his combo game, especially thanks to a vastly improved up tilt that could give Mario in ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' a run for his money; these, combined with the returned air dodges from ''Melee'', have resulted in him being seen as dangerous in the right hands, however he still hasn't seen anywhere near as much representation or success as Fox. Update 8.0.0 improved on some of Falco's inconsistencies and gave him new improved options, such as his side special Falco Phantasm becoming a viable combo starter when used on the ground. General consensus on Falco nowadays is that he has improved, sitting at the bottom of high tier, but only time will tell if his current standing is stable enough, or if he's overrated and a portion of the cast is still better than him.

** In ''Melee'', Pichu is the game's resident JokeCharacter, as a FragileSpeedster turned UpToEleven. Particularly the "fragile" part. One of the fastest characters in the game, and the lightest as well, so the whole point of playing as it is to avoid taking damage while smacking your opponent. The problem is that [[StopHittingYourself almost half of its attacks hurt it for 1%-4% damage]], even its recovery/dodging special, which deals no damage to enemies. Being a very light character, a smash attack can KO it at less than 80% of damage in many situations. Tying into its smaller hitboxes which give it much less range on its attacks, Pichu is additionally nearly completely inferior clone to the fairly competent Pikachu, exemplifying its ineffectiveness even more. This is not only {{lampshade|Hanging}}d on [[https://www.ssbwiki.com/Pichu_(SSBM)#Trophies its trophy descriptions]], but it was actually [[http://www.sourcegaming.info/2015/09/24/meleepichusite/ confirmed]] by WordOfGod, so Pichu being a low-tier scrappy is actually {{enforced|Trope}}! On the flipside, however, in the hands of players who are very skilled with Pichu via purposely picking it as a handicap, its damage output is surprisingly quite high, with some solid kill moves in its forward smash and up smash, solid combo tools with its neutral aerial, up aerial, and all his throws; the latter also gives it a surprisingly good grab game.
** The previous appearance only turned out to be a one-time deal, as Pichu [[TookALevelInBadass wound up getting major]] [[BalanceBuff buffs]] in ''Ultimate'' which turned it from a FragileSpeedster joke character into a GlassCannon {{gone horribly right}}; its forward tilt, in particular, is seen as a really good edgeguarding tool that can be spammed for the cost of a little self-damage. The fact it has strong kill options on a character that can combo any character with safe moves makes it really deadly at high-level play. Its weaknesses remain mostly intact, and the recoil damage is lessened from ''Melee'', but it is still enough to ''help'' it get out of kill confirm percents, like Luigi's zero to death combo out of grab, and the rage mechanic makes it slowly boost its killing power every time it hurts itself. To top it all off, it has its own zero to death, combining its back air and up air in an inescapable combo; though, to be fair to Pichu, this combo is highly difficult. Its best player, [=VoiD=], managed to place first in one of the game's early major tournaments with Pichu alone, and over the next few months, people began to hate Pichu more and more for embodying and exaggerating all of the worst traits of most of the top-tiers: fast, mobile, a small hurtbox, and an all-or-nothing dynamic, turning it into an aggressive rushdown character who can [[RocketTagGameplay either dominate a stock (or even the entire match) or get KOed from one mistake]]. The release of the 3.1.0 update nerfed Pichu significantly by increasing its hurtbox size, weakening its forward tilt, and greatly augmenting the self-damage it takes (especially on the aforementioned forward tilt), creating a more volatile risk-reward factor that's difficult to maneuver at higher-leveled play. Ever since that patch, Pichu has fallen from top-tier and been supplanted by Pikachu; however, update 11.0.0 undid some of the nerfs to its recoil damage and made its neutral air safer by granting its ears intangibility, so it seems like Pichu might rise on the tier list once more. Overall, the greater rewards and ease of [=KOing=] opponents Pichu has, along with some moves being more effective than its evolved counterpart, continue to allow Pichu to be a high-tier threat in the meta.

** Finally, his ''Ultimate'' appearance seems to have ended the "low tier" view of him. Since launch, Roy was noted to have received excellent buffs, with Double-Edge Dance now capable of [=KOing=] the opponent early at the sweetspot, and his Flare Blade capable of turning around to hit unsuspecting opponents with a strong, often lethal blow. He also benefitted heavily from the game's universal changes, so while Roy still has the sweetspot at the base of his sword (meaning he doesn't require careful spacing like Marth to be effective, but can't afford to space well his attacks like his Echo Fighter Chrom), the significantly increased shieldstun on attack, his faster mobility and his lower landing lag make it a real hassle to get him off, and said sourspots are now links to the much stronger sweetspots at higher percentages. His fast frame data and mobility now properly compensate for his alleged shorter range, allowing Roy to rack damage fast, keep his aggression and advantage going, and KO at rather low percentages. Finally, he has a far safer recovery than Chrom, especially after patch 2.0.0. Initially, Roy's viability compared to Chrom [[BrokenBase was a topic of debate]], with some players claiming Roy is better due to his more explosive damage racking abilities off of a single conversion, despite his [[DifficultButAwesome higher learning curve]] and Chrom's higher consistency; over time, Roy eventually gained a more positive reception thanks to having that increased-damage potential and a more flexible recovery in disadvantage compared to Chrom. In the end, it is widely agreed that Roy is now the best he has ever been, so his future has shined unlike in the previous titles, and thanks to his character popularity courtesy of Smash, he is more of a tier-induced base-breaker in this regard, so his ascent to the high tiers is usually welcomed.
* Being an homage to one of Nintendo's earliest consoles, '''[[UsefulNotes/GameAndWatch Mr. Game & Watch]]''' is quite an unusual character as a result of his unique 2D design, and he has had a tumultuous history across decades of competitive ''Smash'' as a result of it.

** His ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' incarnation, in a rare doubles example, became almost universally despised by players and fans alike. Two words describe the reasoning why: [[EnergyAbsorption Oil Panic]]. Between ''Brawl'' and ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'', his down special received two critical buffs: it now can absorb explosions and the amount of units filled in the tank is now proportional to the absorbed projectile's damage. The end result was an arguable GameBreaker in Doubles that, in tandem with partners that could feed Game & Watch the projectiles necessary to fill the bucket, could break shields instantly and KO opponents at 0%. Many instances of Game and Watch teams resulted in 2/3 stock matches ending in under a minute and even 30 seconds, leaving players infuriated and fans frustrated because of how anti-climactic these clashes were in a meta that had only started to pick up in action. As a result, Game & Watch was either soft-banned or banned (whether altogether or with a specific partner) in Doubles and left to become one of the most infuriating characters in the competitive meta, almost on par with custom Villager. Fortunately, Oil Panic's power in Doubles has since been [[http://www.ssbwiki.com/Mr._Game_and_Watch_(SSB4)#Update_history significantly reduced as of patch 1.1.3]], which has ultimately removed him from the Scrappy status in Doubles. The same can't be said about his run in Singles, however, as despite the buffs to Oil Panic, Mr. Game & Watch was nerfed from ''Brawl'', with said nerfs being significant, and despite the efforts of players such as Regi, Maister and [=GimR=], he wound up ranked in the lower end of mid-tier.
** Despite initially being believed to be worse off compared to ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' (to the point where he was considered a bottom tier character on release), he later fell into high-tier territory in ''Ultimate''. What earns him the ire of many competitive players includes a small hitbox, which makes him incredibly difficult to catch, insane damage racking capabilities thanks to having useful juggling tools in his neutral and up aerials, and quick, powerful smash attacks that have great utility (notably his up smash and down smash, the former possesses invincibility on Mr. Game & Watch's head and excellent power; while the latter's sweetspot hitbox buries grounded opponents for easy kill confirms into forward smash and is a strong vertical KO move on airborne opponents, and the sourspot even functions as a decently strong semi-spike, which is useful against characters that have weak horizontal recoveries). However, the most hated part about him is his up special: Fire. To wit, not only does it come out lightning-fast on ''frame 3'', making it a useful out of shield option, it also possesses a hitbox, provides ''invincibility'' during Mr. Game & Watch's ascent, functions as a combo starter, and to top it all off, Mr. Game & Watch is still capable of using aerials once the parachute deploys, allowing him to mix up his landing options and prevent characters from juggling him in ways that many other characters cannot; these factors have led to Fire being widely considered as the best out-of-shield move in the entire game. While he does have some weaknesses (namely his light weight, the unusual properties of some of his moves, and poor range) along with his playerbase being somewhat small compared to the other juggernauts of ''Ultimate'' listed above, players like Maister have proven that the two-dimensional terror is not a character to be slept on in bracket, with him achieving many high placing finishes at majors over the course of 2019 and early 2020, like 3rd at the Big House 9 and 2GG: Kongo Saga and 2nd place at Frostbite 2020.

** His transition to ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'', however, didn't have the same luck. Due to the release of ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'', Pit's moveset was heavily altered to not only be more unique, but also to incorporate many of the abilities and weapons he had (though he still fights mainly with his trusty bow). Unfortunately, the nerf hammer dropped hard on Pit in the process, with many of his moves dealing less damage and possessing shorter durations and smaller hitboxes that [[HitboxDissonance don't fit their animations and[=/=]or leave blindspots]], his recovery becoming much worse due to the removal of gliding, his lower midair jumps and a vastly inferior up special in Power of Flight (in a game where recoveries are vastly improved), and his Palutena Bow arrows becoming weaker, less mobile and less active. Even in spite of his numerous buffs, such as a new finisher in his new Upperdash Arm, a new meteor smash down air, a vastly revamped grab game, and the game's physics granting him a respectable combo game, none of these buffs compensated for the nerfs. Combine this with his troubles at ending stocks, the game's engine being less friendly overall to Pit due to the introduction of rage and ledge trumping, and a complete lack of buffs in game updates and... yeah. While Pit's reputation was positive on release, it became notoriously worse and worse over time, and Pit would be decried for being an "honest" character, with [[BoringButPractical no real strengths or weaknesses over the rest of the cast]] save for a still respectable recovery. At the end of the metagame, Pit's playerbase remained consistently small and he ended up on mid-tier, but several players argue he should've been ranked lower. Similar to King Dedede below, Japan thought Pit was decent and didn't see much buffs.

** In ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'', transformation characters were scrapped, and while Zelda and Samus were lucky enough to have both their forms as separate characters, only '''Charizard''' returned out of the four members of Pokémon Trainer's team. While this made sense due to its status as a BreakoutCharacter in its home series, this didn't turn out too well, as it [[TheArtifact retained its old moveset]] that was clearly designed with a team dynamic in mind. It was therefore considered one of the worst characters in the game (sometimes even the absolute worst) for the first few years of its lifespan. Charizard had a complete lack of any sort of combo game, and generally possessed slow and punishable attacks, with its aerials in particular being extremely laggy, leaving it with a very poor neutral, all while not hitting anywhere near as hard as the likes of Ganondorf/Bowser and having the typical heavyweight weaknesses, leaving Zard as a MasterOfNone and not letting it get help from Squirtle and Ivysaur to round out its weaknesses and handle initial damage racking. {{Balance Buff}}s have greatly improved Charizard in terms of combos, damage output, kill power, frame data, and air speed, and Zard had some caveats of its own realized, such as how great its recovery is, a very potent advantage state punctuated with a fast incredible anti-air up smash, and a very strong edge-guarding game. Zard would become the JackOfAllStats super heavyweight, and while its tier standing was very slow to improve, it eventually made its out of the bottom tier as of the third tier list and continued to climb from there. In ''Ultimate'', its reunion with its Trainer(s) lifted it out of its rut even more, with Charizard now working together with Squirtle and Ivysaur to make Pokémon Trainer into a very viable and popular fighter and becoming the "1-2 hits to kill" option to use after racking up damage with the other two starters.
** When the Trainer returned in ''Ultimate'', the stamina mechanic was completely removed, as well as making switching much faster in an attempt to save the Trainer from low-tier status. This [[GoneHorriblyRight went a bit too well]], and the character has shot up to the top tier with a myriad of offensive and defensive tools such as the new Pokemon Switch, which is universal to each {{Mon}} as a risky but lightning-quick combo-escape tool. Squirtle's weight may be low, but its advantage state is a force to be reckoned with with its great combo ability, including some potent throws and an excellent forward tilt to start them. Furthermore, Charizard and especially Ivysaur's heavy buffs and tweaks have made them legitimately useful. Charizard is a powerhouse with strong aerials which can easily secure a KO, and Flare Blitz can KO at very low percents with a well-timed read on the opponent's movement. Charizard's recovery is easily among the safest that that Trainer's Pokémon have, since it has two jumps and an armored Fly to punish gimp attempts. However, Ivysaur is easily the most useful Pokemon of the three, with multiple spacing tools such as its neutral air, projectile side special, and its up special at its disposal. Easily its most infamous offensive options are its up air, which can juggle opponents and KO off the top blast zone, and its down air, which is a meteor smash with an ''enormous'' hitbox that can reliably punish low recoveries; both of them also share a large hitbox which make juggling and landing with them much safer. Tweek has won in one major tournament using Pokémon Trainer, and consistently scores high in others, making the Trainer a feared and respected character in competitive play. However, compared to many of the top- and high-tier characters, and similarly to Fox in ''Melee'', the Trainer's popularity (with the female Trainer in particular being an [[BadassAdorable adorable]] and endearing [[EnsembleDarkhorse fan-favorite fighter]]) and steep learning curve (due to controlling a "three-in-one" character) has made them more of a tier-induced base-breaker, similarly to Joker and Roy. Most players therefore consider the Trainer's highly regarded status in competitive play to not be a bad thing.

Additionally, Sonic is considered to be even scarier in online play. Due to the closure of events as a result of the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, tournaments were forced to be run online and not in public. Nintendo's internet service is not the best, so even small amounts of lag and ping can result in punishment options being not nearly as consistent. Guess who benefits from having an outstanding mobility that makes him hard to hit AND allows him to punish other attacks well? The hate for Sonic was reborn from the ashes after several Sonic mains such as [=UR2SLOW=] and Sonix have started to employ more defensive tactics much like in ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'', and although he is not a top tier as in the previous game while being more manageable in offline, Sonic is a character one will not like to find in online, regardless of the matchup. It has gotten to the point where ridicule of Sonic is reaching the same levels of ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'', if not ''[[UpToEleven worse]]'' (similarly to Meta Knight in ''Brawl'' and Cloud and Bayonetta in ''3DS[=/=]Wii U''), in how much people want him and ''only him'' banned from online tournaments, with some events successfully doing just that, while others [[SeriousBusiness are putting up cash bounties to eliminate Sonic players from brackets]]. Some groups are even petitioning to [[DisproportionateRetribution have him banned]] ''[[DisproportionateRetribution offline]]'' when the pandemic ends.

* '''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Lucina]]''', Marth's [[MovesetClone Echo Fighter]], is unique in that she started out as a bottom-tier character and rose in the tier list in a way that essentially had her occupy every single possible tier position before settling in as a top-tier in ''Ultimate''.
** Prior to version 1.1.1 of ''Smash 4'', she was considered one of the worst characters in the game for inheriting most of Marth's negative traits (as seen above) and lacking his saving grace; she has no sweetspots on any of her attacks, while Marth's greatest caveat are the tippers on his moves that deal higher knockback (which are seen as much more advantageous than Lucina's damage/knockback being slightly stronger than Marth's untipped hits on all of her hitbox locations). However, she was significantly buffed in balance patches (with some buffs shared with Marth), making her position much more debatable by giving her a few more advantages over Marth, such as a safer neutral game, and raising her position within the bottom tiers. Eventually, she followed Marth to higher tiers as patches went on, with her own consistent range and damage output giving her some niche over Marth against certain characters.
** However, this was nothing compared to her transition into ''Ultimate''. While she lacks the raw power of her father Chrom, she instead retains many of Marth's dangerous moves, with quick recovery that's very hard to intercept in Dolphin Slash, and the very potent Shield Breaker, which is much more dangerous than in previous games due to how dodging is risky in this game, meaning that her opponent has to be very patient if they want to approach her. It doesn't help that, like Chrom, her combos and strings are simple and, unlike Marth, she doesn't have his strong tippers in exchange for being easier to play, making her BoringButPractical. ComplacentGamingSyndrome is a huge part of why she is so widely disliked: she really doesn't have anything to offer other than "AttackAttackAttack", and has a really linear playstyle, but she is just so overwhelmingly effective at what she does that it doesn't matter. However, pro players believe that Lucina is given too much credit, as thanks to her BoringButPractical playstyle, any competent player can theoretically adapt to her despite being so effective at what she does, so if you've seen one, you've probably [[SeenItAll seen them all]]. Finally, while many fans of the time-traveling princess are happy to see her doing so well, [[DifficultButAwesome Marth]] fans have been particularly touchy due to Lucina essentially invalidating her ancestor in competitive play.

** Her ''Smash 4'' appearance is easily [[TheScrappy the most hated character in the game]] [[UpToEleven (moreso than pre-patch Diddy)]], and one of the most hated characters across all of ''Smash'' period. Since release, she became loathed despite her popularity in her own titles and the enormous response she received upon her supposed DarkHorseVictory on the Ballot; many have exclaimed that, in contrast to fellow DLC character Ryu being a strong yet balanced high-tier contender in competitive play, she and Cloud helped create a "[[BribingYourWayToVictory Pay to Win]]" stigma upon the DLC characters, with Cloud [[TropeMaker starting the trend]], and Bayonetta ''[[TropeCodifier codifying]]'' it. This reared its ugly head when many players [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome picked her up and immediately started winning tournaments]], with many of the players that were arguably held back by a lower-tiered character being a notable point. One of the biggest reasons for her vitriol was her damage output per combo and punish, regarded as the best in the game by miles, since she could tack on massive amounts of damage per punish, even creating conditional "touches of death" for a single, small mistake on the opponent's part, and with a combination of range and priority, Bayonetta could catch mistakes extremely easy and convert rom there. Her recovery is nigh-untouchable unless the opponent had a disjoint, since Witch Twist and After-Burner Kick prevent most edgeguard attempts towards her, and challenging it even allowed Bayonetta to edgeguard or combo back in return. The most agonizing trait of Bayonetta by many is Witch Time, the best "{{counter attack}}" in the game. Being able to immensely slow down opponents for a free charged smash attack, being used as a way to punish recoveries with hitboxes by using this and spiking with her down air, and simply using it to punish anything that might be whiffed to one of her 0-to-deaths is what this move alone can do, and its utility is arguably [[GameBreaker game-breaking]]. She also has the best dodges in the game thanks to the "Bat Within" mechanic, which allows Bayonetta to take zero knockback and only take half-damage on the move that would hit her if she is hit during air-dodge animation frames where she is vulnerable. Combine all these, and you have a character with incredible burst movement, the best punishes in the game, a counter with immense utility, and very few ways to get rid of her, similarly to ''Brawl'' Meta Knight. While her weaknesses in regards to her slow starting and ending lag in her moves are enough to allow punishes, her weaknesses are nothing compared to her benefits, so much so that because of how "Scrappy" she is, she is one of the few, if not only, characters that was banned at certain tournaments, stirring up a massive controversy as to whether or not Bayonetta should even be legal because of how boring and frustrating it is to face her. The outcry against Bayonetta became so large, update 1.1.6 was dedicated to rebalancing (mostly {{nerf}}ing) her and her alone. '''However''', even with the 1.1.6 nerfs, Bayonetta's punish game remained intact, and actually catalyzed on focusing on being creative with her combos, showing how powerful she was even with the nerfs. It reached the point where Bayonetta claimed the #1 spot on the tier list from that point forward (twice in a row), and is considered one of ''the'' two best characters in the game, with no disadvantageous matchups in a similar vein to, again, ''Brawl'' Meta Knight.\\

** Then ''Ultimate'' came and... while everyone expected Bayonetta to be nerfed in the transition to ''Ultimate'' (much like how Meta Knight was from ''Brawl'' to ''Smash 4''), especially after the official ''Ultimate'' invitational tournament [[HereWeGoAgain had [=MKLeo=] infamously using her to almost take the entire thing]], several players say [[AlasPoorScrappy the nerfs probably went way too far]]. She expectedly lost her hated deadly ladder combo, but even her basic combos got nerfed by having the startup lag and endlag of her moves increased (her Heel Slide/After-Burner Kick and Witch Twist mainly), thus reducing the efficacy of her combos a lot. Her landing lag also became consistently the longest in the game, making her much more vulnerable than the majority of the roster. Witch Time, whose game-breaking utility stemmed from poor programming, was now properly programmed and nerfed to boot in duration and window of opportunity, going from the most broken counter to in-line with others. The fact she also has a hard time scoring [=KOs=] is only adding insult to injury. All of this adds up to a combo-based character that gets creative and very damaging with combos, but can't get [=KOs=] consistently and sometimes fails to KO even at ludicrously high percentages. Bayonetta did receive some much needed buffs in updates 3.1.0 and 8.0.0, and many people agree she has improved since the game's initial release, but even after that, [[BrokenBase there's no real consensus]] on how good Bayonetta is right now. Some people think she's closer to the top of mid-tier, with her hugely damaging combos and respectable tools being able to dictate the flow in the neutral game and forcing players to play her game, though her difficulty at killing can make things dicey. A few others state her monstrous mix-up tree doesn't compensate for being able to break out of her combos -even if it just means [[CycleOfHurting they're getting comboed again when she lands]]-, and she's easy to camp out and struggles so hard to kill, thus landing her in low tier (and for some people, [[UpToEleven a contender for a bottom 10 character]]). A third camp, however, state she's heavily underrated and draw comparisons to characters that have a hard time at killing but whose combos are heavily damaging (like Sheik), and argue her tools are versatile enough, making her a sleeper high tier. It should be noted, however, that several people agree she's still very annoying to fight against, and in a strange twist, [[TakeThatScrappy are glad the nerfs did knock her down several pegs]] and that her buffs haven't returned her to her "[[SarcasmMode glorious]] ''[[SarcasmMode Smash 4]]'' [[SarcasmMode days]]".

** [[TookALevelInBadass This ended up being to be a one-time deal]], however, because as of ''Ultimate'', Shulk's issues have been addressed even further by removing even more of his sluggishness (albeit not entirely), alongside universal mobility buffs to the entire cast. His impressive attack range has been maintained, and as such is harder to challenge thanks to the aforementioned mobility buffs. His most significant buff, however, is having a faster way to reach each of his Monado Arts through a RingMenu instead of just cycling through them (though that remains an option if the player desires), alongside the arts themselves giving him greater [[MultiformBalance boosts (and penalties) to his stats]]. Shulk's improvements compared to ''Smash 4'' has had many professional players now considering him to truly be in the high tiers, or even top tiers, as well as one of ''the'' best of the game's sword fighters. But at the same time, many fear that Shulk [[GoneHorriblyRight was buffed a bit]] ''[[GoneHorriblyRight too]]'' [[GoneHorriblyRight much]], and that, should he be optimized in competitive play this time, he could potientially be considered a "top tier" Scrappy due to even more imposing factors, such as using his Monado Arts Ring Menu to nigh-instantly escape deadly combos, kill confirms, and multi-hitting [=KO=] moves with the [[StoneWall Shield Art]] mid-hitstun, then potentially punish ''on hit'' with the [[GlassCannon Buster and Smash Arts]] during the endlag of an opponent's attack. The stronger utility of his Shield Art, combined with his LagCancel advanced technique, "[[https://www.ssbwiki.com/Dial_Storage Dial Storage]]", have allowed Shulk access to additional options, follow-ups, and punishes with his attacks and Monado Arts that no other character in ''Ultimate'' is capable of. The improvements to all five of his arts in general allow Shulk to press and push his advantage to extremely damaging and oppressive, sometimes outright [=KO=]ing opponents at very obscene percents. It has gotten to the point that some have accused Shulk and anyone that uses him of "cheaters", as they question whether Shulk even plays the same game as the rest of the cast. This concern isn't universal, however, due to Shulk remaining a DifficultButAwesome character; one that is not to be underestimated compared to his ''Smash 4'' incarnation, but one with still such a steep learning curve with his StanceSystem, equally DifficultButAwesome advanced techniques, and having continued struggles with sluggish frame data otherwise, that he remains a rare character to find in big tournaments, let alone consistently achieve high results in them by his playerbase, compared to many players of the other high tiers and top tiers in the game. It is because of this learning curve that Shulk has started to decline in usage, with most of his former players either demoting him to a secondary, or dropping him entirely for more consistent sword fighters such as Roy and Pyra/Mythra.
* '''VideoGame/PacMan''', due to some egregious design flaws, started out as one of the worst characters in ''Smash 4'', before being buffed to the point where he is considered one of the best characters in ''Ultimate'' due to possessing a kit designed to take on any scenario.

** In ''Smash 4'', at first, she was considered very potent due to her trailer depicting her moveset (especially her special one) to be very promising. Some months later on, however, this ended up far from the truth. Not only was her entire moveset one of the laggiest in the game, but her special moveset was much different in practice than what was advertised. In fact, her special moves, being highly varied, were meant to be utilized through customization as a way to circumvent her weaknesses and adapt to the situation (be it through becoming a LongRangeFighter, a LightningBruiser, a JackOfAllStats, and so on), but the way her [[StanceSystem custom moves]] were balanced around her was disastrous. To boot, her default special moveset was considered very uncohesive, featuring not only very laggy moves, but also limited utility across all of them, with both her reflector and counter unanimously considered the worst of their kind. Her entire grounded moveset was also a contender for being the worst in the game, notorious for being incredibly sluggish and lacking in strength and utility. In spite of how unwieldy her kit was, she ''did'' have some notable advantages on it[[note]]good mobility, arguably the best jab in the game (the first hit had enormous range and allowed her to combo into other moves), a serviceable dash attack and back aerial that both allow her to challenge most moves due to their ''invincibility'', a great aerial game all-around, a grab with disjointed range [[HitboxDissonance comparable to the infamous]] ''[[HitboxDissonance Melee]]'' [[HitboxDissonance Marth grab]], and good utility on her throws[[/note]]; unfortunately, none of them made up for her design's core weaknesses, as a minimal slip-up from her could be REALLY costly. Finally, while she could still be significantly improved with her custom moves, the disdain for the community about them[[note]]mainly [[ThatOneAchievement their methods of unlocking]] and [[GameBreaker how broken some of them were]], [[{{Irony}} including her down special move Lightweight]][[/note]] was so strong, they were dropped off soon after; combined with the already high limitations to [[ScrappyMechanic character customization]] in the game's modes, this ended up leaving Palutena in limbo. Game updates brought a few buffs to her, but while her results as a vanilla character improved quite a good amount (including an upset to at the time the best player, [=ZeRo=]), they were not enough to fix her immense design flaws as other characters (like Charizard, Ganondorf or Robin) or even give her the respect other tepidly-regarded characters already had (like Wii Fit Trainer, Kirby, Jigglypuff and Pac-Man). Thus, to the end of the game's lifespan, Palutena was widely considered as not only an [[MasterOfNone infamously]] [[SquishyWizard awkward]] low tier character and [[MemeticLoser the butt of much derogation among the community]], but also [[GoneHorriblyWrong one of the most abysmally-designed characters in any]] ''[[GoneHorriblyWrong Smash]]'' [[GoneHorriblyWrong game]], with her character concept failing dramatically in practice.
** Come ''Ultimate'', however, the transition [[BalanceBuff turned Palutena's moveset up]] ''[[BalanceBuff several]]'' [[BalanceBuff notches]]: her entire moveset was made significantly less laggy (although it still has below average speed) and more cohesive, and her grounded moveset is now entirely serviceable due to her tilts gaining more utility and a use for each situation. Her ground game is further complemented by her ''pseudo-invincible'' dash attack that makes any poorly timed attempt at landing against her backfire gloriously, and her disjointed grab that leads into either a reliable combo down throw that can set-up follow-ups into her nasty aerial game, or an inherently reliable kill throw with back throw. With the removal of custom moves, almost all of her specials were buffed (most notably, her down special counterattack was combined with her side special reflector in a singular special move, and her previous custom neutral special Explosive Flame became her new side special). As mentioned above, her aerial game is still excellent, even more so in this game due to the universally reduced landing lag on aerial moves, with a moderately strong and ''pseudo-invincible'' back air, a strong multi-hit up air, a forward air that is still a reliable combo tool, and one of the fastest meteor smashes in the game with her down air. But by far, her most infamous move is her neutral air, as its large hitbox and anti-rebound priority makes it near impossible to challenge without projectiles or large enough disjoints, it's active for a long time, deals high damage, can KO at high percents, and can chain into itself many times at low percents for BRUTAL damage; it's easily among the best neutral airs in the game, so it's a guarantee any competent Palutena player will be using it a lot. These buffs, along with the lack of an impact her few nerfs had on her, caused her to [[JustForPun rise from darkness and back into the light]], winning her many more players at various levels of play and seemingly [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap rescuing her from the Scrappy heap]]... though given her simple playstyle compared to other characters, she's also became [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome a commonly played character competitively]], with her most notable player being Nairo, who won two offline supermajor tournaments in Mainstage and Let's Make Big Moves with her. Of further note is that, in spite of many people claiming Palutena does much better offline, she still does consistently well in an online environment due to many of her worst matchups becoming milder in it, as can be attested to players like Chag. While general pro player consensus is that she's simple to play but lacks options to relieve pressure (meaning one error can still be costly), her infamy among low- and mid-level players has gotten to the point several of them have complained about her as loudly as characters like Bayonetta in ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' despite never being as broken as them — including "[[CreatorsPet Sakurai favoritism]]" claims — and ultimately consider Palutena and her playerbase as the game's [[TheScrappy Scrappy]] and [[AcceptableTargets the community's scapegoats]], respectively. And it seems the loud complaints ''worked'', as to the delight of many, updates eventually caught up to Palutena, with 7.0.0 bringing nerfs to neutral air's final hitbox and KO power and down throw's combo ability, and 11.0.0 impactfully nerfing her neutral game by increasing dash attack's endlag and forward air's landing lag, and —most importantly— drastically shortening her grab range, no longer being one of the longest and thus normalizing her into being unable to punish certain moves that make other characters so oppressive (such as Roy's and Chrom's jab or Snake's reviled up tilt). Seeing as offline events have only recently started to open due to the COVID-19 pandemic and that she hasn't made a breakthrough impact on them yet, only time will tell whether Palutena is still here to stay and only needs to be played more carefully, or if she's no longer a contender for top 10 and her reign of top tier terror has finally ended — given she's still loudly complained about though, it's safe to say finding a person that doesn't hate Palutena is like finding a needle in a haystack.

* After his first good but only decent appearance in ''Brawl'', as well as a lackluster appearance in ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'', '''[[VideoGame/RoboticOperatingBuddy R.O.B.]]''' has quickly risen to prominence for ''Ultimate''. One of the most iconic [[LongRangeFighter zoning]] characters since ''Brawl'', this game gave R.O.B. a few noteworthy buffs that strengthened him significantly, further cementing him as the JackOfAllStats between his zoning brethren. R.O.B. possesses one of the more useful zoning kits in the game courtesy of his Robo Beam and Gyro, and has set-ups into some of his moves thanks to the latter move's property of being an item. His up-close game, while still a bit slow, was given much more utility, with quality of life changes such as higher power, better range, or greater advantage on hit and on shield. His combo ability from ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' remains not only relatively intact, but arguably improved. And that's without mentioning his Arm Rotor; previously one of his more useless moves due to its difficulty in connecting all hits, it was given better hitboxes and better linking angles so that every hit now connects into its final hit, turning Arm Rotor into a devastating finisher that can KO early, shield-poke, and reflect projectiles. Lastly, R.O.B. is heavy and has a great recovery compared to others in his weight class like Simon. Clashing all of this, and the changes to the game's engine, has allowed R.O.B. to break out of his StoneWall status and has turned him into more of a MightyGlacier. He does have his weaknesses, though, such as a susceptibility to combos, juggling and general pressure due to his slow moveset, high weight, and large size, and his up-close game remaining slow. Nevertheless, R.O.B. has amassed quite strong results compared to his other two appearances (most notably Zackray winning The Big House 9 with him), and combined with the various nerfs to some of his hardest matchups in 11.0, R.O.B. is in an even more commanding spot in the meta, and is agreed by most people to be a grueling character to fight against, both casually and competitively. Post-quarantine, and the hate grew even larger with R.O.B. being by far the most successful character in tournament play in the West, with most national tournaments having more then 5 R.O.B.'s get top 64/top 32, making the character extremely prevelant to even greater extents then before.

* After his first good but only decent appearance in ''Brawl'', as well as a lackluster appearance in ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'', '''[[VideoGame/RoboticOperatingBuddy R.O.B.]]''' has quickly risen to prominence for ''Ultimate''. One of the most iconic [[LongRangeFighter zoning]] characters since ''Brawl'', this game gave R.O.B. a few noteworthy buffs that strengthened him significantly, further cementing him as the JackOfAllStats between his zoning brethren. R.O.B. possesses one of the more useful zoning kits in the game courtesy of his Robo Beam and Gyro, and has set-ups into some of his moves thanks to the latter move's property of being an item. His up-close game, while still a bit slow, was given much more utility, with quality of life changes such as higher power, better range, or greater advantage on hit and on shield. His combo ability from ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' remains not only relatively intact, but arguably improved. And that's without mentioning his Arm Rotor; previously one of his more useless moves due to its difficulty in connecting all hits, it was given better hitboxes and better linking angles so that every hit now connects into its final hit, turning Arm Rotor into a devastating finisher that can KO early, shield-poke, and reflect projectiles. Lastly, R.O.B. is heavy and has a great recovery compared to others in his weight class like Simon. Clashing all of this, and the changes to the game's engine, has allowed R.O.B. to break out of his StoneWall status and has turned him into more of a MightyGlacier. He does have his weaknesses, though, such as a susceptibility to combos, juggling and general pressure due to his slow moveset, high weight, and large size, and his up-close game remaining slow. Nevertheless, R.O.B. has amassed quite strong results compared to his other two appearances (most notably Zackray winning The Big House 9 with him), and combined with the various nerfs to some of his hardest matchups in 11.0, R.O.B. is in an even more commanding spot in the meta, and is agreed by most people to be a grueling character to fight against, both casually and competitively.

* '''[[VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}} Shulk]]''' is another polarizing character whose tier placement has shifted constantly between patches ''and'' games, mainly due to the games trying to balance the game-changing use of his Monado Arts by giving him a very limited number of fast attacks to go with his Monado's immense attack range compared to other sword fighters.

Additionally, Sonic is considered to be even scarier in online play. Due to the closure of events as a result of [[UsefulNotes/CoronavirusDisease2019Pandemic the COVID-19 pandemic]], tournaments were forced to be run online and not in public. Nintendo's internet service is not the best, so even small amounts of lag and ping can result in punishment options being not nearly as consistent. Guess who benefits from having an outstanding mobility that makes him hard to hit AND allows him to punish other attacks well? The hate for Sonic was reborn from the ashes after several Sonic mains such as [=UR2SLOW=] and Sonix have started to employ more defensive tactics much like in ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'', and although he is not a top tier as in the previous game while being more manageable in offline, Sonic is a character one will not like to find in online, regardless of the matchup. It has gotten to the point where ridicule of Sonic is reaching the same levels of ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'', if not ''[[UpToEleven worse]]'' (similarly to Meta Knight in ''Brawl'' and Cloud and Bayonetta in ''3DS[=/=]Wii U''), in how much people want him and ''only him'' banned from online tournaments, with some events successfully doing just that, while others [[SeriousBusiness are putting up cash bounties to eliminate Sonic players from brackets]]. Some groups are even petitioning to [[DisproportionateRetribution have him banned]] ''[[DisproportionateRetribution offline]]'' when the pandemic ends.

Additionally, Sonic is considered to be even scarier in online play. Due to the closure of events as a result of [[UsefulNotes/CoronavirusDisease2019Pandemic the COVID-19 pandemic]], tournaments were forced to be run online and not in public. Nintendo's internet service is not the best ([[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement to say the least]]), so even small amounts of lag and ping can result in punishment options being not nearly as consistent. Guess who benefits from having an outstanding mobility that makes him hard to hit AND allows him to punish other attacks well? The hate for Sonic was reborn from the ashes after several Sonic mains such as [=UR2SLOW=] and Sonix have started to employ more defensive tactics much like in ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'', and although he is not a top tier as in the previous game while being more manageable in offline, Sonic is a character one will not like to find in online, regardless of the matchup. It has gotten to the point where ridicule of Sonic is reaching the same levels of ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'', if not ''[[UpToEleven worse]]'' (similarly to Meta Knight in ''Brawl'' and Cloud and Bayonetta in ''3DS[=/=]Wii U''), in how much people want him and ''only him'' banned from online tournaments, with some events successfully doing just that, while others [[SeriousBusiness are putting up cash bounties to eliminate Sonic players from brackets]]. Some groups are even petitioning to [[DisproportionateRetribution have him banned]] ''[[DisproportionateRetribution offline]]'' when the pandemic ends.

The game's meta will take a long time to form, due to the number of characters that are playable in the game, and the fact that not every DLC character has been released. But there are a few characters that people have been keeping their eye on, for better and for worse.

The game's meta will take a long time to form, due to the number of characters that are playable in the game, and the fact that not every DLC character has been released. But there are a few characters that people have been keeping their eye on, for better and for worse.

The game's meta will take a long time to form, due to the number of characters that are playable in the game, and the fact that not every DLC character has been released. But there are a few characters that people have been keeping their eye on, for better and for worse.

** [[TookALevelInBadass This ended up being to be a one-time deal]], however, because as of ''Ultimate'', Shulk's issues have been addressed even further by removing even more of his sluggishness (albeit not entirely), alongside universal mobility buffs to the entire cast. His impressive attack range has been maintained, and as such is harder to challenge thanks to the aforementioned mobility buffs. His most significant buff, however, is having a faster way to reach each of his Monado Arts through a RingMenu instead of just cycling through them (though that remains an option if the player desires), alongside the arts themselves giving him greater [[MultiformBalance boosts (and penalties) to his stats]]. Shulk's improvements compared to ''Smash 4'' has had many professional players now considering him to truly be in the high tiers, or even top tiers, as well as one of ''the'' best of the game's sword fighters. But at the same time, many fear that Shulk [[GoneHorriblyRight was buffed a bit]] ''[[GoneHorriblyRight too]]'' [[GoneHorriblyRight much]], and that, should he be optimized in competitive play this time, he could potientially be considered a "top tier" Scrappy due to even more imposing factors, such as using his Monado Arts Ring Menu to nigh-instantly escape deadly combos, kill confirms, and multi-hitting [=KO=] moves with the [[StoneWall Shield Art]] mid-hitstun, then potentially punish ''on hit'' with the [[GlassCannon Buster and Smash Arts]] during the endlag of an opponent's attack. The stronger utility of his Shield Art, combined with his LagCancel advanced technique, "[[https://www.ssbwiki.com/Dial_Storage Dial Storage]]", have allowed Shulk access to additional options, follow-ups, and punishes with his attacks and Monado Arts that no other character in ''Ultimate'' is capable of. The improvements to all five of his arts in general allow Shulk to press and push his advantage to extremely damaging and oppressive, sometimes outright [=KO=]ing opponents at very obscene percents. It has gotten to the point that some have accused Shulk and anyone that uses him of "cheaters", as they question whether Shulk even plays the same game as the rest of the cast. This concern isn't universal, however, due to Shulk remaining a DifficultButAwesome character; one that is not to be underestimated compared to his ''Smash 4'' incarnation, but one with still such a steep learning curve with his StanceSystem, equally DifficultButAwesome advanced techniques, and having continued struggles with sluggish frame data otherwise, that he remains a rare character to find in big tournaments, let alone consistently achieve high results in them by his playerbase, compared to many players of the other high tiers and top tiers in the game. To put this in perspective, Nicko, the best Shulk player in the United States, has started demoting him to a secondary as of mid 2021 to prioritize Roy as a new main, which is likely owed to his better consistency thanks to his faster attack frame data and both despite ''and'' because of having none of Shulk's more unique aformentioned traits that one would have to keep track of in a match.

* '''[[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 Pyra and Mythra]]''' benefit from the same streamlined transformation mechanics as Pokémon Trainer, but Mythra is considered the better out of the two and was considered a top tier by launch. This is because of her excellent mobility, which is considered some of the best in the game alongside Captain Falcon, Zero Suit Samus and Sonic. She packs ''the fastest inital dash'' in the game and a top 5 run speed and her frame data is absurdly good for a sword character with disjointed hitboxes. She has excellent aerials that can be autocancellable to near spammable levels. Lightning Buster's hitbox is huge and has kill setups from down tilt at higher percents, partially negating her supposed weakness of lackluster [=KOing=] potential. Her hurtbox "pancakes" in her dash animation, neutral air's landing hitbox, dash attack, down tilt, forward tilt and back air making her incredibly hard to hit combined with her general movement options. However, what makes her truly disgusting is [[GameBreaker Foresight]], which comes out on frame 2 and allows her to "counter" any attacks by dodging, spot dodging or rolling, significantly slowing the enemy down similarly to Witch Time; this allows for potentially devastating punishes, as well as working against projectiles, multi-hits and all recoveries that have a hitbox. All of this gives her a fantastic neutral game, a fantastic advantage state and a decent disadvantage due to Foresight. Even with her poor recovery, her air speed is fantastic and she can switch between herself and Pyra consistently, allowing for recovery mixups, making the opponent unsure of how to edgeguard them due to what character could be recovering (This is thanks to the swap-out mechanic keeping aerial momentum unlike Pokémon Trainer). This switch mechanic also allows her to being able to swap to her other self Pyra to make up for her lack of KO power, and to resist up to higher percentages to make use of rage. Pyra works similarly to Charizard within the Trainer's team; although she's generally more niche than Mythra (such as having a worse disadvantage state), she still benefits from extremely powerful disjointed moves with great range as well as the ability to swap to her "sister" almost instantly, allowing the duo to adapt to many situations. ''And'' on top of everything else, the Aegis is a rather easy character to play; in fact, they're widely considered to be far simpler to pick up than any of the Pokémon Trainer's Pokémon, allowing them to forego the otherwise expected DifficultButAwesome aspect of a transforming character that is prevalent with the Trainer. This, combined with [[BreakoutCharacter their immense popularity]] has given the duo a [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome humongous player base]], with players including [=MKLeo=], [=VoiD=], Cosmos, [=Sparg0=], Shuton, Mr. R, [=Mew2King=], Tsu and Kome. In addition, they were also the most overall common and dominant character in the Smash World Tour: Central America Regional Finals [[note]]There were 3 players who used Pyra/Mythra and all of them got into the World Championship Finals with Nair^ maining the character after failing to get in[[/note]] and the most common character in Smash Ultimate Summit 3, with [=MKLeo=] getting 2nd using mostly Aegis while [=Sparg0=] got 3rd place. This has caused a lot of people to consider them the ''Smash 4'' Cloud of this game (See Series-Wide for High Tier) with [=MkLeo=], Tweek, Cloudy and Cosmos considering the character top 3 and the only other character that can rival Joker and Pikachu, resulting in the Aegis drawing significant ire in competitive play for their frustratingly overtuned tools and sheer ubiquity.

%% The following characters are included in series wide folders, please refrain from adding individual game examples for them:

The game's meta will take a long time to form, due to the number of characters that are playable in the game, and the fact that not every DLC character has been announced. But there are a few characters that people have been keeping their eye on, for better and for worse.

* '''[[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 Pyra and Mythra]]''' benefit from the same streamlined transformation mechanics as Pokémon Trainer, but Mythra is considered the better out of the two and was considered a top tier by launch. This is because of her excellent mobility, which is considered some of the best in the game alongside Captain Falcon, Zero Suit Samus and Sonic. She packs ''the fastest inital dash'' in the game and a top 5 run speed and her frame data is absurdly good for a sword character with disjointed hitboxes. She has excellent aerials that can be autocancellable to near spammable levels. Lightning Buster's hitbox is huge and has kill setups from down tilt at higher percents, partially negating her supposed weakness of lackluster [=KOing=] potential. Her hurtbox "pancakes" in her dash animation, neutral air's landing hitbox, dash attack, down tilt, forward tilt and back air making her incredibly hard to hit combined with her general movement options. However, what makes her truly disgusting is [[GameBreaker Foresight]], which comes out on frame 2 and allows her to "counter" any attacks by dodging, spot dodging or rolling, significantly slowing the enemy down similarly to Witch Time; this allows for potentially devastating punishes, as well as working against projectiles, multi-hits and all recoveries that have a hitbox. All of this gives her a fantastic neutral game, a fantastic advantage state and a decent disadvantage due to Foresight. Even with her poor recovery, her air speed is fantastic and she can switch between herself and Pyra consistently, allowing for recovery mixups, making the opponent unsure of how to edgeguard them due to what character could be recovering (This is thanks to the swap-out mechanic keeping aerial momentum unlike Pokémon Trainer). This switch mechanic also allows her to being able to swap to her other self Pyra to make up for her lack of KO power, and to resist up to higher percentages to make use of rage. Pyra works similarly to Charizard within the Trainer's team; although she's generally more niche than Mythra (such as having a worse disadvantage state), she still benefits from extremely powerful disjointed moves with great range as well as the ability to swap to her "sister" almost instantly, allowing the duo to adapt to many situations. ''And'' on top of everything else, the Aegis is a rather easy character to play; in fact, they're widely considered to be far simpler to pick up than any of the Pokémon Trainer's Pokémon, allowing them to forego the otherwise expected DifficultButAwesome aspect of a transforming character that is prevalent with the Trainer. This, combined with [[BreakoutCharacter their immense popularity]] has given the duo a [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome humongous player base]], with players including [=MKLeo=], [=VoiD=], Cosmos, [=Sparg0=], Shuton, Mr. R, [=Mew2King=], Tsu and Kome. In addition, they were also the most overall common and dominant character in the Smash World Tour: Central America Regional Finals [[note]]There was 3 players who used Pyra/Mythra and all of them got into the World Championship Finals with Nair^ maining the character after failing to get in[[/note]] and the most common character in Smash Ultimate Summit 3, with [=MKLeo=] getting 2nd using mostly Aegis while [=Sparg0=] got 3rd place. This has caused a lot of people to consider them the ''Smash 4'' Cloud of this game (See Series-Wide for High Tier) with [=MkLeo=], Tweek, Cloudy and Cosmos considering the character top 3 and the only other character that can rival Joker and Pikachu, resulting in the Aegis drawing significant ire in competitive play for their frustratingly overtuned tools and sheer ubiquity.

The game's meta will take a long time to form, due to the number of characters that are playable in the game, and the fact that not every DLC character has been announced. But there are a few characters that people have been keeping their eye on, for better and for worse.

** Come ''Ultimate'', however, the transition [[BalanceBuff turned Palutena's moveset up]] ''[[BalanceBuff several]]'' [[BalanceBuff notches]]: her entire moveset was made significantly less laggy (although it still has below average speed) and more cohesive, and her grounded moveset is now entirely serviceable due to her tilts gaining more utility and a use for each situation. Her ground game is further complemented by her ''pseudo-invincible'' dash attack that makes any poorly timed attempt at landing against her backfire gloriously, and her disjointed grab that leads into either a reliable combo down throw that can set-up follow-ups into her nasty aerial game, or an inherently reliable kill throw with back throw. With the removal of custom moves, almost all of her specials were buffed (most notably, her down special counterattack was combined with her side special reflector in a singular special move, and her previous custom neutral special Explosive Flame became her new side special). As mentioned above, her aerial game is still excellent, even more so in this game due to the universally reduced landing lag on aerial moves, with a moderately strong and ''pseudo-invincible'' back air, a strong multi-hit up air, a forward air that is still a reliable combo tool, and one of the fastest meteor smashes in the game with her down air. But by far, her most infamous move is her neutral air, as its large hitbox and anti-rebound priority makes it near impossible to challenge without projectiles or large enough disjoints, it's active for a long time, deals high damage, can KO at high percents, and can chain into itself many times at low percents for BRUTAL damage; it's easily among the best neutral airs in the game, so it's a guarantee any competent Palutena player will be using it a lot. These buffs, along with the lack of an impact her few nerfs had on her, caused her to [[JustForPun rise from darkness and back into the light]], winning her many more players at various levels of play and seemingly [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap rescuing her from the Scrappy heap]]... though given her simple playstyle compared to other characters, she's also became [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome a commonly played character competitively]], with her most notable player being Nairo, who won two offline supermajor tournaments in Mainstage and Let's Make Big Moves with her. Of further note is that, in spite of many people claiming Palutena does much better offline, she still does consistently well in an online environment due to many of her worst matchups becoming milder in it, as can be attested to players like Chag. While general pro player consensus is that she's simple to play but lacks options to relieve pressure (meaning one error can still be costly), her infamy among low- and mid-level players has gotten to the point several of them have complained about her as loudly as characters like Bayonetta in ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' despite never being as broken as them —including "[[CreatorsPet Sakurai favoritism]]" claims—, and ultimately consider Palutena and her playerbase as the game's [[TheScrappy Scrappy]] and [[AcceptableTargets the community's scapegoats]], respectively. And it seems the loud complaints ''worked'', as to the delight of many, updates eventually caught up to Palutena, with 7.0.0 bringing nerfs to neutral air's final hitbox and KO power and down throw's combo ability, and 11.0.0 impactfully nerfing her neutral game by increasing dash attack's endlag and forward air's landing lag, and —most importantly— drastically shortening her grab range, no longer being one of the longest and thus normalizing her into being unable to punish certain moves that make other characters so oppressive (such as Roy's and Chrom's jab or Snake's reviled up tilt). Seeing as offline events have only recently started to open due to the COVID-19 pandemic and that she hasn't made a breakthrough impact on them yet, only time will tell whether Palutena is still here to stay and only needs to be played more carefully, or if she's no longer a contender for top 10 and her reign of top tier terror has finally ended — given she's still loudly complained about though, it's safe to say finding a person that doesn't hate Palutena is like finding a needle in a haystack.

The game's meta will take a long time to form, due to the number of characters that are playable in the game, and the fact that not every DLC character has been announced. But there are a few characters that people have been keeping their eye on, for better and for worse.

* '''[[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 Pyra and Mythra]]''' benefit from the same streamlined transformation mechanics as Pokémon Trainer, but Mythra is considered the better out of the two and was considered a top tier by launch. This is because of her excellent mobility, which is considered some of the best in the game alongside Captain Falcon, Zero Suit Samus and Sonic. She packs ''the fastest inital dash'' in the game and a top 5 run speed and her frame data is absurdly good for a sword character with disjointed hitboxes. She has excellent aerials that can be autocancellable to near spammable levels. Lightning Buster's hitbox is huge and has kill setups from down tilt at higher percents, partially negating her supposed weakness of lackluster [=KOing=] potential. Her hurtbox "pancakes" in her dash animation, dash attack, down tilt, forward tilt and back air making her incredibly hard to hit. However, what makes her truly disgusting is [[GameBreaker Foresight]], which comes out on frame 2 and allows her to "counter" any attacks by dodging, spot dodging or rolling, significantly slowing the enemy down similarly to Witch Time; this allows for potentially devastating punishes, as well as working against projectiles, multi-hits and all recoveries that have a hitbox. All of this gives her a fantastic neutral game, a fantastic advantage state and a decent disadvantage due to Foresight. Even with her poor recovery, her air speed is fantastic and she can switch between herself and Pyra consistently, allowing for recovery mixups, making the opponent unsure of how to edgeguard them due to what character could be recovering (This is thanks to the swap-out mechanic keeping aerial momentum unlike Pokémon Trainer). This switch mechanic also allows her to being able to swap to her other self Pyra to make up for her lack of KO power, and to resist up to higher percentages to make use of rage. Pyra works similarly to Charizard within the Trainer's team; although she's generally more niche than Mythra (such as having a worse disadvantage state), she still benefits from extremely powerful disjointed moves with great range as well as the ability to swap to her "sister" almost instantly, allowing the duo to adapt to many situations. ''And'' on top of everything else, the Aegis is a rather easy character to play; in fact, they're widely considered to be far simpler to pick up than any of the Pokémon Trainer's Pokémon, allowing them to forego the otherwise expected DifficultButAwesome aspect of a transforming character that is prevalent with the Trainer. This, combined with [[BreakoutCharacter their immense popularity]] has given the duo a [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome humongous player base]], with players including [=MKLeo=], [=VoiD=], Cosmos, [=Sparg0=], Shuton, Mr. R, [=Mew2King=], Tsu and Kome. In addition, they were also the most overall common and dominant character in the Smash World Tour: Central America Regional Finals [[note]]There was 3 players who used Pyra/Mythra and all of them got into the World Championship Finals with Nair^ maining the character after failing to get in[[/note]] and the most common character in Smash Ultimate Summit 3, with [=MKLeo=] getting 2nd using mostly Aegis while [=Sparg0=] got 3rd place. This has caused a lot of people to consider them the ''Smash 4'' Cloud of this game (See Series-Wide for High Tier) with [=MkLeo=], Tweek, Cloudy and Cosmos considering the character top 3 and the only other character that can rival Joker and Pikachu, resulting in the Aegis drawing significant ire in competitive play for their frustratingly overtuned tools and sheer ubiquity.

* '''[[Franchise/{{Tekken}} Kazuya Mishima]]''' is a frighteningly powerful addition to the "shoto" club. Like Bowser, he has a Tough Body mechanic that makes him ImmuneToFlinching from weaker moves. His Crouch Dash can quickly close space while making his upper body invincible. He has many ways of setting up devastating combos, particularly his Electric Wind God Fist and his Devil Fist. Several of his attacks shift him into Devil form to give him heavy armor, and several other moves make parts of his body intangible to prevent counters. His Left Splits Kick has an incredible 2.4x reflector, allowing it to OneHitKill off of some of the more powerful projectiles. His recovery does not put him into freefall, and its hitbox at the start is quite lethal, making it useful for finishing combos. To top it all off, once he hits 100%, his Rage boosts the power of his moves (in tandem with the universal rage mechanic) and gives him a dangerous Rage Drive. While Kazuya does have the drawback of a large, heavy and sluggish frame, he can be terrifying once he successfully approaches, or simply punishes a whiff. He's also one of the biggest cases of DifficultButAwesome thanks to his extremely large movepool. While only a few pros like Riddles have gotten the knack for him, he's quickly jumped to high tier on many experts' lists.

* '''[[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 Pyra and Mythra]]''' benefit from the same streamlined transformation mechanics as Pokémon Trainer, but Mythra is considered the better out of the two and was considered a top tier by launch. This is because of her excellent mobility, which is considered some of the best in the game alongside Captain Falcon, Zero Suit Samus and Sonic. She packs ''the fastest inital dash'' in the game and a top 5 run speed and her frame data is absurdly good for a sword character with disjointed hitboxes. She has excellent aerials that can be autocancellable to near spammable levels. Lightning Buster's hitbox is huge and has kill setups from down tilt at higher percents, partially negating her supposed weakness of lackluster [=KOing=] potential. Her hurtbox "pancakes" in her dash animation, dash attack, down tilt, forward tilt and back air making her incredibly hard to hit. However, what makes her truly disgusting is [[GameBreaker Foresight]], which comes out on frame 2 and allows her to "counter" any attacks by dodging, spot dodging or rolling, significantly slowing the enemy down similarly to Witch Time; this allows for potentially devastating punishes, as well as working against projectiles, multi-hits and all recoveries that have a hitbox. All of this gives her a fantastic neutral game, a fantastic advantage state and a decent disadvantage due to Foresight. Even with her poor recovery, her air speed is fantastic and she can switch between herself and Pyra consistently, allowing for recovery mixups, making the opponent unsure of how to edgeguard them due to what character could be recovering (This is thanks to the swap-out mechanic keeping aerial momentum unlike Pokémon Trainer). This switch mechanic also allows her to being able to swap to her other self Pyra to make up for her lack of KO power, and to resist up to higher percentages to make use of rage. Although Pyra is generally more niche than Mythra (such as when in disadvantage), she still benefits from extremely powerful disjointed moves with great range as well as the ability to swap to her "sister" almost instantly, allowing the duo to adapt to many situations. ''And'' on top of everything else, the Aegis is a rather easy character to play; in fact, they're widely considered to be far simpler to pick up than any of the Pokémon Trainer's Pokémon, allowing them to forego the otherwise expected DifficultButAwesome aspect of a transforming character that is prevalent with the Trainer. This, combined with [[BreakoutCharacter their immense popularity]] has given the duo a [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome humongous player base]], with players including [=MKLeo=], [=VoiD=], Cosmos, [=Sparg0=], Shuton, Mr. R, [=Mew2King=], Tsu and Kome. In addition, they were also the most overall common and dominant character in the Smash World Tour: Central America Regional Finals [[note]]There was 3 players who used Pyra/Mythra and all of them got into the World Championship Finals with Nair^ maining the character after failing to get in[[/note]] and the most common character in Smash Ultimate Summit 3, with [=MKLeo=] getting 2nd using mostly Aegis while [=Sparg0=] got 3rd place. This has caused a lot of people to consider them the ''Smash 4'' Cloud of this game (See Series-Wide for High Tier) with [=MkLeo=], Tweek, Cloudy and Cosmos considering the character top 3 and the only other character that can rival Joker and Pikachu, resulting in the Aegis drawing significant ire in competitive play for their frustratingly overtuned tools and sheer ubiquity.

** [[TookALevelInBadass This ended up being to be a one-time deal]], however, because as of ''Ultimate'', Shulk's issues have been addressed even further by removing even more of his sluggishness (albeit not entirely), alongside universal mobility buffs to the entire cast. His impressive attack range has been maintained, and as such is harder to challenge thanks to the aforementioned mobility buffs. His most significant buff, however, is having a faster way to reach each of his Monado Arts through a RingMenu instead of just cycling through them (though that remains an option if the player desires), alongside the arts themselves giving him greater [[MultiformBalance boosts (and penalties) to his stats]]. Shulk's improvements compared to ''Smash 4'' has had many professional players now considering him to truly be in the high tiers, or even top tiers, as well as one of ''the'' best of the game's sword fighters. But at the same time, many fear that Shulk [[GoneHorriblyRight was buffed a bit]] ''[[GoneHorriblyRight too]]'' [[GoneHorriblyRight much]], and that, should he be optimized in competitive play this time, he could potientially be considered a "top tier" Scrappy due to even more imposing factors, such as using his Monado Arts Ring Menu to nigh-instantly escape deadly combos, kill confirms, and multi-hitting [=KO=] moves with the [[StoneWall Shield Art]] mid-hitstun, then potentially punish ''on hit'' with the [[GlassCannon Buster and Smash Arts]] during the endlag of an opponent's attack. The stronger utility of his Shield Art, combined with his LagCancel advanced technique, "[[https://www.ssbwiki.com/Dial_Storage Dial Storage]]", have allowed Shulk access to additional options, follow-ups, and punishes with his attacks and Monado Arts that no other character in ''Ultimate'' is capable of. The improvements to all five of his arts in general allow Shulk to press and push his advantage to extremely damaging and oppressive, sometimes outright [=KO=]ing opponents at very obscene percents. It has gotten to the point that some have accused Shulk and anyone that uses him of "cheaters", as they question whether Shulk even plays the same game as the rest of the cast. This concern isn't universal, however, due to Shulk remaining a DifficultButAwesome character; one that is not to be underestimated compared to his ''Smash 4'' incarnation, but one with still such a steep learning curve with his StanceSystem, equally DifficultButAwesome advanced techniques, and having continued struggles with sluggish frame data otherwise, that he remains a rare character to find in big tournaments, let alone consistently achieve high results in them by his playerbase, compared to many players of the other high tiers and top tiers in the game. To put this in perspective, some of Shulk's national pro players, such as Nicko and [=Tru4=], have started considering demoting him to a secondary as of mid-to-late 2021, usually in favor of prioritizing Roy as a new main, which is likely owed to his better consistency thanks to his faster attack frame data and both despite ''and'' because of having none of Shulk's more unique aformentioned traits that one would have to keep track of in a match.

** [[TookALevelInBadass This ended up being to be a one-time deal]], however, because as of ''Ultimate'', Shulk's issues have been addressed even further by removing even more of his sluggishness (albeit not entirely), alongside universal mobility buffs to the entire cast. His impressive attack range has been maintained, and as such is harder to challenge thanks to the aforementioned mobility buffs. His most significant buff, however, is having a faster way to reach each of his Monado Arts through a RingMenu instead of just cycling through them (though that remains an option if the player desires), alongside the arts themselves giving him greater [[MultiformBalance boosts (and penalties) to his stats]]. Shulk's improvements compared to ''Smash 4'' has had many professional players now considering him to truly be in the high tiers, or even top tiers, as well as one of ''the'' best of the game's sword fighters. But at the same time, many fear that Shulk [[GoneHorriblyRight was buffed a bit]] ''[[GoneHorriblyRight too]]'' [[GoneHorriblyRight much]], and that, should he be optimized in competitive play this time, he could potientially be considered a "top tier" Scrappy due to even more imposing factors, such as using his Monado Arts Ring Menu to nigh-instantly escape deadly combos, kill confirms, and multi-hitting [=KO=] moves with the [[StoneWall Shield Art]] mid-hitstun, then potentially punish ''on hit'' with the [[GlassCannon Buster and Smash Arts]] during the endlag of an opponent's attack. The stronger utility of his Shield Art, combined with his LagCancel advanced technique, "[[https://www.ssbwiki.com/Dial_Storage Dial Storage]]", have allowed Shulk access to additional options, follow-ups, and punishes with his attacks and Monado Arts that no other character in ''Ultimate'' is capable of. The improvements to all five of his arts in general allow Shulk to press and push his advantage to extremely damaging and oppressive, sometimes outright [=KO=]ing opponents at very obscene percents. It has gotten to the point that some have accused Shulk and anyone that uses him of "cheaters", as they question whether Shulk even plays the same game as the rest of the cast. This concern isn't universal, however, due to Shulk remaining a DifficultButAwesome character; one that is not to be underestimated compared to his ''Smash 4'' incarnation, but one with still such a steep learning curve with his StanceSystem, equally DifficultButAwesome advanced techniques, and having continued struggles with sluggish frame data otherwise, that he remains a rare character to find in big tournaments, let alone consistently achieve high results in them by his playerbase, compared to many players of the other high tiers and top tiers in the game. To put this in perspective, some of Shulk's national pro players, such as Nicko and [=Tru4=], have started using him ''less'' as of mid-to-late 2021, usually in favor of Roy, which is likely owed to his better consistency thanks to his faster attack frame data and both despite ''and'' because of having none of Shulk's more unique aformentioned traits that one would have to keep track of in a match.

* '''[[Franchise/{{Tekken}} Kazuya Mishima]]''' is a frighteningly powerful addition to the "shoto" club. Like Bowser, he has a Tough Body mechanic that makes him ImmuneToFlinching from weaker moves. His Crouch Dash can quickly close space while making his upper body invincible. He has many ways of setting up devastating combos, particularly his Electric Wind God Fist and his Devil Fist. Several of his attacks shift him into Devil form to give him heavy armor, and several other moves make parts of his body intangible to prevent counters. His Left Splits Kick has an incredible 2.4x reflector, allowing it to OneHitKill off of some of the more powerful projectiles. His recovery does not put him into freefall, and its hitbox at the start is quite lethal, making it useful for finishing combos. To top it all off, once he hits 100%, his Rage boosts the power of his moves (in tandem with the universal rage mechanic) and gives him a dangerous Rage Drive. While Kazuya does have the drawback of a large, heavy frame, he can be terrifying once he successfully approaches, or simply punishes a whiff. He's also one of the biggest cases of DifficultButAwesome thanks to his extremely large movepool. While only a few pros like Riddles have gotten the knack for him, he's quickly jumped to high tier on many experts' lists.

** [[TookALevelInBadass This ended up being to be a one-time deal]], however, because as of ''Ultimate'', Shulk's issues have been addressed even further by removing even more of his sluggishness (albeit not entirely), alongside universal mobility buffs to the entire cast. His impressive attack range has been maintained, and as such is harder to challenge thanks to the aforementioned mobility buffs. His most significant buff, however, is having a faster way to reach each of his Monado Arts through a RingMenu instead of just cycling through them (though that remains an option if the player desires), alongside the arts themselves giving him greater [[MultiformBalance boosts (and penalties) to his stats]]. Shulk's improvements compared to ''Smash 4'' has had many professional players now considering him to truly be in the high tiers, or even top tiers, as well as one of ''the'' best of the game's sword fighters. But at the same time, many fear that Shulk [[GoneHorriblyRight was buffed a bit]] ''[[GoneHorriblyRight too]]'' [[GoneHorriblyRight much]], and that, should he be optimized in competitive play this time, he could potientially be considered a "top tier" Scrappy due to even more imposing factors, such as using his Monado Arts Ring Menu to nigh-instantly escape deadly combos, kill confirms, and multi-hitting [=KO=] moves with the [[StoneWall Shield Art]] mid-hitstun, then potentially punish ''on hit'' with the [[GlassCannon Buster and Smash Arts]] during the endlag of an opponent's attack. The stronger utility of his Shield Art, combined with his LagCancel advanced technique, "[[https://www.ssbwiki.com/Dial_Storage Dial Storage]]", have allowed Shulk access to additional options, follow-ups, and punishes with his attacks and Monado Arts that no other character in ''Ultimate'' is capable of. The improvements to all five of his arts in general allow Shulk to press and push his advantage to extremely damaging and oppressive, sometimes outright [=KO=]ing opponents at very obscene percents. It has gotten to the point that some have accused Shulk and anyone that uses him of "cheaters", as they question whether Shulk even plays the same game as the rest of the cast. This concern isn't universal, however, due to Shulk remaining a DifficultButAwesome character; one that is not to be underestimated compared to his ''Smash 4'' incarnation, but one with still such a steep learning curve with his StanceSystem, equally DifficultButAwesome advanced techniques, and having continued struggles with sluggish frame data otherwise, that he remains a rare character to find in big tournaments, let alone consistently achieve high results in them by his playerbase, compared to many players of the other high tiers and top tiers in the game.