History TierInducedScrappy / SuperSmashBros

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%% PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING NOTICES BEFORE MAKING EDITS TO THIS LIST.
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%% When adding a character to this page, please put their name in '''bold text''', and refrain from using bold anywhere else to avoid confusion.
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%% The following characters are included in series wide folders; please refrain from adding individual game examples for them:
%% High tiers: Pikachu, Fox, Marth, Sheik, Ice Climbers, Meta Knight, Zero Suit Samus, Diddy Kong, Snake, Olimar, and Cloud
%% Low tiers: Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Zelda, Dr. Mario, Ganondorf, Mewtwo, Mii Swordfighter, and Bowser Jr.
%% Both: Mario, Kirby, Ness, Jigglypuff, Bowser, Falco, Pichu, Roy, Mr. Game & Watch, Pit, Dark Pit, Sonic, King Dedede, Ike, Pokemon Trainer, Bayonetta, Corrin, Lucina, Shulk, Pac-Man, and Palutena
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/top_tier_list.PNG]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[http://www.ssbwiki.com/Meta_Knight_(SSBB) Brawl]] [[Franchise/{{Kirby}} Meta Knight]]: [[GameBreaker so broken]], he needed an entire tier to himself.]]

->''Come back when you start getting banned in tournaments.''
-->--'''Meta Knight''', ''One More Brawl Taunts''

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

NOTE: Much of this mainly applies to the [[UsefulNotes/FightingGameCommunity competitive community]], as [[CasualCompetitiveConflict most casual players find them fun to use regardless]].

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[[foldercontrol]]

!!High Tier
[[folder:Series-Wide]]
* '''[[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pikachu]]''' is a consistent top-tier character throughout the franchise, and a pioneer of the FragileSpeedster playstyle. It has strong aerials, great mobility, an insane {{combo|s}} game, and is frustratingly hard to hit due to its aforesaid speed and its small size. It's always been well-regarded by the competitive community for being DifficultButAwesome; however, some players resent the fact that Pikachu has always been able to [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomp]] the majority of the cast.
** In ''64'', Pikachu is 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 recoveries by comparison. At first, this resulted in Pikachu being "soft banned" in the competitive community (as in, there's an understanding 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. As a nod to its tier-induced scrappy status, Pikachu is negatively referred to as "[[EmbarrassingNickname the Rat]]". Its lightweight body and fast fall speed makes it easy for a character like Fox or Captain Falcon to send it flying, but this isn't enough to knock Pikachu off the top spot.
** In ''Melee'', Pikachu would fall in tier lists, receiving {{nerf}}s to its bizarre hitboxes and losing its fast air speed. It would later see a major rise on the tier list after some notable successes in competitive play, mostly from Axe using Pikachu to dominate Fox in a one-minute 4-stock in EVO 2014's Top-8. Due to its improved results, Pikachu sits comfortably in the 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 are its down-throw that can zero-to-death characters who fall quickly, and a jab-lock that let it easily punish people. Pikachu was also said to be Meta Knight's only even matchup, though it's highly disputed.
** Pikachu once again retained its high tier status in ''Smash 4''. Its case is even stronger when custom moves are allowed; while one of its biggest flaws is its lack of KO power, its "[[UseYourHead Heavy Skull Bash]]" custom side special is widely viewed as one of the most overpowered custom moves in the game, and Heavy Skull Bash is frequently used as an argument against legalizing custom moves. Even without the custom moves, Pikachu is widely seen as one of the better characters in the game, even if it's not the best.
** In ''Ultimate'', while it was initially overshadowed by Pichu, Pikachu still found its way to being a major competitive threat, especially after Pichu got nerfed in update 3.1.0. This is thanks to Pikachu's consistent strengths and hard-to-exploit weaknesses that made it near-impossible to truly stop. 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, more cancels and combos across the board, a dash attack that now [=KOs=] at high percentages, and a versatile kit that allows it to play rushdown or keepaway safely. Despite lacking the [=KO=] potential Pichu had, Pikachu's better range, better weight, and greater risk-reward factor soon allowed it to be seen in the same light as Pichu did before 3.1.0. Pikachu's incredible strengths have led many professional players to believe that Pikachu is one of the best characters (if not ''the'' best), with only Joker and Pyra/Mythra able to provide a counterargument.
* '''[[Franchise/StarFox Fox McCloud]]''' is another one of the most consistent high-tiers throughout the series. As an aggressive rushdown character with the speed and specials to do it well despite his low weight, he's probably the most iconic GlassCannon, and has regularly been among each game's high-tiers or top-tiers.
** In ''64'', many of the elements that would define his future in the series comes into place: a strong combo game that include touches-of-death, and his Reflector ([[FanNickname better known as "shine"]] due to [[NotTheIntendedUse being rarely used as a reflector]]) as a 1-frame attack. One thing this version had that later versions would not is that his blaster could interrupt opponent's movements, making it the best projectile in the game. Fox's one glaring weakness is that his recovery is easy to exploit, due to its lengthy and vulnerable startup animation.
** In ''Melee'', Fox is considered the game's best character. He has incredible speed, excellent combo capability, and good KO power. His "shine" became even better, as it had invincibility on startup, could be cancelled with a jump, and gimped recoveries all by itself. He also single-handedly invalidated many stages for competitive play, as large and/or moving stages gave Fox the ability to camp with his Blaster. However, Fox is also beloved by ''Melee''[='=]s competitive community, as he is perhaps the epitome of DifficultButAwesome due to the technical skill required to handle his demanding inputs. Fox's extreme falling speed and light weight make him vulnerable to combos himself, meaning matches with Fox will feature long combos and quick deaths [[RocketTagGameplay both ways]]. As a result, Fox is played by ''at least'' one-third of the competitive playerbase. Fox is more of a tier-induced BaseBreakingCharacter than a full-on scrappy -- some players consider the focus on Fox to be detrimental, while others consider it acceptable since Fox's place at the top doesn't mean he's unbeatable. Still, his notoriety is such that it spawned the "[[Memes/SuperSmashBros No Items, Fox Only, Final Destination]]" meme, and contributes to his hatred to a disturbing degree in the other ''Smash'' games.
** Fox's worst appearance was ''Brawl'', where he was hammered with nerfs, such as his blaster losing range and the startup of his shine slowed down, while the engine changes did him few favors. However, he still had many of his previous strengths, and he has few especially bad matchups, including him to be among the few characters to have a manageable matchup against Meta Knight. Some suspect that Fox may have continued to rise in the ''Brawl'' tier rankings had the competitive ''Brawl'' scene not died out in 2014.
** With ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'', despite a few more nerfs from ''Brawl'', such as his shine having its startup doubled to 6 frames, Fox is still a high-tier with very good mobility and offensive capabilities. After launch, some players discovered Fox had a "jab infinite" that allowed him to loop most characters in a repeated combo. This caused a [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome massive amount]] of Fox players to rush into the competitive scene and quickly claim results, with some abusing the infinite combo as their gameplan. Fox ultimately became disliked thanks to how it was used above all of Fox's other options, leading to repetitive play. When the infinite combo was patched out, those reliant on it either dropped Fox or performed noticeably worse. However, the players that stayed with him kept doing well, and also helped to show how exciting Fox can be in higher play just like in ''Melee''.
** His ''Ultimate'' appearance would be a mixed bag. Fox is one of the lightest characters in the game, and his Fox Illusion side special no longer goes through shielding opponents. However, he received sizeable buffs from the engine changes, with his speed, power and combo abilities [[JustForPun shining]] in the metagame. Further buffs to his shine and air-moves made him more consistent, but the verdict was that Fox was the #2 "Space Animal" behind Wolf. However, Fox is still a high-tier character that manages to subvert his scrappydom a little bit thanks to his aggressive rushdown style that he has been synonymous for in numerous titles.
* '''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Sheik]]''' has been considered a top-tier character in a couple of games due to her great combo potential, mobility and edgeguarding.
** Sheik was once the most disliked top tier in ''Melee''. She has many of the fastest attacks in the game, amazing combo capabilities, the game's most effective chain throw, one of the best projectiles in her Needles, and a ridiculously fast yet powerful forward air that slaps opponents downward, making her fantastic at edgeguarding. Her forward air and sweetspotted up-smash can kill just as effectively as stronger characters with more moves. Sheik is also considered less technical than other characters, in a game whose competitive playerbase prides itself on the game's technical difficulty. It was at its worst in early ''Melee'', where Sheik was considered the best character for the first five years (and to such a degree there was once serious contemplation about banning her). As the greater potential of Fox and Falco were discovered, reactions towards Sheik became less vitriolic, and the metagame has advanced towards other characters earning even better results than her, though she's still a bit disliked.
** Her ''Smash 4'' appearance grew into this over time. Sheik was the best character in the game bar none, with or without [[StanceSystem custom moves]]. Sheik's normals had a combination of speed and range that were very hard to punish, and the knockback allowed her to effortlessly combo others. Her Needles are the best projectiles in the game because of their effective zoning, encouraging an extremely camp-heavy playstyle. Her Vanish also made her very hard to edgeguard, and her Bouncing Fish made it easy to KO other characters. Although she still had a steep learning curve, Sheik excels in every aspect when mastered, and Sheik was argued to have no truly disadvantageous matchups. Sheik was a very common sight at the top of tournaments, with some Grand Finals being Sheik dittos. This caused ComplacentGamingSyndrome to occur in an immense fashion, which only fueled the anger towards seeing Sheik. Combine all these aspects and it is easy to see why Sheik was a disliked top tier character, similarly to ''Brawl'' Meta Knight and pre-patch Diddy. Her hatred nosedived after being nerfed in update 1.1.5, putting some more well-needed risk to her reward, and ultimately causing many competitive players to believe she is no longer the face of the meta.
* The '''[[VideoGame/IceClimber Ice Climbers]]''' have long been notorious for infinite combos abusing their dual nature.
** In ''Melee'', while considered borderline high-tiers, they're hated for [[http://www.ssbwiki.com/Wobbling Wobbling]], a technique named after pro ''Smash'' player Wobbles, who used it frequently. Wobbling exploits the IC's "2-in-1" mechanic to jab grabbed opponents in such a way that the opponent is kept stuck in the grab indefinitely until the IC's player decides to release them. Wobbling means any grab from the [=ICs=] can equal death if it's pulled off successfully. Players despise Wobbling so much it was initially banned in many tournaments. The vitriol against the [=ICs=] died down after failing to beat the best players even with Wobbling legal, and many players ended up considering the [=ICs=] to have too hard of a time landing a grab. In addition, Wobbling can be broken easily by killing the computer-controlled partner due to their [[ArtificialStupidity awful AI]], so Wobbling was long dismissed as a serious GameBreaker. A more complicated but powerful combo utilizes a glitch that freezes an opponent forever until they're thrown. After it was discovered, that vitriol against the [=ICs=] started right back up again, and the ban on this move means anyone caught using it in tournaments gets instantly disqualified.
** In ''Brawl'', the Ice Climbers could infinitely chain grab the entire cast but themselves. The result was a grab that equaled instant death, and with ''Brawl''’s slower gameplay, 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. Their infinite chain grabs do require precise timing to pull off, but it was little comfort when the best players could do it with ease. This resulted in boring games for viewers, as they boiled down to watching their opponent camp the [=ICs=] until they net a chain grab. They never did come close to exceeding Meta Knight, and they did have a few losing matchups, but became even more hated by the end of the game due to being much less flashy and rather degenerate due to their combos. However, despite their divisive status, [[AlasPoorScrappy some players weren't happy that they were cut]] from ''3DS[=/=]Wii U''.
** ''Ultimate'' brought the Ice Climbers back, but made it so the AI partner can't move during a grab, putting an end to grab-to-death shenanigans. Despite their immense nerfs, there have been some notable competitive techs found, such as some zero-to-death combos and good edgeguard game. The jury's still out as to where they fall in the meta, though. On one hand, they have one-hit-kill combos on ALL of the cast, good movement and frame data, and some surprisingly powerful attacks. On the other hand, they have glaring weakness such as their vulnerability to zoning, a poor neutral game, [[SomeDexterityRequired a REALLY high execution barrier]], [[ArtificialStupidity the partner AI once again being subpar]], and the built-in flaw of being in a huge amount of trouble if the AI partner gets taken out.
* Another highly consistent example in the series is the most recognizable face of ''Franchise/FireEmblem'', '''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight Marth]]'''. A notable case of DifficultButAwesome due to his reliance on precise spacing, he has long been a terror in competitive play.
** With his [[BreakoutCharacter breakout appearance]] in ''Melee'', Marth is a top-tier with many advantages and overplay, but is generally liked. A skilled Marth can easily space opponents out despite mediocre knockback, as his attacks cover a large area. However, opponents can take advantage of his lack of lingering hitboxes to sneak in, meaning Marth players have to time and space their moves precisely. Among the biggest complaints are Marth's grab that [[HitboxDissonance reaches a foot in front of where his hand actually touches]] and the sheer strength of his finishers if perfectly spaced, especially his easy-to-land down-air, which leads to Marth taking stocks at early percents over minimal mistakes. Marth's large grab range and versatile up throw helps him easily set up combos against fast-fallers, such as Fox and Falco.
** In ''Brawl'', Marth made the smoothest transition out of any of the previous game's top tiers. While his grab and sword ranges were reduced, he still retained most of his previous strengths, such as his powerful spacing with his strong tipper sweetspots. His grab game, despite the range nerf, is still powerful due to the game's altered grab release mechanics giving him a variety of powerful follow-up options. The end result was Marth being solidly among the game's top tiers, with only two slightly disadvantageous matchups (against [[GameBreaker Meta Knight]] and King Dedede).
** ''Smash 4'' would initially give Marth his worst tier ranking to date. He got heavy nerfs that put him among the game's low tiers, such as his sword's range becoming less stellar due to other characters receiving better hitbox treatment, his aerial game becoming more manageable due to slower aerials across the board, and harder-to-sweetspot hitboxes. However, Marth would slowly get further buffs, especially in patch 1.1.4, which caused a surge of new Marth mains to appear, showing off the new tools and adjustments he was given. This would see Marth return to the top tiers as Marth's tournament success continued to climb.
** ''Ultimate'' saw Marth fall again (though not as severely as ''Smash 4''), as he has many problems that keep him from seeing widespread usage. ''Ultimate''[='=]s faster engine and pace give Marth incredible difficulty at landing his tippers. Also, while potent kill moves, they can screw up combos if they land at the wrong time, usually sending the opponent too far away for follow ups. This requires Marth players to thoroughly optimize his combos. Much to the dismay of the Hero-King's fans, his [[MovesetClone Echo Fighter]] '''Lucina''' has taken Marth's spot amongst the top tiers; in exchange for a harder time scoring kills, Lucina has more consistent and reliable combos and doesn't have to rely on precise spacing; her comparative ease of use has ensured that Marth hasn't seen as much play by comparison.
* '''[[Franchise/{{Kirby}} Meta Knight]]''' is one of the largest Tier-Induces Scrappies in the ''Smash'' series, and perhaps one of the biggest examples in all of gaming.
** In ''Brawl'', Meta Knight was the best character, full stop. [[MasterOfAll He excelled at everything]]: he had a host of effective-yet-safe moves that could be spammed with impunity, all but one of his sword-based moves had priority, all of his special moves were good for recovery, and the ability to [[http://www.ssbwiki.com/Planking exploit quirks]] [[http://www.ssbwiki.com/Planking in the game's code]] made him untouchable. He had no real consequential flaws other than his really light weight; but with how hard it was to KO him, that wasn't much of a flaw. The result was a character that hard-countered the majority of the cast and won every matchup, and was so good that he was in a "god-tier" above everyone else. Meta Knight had rather low technical demands and was one of the easiest characters to pick up in ''Brawl'', [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome leading to droves of players to main him or use him as a pocket secondary]]. Meta Knight absolutely dominated tournaments -- when the monetary winnings were counted up for tournaments one year, Meta Knight players won ''over half'' of the money. Eventually, people got so sick of Meta Knight that [[http://www.ssbwiki.com/URC#Unity_Ruleset_Committee Unity Ruleset Committee]] decided to ban him. The ban didn't stick, as too many high-profile players using Meta Knight were opposed to the ban, and thus many high-profile tournament organizers ignored it. Meta Knight and the failure to ban him is one of most-cited reasons for ''Brawl''[='=]s competitive scene declining post-2012.
** For ''Smash 4'', Meta Knight expectedly got some heavy nerfs, causing his playerbase from ''Brawl'' to abandon him. At first, many treated Meta Knight as a low-tier character since he had to play aggressively and thus take more risks. However, after an update increased the accuracy on his sword attacks, many found a character with highly potent KO combos, above-average speed, and top-tier edgeguarding. His low-tier status disappeared when people discovered the "ladder combo" from his ''Brawl'' appearance, the [[https://www.ssbwiki.com/Rufio Rufio]], was not nerfed. ComplacentGamingSyndrome promptly kicked in; while the metagame didn't completely circulate around this one combo, it was still very powerful. It was not until patch 1.1.5 where this was addressed, making it much more risky to use overall; however, they gave a new toy for Meta Knight to play with in a radically-improved forward air. While players who were over-reliant on his ladder combo dropped him, other players fleshed him out and stated that it wasn't that much of an nerf. Meta Knight remains a high-tier that, while still much more balanced compared to ''Brawl'', is an explosive character that can hand down a lot of trouble.
** ''Ultimate'' once again rained nerfs upon Meta Knight, giving his dash attack higher power and ending lag, and his up air another angle nerf, thus making the ladder combo more situational. Combined with buffs to other characters' mobility, Meta Knight's viability has taken a hit despite some notorious buffs to his tools. While Meta Knight isn't considered to be as much of a high-tier character as in previous games, his core playstyle remains as dangerous as ever.
* '''[[VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission Zero Suit Samus]]''' is another consistently strong character, who also gets hate for being stronger than the normal Samus, a fact which [[PowerCreepPowerSeep completely throws]] [[GameplayAndStorySegregation Metroid canon out the window]].
** She was among ''Brawl''’s most popular high tiers among the competitive community for being one of the game's flashiest characters. ''Metroid'' fans tended to dislike [=ZSS=] in general for being {{Fanservice}} in its home series, and were especially irate when they found out [=ZSS=] was one of the game's best characters, while regular Samus was a perpetual low-tier character rarely seen in tournaments.
** This carried over into ''Smash 4'', where [=ZSS=] became increasingly disliked as her success and prominence grew within the metagame. Widely considered the second-best character in the game, "[[FanNickname Zamus]]" had numerous tools that made her highly dominant. She has extremely fast moves that allow her to dictate the flow of the match, and her combo game was lethal. Boost Kick, Zamus' up special, had a large amount of knockback that could KO opponents off the top at low percentages, and even lower with [[ComebackMechanic rage]] and platforms in play. Flip Jump, her down special, not only gives a character that has a tether-recovery ''another'' means of recovery, but also has a command kick that, when spaced right, can meteor smash opponents for an early KO. All this resulted in a character that can claim stocks at a moment's notice and could survive with relative ease, leaving many to complain how broken her moves were. However, Zamus' learning curve is very high, she has some difficult matchups, and knowledge of her moves are needed to fully use her. Despite this, Zamus' dislike had spread and grown beyond the dispute of her usage over her Power Suited version, due to [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome MANY players]] using her to great success, and earning her the derogatory nickname "Zero Skill Spamus". However, this came full-circle when patches nerfed her hard. Aside from a weight nerf, her Boost Kick and its setups would now KO much later and many of her attacks that could set up to the Flip Jump kick-meteor smash were nowhere near as effective.
** As for ''Ultimate'', ZSS was originally believed severely nerfed from ''Smash 4'', if not to the cruel extent that Sheik and Bayonetta were. However, after months of metagame development, she's considered a top-tier once again with many of her past strengths remaining. While her up air and Boost Kick were nerfed, almost all of her attributes have been buffed in utility and consistency, resulting in a less polarized character that can still overwhelm players. Game updates have given ZSS a few nerfs that have made her playstyle slightly less effective, but while they have pushed her out of being one of the best characters in the game, she still resides comfortably in top tier. Meanwhile, normal Samus is still seen as the less viable option, so it's safe to assume that she'll continue to annoy many ''Metroid'' fans.
* '''[[VideoGame/MetalGear Solid Snake]]''' is the first third-party addition to ''Smash'', and infamous for being an effective [[LongRangeFighter zoning character]].
** Snake was the game's biggest LightningBruiser in ''Brawl'', with ridiculously fast and powerful attacks that had [[HitboxDissonance disjointed hitboxes]], on top of some of the best projectiles in the game. His C4 and claymore mines allow for oppressive stage control that forced the opponent to be careful. Snake's dash attack is also the best in the game, as it's fast, powerful, and very safe. His survivability was among the best in the game due to being the third-heaviest character, having a relatively fast falling speed, as well as a long-distance recovery that could also be extended by blowing himself up with grenades or C4. In the first year of ''Brawl'', it wasn't uncommon to see over half of a tournament's top-8 using Snake. As the years went on, players learned to exploit some of Snake's potent disadvantages, while the potential of a few other characters were discovered. Snake ended up losing his demi-god status and dropped in the tier list, though he was still considered a top-tier character.
** After skipping out on ''Smash 4'', Snake's return in ''Ultimate'' saw him quickly reclaim his high-tier status. While his more outrageous tools from ''Brawl'' were nerfed, Snake still retains many of the key attributes that made him so dominant in ''Brawl''. What makes him hated in competitive play is the sheer extremities of his entire kit, causing many players to call him one of the best characters in the game. Snake's Nikita Missile is infamous as one of the best projectiles in the game, having been buffed immensely from ''Brawl'' with a much faster, much stronger, and more controllable missile that can invalidate characters that cannot weave around it. His up tilt, while not as far-reaching as it was in ''Brawl'', is still just as dangerous thanks to how hard it hits. The changes to the engine also greatly benefit Snake, as in addition to his painfully sluggish mobility from ''Brawl'' being vastly improved, Snake's Grenades can interrupt combos, do decent damage even when stale, and have a massive blast radius. Unlike other top-tier characters, Snake hasn't received any meaningful nerfs in update patches. In the end, all of these traits in a singular package has once again created a character that players casual and competitive alike loathe to fight.
* '''[[Franchise/DonkeyKong Diddy Kong]]''' has been a long-time offender of this trope, with his infuriating Banana Peels, fast moves, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking annoying chimpanzee screeches]] getting on many a player's nerves.
** In ''Brawl'', while the hatred towards him never approached the levels of many other characters, players discovered and showcased just how strong his Banana Peels were, giving him a defensive gameplan as well as stage control that completely changed how players had to play the game. By the end of ''Brawl'', he was considered the fourth-best character, and while he didn't get as much a hatedom as the three characters ranked higher than him, many players wouldn't root for Diddy when he was fighting anyone else but them.
** Diddy managed to emerge as one of the best fighters in ''Smash 4'' while also being one of the least technical, giving him a rather low learning curve. He had a highly effective combo throw that could easily lead to a chain of aerials at low damages, while leading to unavoidable KO follow-ups at high damages. This is on top of his moveset containing fast and hard-hitting moves with good reach, some of the best grabs in the game, and his up-air being an incredibly fast move that could hit far below Diddy and above him at the same time. While it was debatable if Diddy was actually the best character, ComplacentGamingSyndrome set in hard as competitive players swarmed to Diddy in droves, and tournaments ended up featuring many Diddy dittos. Diddy would become [[TheScrappy widely despised by both the competitive and casual community]] — aside from his utter dominance of the metagame, his [[BoringButPractical boring, repetitive playstyle]], low learning curve, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and goofy design and monkey noises]] made him a despised character by players of all sorts. Fortunately, nerfs in patches caused some people to abandon him; you'd better believe [[http://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/32nsee/hoo_hah_has_been_nerfed/ people were happy about that]].That being said, he would still remain a highly valuable character in tournaments even after the nerfs though luckily he was less dominate as he was prior.
** In ''Ultimate'', Diddy was initially on the opposite side of the spectrum, with many of his strong tools from ''Smash 4'' being nerfed, most notably his up special, which severely hampered his vertical recovery distance and made him pathetically easy to spike. As such, many early tier lists had Diddy Kong as a mid or even low-tier character. However, patch 3.1.0 would grant him a plethora of helpful buffs, pushing him back into the high-tiers. The most dedicated Diddy players will still be a competitive threat, with a lot of Diddy mains saying that he beats the majority of the top and high-tiers, making him a good anti-meta pick.
* '''[[VideoGame/{{Pikmin}} Olimar]]''' is considered a high-tier scrappy due to his Pikmin mechanic encouraging a defensive playstyle.
** In ''Brawl'', Olimar was an agonizingly difficult character to approach, could outcamp every character in the game, had a broken grab that could shield grab nearly everything, and powerful-yet-quick moves to force enemies back out when they finally got in. While he had a poor aerial game with a godawful recovery, he could use his Pikmin Order for instant SuperArmor to snuff attempts to exploit them. By the end of ''Brawl''’s lifespan, Olimar was considered the third-best character in the game under Meta Knight and the Ice Climbers; for some players, Olimar was even worse.
** In ''Smash 4'', Olimar saw prominent nerfs that resulted in his tier placement dropping quite a bit. The most notable of these nerfs was to the amount of Pikmin that he could pull out being reduced from six to three. Additionally, all types of Pikmin had their HP reduced across the board with the exception of White Pikmin, and drastically weakening Olimar’s camping ability. Furthermore, most of his moves saw nerfs to their frame data as well, the most notable one being his up smash gaining over twenty frames of endlag. However, Olimar did receive quite a few buffs, with Winged Pikmin functioning as a vastly superior recovery compared to Pikmin Chain and significantly improving his survivability Though Olimar was far less dominant in ''Smash 4'' compared to ''Brawl'', he was still considered a high-tier character by the end of the game’s competitive lifespan and had multiple professionals representing him in tournaments.
** Olimar once again rose to greatness in the early ''Ultimate'' competitive scene. His ''Ultimate'' incarnation has often been cited as his best yet thanks to his admirable juggling game, ability to spam Pikmin Order ''even faster'' and abuse its super armor more often, and his incredible zoning abilities with his much quicker and much deadlier Pikmin smash attacks. Many detractors often bemoaned the character, perceiving his play style as grating to watch. Olimar was nerfed significantly over the course of patches, increasing his hurtboxes, weakening his pressure and safety, and weakening his recovery on repeated usage. While this removed Olimar from the "best character" talks, the captain is still a very frightening high-tier character that lurks in the meta and draws the ire out of players and spectators alike.
* '''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud Strife]]''' has always been problematic since his debut thanks to his very low-learning curve and LightningBruiser design, which allows him to be played effectively at all levels of skill.
** In ''3DS[=/=]Wii U,'' he blossomed into Scrappydom just days after his release. Cloud is relatively fast, decently durable, and has some of the most powerful and safe attacks in the game. At full Limit charge, his mobility is increased further and his special attacks become Limit Break variants that can KO opponents earlier while retaining their safety. Limit Charge also becomes Finishing Touch, a move that can net Cloud [=KOs=] at moderately low percents. While Cloud's uncharged recovery is his greatest weakness, it isn't nearly as exploitable as Little Mac's thanks to Cloud's vastly superior aerial game. Cloud is one of the hardest characters to counterpick, since his kit overshadowed his recovery issues and renders any counterplay designed against him moot. Couple that with the fact that Cloud is one of the most popular video game heroes ever, and you get one of the most severe cases of ComplacentGamingSyndrome that ''Smash'' has ever seen. And if that wasn't enough, Cloud is also one of the few characters to be considered a tier-induced Scrappy not only in Singles, but in Doubles as well; thanks to "throw enemy into Limit Break specials or Finishing Touch" combos, the meta was stagnated with Character X/Cloud dittos. Towards the end of the game's competitive lifespan, Cloud was widely considered the second best character in the game, only behind Bayonetta.
** In ''Ultimate'', Cloud ended up getting nerfed; the biggest change is that Limit Break can only be held for 15 seconds. However, 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, the universal reduction of landing lag mitigated this. Just like before, Cloud is heavily used during in online play thanks to his powerful punish game and strong neutral. Cloud was considered very highly of after he gained several buffs however, notably to his recovery sweetspotting the ledge quicker, thus making him harder to edgeguard, his up-smash being a better kill option that can be done out of Shield due to its faster frame data, and Finishing Touch now combo'ing into more set ups such as up air or up tilt, being generally considered either a top of high tier or top tier character after the COVID-19 pandemic with the help of [=Sparg0=] and Kola, who are the two biggest rising stars in North America.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Super Smash Bros.'']]
* '''[[VideoGame/FZero Captain Falcon]]'''[='=]s flashy playstyle has earned him a large amount of success ever since the original game, with only a brief time as a bottom-tier character in ''Brawl''. As the fastest runner in ''64'', Falcon can easily get in and abuse his excellent aerials, most notoriously his up air, which can lead into his notorious "Stairway to Heaven", the original ladder combo. His combo game is deadly enough that he's Pikachu's worst matchup, as he can regularly kill it before it even gets the chance to recover. However, much like Fox, his recovery is also quite exploitable, and he particularly struggles to approach Kirby. Even so, Falcon lurks beneath Pikachu and Kirby in the original game's tier list, with only Kirby giving Falcon any real trouble.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'']]
* '''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Toon Link]]''', while generally considered one of ''Brawl''[='=]s most boring high tiers, wasn't hated to a significant degree by the competitive community. However, people who dislike ''Wind Waker'' and its Link were shocked to find out that Toon Link was high-tier while regular Link was bottom-tier, causing some of them to [[CasualCompetitiveConflict refuse to believe it]] and jump on the anti-tier bandwagon. In short: Toon Link was TheScrappy for those people anyway, but the fact that he's a high-tier character and Adult Link is not made it even worse. The reason for the discrepancy is that Toon Link is a lot more agile and quick than normal Link, especially in terms of his recovery; one of Link's weakest traits throughout the ''Smash'' series (especially in ''64'').
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/[=3DS=]'']]
* '''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Rosalina and Luma]]''' had always been considered difficult to deal with due to their PuppetFighter mechanic, while also being widely considered to be one of the most "boring" characters to watch. This dislike for the character escalated when players started to realize how powerful Luma really was in the hands of a skilled player, having attacks with immense knockback. However, Rosalina and Luma actually have little success in the tourney scene, as her worst matchups are not only with characters that are highly prominent in competitive play, but to characters with mobility quick enough to break their zone and overwhelm Rosalina. Despite these points and the frequent nerfs to Luma's HP, Rosalina and Luma still remain disliked for their highly defensive play and potentially potent offense thanks to Luma.
* '''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Luigi]]''' was one of the game's most well-liked top/high tiers, when he unexpectedly emerged as a really potent threat after the first balance patch. It especially helped that his most high-profiled players tended to be flashy, and Luigi was a potential counter to Diddy Kong. However, after Diddy's nerf, Luigi mostly took up the mantle of "high tier character with easy throw combos", leading to many of the fair-weather players that abandoned Diddy post-nerf moving on to Luigi. With the influx of Luigi players abusing his throw combos, Luigi picked up the ire of players and became as complained about as the aforementioned top-tiers. Unlike pre-patch Diddy, the rest of Luigi's moveset outside his throw combos isn't very good, and he has poor mobility that can be easily exploited. Alongside some solidly losing matchups, this led to the best Luigi players under-performing at national tournaments despite being a dominant force at local and regional tournaments.
* '''Captain Falcon''' made a huge comeback from being bottom-tier character in ''Brawl''. His ludicrous up aerial from ''64'' and the significant weakening of the [[ScrappyMechanic hitstun cancelling mechanic]] really helped with this. Falcon began to show signs of infamy due to people decrying how much of a SkillGateCharacter he is at lower levels of play, with his fast, powerful moves overwhelming his opponents. However, at the highest levels of play, Falcon struggles much more against the DifficultButAwesome characters that populate ''Smash 4''[='=]s topmost tier. And while Falcon can certainly get the job done against them, he rests in the lower section of high tier as a result of him having a difficult time against said characters. As a result, he's more of a tier-induced base-breaking character rather than an outright scrappy, thanks to being beloved by a majority of the community.
* In custom moves-legal tournaments, '''[[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing Villager]]''' becomes one of the most hated characters. Villager gets access to Timber Counter, which in its sapling stage trips opponents who move into its vicinity while lasting a long time and having no way for the opponent to get rid of it. Extreme Balloon Trip makes Villager's recovery more difficult to edgeguard (as the Balloons explode when contacted with). The biggest sticking point though, as these two moves can be combined together to give Villager the ability to safely plank. While Villager remains safe on the ledge, he can chip away at the opponent with his slingshot and Lloid Rockets, pocketing any projectiles the opponent throws out at him, and the opponent is disrupted farther by the exploding balloons. The result is Villager being able to time out opponents with appalling ease once he has the damage lead. While shockingly effective against players unfamiliar with it, this tactic has many counters and work-arounds by players who are familiar with it. As such, no Villager ever won a major custom-legal tournament. This fact, does little to placate players who despise custom Villager, and is one of the biggest reasons that many players turned against legalizing custom moves.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'']]
This game's meta will take a long time to form, due to the number of characters, roster, and balance only finalizing in December 2021. But there are a few characters that people have been keeping their eye on.
* '''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Peach]]''' had a strong game out of the gate, and has only gone higher. While she was always placed relatively well on previous games, her buffs have seen the princess get called a "monster". Her aerial attacks combined with her ability to float make her reign supreme in the air, along with amazing edgeguarding techniques, buffs to her turnip throws, and counters with Toad that make it extremely daunting to recover. Her combo ability is some of the game's best, and she's got several kill moves that she can exploit. Peach getting upsets in early ''Ultimate'' tournaments over the topmost players only further increased her reputation. However, unlike much of the prior high-tier scrappy contenders, Peach also doubles as a [[DifficultButAwesome very high-skill based]] character by the community, since the amount of precise inputs and timings needed to push Peach to her "monster" limits makes her one of the most technical characters.
** By virtue of [[MovesetClone being her Echo Fighter]], this also applies to '''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioLand Daisy]]'''. That being said, Peach is much more infamous for this trope than Daisy; before update 3.0.0, players discovered that Daisy's turnips deal more base knockback with less scaling, hampering both her low-percent combo game and high-percent kill power in comparison to Peach, as well as having a slightly wider hitbox with more expressive animations that make her slightly more vulnerable. However, the difference between Peach and Daisy's turnips was removed in the aforementioned update 3.0.0, putting Daisy on much more equal ground.
* After a very lackluster ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'', '''VideoGame/{{Wario}}''' would rise to this position in ''Ultimate''. His dash attack is an incredibly fast and powerful kill move, and his combo game was buffed into something truly frightening. But what separates Wario from the rest of the pack is his ''ludicrous'' comeback factor. Wario's Waft now has a multitude of kill confirms while still retaining its massive power. As a result, Wario can quickly and unexpectedly bring stock leads down to an even game with a single combo. Combined with other factors such as his superb air mobility, a long-distanced and unpredictable recovery, and even a command grab that heals, Wario is a force to be reckoned with in the competitive scene. However, update 11.0.0 finally nerfed Wario by making his Waft slower; he still retains his absurd combo game, but the notable slowdown of his Waft has resulted in a noticeable weakening of his comeback factor, which has knocked him down a few pegs.
* '''[[VideoGame/RoboticOperatingBuddy R.O.B.]]''' quickly rose to prominence for ''Ultimate'' after a solid ''Brawl'' and a mediocre ''3DS[=/=]Wii U''. R.O.B. got a few buffs that strengthened him significantly, with 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 combo ability from ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' remains not only relatively intact, but arguably improved. And that's without mentioning his Arm Rotor; 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. 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.
* '''[[VideoGame/StarFox Wolf]]''' returned to ''Ultimate'' with a mixed reaction. While people loved his return to ''Smash'', it was as one of the best characters in the game. Wolf is much heavier than Fox, more neutral-based, and the result of both buffs to his kit and ''Ultimate'''s engine changes have granted him a monstrous combo game. All of his grounded and aerial normals are either meaty, disjointed, fast, or [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs a combination of the three]]. His most glaring weakness -- his short and linear recovery -- is mitigated by the high priority and large size of the hitboxes of his recovery moves, making intercepting him offstage risky. Many players have notably picked up Wolf, leading him to draw parallels to ''Smash 4'' Cloud. Updates would hand Wolf some pretty decent nerfs, leading him to fall off in some people's eyes. But as time has passed in the meta, Wolf's positives have started to blossom through patching, making Wolf a solid top-10 character in the meta.
* '''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Chrom]]''' is one of the best swordfighters in the game. His recovery is highly exploitable, but this is mitigated when said recovery move lets him [[TakingYouWithMe take his opponent with him]] for even trying to edgeguard him. He can even combo his aerial attacks into this move to [[SuicideAttack suicide kill]] his opponent at basically any percent; this is nicknamed the [[IncrediblyLamePun "Chrombo"]]. He fell off a few months after release due to the 2.0.0 patch making his suicide kill weaker, and players being more able to exploit his recovery. However, even without his {{Death or Glory|Attack}} strategy, he can still do his combo and rack up severe damage; this along with his sheer pressure makes him one of the most oppressive characters in the game, being pretty difficult to shoo him off. Initially, Chrom's viability compared to Roy [[BrokenBase was a topic of debate]], with some players claiming Chrom was better due to his overall safer attacks, his consistency over Roy's raw damage capabilities, and his [[BoringButPractical easier learning curve]].
* '''[[VideoGame/Persona5 Joker]]''' has made a strong argument for the best character in the game. His excellent mobility, freeform combo structure, good edgeguarding, and versatile kit contribute a lot to his top-tier placing. But what makes Joker such a monster is [[MagikarpPower his Persona, Arsene]]. Ordinarily, Joker lacks KO power and has a mediocre recovery. But when Joker summons Arsene, these weaknesses vanish. Arsene drastically improves all of Joker's attacks, gives him Tetrakarn/Makarakarn (easily the best counter/reflector in the game), and the Wings of Rebellion recovery move makes Joker invincible, leaving a very small window to punish him. While the character himself is DifficultButAwesome due to a high skill ceiling, it comes with learning to optimize Joker both with and without Arsene. He does have his fair share of struggling match-ups and has been balanced in patches to remove his more broken aspects (including a Pokemon Trainer pair-up GameBreaker that filled Joker's Rebellion gauge absurdly fast), so Joker's top-tier status is not banworthy. Many players agree that Joker is an acceptable "best character" to have; while he certainly deserves his top-tier status, Joker's presence doesn't destabilize the game. In the end, all of Joker's solid strengths and good reputation among the playerbase have made the Phantom Thief's claim for ''Ultimate'''s best character hard to challenge, with only Pikachu and Pyra/Mythra coming close.
* '''[[VideoGame/{{ARMS}} Min Min]]''' possesses great edgeguarding capabilities, as she can bully the majority of characters off stage very easily. She also has a great punish game with her up-throw and Dragon Laser. Her up-smash is one of the best anti-airs in the game due to its high kill power, absurd vertical range, speed, and reflector hitbox. Min Min's general moves also have good frame data for their long range unlike characters with similar amounts of range. She's become the most hated character in ''Japan'', which is saying something considering the country is well-known for their character diversity and adaptability. Many in Japan believe that Min Min may be a contender for a ''top 10'' character, due to how she gatekeeps a large chunk of characters who aren't agile enough to evade her arms and her Dragon Lasers. Even overseas, some top players believe Min Min resides in top-15, and it's generally agreed that she's in the upper echelons.
* '''[[VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} Steve]]''' amassed an enormous number of opinions until he became known as a high tier. Steve plays faithful to his home game ''Minecraft'': mine for resources, then [[ItemCrafting manage them by crafting weapons, walls, and traps]]. However, it's this faithfulness which has made him despised. Steve possesses strengths that no other character in the roster has by creating walls, allowing him to easily gimp recoveries and use smash attacks in mid-air. Steve's frame data is also great, and he can make it even faster with [[LethalJokeItem Gold weapons]], or even stronger with [[InfinityPlusOneSword Diamond weapons]]. Adding to this is a nasty combo game with a ton of options — combined with his ability to create terrain, this can allow Steve to achieve touches of death from ''a single interaction''. Adding to this is a down air anvil projectile that deals massive damage, a tether grab, a powerful explosive in his [=TNT=], and his Minecart, a fairly fast command grab that's also a projectile. 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 forces the opponent to approach, which is [[MortonsFork a dangerous decision considering his aforementioned abundance of strengths]]. Steve does have a fair share of weaknesses, such as awful mobility, lackluster disadvantage state, the fact that all of his aforementioned strengths rely on him having the rescouces and tools (which have durability and can break), and the fact his overabundance of options requires ingenuity to work at the topmost level; however, considering he can build walls around himself, that's no problem. Many Steve mains have gotten hate due to his campy playstyle, and for a NewbieBoom from ''Minecraft'' fans coming to ''Smash''. Eventually the hate has gotten outright to the point where some top players have had discussion on banning the character like with Meta Knight in ''Brawl'' and Bayonetta in ''Smash 4'', notably due to acola, Yonni, Onin, Jake and [=DDee's=] successes at big Smash majors since February 2022.
* '''[[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 Pyra and Mythra]]''' benefit from the same streamlined transformation mechanic as Pokémon Trainer, but use it to arguably even deadlier effect. While optimal play requires extensive use and knowledge of both sisters, Mythra is considered the better one out of the two and where most of the pair's strengths lie. Mythra has excellent mobility; she packs the fastest initial dash in the game, and her frame data is absurdly good. She has excellent aerials that can be cancelled to near spammable levels. Lightning Buster's hitbox is huge and has good kill setups, negating her supposed weakness of lackluster [=KO=] power. Her hurtbox "pancakes" in many animations, making her hard to hit. Finally, Foresight significantly slows the enemy down upon dodging; this allows for potentially devastating punishes, and works against just about anything with a hitbox. The swap mechanic with Pyra also allows Mythra to make up for her lack of KO power, allowing the Aegis sisters to be very adaptable. Although Pyra is generally more niche than Mythra (such as having a worse disadvantage state), she still benefits from powerful disjointed moves with great range that kill at absurdly low percents. Finally, Pyra and Mythra's moves are very straightforward, allowing them to forego the DifficultButAwesome aspect of a transforming character that's prevalent with the Trainer. Combined with [[BreakoutCharacter their immense popularity]], this has given the duo a [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome humongous player base]], with some players using them as a pocket character to cover bad matchups. A lot of people consider the Aegis sisters as the only characters that can rival Joker and Pikachu for the best in ''Ultimate'', resulting in the sisters drawing significant ire in competitive play for their great kit and sheer ubiquity.
* '''[[Franchise/{{Tekken}} Kazuya Mishima]]''' has garnered a similarly distasteful opinion as other high-tier DLC characters. Whereas his fighting game brethren (Ryu, Ken and Terry) are sufficiently sturdy, Kazuya breaks the mold by being a super heavyweight with armor on just about all of his attacks. Kazuya's moveset is the largest in the franchise; not only does he have a move for every situation, a huge portion of his moveset deals double-digit damage ''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. 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 and wide variety of options. All of this, combined with his endurance, makes Kazuya a terror to face. Kazuya does have his weaknesses in that his moveset and mobility are rather sluggish, he's very vulnerable to combos, he transitions poorly from the ground to the air, and his extensive moveset amounts to DifficultButAwesome being taken to [[ExaggeratedTrope its logical extreme]], as he has an extraordinarily high skill floor and is legendarily unforgiving to anyone who has not extensively practiced with him. 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.
[[/folder]]

!!Low Tier
[[folder:Series-Wide]]
* '''[[Franchise/DonkeyKong Donkey Kong]]''' has had quite an unfortunate run over the series. He's had a few bright moments, but it's mostly been low-tier for the ape.
** In ''64'', he was a classic MightyGlacier archetype, he has some decent attributes, such as an infinite grab-release combo and high endurance due to his weight. However, his moveset is slow, his large size and heavy weight ensure he gets comboed harder than anyone else, has horrendous vertical recovery, is slow in the air, and struggles against projectile characters who can camp him out.
** In ''Melee'', Donkey Kong remained in the lower half of the tier list due to his vulnerability to chaingrabbing, very predictable recovery, poor matchups against the game's top tiers (except Marth and Jigglypuff), and his air speed remaining very slow.
** Donkey Kong would see improvements in ''Brawl'' that led to him being a solid high-tier in the game's early lifespan, though his rank would slowly decline as many of his old weaknesses emerged. However, Donkey Kong does have notable strengths, the most significant of which is his near-unrivaled horizontal endurance, and his launch power getting buffed even further, along with the engine generally favoring a slower pace. Unfortunately, these strengths were not enough to compensate for Donkey Kong's weaknesses, and he remained in the lower end of the tier list.
** In ''Smash 4'', the elimination of chain-grabbing, while helpful, wasn't enough to get DK viewed as anything higher than low-mid tier. The 1.1.0 patch changed everything for him by reducing the knockback of his cargo up-throw, granting him an effective combo starter that allowed him to rack up damage frighteningly quick. The up-throw buff also granted DK a new and reliable kill confirm on the entire cast, Ding Dong (not unlike his nephew's infamous Hoo Hah). From there, Donkey Kong would garner respectable placings from many players throughout the remainder of ''Smash 4'', his most notable achievement being a top 8 finish at 2GG: Civil War, regarded as the most difficult ''Smash 4'' tournament. By the end of ''Smash 4'', DK was viewed as a respectable high-tier character.
** In ''Ultimate'', while DK did receive numerous buffs, the few nerfs he did receive dramatically offset what he had gained. His once-reliable cargo up-throw was stripped of most of its utility (Ding Dong in particular was hit hard), and his unsafe kit means that ''he'' will usually be punished for landing a move on an opponent. Balance patches would provide small but helpful buffs, which somewhat improved his standing. While there have been some solid Donkey Kong placings in tournaments, his flaws are very exploitable, and he remains a character that can't rely on his overwhelming strength, which leaves him with little else.
* '''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]]''' in every game up until ''Smash 4'' was hit with this. He consistently had a terrible recovery, very sluggish mobility and moves, ineffective projectiles, and little range. The result is a MightyGlacier who wasn't that mighty, and thus consistently failed in competitive play. Link's counterparts (Young Link in ''Melee'', Toon Link in ''Brawl'' and ''4'', both in ''Ultimate'') are considerably better than Adult Link, resulting in a low-tier character that was [[AlasPoorScrappy pitied more than hated]]. In the fourth game, he got some much-needed buffs; although they weren't quite enough to offset his mobility issues, at least he didn't outright suck anymore.
** ''Ultimate'' saw Link significantly improve. He was given a quicker non-tether grab, and his base moves and projectiles received many buffs. In particular, his bomb special was reworked to the remote bomb variant seen in ''Breath of the Wild'', gaining tons of knockback, damage, stage control, combo potential, and recovery (by blowing himself up). This combined with even better frame data puts him in a much better position, and his tournament viability skyrocketed. All three Links find themselves in the higher tiers thanks to their own distinguishing traits, with Adult Link being noted for the aforementioned powerful moves and frame data, finally saving Link from the low-tier list.
* '''[[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus]]''' has to deal with a lackluster melee game in order to encourage use of her projectiles, which aren't anything to write home about. Thanks to her floaty nature and weak knockback, this gives her a very limited combo game, some of the worst [=KO=]ing ability in the series, and several easy ways to punish her. To add insult to injury, Zero Suit Samus (her canonically-weaker unarmored MsFanservice form) has been a much more effective character than regular Samus.
** Her ''Smash 4'' incarnation is a mixed bag in regards to this trope. She has been buffed from her lackluster ''Brawl'' version, with her players continuing to find new tricks. However, Samus is still considered a low-tier character, in contrast to her Zero Suit form being a top-tier. For the extra salt rubbing, Samus's jab fails to connect both its hits properly, which was seemingly an ''intentional'' design flaw, as an in-game tip states it happens and you should "run away" after connecting the first hit instead of following through with the second like any sensible player would. The backlash against ''Smash 4'' Samus was additionally ignited by Masahiro Sakurai stating Samus was the best character in the game at the ''Super Smash Bros. Invitational'' in response to none of the participants picking her, which fans used to mock Samus further when it turned out she was far from the best character. This sentiment almost immediately disappeared after patch 1.1.5, in which Samus was one of the biggest beneficiaries of buffs that improved her mobility in the air and made her dash attack into an effective combo starter. Not soon after, Samus's started to make top finishes a lot more frequently.
** ''Ultimate'' had Samus settling into being a respected character in the meta. Her Charge Shot is feared as one of the best projectiles in the game, since she can now jump-cancel it and charge it in the air. Not only that, its sheer utility allows her to create pressure, KO as in past iterations, and even lead into combos and KO setups. Missiles and Bombs increased in utility as well, being more effective at hitting the opponent and detonating on contact, respectively. The 7.0.0 patch saw Samus as a recipient of major buffs, including her already-great Dash Attack being a better KO option, stronger Up/Down Smashes, a strong Z-Air that controls space to greater effect, and even a KO throw. Since the patch, Samus is seen as a solid contender for the higher tiers in her best tier position since ''Melee''.
* '''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]]''' is considered bottom tier across almost all the ''Smash'' games she's been in for having poor mobility, weak tilts, hit-or-miss aerials, awful specials, and a bad grab with underwhelming throws. A common joke about Zelda is, prior to the release of ''Smash 4'', that her best attack is her down special to transform into Sheik. Not helping matters is the fact ''Smash 4'' got rid of her ability to transform into Sheik, which has solidified her status as a MemeticLoser and ButtMonkey with the fandom.
** Zelda's ''Ultimate'' incarnation got some much-needed buffs and changes in her moves, and she's earned decently strong regional results in ''Ultimate'' tournaments. Despite having not made much impact on the competitive metagame, Zelda's zoning tools and strengths were seen as an upgrade from her prior iterations. The 7.0 patch cemented her identity as a unique-style of GlassCannon zoner. While light and slow, her moves either have great range or pack a serious punch. Most notably, every Special in her arsenal is lethal and allows her to be a threat at a distance. Nayru's Love has invulnerable frames that allow her to combo break, Din's Fire's explosion is large and lingers, Farore's Wind doubles as a great recovery move and a KO option, and her newly-acquired Phantom is a versatile tool that wards off or sets up against the opponent in any way she so desires. While her flaws are still as exploitable as ever, Zelda at least isn't a joke in ''Ultimate''.
* '''VideoGame/DrMario''' was very viable back in ''Melee'', being superior to his progenitor in nearly all aspects. However, after his return to the series in ''Smash 4'', the good doctor has consistently ranked within the lowest tiers.
** Unlike in ''Melee'', where the developers apparently forgot to make Doc slower than Mario, they actually went through with it ''Smash 4'', resulting in a character that was painfully sluggish. The theory is that Doc moves a bit slower while hitting a bit harder, but the power multiplier increase isn't proportional to the mobility reduction. Doc's KO moves are additionally considered worse than Mario's for being harder to land while being inconsequentially stronger, and Doc has a recovery that is in the running for worst in the game. Finally, Doc gets launched just as far as Mario, but can't recover with the same consistency. While some argue for his viability after patching increased his power, Doc's flaws are simply too great for him to be worth the effort.
** In ''Ultimate'', he is once more in this spot, for more or less the same reasons as in ''3DS[=/=]Wii U''. He fights like a MightyGlacier, but lacks the bulk and power you'd expect of the archetype. The consensus is that he's still vastly outclassed by regular Mario in competitive play, even after patching increased Doc's power to be more in line. The good doctor thus finds himself ranked in the bottom-tier, and the release of the final patch means it would take nothing short of a miracle for him to rise out of it.
* '''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Ganondorf]]''' is one of the most extreme examples of the series. While decently viable in ''Melee'', every game afterwards has him consistently ranked within the lowest tiers. However, there's actually a fair bit of sympathy towards him. Players seem to genuinely want Ganondorf to be good, but other than a brief moment in the sun during ''Melee'', he never is.
** In ''Brawl'', he's the game's worst character by a long shot, at one point even being ranked at his own "trash tier" below everyone else. While he has above-average power, he's way too slow, while being especially vulnerable to ''Brawl''[='=]s exploits. Unlike most low-tier induced scrappies, Ganon's perception is a bit more favorable, as many players find him fun to watch. Still, his low-tier status added to the demand to change him from a MovesetClone of Captain Falcon to a more canon-adhering kit.
** ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' made him a bit more mobile and even stronger, though he's still considered low-tier. Despite this, he's looked upon more even more favorably than in ''Brawl'' thanks to his buffs; unlike other low tiers, Ganondorf is a crowd-pleaser when successful in higher-level matches. However, as a result of this, Ganondorf has the added reputation of being the character of choice for a lot of {{scrub}}s; the stereotype of the "For Glory Ganondorf" is a player who goes in expecting to kick ass, then gets punted around like a football and ragequits. As such, Ganondorf is fun to watch succeed in tournaments, but only because it doesn't happen very often.
** ''Ultimate'' heavily buffed him, but he nonetheless stayed at the bottom. Ganondorf is a severe case of a SkillGateCharacter; he hits harder than several other characters, and has pretty fast attacks, including a surprisingly good neutral-air. However, his bad air speed and lackluster recovery plus large frame and high weight still render him vulnerable to being combo'd and getting gimped while offstage. Although his moveset still has plenty of detractors, the sheer amount of aesthetic and mechanical improvements that Ganondorf got makes him a sympathetic tier-induced scrappy than a hated one.
* '''[[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Mewtwo]]''' is an extremely light GlassCannon with a tall frame and large hurtbox - a tried-and-true recipe for low-tier scrappydom.
** In the first tier list of ''Melee'', Mewtwo was at the bottom. Not only was it super light and easy to hit, but it also lacked severely in KO moves. This conundrum, combined with the [[GameplayAndStorySegregation sheer irony]] of Pokémon's most famous legendary being so bad, ensured a lot of mockery. Despite its bottom-tier position, its dedicated playerbase found that Mewtwo was actually more effective than many thought it to be, with its practically ungimpable recovery and powerful throws. It's still not a competitive threat, but at least it did gain relatively more respect than its early days.
** While the fandom rejoiced when Mewtwo came back in ''Smash 4'', it was hit with this again despite its fairly significant buffs. For one, Mewtwo got even ''lighter'', and is the second-lightest character behind Jigglypuff. Over time, Mewtwo's viability skyrocketed with multiple patches addressing its "[[GlassCannon more glass than cannon]]" attributes and its dysfunctional hitboxes. After the 1.1.3 and 1.1.5 patches, Mewtwo now has very functional and powerful aerials, the 5th fastest running speed in the game, and a slight weight increase that now makes it a very dangerous glass cannon that can seal stocks fast with its high range and high damage output, putting Mewtwo in top-tier.
** In ''Ultimate'', Mewtwo didn't fare quite as well as ''Smash 4''. Its most notable and oft-mocked flaw is that it gained a hurtbox on its tail, making it even easier to hit. Additionally, its neutral game was toned down, and its air dodge suffered significantly from the universal changes in ''Ultimate''. As a result, there has been significant debate on its viability, though consensus is that it resides in mid-tier, with its standing having been helped by the multitude of buffs it received through patches. A few people also theorize that, if Mewtwo got buffs in the areas that deserve to be fixed, Mewtwo could have been a high tier. But with the release of the final patch, players are just left wondering what might have been.
* Out of the three UsefulNotes/{{Mii}} Fighters -- [[CloseRangeCombatant Brawler]], [[LongRangeFighter Gunner]], and [[JackOfAllStats Swordfighter]] -- it's the '''Mii Swordfighter''' that's considered the worst of the three.
** Early in ''Smash 4'', the Swordfighter was in the running for the worst character, with some early tier-lists placing the Swordfighter at the very bottom. Problems include generally poor mobility, weak offense, and a lot of lag in its attacks. Mii Swordfighter was one of the biggest recipients of buffs, and while the previous stigma still remains, many players begun to see the Mii Swordfighter as a competent fighter.
** In ''Ultimate'', people were hoping that the quality of life improvements which Brawler and Gunner got would also extend to the Swordfighter, but no dice. Players did find a useful kill confirm, but it didn't help much. The Swordfighter's zoning and projectiles have subpar frame data and easy counterplay. And for a swordsman, its range is pretty bad. Coupled with the Swordfighter's sluggish movement, poor frame data, and lack of reliable combos, it frequently places low on most tier lists. There are a few Swordfighter users who think that it can rise up, but the Swordfighter is fighting an uphill battle.
* '''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Bowser Jr.]]''' is best described as a LongRangeFighter who is bad at long range.
** With his introduction in ''Smash 4'', he had some decent attributes: solid smash attacks and aerials, a good recovery move with his Clown Kart Dash, his Mechakoopas for a decent stage control option, and his jab being very good at kill confirms. That said, Junior's weaknesses are glaring. His Clown Cannon is the worst charge shot in the game as it can't be stored, can only have one shot at a time, and the shot is slow, predictable, and punishable. His Mechakoopa has a long start up time and can be used against him. He can easily get gimped off stage because he can't use his recovery again until he lands or grabs a ledge. Lastly, his throws have no inherent combo or KO potential, making them the game's worst. The few people who used Bowser Jr. dropped him quickly, leaving him to languish among the bottom tiers as a result.
** In ''Ultimate'', even though many moves of Jr.'s did get buffed, it wasn't enough. He's now able to have two cannonballs in play at once and they deal far more shield damage, and his recovery gained more uses. But both are still very predictable and easy to punish. And the nerfs he got were glaring: his Mechakoopa now deactivates when it hits a shield, he can't air dodge out of Clown Kart Dash, and his forward tilt has been given a sourspot. The end result was a character perceived as even worse than his already-bad ''Smash 4'' iteration. He got some substantial buffs in patch 3.1.0, but they weren't enough to significantly improve his standing. While Bowser Jr. is no longer considered a contender for worst fighter in the game, he's still seen as deserving of his spot near the bottom.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Super Smash Bros.'']]
* '''Luigi''' is the worst character in the original game. His combo ability is varied and versatile, he boasts a devastating finisher in his Super Jump Punch, and he has a long distanced recovery. But all of this is offset by a slew of overwhelming weaknesses; his mobility is painfully slow, his melee range is short, and his projectile in Fireball is very easy to circumvent. Additionally, while being a MovesetClone of Mario in terms of attacks, some of them are weaker. And finally, although his recovery is long-distanced, it's also easy to edgeguard because of his low air speed. Likely as a result of his poor balance, ''Melee'' buffed Luigi exceptionally, gaining devastating aerials and better special moves.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'']]
* '''Captain Falcon''' became this in ''Brawl''. Whereas Falcon's ''64'' and ''Melee'' incarnations were beloved high-tier characters, Falcon got some fairly significant nerfs in ''Brawl''. His Knee Smash forward-air became much harder to sweetspot, and the new hitstun cancelling mechanic ruined Falcon, as the opponent being able to act out of hitstun near-instantaneously destroyed his combo game. And since combos were one of Falcon's premier attributes, this took away what made him shine. Falcon ended up being ridiculously ineffectual, to the point of being considered the game's worst character in its first year. While his perception and tier placement improved a bit throughout ''Brawl''[='=]s lifespan, he was mostly treated as a JokeCharacter which few people played and even fewer played competitively. However, he rose back to the high tiers in ''Smash 4'' and ''Ultimate'', making this a one-time thing for him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/[=3DS=]'']]
* '''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Robin]]''' has the slowest movement speed, projectiles that take far too long to charge for how little damage they do, a vulnerable recovery, one of the shortest-ranged grabs in the game on top of a below-average set of throws, and a limited amount of times they can use their smash attacks and their special attacks before being rendered practically helpless. The 1.1.0 and 1.1.1 patches buffed them by giving them a combo throw and allowing them to deal more shield pressure, but it wasn't able to help Robin bring the thunder. All of the resource management that went into the character simply wasn't worth it, and they found themselves as a source of mockery among the playerbase, especially the subset of the ''Smash'' fandom that thought ''Fire Emblem'' was getting too much representation.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'']]
This game's meta will take a long time to form, due to the number of characters that are playable in the game, and Ultimate's roster only recently finalizing at the time of this writing. But there are a few characters that people have been keeping their eye on, for better and for worse.
* '''[[VideoGame/PunchOut Little Mac]]''' competes with Ganondorf and Dr. Mario for the title of the worst character in ''Ultimate''. His niche as a neutral-focused, grounded fighter is not only done better by other characters, but his neutral is lackluster compared to much of the cast. Even with his recovery buff to his side special and air speed, he's still got a very poor recovery that is further nerfed by air dodge mechanics. All these stats lead Mac to be a character whose polarizing ground-based nature works ''against'' him, causing even the most well-known of Little Mac mains from the previous game to abandon him. He would even stay firmly at the bottom in spite of several balance patches that helped him. Mac's 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 bait him into doing something unsafe, get him offstage, and let him fall to his death.
* '''[[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Lucario]]''' has found himself in the low tiers in ''Ultimate'' after a decently-strong showing in ''3DS/[=/=]Wii U''. His aura gimmick got nerfed pretty hard, and with many characters getting quality-of-life buffs, there's a good chance Lucario can't capitalize on aura anyways. But what really throws him in low tier is his poor frame and neutral game, which amounts to throwing out aerial attacks and hoping they aren't punished. Lucario often finds himself getting zoned out or rushed down by most of the cast, and he has a difficult time trying to get momentum on his side. His recovery, while going a long distance, is very easy to intercept. Other than a few Lucario diehards, most players have left the character behind.
* '''[[VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewLeaf Isabelle]]''' has been consistently ranked poorly. The first problem is being a semi-clone of Villager, who is noticeably worse off from the previous title due to a combination of lower weight and few other changes, while their exceptional recovery isn't so exceptional anymore. As for Isabelle, while she does possess an above-average ledge-trapping ability, almost everything that differentiates her from Villager is to her detriment. She's even lighter than Villager. Her Smash attacks are faster, but much less powerful. Her Fishing Rod has some solid KO power and trap potential, but is useless on shield and ''very'' punishable if she misses. Her Lloid Trap, a mine that provides stage control, can be effortlessly destroyed or even reflected. All in all, she’s far from useless, but the consensus remains that there is very little reason to play Isabelle over Villager, making her a rarity in competitive play.
[[/folder]]


!!Both
[[folder:Series-Wide]]
These characters used to be high-tier but became low-tier, or vice versa. Any character's strengths, weaknesses, and tier placement tends to change from game to game. But there are a few standout examples who had the greatest shift in tier placement over time.
* '''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]]''', Nintendo's mascot and the JackOfAllStats, is frequently hit with this trope, on both sides.
** In the first two ''Smash'' games, Mario's build tended to rank him as average, befitting his aforesaid jack-of-all-stats type. ''64'' has him with a bevvy of good moves and attributes, but none of them standing out too much from the cast. He transitioned to ''Melee'' neither strongly buffed nor strongly nerfed, but a good portion of the characters around him did get buffed, and some strong newcomers came to the fray as well making Mario lag behind somewhat compared to the expanded cast.
** When ''Brawl'' came, Mario was nerfed and hurt by ''Brawl''[='=]s engine. His combo ability from previous games was gone due to the ''Brawl'''s floatiness and anti-combo engine. With many of the newcomers being highly effective and many characters from ''Melee'' being buffed, Mario ended up being a MasterOfNone, with a hard time racking up damage, an even harder time scoring [=KOs=] due to a lack of a reliable finisher, and his range and speed are unimpressive considering the game's patient nature. All of this amounted to him being considered a low tier character, languishing there for the game's lifespan.
** In ''Smash 4'', Mario would be rebalanced with some additional buffs. His combo game is one of the best, with more reliable combo starters, an overall fast moveset that makes him hard to punish, and safe, powerful smash attacks. Mario was supposedly designed to be beginner-friendly, but [[GoneHorriblyRight making him easier to use went a little too well]]. Mario has the lowest learning curve of any character, providing very high reward for very little effort. Not helping is the fact that he was barely touched in most balance patches, which [[EpilepticTrees has led some players to believe that]] [[PurposelyOverpowered Mario was made, and left as, one of the best characters in the game out of favoritism]]. However, with the advent of other newcomers and top Mario players declining, Mario is once again viewed as one of the more favorable top tiers at top-level play.
** Mario's transition into ''Ultimate'' brought a healthy mix of buffs and nerfs, leaving his core playstyle intact. As a result, Mario's traits remain as consistent as before, and he still has a good deal of top players using him to great success. Thus, Mario's perception is once again that of a top-tier character with a low learning curve that still provides an incredible reward with low risk. That said, while he's still a character many loathe to fight against, Mario hasn't received nearly as much hate as in ''Smash 4'' from the crowd, mainly for being slightly less dominant and for having a less repetitive playstyle.
* '''Franchise/{{Kirby}}''' has always been known for being one of the easiest characters to pick up and play, as well having the unique ability to [[PowerCopying copy special moves]] thanks to Inhale, and he is also infamous among lower-leveled players thanks to his multiple ways to cheese out stocks. However, when it comes to competitive play, the pink puffball has also had a very tumultuous history across the series.
** In ''Smash 64'', he is notorious for his very fast and [[HitboxDissonance massively disjointed]] up tilt that shuts down most approaches, while easily comboing into itself and other moves. Not only that, he also has nasty range on several of his kick-based moves, and has one of the best horizontal air speeds in the game. Kirby is additionally perceived to be one of the game's "easiest" characters to play, which makes some players dislike him and those who play him even more.
** In ''Melee'' Kirby was severely nerfed. He has awful approach options, the lack of an effective projectile without [[PowerCopying copying one from Inhale]], terrible mobility, and generally being poor-to-mediocre in every relevant area. Even his recovery that's supposed to be good is pretty poor because of how easy it is to edgeguard. He also has some of the worst throws in ''Smash'' history, rendered completely useless by the simple fact that you can effortlessly escape them with a simple jump. This leads Kirby to have abysmal matchups against everyone, and a complete lack of any tournament success. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaOTldY_FqI This video]] by Smashtuber [=AsumSaus=] provides a good visual overview of ''Melee'' Kirby's significant flaws and goes into a bit more detail than what we've described here.
** In ''Brawl'', Kirby got some serious buffs. Kirby has one of the strongest combo abilities in ''Brawl'' (notable since the game is known for its anti-combo engine), as well as a strong grab game. Kirby also retained some of his signature traits from the previous games, such as fast frame data, disjointed reach on his attacks, one of the better edge-guarding capabilities, and a long-distanced recovery. However, Kirby still retains his other weaknesses such as being light and having poor momentum canceling abilities, and a susceptibility to camping due to his slow mobility and lack of a true projectile unless he Inhales for one. Nevertheless, the pink puffball was, for a time, considered high tier, until settling down into a perennial yet still stable mid-tier.
** In ''Smash 4'', Kirby was nerfed once again. Although he retains his strengths such as his fast attacks and good air game, his nerfs made his hitboxes smaller, reduced the damage he could deal, and further pronounced his weaknesses. Game updates did buff Kirby, but none of them were enough to improve his standing. Outside of glimpses of success, Kirby is widely considered to be low tier, although not to the degree of ''Melee''.
** In ''Ultimate'', Kirby was nerfed even further. He struggles with neutral, 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. The game's engine also exacerbated his poor aerial physics, with his long-distanced recovery being overshadowed by his slow air speed. This culminated into a character that had little to no cohesiveness, making him feel broken in a bad way. Even the most renowned of Kirby mains bailed on him, warning other players to simply avoid Kirby. 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. While he is considered to be much better, Kirby still remains in the lower parts of the tier list and some of the aforementioned problems remain unfixed.
* '''[[VideoGame/EarthBound1994 Ness]]''' is infamous as both a low tier and a high tier. This is because he's either extremely good or extremely bad; nothing in-between.
** In the early days of ''Smash 64'', he was thought to have a combo game that approached GameBreaker levels. As the metagame advanced, players learned to really take advantage of Ness' easily exploited recovery, and their superior spacing made Ness' lack of reach on his attacks much more apparent. The result is plummeting in the tier list from the third-highest to the third-lowest over the course of the game's lifespan.
** Ness' worst tier ranking came in ''Melee'', where he was hit with some major nerfs, most notably with his down-air having added startup time and the distance of his recovery being drastically reduced, and his lack of range was still as exploitable as ever. Outside of occasional use as a sandbagging or desperate secondary character by Melee god "Hungrybox", he's never seen play at Melee's highest levels, and Ness is ranked fourth-lowest in that game's tier list.
** In ''Brawl'', while significantly better due to the floatier engine playing well to his strong air game (including a buffed recovery), Ness was still seen as lower mid-tier at best due to his recovery and range weaknesses, as well as a few match-ups that heavily worked against him. In spite of a decent matchup against one of the metagame's biggest terrors in Olimar, Ness saw little competitive play once again.
** In ''Smash 4'', Ness finally rose into relevance, as his strengths and weaknesses are both huge. His throw game is really strong, including the indisputable best back-throw in the game. He has really good aerials, especially his fast and powerful up-air and combo-friendly forward-air. His improved viability allowed PK Thunder to become a serious annoyance to opponents stuck in the air. However, Ness' past weaknesses still held him back significantly. His poor range ensured a lot of difficulty against sword-characters. His recovery, while buffed significantly, was still very exploitable, especially if the opponent can absorb the hit. So while improved, he was stuck as a classic mid-tier SkillGateCharacter: annoying to more casual players, but with limited success at the competitive level.
** ''Ultimate'' has his best incarnation yet. His PK Fire got buffed and can rack up insane damage. His up-air has faster startup and great combo potential. His yo-yo smash attacks had their charging hitboxes restored, and can now even be used off the edge. Also, he majorly benefits from having one of the best directional air dodges in the game, vastly improving his recovery. His PK Thunder has become even more annoying, as the changes to air dodges make it even harder to avoid. Last but not least, his PSI Magnet was given a hitbox that guarantees follow-ups, further boosting his combo game. Competitively, his worst matchups continue to be against characters who outrange him, such as most of the Sword characters, or who beat his aerials with their own and edgeguard him. Ness still has his weaknesses, but due to his already established infamy, Ness is a widely hated character to fight regardless of skill level.
* '''[[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Jigglypuff]]''' has had one of the bumpiest runs through the tier lists in the series; it's been a high-tier, a low-tier, and everything in-between.
** In ''64'', it's 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 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 [[DeathOrGloryAttack Rest]]. However, Jigglypuff is so light and floaty, it's very easy to KO. It also has a unique trait of launching straight up on shield-break, blasting into the air like a shooting star. Not to mention it's one of the only two characters to lack a rising up special move for recovery, 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.
** With the advent of pro Puff player Hungrybox emerging to dominate ''Melee'' tournaments, Jigglypuff became the competitive community's most detested character. In short, Jigglypuff is the antithesis of what players like about ''Melee''; extremely floaty, relying on walling opponents out and camping rather than on aggressive offense, an amazing recovery that is difficult to edgeguard, making little use of the game's advanced techniques, having Rest to get a near-instant OneHitKO on just about anyone, and being an overall less technical character than anyone else. The outrage over Puff would cool down over a few years as Hungrybox started winning a lot fewer tournaments, while there remained barely any notable Jigglypuff players outside of him. It briefly flared back up again when [[LoonyFan one particularly disgruntled person]] [[ProducePelting threw a crab]] [[SeriousBusiness at Hungrybox after he won Pound 2019]], but after that, competitive players realized how far things had gone and largely backed off (at least in public).
** In ''Brawl'', Jigglypuff was transitioned from high-tier to low-tier with some of the heaviest nerfs in the game (most notably to Rest, which [=KOs=] about 50% later and is much more difficult to land). Jigglypuff has been ranked a bottom-tier character since the game's release, with perhaps the smallest playerbase of any character in ''Brawl''. There were even some players who thought it was the actual worst character in the game instead of Ganondorf, particularly on Japanese tier lists.
** ''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 the advent of the Rage mechanic. But the problems against Puff 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 barely any reach on almost all of them. Its aerial attacks aren't that great, with their reach not being much better than its ground attacks. Its grab game is additionally terrible, possessing the second-shortest grabbing reach in the game and weak throws all-around. And while Rest is a viable trump card again with its buffs, it still has little setups into it. The worst part about the character, however, is that it has received ''no direct changes'' within the many patches, leaving it in the dust as the power of other lower tier characters creeped up while Puff remained where it was. It's thus ranked as the worst character on the Smashboards tier list.
** In ''Ultimate'', the game's physics have made Puff's life much easier thanks to air dodges being much worse, thus restoring its edgeguard game. This only became more apparent after updates 6.0.0 and 13.0.0. The former patch increased the hitstun of Pound and decreased the ending lag of down-air, with the result being that Jigglypuff now has ''multiple'' ways to combo into Rest. The latter patch breathed new life in Jigglypuff's grounded kit, as its neutral attack's second hit has much less endlag, granting it new hit confirms and even a KO setup. Overall, both patches have given Jigglypuff a massive boost in damage and [=KO=] potential. However, it is still very light, and [[DeathOrGloryAttack 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 are its prime weakness, but general consensus is while the Puff isn't quite to the level it was in ''Melee'', it has improved significantly.
* '''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Bowser]]''' was initially the series' staple lumbering MightyGlacier, and was initially treated/mocked as such. But his evolution over the games has caused the King of Koopas to become a terror instead.
** ''Melee'' didn't give him much speed to go with his huge size, heavy weight, and extreme power. Since the metagame would evolve, his slow speed, high weight, and notably massive size compared to the rest of the roster would become more noticeable, making him pure combo bait in a game all about speed and combos. Although Bowser does have a few advantages, including the absolute best ledge getup attack in the game, they didn't compensate at all for how noticeable his weaknesses are. The result was a character considered low-tier since release. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALLLzprs1uo Here's another video overview]] by [=AsumSaus=], in case you wanted a more detailed look into ''Melee'' Bowser's flaws.
** ''Brawl'' improved Bowser by giving him significantly greater mobility and faster attacks with greater reach in exchange for slightly less power. He also got an improved recovery, and the slower pace of the engine was more favorable for Bowser. However, after the first year of the game's life, he plummeted through the tier lists to being right back in low tier for many of the same reasons as in ''Melee'', and his vulnerability to the game's many powerful chain throws have ensured he won't be going up again anytime soon.
** His ''Smash 4'' incarnation got a wildly inconsistent perception. Bowser was the strongest and fastest he'd ever been, got a further buffed recovery, a bunch of effective attacks, and [[ImmuneToFlinching super armor]]; this is on top of the newly added rage mechanic significantly benefiting hard-hitting characters that can live a long time like Bowser. Further adding to this is the game's noticeably frailer shields, making his moves much tougher to block. But the general playerbase [[SomeDexterityRequired becoming better]], and able to exploit Bowser's same old weaknesses, made his tier placement suffer. But then, patch 1.1.4 buffed him again, and the result was Bowser rushing up into the high tiers once again. Along with Donkey Kong, Bowser's up throw being a 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.
** In ''Ultimate'', despite his up throw being nerfed, Bowser was buffed ''immensely''. To start, not only was Bowser's super armor buffed further from the previous game, but more of his attacks now have it. All of Bowser's specials were buffed greatly, with Fire Breath tacking on heavy damage, his Flying Slam command grab being a deadly combination of fast and strong, and Bowser Bomb being able to meteor smash opponents and [=KO=] opponents earlier. The most notable change was that his jump animation was put in line with the universal engine change, making his aerials incredibly strong and useful. Finally, he got even heavier (although not by much), making him even harder to launch. These buffs turned Bowser into a LightningBruiser, with lots of options for just about every situation. Bowser comfortably resides around the lower end of high tier, and combined with a solid playerbase and very respectable tourney results, it's not likely he'll be slowed down anytime soon.
* As a result of being a MovesetClone of Fox, '''[[VideoGame/StarFox Falco]]''' has become a notorious case throughout the games. However, unlike Fox, Falco has been on both ends of the spectrum.
** In ''Melee'', Falco amassed quite a competitive fanbase, with many players being drawn to his potential for flashy combos. Some consider him to be better than Fox in terms of power, due to his Blaster causing hitstun (whereas Fox's doesn't), easier shine combos, and brutal finishers, particularly his down-air. However, these traits also cause him to be loathed in some circles, particularly with the rise of ''Melee'' netplay. On the other hand, there are players who still love the character and cheer him on at the highest levels, particularly in the modern metagame where everyone now knows how to abuse his weaknesses to the fullest. Unlike Fox, Falco is seen as the underdog in certain matchups, causing the bird to get a lot more appreciation.
** In ''Brawl'', he was significantly differentiated from Fox. He had some obnoxiously strong attributes, such as his lagless Blaster that could be fired twice in a short hop to control space and snuff approaches to a ridiculous degree, while having an easy chain throw that worked on nearly every character. 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=], a poor punish game, an awful recovery, and Falco being heavily vulnerable to chain throws himself.
** His ''Smash 4'' appearance handed him some heavy nerfs. Falco was even slower on the ground than he was in ''Brawl'', as well as having some startup lag on his down-air. He would get buffed significantly in multiple patches, but many players still treated him as a low-tier character as he wasn't given back the powerful abilities that made him top-tier in prior games. His playerbase remained small despite past popularity, due to a lack of players showing off his improvements or optimizing his metagame.
** With ''Ultimate'', Falco would get a lot of major buffs. His neutral game is much better than in ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' (though not as good as ever), with a much improved Blaster and better mobility, and his punishment capabilities are harsher due to improvements to his combo game. The improved air dodges also made him dangerous in the right hands, though not quite as much as Fox. Updates made him more stable, but didn't improve his standing all that much. General consensus on Falco is that he has improved, sitting at the bottom of high tiers, and Falco's spot in the metagame is stable but not spectacular.
* '''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Pichu]]''' has only appeared twice in the franchise, but it's been either really bad or really good.
** In ''Melee'', Pichu is the game's resident JokeCharacter as a FragileSpeedster to [[ExaggeratedTrope its most logical extreme]]. It's the fastest and lightest character, and [[StopHittingYourself nearly half of its attacks hurt itself]], even its recovery move. Pichu is additionally nearly completely inferior clone to 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}}.
** Pichu [[TookALevelInBadass got major]] [[BalanceBuff buffs]] in ''Ultimate'' which [[GoneHorriblyRight turned it from a]] FragileSpeedster JokeCharacter [[GoneHorriblyRight into a nightmarish]] GlassCannon. Its weaknesses remain mostly intact, but its attacks do far more damage, and the rage mechanic boosts its killing power every time it hurts itself. People began to hate Pichu for being fast, mobile, hard-to-hit, and an all-or-nothing playstyle that can [[RocketTagGameplay either dominate a stock 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. 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. Overall, the greater rewards and ease of [=KOing=] opponents Pichu has made it a high-tier threat in the meta.
* '''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade Roy]]''' has this in spades. Not only is he a BaseBreakingCharacter in his origin game, ''The Binding Blade'', but he has also had a very bumpy run throughout ''Smash''.
** In ''Melee'', Roy is almost at the bottom of the tier list. He is a [[MovesetClone clone]] of Marth with an inverse design; instead of having the need to space attacks on the tip of his sword, the sweetspot is at the base of his sword. However, Roy's design is abysmal on execution, as he has laggy attacks with weak sourspots, few KO moves, atrocious aerials, limited combos, poor hitboxes, significant punish for missing, and terrible recovery. Those last two points combined with low weight give him possibly the worst survivability in ''Melee''. This alone would get him heavy derided by the competitive playerbase, but casual sentiment is especially favorable to him because of his few KO moves being easily spammed in casual play, which led to further dislike of Roy among competitive players. In fact, the great disparity between competitive and casual perception made Marth vs. Roy one of the most heated tier arguments in early ''Melee'', and Roy ended up a bit of symbol for "anti-tierists".
** Roy came back in ''Smash 4'' as DLC, decloned from Marth and notably buffed, making him a LightningBruiser. He was initially seen as a high-tier character; however, he soon started to drop down to a low-tier once again. Roy's attacks still had pretty bad sourpsots and needed him to be close-range to do anything. Meanwhile, Marth and Lucina later received huge buffs in updates, whereas Roy's buffs were not as significant. General consensus at the end of the game's lifespan was that Roy ended as a lower mid-tier character, as [[DifficultButAwesome his playstyle requires really smart decision-making and a lot of finesse on execution]].
** His ''Ultimate'' appearance 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, and his Flare Blade capable of turning around to hit unsuspecting opponents with a lethal blow. He also benefitted heavily from the game's universal changes; the significantly increased shieldstun, faster mobility, and lower landing lag make it a real hassle to get him off. His fast frame data and mobility now properly compensate for his shorter range, allowing Roy to rack damage fast, keep his aggression and advantage going, and KO at rather low percentages. 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, while others said that Chrom was far more consistent; over time, Roy 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, Roy is now the best he has ever been, so his future has shined unlike in the previous titles.
* '''[[UsefulNotes/GameAndWatch Mr. Game & Watch]]''' is an unusual character as a result of his unique 2D design, but several issues (ranging from being unfinished to his gameplay design) have made his history across decades of competitive ''Smash'' tumultuous as a result.
** His ''Melee'' iteration had his flaws exacerbated by the game's engine; while he has a slew of powerful moves that can easily KO opponents, he has one of the worst approaches in the game due to his slow overall speed, and is the only character who cannot L-cancel all of his aerials. Despite his light weight, Mr. Game & Watch is shockingly easy to combo, juggle, and KO due to a poor combination of said weight, low falling speed, and high hitstun. Furthermore, Mr. Game & Watch has the single worst shield in the game, as it fails to completely cover his body even at full health, making it easy to poke him.
** ''Brawl'' gave Mr. Game & Watch a multitude of buffs, including a heavier weight, lower landing lag on all of his aerials, and his shield size being fixed to fully cover his body. Also, the engine changes significantly reduced his vulnerability to combos. Additionally, the two mechanics gave Mr. Game & Watch some of the best horizontal survivability in the game due to a technique called Bucket Braking, which was due to his down special, Oil Panic, negating all horizontal momentum when used. Mr. Game & Watch's kill moves are still powerful, especially his powerful Smash attacks. While not overwhelmingly strong, Mr. Game & Watch was able to secure respectable representation and results in ''Brawl''.
** His ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' incarnation became universally despised in doubles matches. Two words: [[EnergyAbsorption Oil Panic]]. 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 a 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%. As a result, Game & Watch was either soft-banned or outright banned in Doubles and left to become one of the most infuriating characters in the competitive meta. Fortunately, Oil Panic's power in Doubles has since been [[http://www.ssbwiki.com/Mr._Game_and_Watch_(SSB4)#Update_history significantly reduced]], 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 overall from ''Brawl'', with said nerfs being significant.
** ''Ultimate'' had Game & Watch as a high-tier with his small hitbox, insane damage capabilities, and powerful smash attacks that have great utility. However, the most hated part about him is his up-special, Fire. Not only does it come out lightning-fast, it also possesses a hitbox, provides invincibility during ascent, functions as a combo starter, and Mr. Game & Watch is still capable of using aerials once the parachute deploys. While he does have some weaknesses, the two-dimensional terror is not a character to be slept on in bracket.
* '''[[VideoGame/KidIcarus Pit]]''' got his chance to shine once again after ''Brawl'' added him to the fray, but his three attempts to do so have amounted to a rather inconsistent run.
** His ''Brawl'' appearance is a JackOfAllStats. Pit's bladed bow grants his attacks disjointed range, though not as disjointed as characters like Marth. His moves have low lag, though not to the extent as characters like Meta Knight. He has reasonable mobility, though not as much as characters like Zero Suit Samus. On the more polarized sides of things, Pit possesses an amazing recovery that includes multiple jumps, a long-distanced recovery move in Wings of Icarus, and the ability to glide, alongside very useful aerials, and one of the most notoriously broken projectiles in the game with the arrows from his Palutena Bow. However, he also has very few moves that can reliably KO, and if he gets hit during his Wings of Icarus, he's done for. However, the West (America and Europe) overall considers Pit as a balanced mid-tier character that only saw a few glimpses of success; in stark contrast, the East (Japan) is a lot more positive about Pit, where he is ranked as a high-tier character as a result of his numerous results.
** His transition to ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' didn't have the same luck. Due to the release of ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'', Pit's moveset was heavily altered to be more unique. 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, and his Palutena Bow arrows becoming weaker. Even in spite of his numerous buffs, none of them compensated for the nerfs. While Pit's reputation was positive on release, it became worse over time, and Pit would be decried for being too much of an "honest" character, with [[BoringButPractical no real strengths or weaknesses over the rest of the cast]] save for a still respectable recovery.
*** By proxy, Pit's MovesetClone '''[[VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising Dark Pit]]''' has been hit with this as well. Dark Pit has two moves that differentiate him from Pit, those being his Electroshock Arm and Silver Bow; Electroshock Arm sends opponents at a low angle that is notorious for killing ludicrously early, making it a better move than Pit's Upperdash Arm; meanwhile, Silver Bow is a more damaging projectile, but barely curves. While both moves lead into a slightly different playstyle compared to Pit, none of these moves ultimately make Dark Pit better or worse than his original counterpart, and his reputation was thus about the same as normal Pit.
** ''Ultimate'' granted both Pit and Dark Pit a multitude of buffs. While their playstyle remains nearly unchanged, the two angels did get some major quality of life improvements, such as their multi-hit jab being consistent and having less landing lag on their aerials, as well as patching further improving their special moves. However, it still didn't compensate for their weaknesses. Anything they could do, other characters could do better, and with a small playerbase, Pit and Dark Pit never saw many tournament results. The consensus seems to be that the Pits are solid mid tier characters and will go up as the playerbase improves, though their lack of a true gimmick still renders them as "honest" characters and thus they have to work harder compared to the cast as a result.
* '''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Ike]]''' is regarded as more balanced than Roy, though he still had a rocky run through the tier list.
** In ''Brawl'', Ike was the most powerful character in the game by a significant margin, while outreaching every other character in the game with his {{BFS}}, though he was near-cripplingly slow. His strengths shone bright in casual play, but Ike fared much worse in competitive play. Over time, perceptions on both ends would relax, with the former group of players getting better and thus learning to use Ike's lack of speed against him, while some renowned Ike players showed he had some caveats beyond extreme power that allowed him to compete decently at a high level. Competitive players ended up seeing him as a solid mid-tier character.
** At release for ''Smash 4'', Ike was significantly worse than his ''Brawl'' incarnation, with worse combos, hitboxes, launch power, and damage. After a couple patches, Ike became much better. Faster, more reliable tilts. Hitboxes being fixed for his massive forward air. Consistent and powerful throw combos. And a deadly edgeguard with Eruption when it was found that all characters had two frames of vulnerability when they grab the ledge from below. Top it off with his aerials now having less landing lag, and you have dedicated Ike players getting great results from him. Ike became a solid mid-tier once again; while not feared in the meta, he could certainly get results in the right hands.
** Then in ''Ultimate'', Ike was first thought of as a little better than he was in ''Smash 4'' due to his SkillGateCharacter status, and more people have seen him as a legitimate threat. Ike has a very powerful move in the form of his neutral air; not only does it make his neutral game much better, but it also gives him lethal confirms into kill moves, most infamously his brand-new and powerful up air. He also benefits from having a horizontal recovery move that's very hard to predict, giving him a better recovery than most other heavyweights. While his recovery overall still isn't great, he's difficult to force into a disadvantage state for long. After a few months, he saw a significant drop in usage, mainly because of how due to overuse, people caught on to how overreliant he is on his neutral air with few other effective options for approaches. Still, Ike remains a potent character, and one that should not be slept on.
* The '''[[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Pokémon Trainer]]'''. Being able to [[StanceSystem switch between three fighters mid-game]] can be a curse or a blessing depending on how many restrictions and extra mechanics are involved.
** In ''Brawl'', the Trainer is the most convoluted and demanding character -- mastering one character is hard enough, but having to master three was very rough. The "unique" mechanics outright worked against him, due to his Mons having type weaknesses and a "stamina" meter that made them worse the longer they were out without switching. Ivysaur is particularly notorious for its awful design and many theorized it would be even worse than Ganondorf if it was a solo character. The Pokémon Trainer concept was completely scrapped in ''Smash 4'', with only Charizard returning as a solo character. Since the Trainer was a low-tier mess of a character that few played and even fewer liked, most players didn't mourn his loss.
** In ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'', Charizard came back by itself, but it didn't turn out too well. It [[TheArtifact retained its old moveset]] that was clearly designed with a team dynamic in mind. Charizard had a complete lack of any sort of combo game, and generally possessed slow and punishable attacks. {{Balance Buff}}s greatly improved Charizard and was found to be quite good with recovery and edgeguarding. 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 and continued to climb from there.
** When the Trainer returned in ''Ultimate'', the stamina and type mechanics were removed, and switching was made much quicker. This [[GoneHorriblyRight went a bit too well]], and the character has shot up to the top tier]. 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. Charizard is a powerhouse with strong aerials which can easily secure a KO, with Flare Blitz doing so at very low percents. 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. The Trainer's popularity (with the female Trainer in particular being an [[BadassAdorable adorable]] and endearing [[EnsembleDarkhorse fan-favorite fighter]]) and steep learning curve has made them more of a tier-induced base-breaker. Most players therefore consider the Trainer's highly regarded status in competitive play to not be a bad thing.
*** Charizard's iteration in ''Ultimate'' deserves special mention; while the Trainer as a whole was praised as a great character from the beginning, Charizard itself had many of the same flaws that it did in early ''Smash 4'', but the loss of Rock Smash and its forward aerial no longer autocanceling from a short hop also made it much worse than it ended up in that game. However, later balance patches slightly nerfed Ivysaur and buffed Charizard, making the Trainer as a whole a much more consistent character and allowing the three Pokémon to synergize much more effectively, which in turn made it more difficult to judge them on their own merits rather than flowing into each other's kits.
* '''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'''. His introduction left several fans pleased -- [[DreamMatchGame who didn't want to see Mario and Sonic duking it out]]? -- but the Blue Blur has become well-known for (ironically) having a very slow playstyle.
** When he came in for ''Brawl'', Sonic had incredible mobility, including the fastest run speed (to no one's shock). Sonic's [[SignatureMove Spin Dash]] and [[ChargedAttack Spin Charge]] give him great approaches, and his recovery was also really good. Combine that with effective throws, and Sonic has a moveset designed for a VictoryByEndurance through DeathOfAThousandCuts. However, Sonic's hitboxes are overall poor, and a lack of reliable KO and edgeguarding options makes it ''really'' hard for him to close out a stock. His lack of a true projectile also makes him reliant on hit-and-run tactics. These issues ultimately near-cripple Sonic's moveset, to the point he had to adapt a very patient playstyle. He was the victim of many derogatory jokes for ''Brawl'', often labeled as a boring character who could only stall to win matches. Sonic would later rise to be a stable mid-tier character in the late parts of the game's lifespan, but it was never enough to erase the negative opinion players had of him.
** His appearance in ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' is even more disliked. Although his damage output was reduced and his mobility is a little less extreme, his moveset was overall improved in terms of utility, and Sonic is no longer a slouch on offense. Sonic's relatively unchanged mobility is still superior to everyone else's, which allows him to rushdown if the opportunity arises and, much like in ''Brawl'', allows him to literally run circles around much of the cast when he has the lead. The result is a top tier that's incredibly frustrating for many players to fight and watch, and who routinely places well in tournaments.
*** One notable instance on which Sonic {{averted|Trope}} this was in The Big House 6. Seven Sonic mains[[note]]6WX, Craftis, Manny, Seagull Joe, [=SuperGirlKels=], True Blue and komorikiri (while Wrath also entered the tournament, he reportedly didn't participate in the pact)[[/note]] entered the tournament, each holding possession of a Chaos Emerald, making a pact where each time a Sonic main was eliminated from bracket, they would pass on their Chaos Emerald to a Sonic main still in bracket. This didn't go unnoticed within the community, who praised the [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments heartwarming pact]] the players made. The player who ended up with all seven Chaos Emeralds was [[https://twitter.com/komorikiri_Ace/status/785161815374327809 komorikiri]], who would proceed to finish the tournament with a very respectable third-place finish, much to the community's delight.
** ''Ultimate'' handed Sonic some well-placed nerfs; not only was he [[FragileSpeedster made much lighter]], but his Spin Dash and Spin Charge were significantly toned down: Spin Dash can no longer be shield canceled, Spin Dash and Spin Charge are unable to cross-up shielding opponents (unless one fully charges the move) and can't be held indefinitely. Despite this, Sonic still received some buffs to compensate, namely an improvement to his already outstanding mobility, a heavily buffed Homing Attack, and a more serviceable standard moveset. As a result, despite an initial mediocre perception, Sonic has once again ascended to the high tiers, still being able to make use of a defensive playstyle on slower characters, but now having more impressive offensive tools that let him shift to an offensive approach if the opponent can catch up to him. Additionally, due to the closure of events as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, tournaments were forced to be run online. Even small amounts of lag can result in punishment options being not nearly as consistent. Guess who benefits from having an outstanding mobility? Yup. It got to the point where ridicule of Sonic reached the same levels of ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' in how much people wanted him and ''only him'' banned from online tournaments, while others [[SeriousBusiness even put up cash bounties to eliminate Sonic players from brackets]].
* '''[[Franchise/{{Kirby}} King Dedede]]''' started off strong, but changes to the games' engines would cause him to plummet through the tier list.
** In ''Brawl'', Dedede has a chain throw that can deal 20-30ish% damage every time at any percent with its set knockback that worked on most of the cast. While there are additional reasons, these were the main reasons Dedede countered many mid- and lower-tier characters ''really hard''. However, against most of the top/high-tiers and some mid-tiers, Dedede's chain throw either didn't work, or he was too slow/immobile to keep up with them. As such, Dedede was ultimately a borderline high tier character at best who didn't have that good tournament success after the first couple of years once people got wise to him.
** In ''Smash 4'', King Dedede was largely nerfed and became one of the worst characters in the game. With his old back aerial replaced with a new much less effective one alongside a nerfed grab range (formerly two of his greatest assets), the loss of chain grabbing (formerly one of his greatest strengths ''and'' weaknesses), and very bad frame data, Dedede is left as a sluggish, underpowered character with the worst neutral game in ''[=SSB4=]'' and a limited number of KO options. This left him as possibly the worst heavyweight in the game; while he was ranked better in Japan, it wasn't that much better.
** His ''Ultimate'' appearance was buffed, allowing King Dedede to play to his strengths better. His Inhale also became an AttackReflector (on top of still being a GrappleMove). However, he still retains most of his core weaknesses from the previous game, making his reputation diminish as the meta has progressed. Current consensus is that he stands in the mid-tier, since his improvements didn't fully address his weaknesses. At the very least, Dedede remains a popular choice across all levels of play, making him more of a sympathetic tier-induced scrappy.
* '''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'''. Hold on tight, because ThisIsGonnaSuck.
** Her ''Smash 4'' appearance is the most hated fighter across all of ''Smash''. She and Cloud helped create a "[[BribingYourWayToVictory pay to win]]" stigma upon DLC characters, with Cloud [[TropeMaker starting the trend]] and Bayonetta [[TropeCodifier codifying]] it. Her damage output per combo and punish were regarded as the best in the game by miles. She could tack on massive amounts of damage per punish, even creating conditional "touches of death" for a single mistake on the opponent's part. And with a combination of range and priority, Bayonetta could catch mistakes easily. Her recovery is nigh-untouchable, and challenging it even allowed Bayonetta to edgeguard or combo back in return. Witch Time is the best "{{counter attack}}" in the game, able to slow down opponents for a free smash attack, stifling a recovery, or an easy edgeguard. She also has the best dodges in the game thanks to Bat Within which allows Bayonetta to take zero knockback and only half-damage. While her weaknesses are enough to allow punishes, they're nothing compared to her benefits, stirring up a massive controversy as to whether or not Bayonetta should even be legal. Update 1.1.6 was dedicated to mostly {{nerf}}ing just Bayonetta. But even with these nerfs, Bayonetta's punish game remained intact. The Bayonetta hatred reared its ugly head during the grand finals of EVO 2018, where a Bayonetta [[MirrorMatch ditto]] between [=CaptainZack=] and Lima led to much of the audience walking out, with [=CaptainZack=] even saying [[SeriousBusiness he received death threats and was accused of "ruining the game"]].
** When ''Ultimate'' was announced, everyone expected Bayonetta to be nerfed in the transition. And indeed she was, but the consensus is [[AlasPoorScrappy the nerfs went way too far]]. She expectedly lost her ladder combo, but even her basic combos got nerfed by having the startup lag and endlag of her moves increased, thus reducing the efficacy of her combos quite a bit. Her landing lag also became the longest in the game, making her much more vulnerable. Witch Time was now properly programmed and nerfed in both duration and chance. The fact she 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 flashy combos, but can't get [=KOs=] consistently. Bayonetta did receive some much needed buffs in updates, but even after that, [[BrokenBase there's no real consensus on how good Bayonetta is]] -- she's been called everything from a mid-tier to a low-tier. She's still very annoying to fight against, and her buffs haven't returned her to the witch's reign of terror in ''Smash 4'', but she's nonetheless had a huge fall from grace.
* '''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Corrin]]''' has had a wild ride despite being one of the newer characters in ''Smash 4'', which combined with their BaseBreakingCharacter status in ''Fire Emblem Fates'', solidifies them into this.
** In ''Smash 4'', Corrin had a powerful toolkit with a strong ground-to-aerial game with their tilts, very strong and long-ranged smash attacks, and a three-stage projectile in Dragon Fang Shot that could stun opponents and allow follow-ups. However, the two traits of Corrin that are linked to their "high-tier scrappyhood" are their Dragon Lunge and Counter Surge specials. Dragon Lunge, Corrin's side special, is a very powerful, quick move that not only could KO opponents early if tipped, but also could "pin" for a follow-up. And Dragon Surge is the best counter in the game, launching people straight up instead of to the side, making it a good combo starter. This results in a special-heavy game, but one that's pretty predictable. As time passed, Corrin's top tier status fell, thanks to the identification of their main weaknesses, such as their sub-par recovery and lack of follow-ups off of grabs, which has helped Corrin alleviate some of their high-tier scrappy status.
** ''Ultimate'' threw them to the "low tier" side of the scrappy spectrum due to very harsh nerfs. Predictably, their Dragon Lunge and Counter Surge were nerfed. Unpredictably, their other special moves were heavily nerfed as well. As a result, despite their useful buffs, Corrin's neutral game and punishment options all became worse, forcing them to contest with the rest of the cast, who had significantly improved in comparison to them. While their status was slightly controversial in ''Smash 4'', most players agree [[AlasPoorScrappy the nerfs were way too much]]. Several game updates have not undone the heavy downgrade their moveset's synergy previously had, and general consensus nowadays is divisive between high-tier and mid-tier.
* '''[[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.
** 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 and lacking his saving graces. She has no sweetspots on any of her attacks, while Marth's greatest caveat are the tippers on his moves that deal higher knockback. However, she was significantly buffed in balance patches, 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''. She 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. ComplacentGamingSyndrome is a huge part of why she is so widely disliked; 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 Lucina in bracket, [[SeenItAll you've seen them all]].
* '''[[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1 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.
** Initially in ''Smash 4'', Shulk was seen as one of the worst characters despite his Monado Arts' [[StanceSystem stat-change mechanic]], as he had the overall slowest and laggiest attacks in the game (with the Monado's immense range failing to properly compensate for this). Then the 1.0.4 patch gave Shulk a really large buff, improving the damage output/knockback on nearly all his moves, fixing his hitbox issues, and making some of his moves less laggy. This resulted in Shulk's perception shooting up, and some even seeing him as a potential high-tier character in the hands of someone who mastered him. As time went on however, very few Shulk players did well in tournaments despite his ample playerbase, and many players realized the potential of the Monado and of his advanced techniques were overrated. As a result, Shulk slipped back into the mid-tiers, and stayed there.
** As of ''Ultimate'', Shulk's issues have been addressed by removing even more of his sluggishness. His impressive attack range has been maintained, and as such is harder to challenge. 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, alongside the arts themselves giving him greater [[MultiformBalance boosts (and penalties) to his stats]]. 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. It has gotten to the point that some have accused anyone that uses Shulk of cheating, as they question whether Shulk even plays the same game as the rest of the cast. This concern isn't universal, however, as he remains a rare character to find in big tournaments, let alone one who consistently achieve high results in them by his playerbase.
* '''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 among the better characters in ''Ultimate'' due to possessing a kit designed to take on any scenario.
** In ''Smash 4'', he had a similar trajectory to Bowser Jr., being a character who fell through the floor as soon as their best player dropped him. In fairness, he has some solid zoning with his Bonus Fruit, a great stage control tool and landing mix-up option with Fire Hydrant, and can deal decent damage. His weaknesses are that both of his projectile moves can easily be turned against him, and his poor mobility and few kill moves outside of his slow/laggy smash attacks make it hard to score kills. His most infamous weakness is his grab, which is the worst in the game due to abysmal frame data and lag if it missed, largely leaving him without a grab game. Despite the best efforts of more loyal Pac-Man mains, Pac-Man was generally seen as a character who was very difficult to play.
** His ''Ultimate'' appearance fixed most of his biggest problems, such as his mediocre moves receiving increases in either power or utility, though the most significant buff Pac-Man received was making his grab a single continuous grabbox for as long as the Galaga tractor beam is out. Overall, Pac-Man's moveset is now much more fitting for ''Ultimate''[='s=] fast-paced nature, granting him good options up close in addition to his already-bountiful tools for zoning. All of the changes make Pac-Man a much more formidable fighter, finally giving him the [[DifficultButAwesome vast reward that is typical for a character of his technical caliber]].
* '''[[VideoGame/KidIcarus Palutena]]'''. The concept of a PhysicalGod in a fighting game is difficult to [[CompetitiveBalance balance]], and the Goddess of Light is not exempt from this.
** In ''Smash 4'', her entire moveset is one of the laggiest in the game, and the way her [[StanceSystem custom moves]] were balanced around her was disastrous. To boot, her default special moveset was considered very incohesive, 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. All of this meant that even a minimal slip-up from her could be very costly. Finally, while she could still be significantly improved with her custom moves, the [[BrokenBase disdain for the community about custom moves in general]] 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, they were not enough to fix her immense design flaws. Thus, to the end of the game's lifespan, Palutena was widely considered as not only an [[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 ''Smash'' game.
** Come ''Ultimate'', the transition between games [[BalanceBuff turned Palutena's moveset up]] ''[[BalanceBuff several]]'' [[BalanceBuff notches]]: her entire moveset was made significantly less laggy and more cohesive, and her grounded moveset is now serviceable due to her tilts gaining more utility and a use for each situation. Almost all of her specials were buffed (most notably, her down special CounterAttack was combined with her side special Reflect Barrier in a singular special move. Her aerial game is also still excellent, even more so due to the universally reduced landing lag on aerial moves. Her neutral air is 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 all levels of play and seemingly [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap rescuing her from the Scrappy heap]]... though given her simple playstyle compared to other characters, she also became [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome a commonly played character competitively]]. Updates eventually caught up to Palutena, and her playerbase dwindled. The people that stayed with her would find out she is still solid, though. It's still difficult to define whether her reign of top tier terror has finally ended or not, though finding a person that genuinely likes Palutena is like finding a needle in a haystack.

[[/folder]]
[[folder:''Super Smash Bros. Melee'']]
* '''[[VideoGame/YoshisIsland Yoshi]]''' has had quite the run in ''Melee'''s competitive lifespan. Yoshi has some really good normals and aerials, solid pressure with double jump cancelling, super armor on his second jump, and a unique shield that makes him immune to shield poking. On the flipside, Yoshi's combo game was slightly nerfed from ''64,'' his recovery isn't all that amazing, and Yoshi being unable to jump out of shield which makes escaping pressure ''really'' hard. To make things worse, his matchups against some of the top tiers were extremely difficult. As a result, many wrote off Yoshi as being an unviable bottom tier in competitive play due to his extreme learning curve. These days, Yoshi's place in the meta is quite contentious, as some think that Yoshi has room to grow, while others think that Yoshi mains are holding themselves back by sticking with him. He's been everything from tenth-highest to tenth-lowest, making him relatively viable but without a notable streak of tournament successes to go with it.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/[=3DS=]'']]
* '''Little Mac''' got hit with the "broken" stigma hard by casual players and {{Scrub}}s; he's unparalleled on the ground, with some of the best ground mobility, the best rolls and sidestep, and ground attacks that excel in every category. To balance him out, his stats in the air outright suck; his air attacks are all weak, his recovery is abysmal, and he's absurdly easy to edgeguard. This is escalated by the main online "competitive" mode, For Glory, only allowing Final Destination and Omega variants for stages, which are stages that heavily favor ground-based fighting. It got so notorious that Masahiro Sakurai commented about it, where he pointed out that Little Mac actually had one of the ''worst'' win-rates on For Glory and thus the ire at Mac was overblown. When it comes to competitive players, Little Mac is instead one of the most derided characters in the game, and is arguably the most popular perceived low-tier character to bash and make fun of.
* ''' Lucario''' has been getting hit by both ends of tier-induced scrappiness. Lucario was a JackOfAllStats that had some serious power with his unique [[CriticalStatusBuff aura gimmick]]. While some players disliked the aura gimmick for thinking it "rewarded players for losing", Lucario was rooted for when up against the game's generally disliked top tiers. In ''Smash 4'', he was given some radical changes, with the already powerful aura gimmick being buffed to ridiculous levels, on top of tremendous buffs to Extreme Speed's recovering capabilities. Due to the aura buffs, Lucario became able to kill opponents ridiculously early and recover easily; this ended up making the people who disliked the aura gimmick before much louder. Even after the 1.0.4 patch provided significant nerfs to Lucario, many players still complained about Lucario and his aura being too powerful.
[[/folder]]


[[folder:''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'']]
This game's meta will take a long time to form, due to the number of characters that are playable in the game, and Ultimate's roster only recently finalizing at the time of this writing. But there are a few characters that people have been keeping their eye on, for better and for worse.
* '''[[Franchise/DonkeyKong King K. Rool]]''' is a very peculiar case of this. He's a typical MightyGlacier SkillGateCharacter, but with both some unique strengths and weaknesses. He's got a counter that can reflect projectiles, has his own projectiles, he's the second-heaviest character, possesses super armor on his stomach when using several of his moves, has attacks with pretty decent range, ''really'' good vertical recovery, and an easy edgeguard tool with his Blunderbuss. His weaknesses, however, start weighing in the more you get used to him; the super armor on his belly breaks if overused and leaves him stunned, most of his fastest attacks have hefty endlag, his crown toss projectile can be used against him, his reflector counter loses to other reflectors, and he has bad ground and air speed, one of the biggest hitboxes of all the fighters, and a weak combo game. Despite all of this, with online input delays factored in, K. Rool players online are able to exploit his range, projectiles and burying tools more often, making him a force to be reckoned with. It seemed likely that he would have been unable to leave bottom tier without significant changes. However, the 6.0.0 patch would grant him some buffs that alleviated some of his bigger issues, namely by making his neutral aerial safe on shield, Blunderbuss being faster and stronger, as well as his up aerial being a more reliable killing option. Patch 8.0.0 would also improve K. Rool further, notably making his belly armor able to take more damage before breaking. King K. Rool fares much better now compared to release, and current consensus on the croc seems to be that while he still has serious core issues that limit his effectiveness, he can get the job done under the right circumstances.
* '''[[Franchise/{{Castlevania}} Simon Belmont]]''' and '''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood Richter Belmont]]''' are notorious SkillGateCharacters who were once believed to be major contenders, but settled on the lower end on the tiers after people got a feel for them. Their advantages are obvious: their great range, powerful smashes that can KO at shockingly low percentages, extensive zoning tools, and brutal edgeguarding games quickly earned them a rep. But as time went on, their many serious weaknesses became equally prominent. Among other things, their often-awkward hitboxes, frame vulnerability, overreliance on sweetspots, easy-to-gimp recovery, and great difficulty at coping with close-range pressure have all brought them down to upper mid-tier at best; the pros still waver on them, but most will agree that they do have serious weaknesses to match their strengths.
* '''[[Franchise/StreetFighter Ryu]]''' is another peculiar case. Although he can get many more combos going thanks to the significantly improved "[[LagCancel special cancel]]" options he has, it's generally agreed his overall punish game has been deceptively watered down since his first appearance in ''3DS[=/=]Wii U''. And with Ken joining as well, it was shown that anything Ryu does, Ken can usually do it better. The release of [[VideoGame/FatalFury Terry Bogard]] only made this worse, as Terry is even better than that, often to the point where both these old [[VideoGame/SNKVsCapcom cross-company rivals]] enjoy more success with fans overall than Ryu. Some players found that Ryu has his own merits against heavies and zoners, but not enough to really make him better than a mid-tier.
* '''Luigi'''[='s=] ''Ultimate'' incarnation is his most polarizing to date. His quick grab being replaced with a tether that did not serve as a recovery, and his Luigi Cyclone rising far less, dealt a heavy blow to his recovery and made him far more vulnerable to gimps. In practice however, his new grab gave Luigi a grab aerial that functions as a combo starter, Luigi Cyclone now serves as a useful ComboBreaker thanks to its invincibility frames, and his potent combo starters, extenders, and finishers means he has ways to combo into his Super Jump Punch easily. He's usually assessed as a mid-tier character, as despite his incredibly explosive damage output, Luigi is highly susceptible to getting walled out by projectiles and/or platform camped due the opponent being unwilling to risk an interaction with Luigi, while his recovery is laughably easy to gimp should he lose his jump offstage. Regardless, Luigi is a character many dread fighting, as being grabbed by him even once can result in the opponent being thrown into a world of hurt.
* '''[[VideoGame/Mother3 Lucas]]''' has gained some hatred despite not having the omnipresence as Ness. His PK Freeze was buffed to nasty levels of scary thanks to the sheer edgeguarding potential it has. His recovery compared to Ness is much more easier since he has a tether recover making less impractical than his PK Thunder. However, Lucas is very easy to approach, and his edgeguarding game outside of PK Freeze isn't that good. So in short, he's basically a slightly-inferior Mario, since his playstyle can get harrowing to go up against and can KO you if you're not expecting it; if you are, it's not that much of a challenge.
* The three '''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Links]]''' have become some form of this trope. While Link is detailed above, he's got two smaller {{Moveset Clone}}s as well.
** For '''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Young Link]]''', he has incredible speed, sword disjoints and oppressive projectiles, giving him one of the best neutral games of the whole cast. Out of all the Links, his arrows travel the fastest and he can even combo them into each other. His boomerang functions similarly to the others, with the same benefits, and his bombs have a short fuse on them, making it easier to break out of combos and extend his recovery. On the flip side, Young Link is very light, making him easy to KO, and his disjoints are very short compared to the rest of the other sword users. Finally and most importantly, he severely lacks reliable kill options. All of this together makes Young Link a character that can easily rack up damage and can be a nightmare for less experienced players, but can't finish the opponent off while being very easy to kill himself.
** '''Toon Link''' was seen as a lower-mid tier character early in the meta; at least, to the Western audience. Many Japanese players see Toon Link as better than Young Link and have been showing results with the character. While his projectile game is seen as worse than Young Link, due to the properties of his arrows and long fuse on his bombs, Toon Link has been adjusted from ''Smash 4'' from to have much more emphasis on sword attacks, turning him into a counter-zoner. Most notably, his Spin Attack up special is significantly stronger, making it a potent kill move that can be used out of shield. Overall, Toon Link trades some neutral for better kill potential, making him a sort of middle ground between the other two Links.
* '''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Piranha Plant]]''' has awkward-to-use specials and lower frame data compared to other characters. However, the Plant received many buffs over time, such as making a number of its moves more reliable as KO moves, improving the frame data of a number of its moves, and giving its specials more utility. However, it's a combo magnet as a heavyweight, and using its specials to maximum effect requires mastering the timing of when to use them. While the Plant is nowhere near being a top-tier character due to some flaws that are simply there by design, it's generally considered to no longer be anywhere near bottom-tier like it was upon its debut in the game either.
* '''[[Franchise/DragonQuest Hero]]''' is designed around RPG elements, boasting an MP system and some of the most luck-based mechanics ever put in a ''Smash'' game. He has a 1-in-8 chance of critical hits with smash attacks that can kill or shatter shields with ease. His menu down-special has tons of great options such as stat buffs, a OneHitKill, a guaranteed recovery, a constant reflector, a SuicideAttack with an unblockable blast and extreme kill power, and a massive explosion centered on the Hero. However, this all comes at the expense of a terrible normal moveset, and he becomes very vulnerable if caught off stage with low mana. The luck and language issues led to [[https://www.destructoid.com/smash-ultimate-s-hero-is-banned-by-a-major-australian-tournament-organizer-563935.phtml some banning]] [[https://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-france-bans-hero-and-future-dlc-characters-from-official-smash-bros-ultimate-tournaments/ him outright]]. On the other hand, Hero's weaknesses and heavy reliance on luck would lead to overall dismal results, ensuring the bans would get retracted and only a few players continuing to use him to middling success.
[[/folder]]
----

* '''[[VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} Steve]]''' amassed an enormous number of opinions until he became known as a high tier. Steve plays faithful to his home game ''Minecraft'': mine for resources, then [[ItemCrafting manage them by crafting weapons, walls, and traps]]. However, it's this faithfulness which has made him despised. Steve possesses strengths that no other character in the roster has by creating walls, allowing him to easily gimp recoveries and use smash attacks in mid-air. Steve's frame data is also great, and he can make it even faster with [[LethalJokeItem Gold weapons]], or even stronger with [[InfinityPlusOneSword Diamond weapons]]. Adding to this is a nasty combo game with a ton of options — combined with his ability to create terrain, this can allow Steve to achieve touches of death from ''a single interaction''. Adding to this is a down air anvil projectile that deals massive damage, a tether grab, a powerful explosive in his [=TNT=], and his Minecart, a fairly fast command grab that's also a projectile. 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 forces the opponent to approach, which is [[MortonsFork a dangerous decision considering his aforementioned abundance of strengths]]. Steve does have a fair share of weaknesses, such as awful mobility, lackluster disadvantage state, and the fact his overabundance of options requires ingenuity to work at the topmost level; however, considering he can build walls around himself, that's no problem. Many Steve mains have gotten hate due to his campy playstyle, and for a NewbieBoom from ''Minecraft'' fans coming to ''Smash''. Eventually the hate has gotten outright to the point where some top players have had discussion on banning the character like with Meta Knight in ''Brawl'' and Bayonetta in ''Smash 4'', notably due to acola, Yonni, Onin, Jake and [=DDee's=] successes at big Smash majors since February 2022.

* '''[[VideoGame/{{EarthBound}} Ness]]''' is infamous as both a low tier and a high tier. This is because he's either extremely good or extremely bad; nothing in-between.

* '''[[VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} Steve]]'''. Whooo boy, where to begin. Steve plays faithful to his home game ''Minecraft'': mine for resources, then [[ItemCrafting manage them by crafting weapons, walls, and traps]]. However, it's this faithfulness which has made him vitriolically despised. Steve possesses strengths that no other character in the roster has by creating platforms and walls for himself ''in a platform-fighting game''. The applications of Steve's building are easily the most expansive out of any move in potentially the entire franchise, such as using platforms to stall in the air or set up with items he spawns, such as his Anvil, TNT, or Minecart, or by building literal walls between himself and the opponent, or even use said walls to completely invalidate or perfectly manipulate recoveries all for Steve's gain. He can even stall beneath the ledge indefinitely, being the only character to do this, and simply Mine away for the proper materials and remain near-uncontestible due to ledge invincibility refreshing every time Steve lands back on his own platform, and with how deadly Steve is on offense. Steve's frame data is fantastic, and he can make it even faster with [[LethalJokeItem Gold weapons]], or even stronger with [[InfinityPlusOneSword Diamond weapons]]. Adding to this is one of, if not the best, combo kits in the game, with a ton of fast, high-damaging options — combined with his ability to create terrain, that can allow Steve to achieve touches of death from ''a single interaction'', or leave you at range of a KO ''at minimum''. Adding to this is a down air anvil projectile that deals massive damage and can be jump canceled (effectively giving him another jump), one of the best tether grabs in the entire game, a powerful, manipulative explosive in his [=TNT=], and his Minecart, a fast command grab that's also a projectile that upgrades to become virtually uncontestible with how unreactably fast and how insanely strong (as strong as some of the best Smash attacks) if Steve has Gold, Wood and Redstone. And he can jump cancel Minecart as well. Finally, Steve has a fantastic offstage game and recovery, courtesy of his Minecart, Anvil, block-building, and gliding mechanic in his Elytra. In a cruel oxymoron, Steve's highly campy gameplan forces the opponent to approach, which is [[MortonsFork a lethal decision considering his aforementioned abundance of strengths]]. While Steve's mobility is statistically lackluster, his ability to literally shape the stage and jump multiple times practically nullifies this, leading to his only real weakness being range, to which very few, if any, characters can reliably break Steve's camp or break his offense. The end result is a character that has a game-breaking neutral to where it doesn't follow conventional neutral, the best and most expansive advantage states in the game, and a near non-existant disadvantage, leading to many players and spectators alike comparing Steve to ''Melee'' Fox and ''Smash 4'' Bayonetta and ''saying he has the potential to be better than even them''. Even with the NewbieBoom as a result of his inclusion, his hate has grown to where some top players have had discussion on banning the character like with Meta Knight in ''Brawl'' and Bayonetta in ''Smash 4'', notably due to acola, Yonni, Onin, Jake and [=DDee's=] successes at big Smash majors for the entire first half of 2022. The icing on the hate-filled cake is that many spectators, ''even those in e-sports sponsored positions'', vehemently hate Steve, up to the point of near-harassment of the players themselves.

* '''[[VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} Steve]]''' amassed an enormous number of opinions until he became known as a high tier. Steve plays faithful to his home game ''Minecraft'': mine for resources, then [[ItemCrafting manage them by crafting weapons, walls, and traps]]. However, it's this faithfulness which has made him despised. Steve possesses strengths that no other character in the roster has by creating walls, allowing him to easily gimp recoveries and use smash attacks in mid-air. Steve's frame data is also great, and he can make it even faster with [[LethalJokeItem Gold weapons]], or even stronger with [[InfinityPlusOneSword Diamond weapons]]. Adding to this is a nasty combo game with a ton of options — combined with his ability to create terrain, this can allow Steve to achieve touches of death from ''a single interaction''. Adding to this is a down air anvil projectile that deals massive damage, a tether grab, a powerful explosive in his [=TNT=], and his Minecart, a fairly fast command grab that's also a projectile. 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 forces the opponent to approach, which is [[MortonsFork a dangerous decision considering his aforementioned abundance of strengths]]. Steve does have a fair share of weaknesses, such as awful mobility, lackluster disadvantage state, and the fact his overabundance of options requires ingenuity to work at the topmost level; however, considering he can build walls around himself, that's no problem. Many Steve mains have gotten hate due to his campy playstyle, and for a NewbieBoom from ''Minecraft'' fans coming to ''Smash''. Eventually the hate has gotten outright to the point where some top players have had discussion on banning the character like with Meta Knight in ''Brawl'' and Bayonetta in ''Smash 4'', notably due to acola, Yonni, Onin, Jake and [=DDee's=] successes at big Smash majors since February 2022.

** In ''Melee'' Kirby was severely nerfed. He has awful approach options, the lack of an effective projectile without [[PowerCopying copying one from Inhale]], terrible mobility, and generally being poor-to-mediocre in every relevant area. Even his recovery that's supposed to be good is pretty poor because of how easy it is to edgeguard. He also has some of the worst throws in ''Smash'' history, rendered completely useless by the simple fact that you can effortlessly escape them with a simple jump. This leads Kirby to have abysmal matchups against everyone, and a complete lack of any tournament success.

** ''Melee'' didn't give him much speed to go with his huge size, heavy weight, and extreme power. Since the metagame would evolve, his slow speed and high weight would become more noticeable, making him pure combo bait in a game all about speed and combos. Although Bowser does have a few advantages, including the absolute best ledge getup attack in the game, they didn't compensate at all for how noticeable his weaknesses are. The result was a character considered low-tier since release.

* '''[[VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} Steve]]''' amassed an enormous number of opinions until he became known as a high tier. Steve plays faithful to his home game ''Minecraft'': mine for resources, then [[ItemCrafting manage them by crafting weapons, walls, and traps]]. However, it's this faithfulness which has made him despised. Steve possesses strengths that no other character in the roster has by creating walls, allowing him to easily gimp recoveries and use smash attacks in mid-air. Steve's frame data is also great, and he can make it even faster with [[LethalJokeItem Gold weapons]], or even stronger with [[InfinityPlusOneSword Diamond weapons]]. Adding to this is a nasty combo game with a ton of options — combined with his ability to create terrain, this can allow Steve to achieve touches of death from ''a single interaction''. Adding to this is a down air anvil projectile that deals massive damage, a tether grab, a powerful explosive in his [=TNT=], and his Minecart, a fairly fast command grab that's also a projectile. 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 forces the opponent to approach, which is [[MortonsFork a dangerous decision considering his aforementioned abundance of strengths]]. Steve does have a fair share of weaknesses, such as awful mobility, lackluster disadvantage state, and the fact his overabundance of options requires ingenuity to work at the topmost level; however, considering he can build walls around himself, that's no problem. Many Steve mains have gotten hate due to his campy playstyle, and for a NewbieBoom from ''Minecraft'' fans coming to ''Smash''. Eventually the hate has gotten outright to the point where some top players have had discussion on banning the character like with Meta Knight in ''Brawl'' and Bayonetta in ''Smash 4'', notably due to acola, Yonni, Onin, Jake and DDee's successes at big Smash majors since February 2022.

* '''[[VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} Steve]]''' amassed an enormous number of opinions until he became known as a high tier. Steve plays faithful to his home game ''Minecraft'': mine for resources, then [[ItemCrafting manage them by crafting weapons, walls, and traps]]. However, it's this faithfulness which has made him despised. Steve possesses strengths that no other character in the roster has by creating walls, allowing him to easily gimp recoveries and use smash attacks in mid-air. Steve's frame data is also great, and he can make it even faster with [[LethalJokeItem Gold weapons]], or even stronger with [[InfinityPlusOneSword Diamond weapons]]. Adding to this is a nasty combo game with a ton of options — combined with his ability to create terrain, this can allow Steve to achieve touches of death from ''a single interaction''. Adding to this is a down air anvil projectile that deals massive damage, a tether grab, a powerful explosive in his [=TNT=], and his Minecart, a fairly fast command grab that's also a projectile. 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 forces the opponent to approach, which is [[MortonsFork a dangerous decision considering his aforementioned abundance of strengths]]. Steve does have a fair share of weaknesses, such as awful mobility, lackluster disadvantage state, and the fact his overabundance of options requires ingenuity to work at the topmost level; however, considering he can build walls around himself, that's no problem. Many Steve mains have gotten hate due to his campy playstyle, and for a NewbieBoom from ''Minecraft'' fans coming to ''Smash''.

** In ''64'', many of the elements that would define his future in the series cames into place: a strong combo game that include touches-of-death, and his Reflector ([[FanNickname better known as "shine"]] due to [[NotTheIntendedUse being rarely used as a reflector]]) as a 1-frame attack. One thing this version had that later versions would not is that his blaster could interrupt opponent's movements, making it the best projectile in the game. Fox's one glaring weakness is that his recovery is easy to exploit, due to its lengthy and vulnerable startup animation.

** After skipping out on ''Smash 4'', Snake's return in ''Ultimate'' saw him quickly reclaim his high-tier status. While his more outrageous tools from ''Brawl'' were nerfed, Snake still retains many of the key attributes that made him so dominant in ''Brawl''. What makes him hated in competitive play is the sheer extremities of his entire kit, causing many players to call him one of the best characters in the game.Snake's Nikita Missile is infamous as one of the best projectiles in the game, having been buffed immensely from ''Brawl'' with a much faster, much stronger, and more controllable missile that can invalidate characters that cannot weave around it. His up tilt, while not as far-reaching as it was in ''Brawl'', is still just as dangerous thanks to how hard it hits. The changes to the engine also greatly benefit Snake, as in addition to his painfully sluggish mobility from ''Brawl'' being vastly improved, Snake's Grenades can interrupt combos, do decent damage even when stale, and have a massive blast radius. Unlike other top-tier characters, Snake hasn't received any meaningful nerfs in update patches. In the end, all of these traits in a singular package has once again created a character that players casual and competitive alike loathe to fight.

** Diddy managed to emerge as one of the best fighters in ''Smash 4'' while also being one of the least technical, giving him a rather low learning curve. He had a highly effective combo throw that could easily lead to a chain of aerials at low damages, while leading to unavoidable KO follow-ups at high damages. This is on top of his moveset containing fast and hard-hitting moves with good reach, some of the best grabs in the game, and his up-air being an incredibly fast move that could hit far below Diddy and above him at the same time. While it was debatable if Diddy was actually the best character, ComplacentGamingSyndrome set in hard as competitive players swarmed to Diddy in droves, and tournaments ended up featuring many Diddy dittos. Diddy would become [[TheScrappy widely despised by both the competitive and casual community]] — aside from his utter dominance of the metagame, his [[BoringButPractical boring, repetitive playstyle]], low learning curve, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and goofy design and monkey noises]] made him adespised character by players of all sorts. Fortunately, nerfs in patches caused some people to abandon him; you'd better believe [[http://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/32nsee/hoo_hah_has_been_nerfed/ people were happy about that]].That being said, he would still remain a highly valuable character in tournaments even after the nerfs though luckily he was less dominate as he was prior.

** Olimar once again rose to greatness in the early ''Ultimate'' competitive scene. His ''Ultimate'' incarnation has often been cited as his best yetthanks to his admirable juggling game, ability to spam Pikmin Order ''even faster'' and abuse its super armor more often, and his incredible zoning abilities with his much quicker and much deadlier Pikmin smash attacks. Many detractors often bemoaned the character, perceiving his play style as grating to watch. Olimar was nerfed significantly over the course of patches, increasing his hurtboxes, weakening his pressure and safety, and weakening his recovery on repeated usage. While this removed Olimar from the "best character" talks, the captain is still a very frightening high-tier character that lurks in the meta and draws the ire out of players and spectators alike.
* '''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud Strife]]''' has always been problematic since his debutthanks to his very low-learning curve and LightningBruiser design, which allows him to be played effectively at all levels of skill.

* '''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Luigi]]''' was one of the game's most well-liked top/high tiers, when he unexpectedly emerged as a really potent threat after the first balance patch. It especially helped that his most high-profiled players tended to be flashy, and Luigi was a potential counter to Diddy Kong. However, after Diddy's nerf, Luigi mostly took up the mantle of "high tier character with easy throw combos", leading to many of the fair-weather players that abandoned Diddy post-nerf moving on to Luigi. With the influx of Luigi players abusing his throw combos, Luigi picked up the ire of players and became as complained about as the aforementioned top-tiers. Unlike pre-patch Diddy,the rest of Luigi's moveset outside his throw combos isn't very good, and he has poor mobility that can be easily exploited. Alongside some solidly losing matchups, this led to the best Luigi players under-performing at national tournaments despite being a dominant force at local and regional tournaments.

* '''[[VideoGame/{{Minecraft}} Steve]]''' amassed an enormous amount of opinions until he became known as a high tier. Steve plays faithful to his home game ''Minecraft'': mine for resources, then [[ItemCrafting manage them by crafting weapons, walls, and traps]]. However, it's this faithfulness which has made him despised. Steve possesses strengths that no other character in the roster has by creating walls, allowing him to easily gimp recoveries and use smash attacks in mid-air. Steve's frame data is also great, and he can make it even faster with [[LethalJokeItem Gold weapons]], or even stronger with [[InfinityPlusOneSword Diamond weapons]]. Adding to this is a nasty combo game with a ton of options — combined with his ability to create terrain, this can allow Steve to achieve touches of death from ''a single interaction''. Adding to this is a down air anvil projectile that deals massive damage, a tether grab, a powerful explosive in his [=TNT=], and his Minecart, a fairly fast command grab that's also a projectile. 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 forces the opponent to approach, which is [[MortonsFork a dangerous decision considering his aforementioned abundance of strengths]]. Steve does have a fair share of weaknesses, such as awful mobility, lackluster disadvantage state, and the fact his overabundance of options requires ingenuity to work at the topmost level; however, considering he can build walls around himself, that's no problem. Many Steve mains have gotten hate due to his campy playstyle, and for a NewbieBoom from ''Minecraft'' fans coming to ''Smash''.

** Her ''Smash 4'' incarnation is a mixed bag in regards to this trope. She has been buffed from her lackluster ''Brawl'' version, with her players continuing to find new tricks. However, Samus is still considered a low-tier character, in contrast to her Zero Suit form being a top-tier. For the extra salt rubbing, Samus' jab fails to connect both its hits properly, which was seemingly an ''intentional'' design flaw, as an in-game tip states it happens and you should "run away" after connecting the first hit instead of following through with the second like any sensible player would. The backlash against ''Smash 4'' Samus was additionally ignited by Masahiro Sakurai stating Samus was the best character in the game at the ''Super Smash Bros. Invitational'' in response to none of the participants picking her, which fans used to mock Samus further when it turned out she was far from the best character. This sentiment almost immediately disappeared after patch 1.1.5, in which Samus was one of the biggest beneficiaries of buffs that improved her mobility in the air and made her dash attack into an effective combo starter. Not soon after, Samus' started to make top finishes a lot more frequently.

** In ''Ultimate'', even though many moves of Jr.'s did get buffed, it wasn't enough. He's now able to have two cannonballs in play at once and they deal far more shield damage, and his recovery gained more uses. But both are still very predictable and easy to punish. And the nerfs he got were glaring: his Mechakoopa now deactivates when it hits a shield, he can't airdodge out of Clown Kart Dash, and his forward tilt has been given a sourspot. The end result was a character perceived as even worse than his already-bad ''Smash 4'' iteration. He got some substantial buffs in patch 3.1.0, but they weren't enough to significantly improve his standing. While Bowser Jr. is no longer considered a contender for worst fighter in the game, he's still seen as deserving of his spot near the bottom.

* '''[[VideoGame/PunchOut Little Mac]]''' competes with Ganondorf for the title of the worst character in ''Ultimate''. His niche as a neutral-focused, grounded fighter is not only done better by other characters, but his neutral is lackluster compared to much of the cast. Even with his recovery buff to his side special and air speed, he's still got a very poor recovery that is further nerfed by airdodge mechanics. All these stats lead Mac to be a character whose polarizing ground-based nature works ''against'' him, causing even the most well-known of Little Mac mains from the previous game to abandon him. He would even stay firmly at the bottom in spite of several balance patches that helped him. Mac's 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 bait him into doing something unsafe, get him offstage, and let him fall to his death.

** In the first two ''Smash'' games, Mario's build tended to rank him as average, befitting his aforesaid jack-of-all-stats type. ''64'' has him with a bevvy of good moves and attributes, but none of them standing out too much from the cast. He transitioned to ''Melee'' neither strongly buffed nor strongly nerfed, but a good portion of the characters around him did get buffed, and some strong newcomers came to the fray as welll making Mario lag behind somewhat compared to the expanded cast.

** Mario's transition into ''Ultimate'' brought a healthy mix of buffs and nerfs, leaving his core playstyle intact. As a result, Mario's traits remain as consistent as before, and he still has a good deal of top players using him to great success. Thus, Mario's perception is once again that of a top-tier character with a low learning curve that still provides an incredible reward with low risk. That said, while he's still a character many resignate to fight against, Mario hasn't received nearly as much hate as in ''Smash 4'' from the crowd, mainly for being slightly less dominant and for having a less repetitive playstyle.
* '''Franchise/{{Kirby}}''' has always been known for being one of the easiest characetsr to pick up and play, as well having the unique ability to [[PowerCopying copy special moves]] thanks to Inhale, and he is also infamous among lower-leveled players thanks to his multiple ways to cheese out stocks. However, when it comes to competitive play, the pink puffball has also had a very tumultuous history across the series.

** In ''Smash 4'', Ness finally rose into relevance, as his strengths and weaknesses are both huge. His throw game is really strong, including the indisputable best back-throw in the game. He has really good aerials, especially his fast and powerful up-air and combo-friendly foward-air. His improved viablity allowed PK Thunder to become a serious annoyance to opponents stuck in the air. However, Ness' past weaknesses still held him back significantly. His poor range ensured a lot of difficulty against sword-characters. His recovery, while buffed significantly, was still very exploitable, especially if the opponent can absorb the hit. So while improved, he was stuck as a classic mid-tier SkillGateCharacter: annoying to more casual players, but with limited success at the competitive level.
** ''Ultimate'' has his best incarnation yet. His PK Fire got buffed and can rack up insane damage. His up-air has faster startup and great combo potential. His yo-yo smash attacks had their charging hitboxes restored, and can now even be used off the edge. Also, he majorly benefits from having one of the best directional air dodges in the game, vastly improving his recovery. His PK Thunder has become even more annoying, as the changes to air dodges make it even harder to avoid. Last but not least, his PSI Magnet was given a hitbox that guarantees followups, further boosting his combo game. Competitively, his worst matchups continue to be against characters who outrange him, such as most of the Sword characters, or who beat his aerials with their own and edgeguard him. Ness still has his weaknesses, but due to his already established infamy, Ness is a widely hated character to fight regardless of skill level.

** With ''Ultimate'', Falco would get a lot of major buffs. His neutral game is much better than in ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' (though not as good as ever), with a much improved Blaster and better mobility, and his punishment capabilities are harsher due to improvements to his combo game. The improved airdodges also made him dangerous in the right hands, though not quite as much as Fox. Updates made him more stable, but didn't improve his standing all that much. General consensus on Falco is that he has improved, sitting at the bottom of high tiers, and Falco's spot in the metagame is stable but not spectactular.

** When ''Ultimate'' was announced, everyone expected Bayonetta to be nerfed in the transition. And indeed she was, but the concensus is [[AlasPoorScrappy the nerfs went way too far]]. She expectedly lost her ladder combo, but even her basic combos got nerfed by having the startup lag and endlag of her moves increased, thus reducing the efficacy of her combos quite a bit. Her landing lag also became the longest in the game, making her much more vulnerable. Witch Time was now properly programmed and nerfed in both duration and chance. The fact she 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 flashy combos, but can't get [=KOs=] consistently. Bayonetta did receive some much needed buffs in updates, but even after that, [[BrokenBase there's no real consensus on how good Bayonetta is]] -- she's been called everything from a mid-tier to a low-tier. She's still very annoying to fight against, and her buffs haven't returned her to the witch's reign of terror in ''Smash 4'', but she's nonetheless had a huge fall from grace.

** In ''Smash 4'', her entire moveset is one of the laggiest in the game, and 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. All of this meant that even a minimal slip-up from her could be very costly. Finally, while she could still be significantly improved with her custom moves, the [[BrokenBase disdain for the community about custom moves in general]] 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, they were not enough to fix her immense design flaws. Thus, to the end of the game's lifespan, Palutena was widely considered as not only an [[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 ''Smash'' game.
** Come ''Ultimate'', the transition between games [[BalanceBuff turned Palutena's moveset up]] ''[[BalanceBuff several]]'' [[BalanceBuff notches]]: her entire moveset was made significantly less laggy and more cohesive, and her grounded moveset is now serviceable due to her tilts gaining more utility and a use for each situation. Almost all of her specials were buffed (most notably, her down special CounterAttack was combined with her side special Reflect Barrier in a singular special move. Her aerial game is also still excellent, even more so due to the universally reduced landing lag on aerial moves. Her neutral air is 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 all levels of play and seemingly [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap rescuing her from the Scrappy heap]]... though given her simple playstyle compared to other characters, she also became [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome a commonly played character competitively]]. Updates eventually caught up to Palutena, and her playerbase dwindled. The people that stayed with her would find out she is still solid, though. It's still difficult to deifne whether her reign of top tier terror has finally ended or not, though finding a person that genuinely likes Palutena is like finding a needle in a haystack.

* '''[[Franchise/DragonQuest Hero]]''' is designed around RPG elements, boasting an MP system and some of the most luck-based mechanics ever put in a ''Smash'' game. He has a 1-in-8 chance of critical hits with smash attacks that can kill or shatter shields with ease. His menu down-special has tons of great option,s such as stat buffs, a OneHitKill, a guaranteed recovery, a constant reflector, a SuicideAttack with an unblockable blast and extreme kill power, and a massive explosion centered on the Hero. However, this all comes at the expense of a terrible normal moveset, and he becomes very vulnerable if caught off stage with low mana. The luck and language issues led to [[https://www.destructoid.com/smash-ultimate-s-hero-is-banned-by-a-major-australian-tournament-organizer-563935.phtml some banning]] [[https://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-france-bans-hero-and-future-dlc-characters-from-official-smash-bros-ultimate-tournaments/ him outright]]. On the other hand, Hero's weaknesses and heavy reliance on luck would lead to overall dismal results, ensuring the bans would get retracted and only a few players continuing to use him to middling success.

* '''[[VideoGame/FZero Captain Falcon]]'''[='=]s flashy playstyle has earned him a large amount of success ever since the original game, with only a brief time as a bottom-tier character in ''Brawl''. As the fastest runner in ''64'', Falcon can easily get in and abuse his excellent aerials, most notoriously his up air, which can lead into his notorious "Stairway to Heaven", the original ladder combo. His combo game is deadly enough that he's Pikachu's worst matchup, as he can regularly kill it before it even gets the chance to recover. However, much like Fox, his recovery is also quite exploitable, and he particularly struggles to approach Kirby. Even so, Falcom lurks beneath Pikachu and Kirby in the original game's tier list, with only Kirby giving Falcon any real trouble.

* '''[[VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon Incineroar]]''' is a MightyGlacier that's too much Glacier and not enough Mighty. Incineroar has very bad mobility, including the slowest run speed in ''Ultimate'' and the second-slowest in the entire ''Smash'' series, coupled with a bad recovery. Due to said terrible mobility, many characters can just camp him out because Incineroar cannot catch up to them. In addition, Revenge loses time when attacks don't connect, too much time passes, or he gets thrown. And for a supposed powerhouse, his launch power isn't anything noteworthy. While he did get some buffs, this didn't fix the problems in his overall design, causing him to still be considered bad. However, Incineroar has a similar reputation in that his slow speed but extreme power can end up in flashy, hard-hitting 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/XenobladeChronicles2 Pyra and Mythra]]''' benefit from the same streamlined transformation mechanic as Pokémon Trainer, but use it to arguably even deadlier effect. While optimal play requires extensive use and knowledge of both sisters, Mythra is considered the better one out of the two and where most of the pair's strengths lie. Mythra has excellent mobility; she packs the fastest initial dash in the game, and her frame data is absurdly good. She has excellent aerials that can be cancelled to near spammable levels. Lightning Buster's hitbox is huge and has good kill setups, negating her supposed weakness of lackluster [=KO=] power. Her hurtbox "pancakes" in many animations, making her hard to hit. Finally, Foresight significantly slows the enemy down upon dodging; this allows for potentially devastating punishes, and works against just about anything with a hitbox. The swap mechanic with Pyra also allows Mythra to make up for her lack of KO power, allowing the Aegis sisters to be very adaptable. Although Pyra is generally more niche than Mythra (such as having a worse disadvantage state), she still benefits from powerful disjointed moves with great range that kill at absurdly low percents. Finally, Pyra and Mythra's moves are very straightforward, allowing them to forego the DifficultButAwesome aspect of a transforming character that's prevalent with the Trainer. Combined with [[BreakoutCharacter their immense popularity]], this has given the duo a [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome humongous player base]]. A lot of people consider the Aegis sisters as the only characters that can rival Joker and Pikachu for the best in ''Ultimate'', resulting in the sisters drawing significant ire in competitive play for their great kit and sheer ubiquity.

* '''[[Franchise/{{Tekken}} Kazuya Mishima]]''' has garnered a similarly distasteful opinion as other high-tier DLC characters. Whereas his fighting game brethren (Ryu, Ken and Terry) are sufficiently sturdy, Kazuya breaks the mold by being a super heavyweight with armor on just about all of his attacks. Kazuya's moveset is the largest in the franchise; not only does he have a move for every situation, a huge portion of his moveset deals double-digit damage ''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. 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 and wide variety of options. All of this, combined with his endurance, makes Kazuya a terror to face. Kazuya does have his weaknesses in that his moveset and mobility are rather sluggish, he's very vulnerable to combos, he transitions poorly from the ground to the air, and his extensive moveset amounts to DifficultButAwesome being taken to [[ExaggeratedTrope its logical extreme]]. 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.

* '''[[VideoGame/RoboticOperatingBuddy R.O.B.]]''' quickly rose to prominence for ''Ultimate'' after a solid ''Brawl'' and a medicore ''3DS[=/=]Wii U''. R.O.B. got a few buffs that strengthened him significantly, with 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 combo ability from ''3DS[=/=]Wii U'' remains not only relatively intact, but arguably improved. And that's without mentioning his Arm Rotor; 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. 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.

** In ''Ultimate'', Cloud ended up getting nerfed; the biggest change is that Limit Break can only be held for 15 seconds. However, 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, the universal reduction of landing lag mitigated this. Just like before, Cloud is heavily used during in online play thanks to his powerful punish game and strong neutral. Cloud was considered very highly of after he gained several buffs however, notably to his recovery sweetspotting the ledge quicker, thus making him harder to edgeguard, his up-smash being a better kill option that can be done out of Shield due to its faster frame data, and Finishing Touch now combo'ing into more set ups such as up air or up tilt, being generally considered either a top of high tier or top tier character after the COVID-19 pandemic with the help of Sparg0 and Kola, who are the two biggest rising stars in North America.

** In ''Ultimate'', Cloud ended up getting nerfed; the biggest change is that Limit Break can only be held for 15 seconds. However, 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, the universal reduction of landing lag 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, Cloud's usage dwindled due to the fact he got outclassed by most ''Fire Emblem'' characters. Even so, Cloud remains a blood-boiling character to fight against, casually or competitively.

** Diddy managed to emerge as one of the best fighters in ''Smash 4'' while also being one of the least technical, giving him a rather low learning curve. He had a highly effective combo throw that could easily lead to a chain of aerials at low damages, while leading to unavoidable KO follow-ups at high damages. This is on top of his moveset containing fast and hard-hitting moves with good reach, some of the best grabs in the game, and his up-air being an incredibly fast move that could hit far below Diddy and above him at the same time. While it was debatable if Diddy was actually the best character, ComplacentGamingSyndrome set in hard as competitive players swarmed to Diddy in droves, and tournaments ended up featuring many Diddy dittos. Diddy would become [[TheScrappy widely despised by both the competitive and casual community]] — aside from his utter dominance of the metagame, his [[BoringButPractical boring, repetitive playstyle]], low learning curve, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and goofy design and monkey noises]] made him adespised character by players of all sorts. Fortunately, nerfs in patches caused some people to abandon him; you'd better believe [[http://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/32nsee/hoo_hah_has_been_nerfed/ people were happy about that]].

* '''[[VideoGame/MetalGear Solid Snake]]''' is famous for being the first third-party addition to ''Smash'', and infamous for being one of, if not the most effective [[LongRangeFighter zoning character]] in the series.
** Snake was as much of a high-tier scrappy as Meta Knight was in ''Brawl'''s early competitive play. Snake was the game's biggest LightningBruiser, with ridiculously fast and powerful attacks that had [[HitboxDissonance disjointed hitboxes]], on top of some of the best projectiles in the game to zone out with impunity. His C4 and his claymore mines allow for oppressive stage control that forced the opponent to be careful, lest they accidentally trip a landmine. Snake's dash attack is also the best in the game, as it's a very fast, far-reaching burst option that gives invincibility to Snake's head and arms as he leaps forward. His survivability was among the best in the game due to being the third-heaviest character, having a relatively fast falling speed, as well as a long-distance recovery that could also be extended by blowing himself up with grenades or C4. Snake additionally had a huge playerbase, and in the first year of ''Brawl'', it wasn't uncommon to see over half of a tournament's top 8 using Snake. It was so bad, the second tier list even had Snake given his own tier below Meta Knight and above everyone else. He's also a character that many Nintendo purists didn't like being in the game, which infuriated such people even more when Snake turned out such a dominant character. As the years went on, players learned to exploit some of Snake's potent disadvantages against him, while the potential of a few other characters were discovered to be even greater and even more aggravating to fight. Snake ended up losing his demi-god status and dropped in the tier list, though he was still considered a top-tier character.

** Diddy managed to emerge as one of the best fighters in ''Smash 4'' while also being one of the least technical, giving him a rather low learning curve. He had a highly effective combo throw that could easily lead to a chain of aerials at low damages, while leading to unavoidable KO follow-ups at high damages. This is on top of his moveset containing fast and hard-hitting moves with good reach, some of the best grabs in the game, and his up-air being an incredibly fast move that could hit far below Diddy and above him at the same time. While it was debatable if Diddy was actually the best character, ComplacentGamingSyndrome set in hard as competitive players swarmed to Diddy in droves, and tournaments ended up featuring many Diddy dittos. Diddy would become [[TheScrappy widely despised by both the competitive and casual community]] — aside from his utter dominance of the metagame, his [[BoringButPractical boring, repetitive playstyle]], low learning curve, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and goofy design and monkey noises]] made him adespised character by players of all sorts. Fortunately, nerfs in patches caused some people to abandon him; you'd better believe [[http://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/32nsee/hoo_hah_has_been_nerfed/ people were happy about that]]. That being said, he would still remain a highly valuable character in tournaments even after the nerfs though luckily he was less dominate as he was prior.

* '''[[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 Pyra and Mythra]]''' benefit from the same streamlined transformation mechanic as Pokémon Trainer, but use it to arguably even deadlier effect. While optimal play requires extensive use and knowledge of both sisters, Mythra is considered the better one out of the two and where most of the pair's strengths lie. Mythra has excellent mobility; she packs the fastest inital dash in the game, and her frame data is absurdly good. She has excellent aerials that can be cancelled to near spammable levels. Lightning Buster's hitbox is huge and has good kill setups, negating her supposed weakness of lackluster [=KO=] power. Her hurtbox "pancakes" in many animations, making her hard to hit. Finally, Foresight significantly slows the enemy down upon dodging; this allows for potentially devastating punishes, and works against just about anything with a hitbox. The swap mechanic with Pyra also allows Mythra to make up for her lack of KO power, allowing the Aegis sisters to be very adaptable. Although Pyra is generally more niche than Mythra (such as having a worse disadvantage state), she still benefits from powerful disjointed moves with great range that kill at absurdly low percents. On top of everything else, Pyra and Mythra's moves are very straightforward, allowing them to forego the DifficultButAwesome aspect of a transforming character that's prevalent with the Trainer. This, combined with [[BreakoutCharacter their immense popularity]], has given the duo a [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome humongous player base]]. A lot of people consider the Aegis sisters as the only characters that can rival Joker and Pikachu for the best in ''Ultimate'', resulting in the sisters drawing significant ire in competitive play for their great kit and sheer ubiquity.

* '''[[Franchise/DragonQuest Hero]]''' is likely the most contentious both example in ''Super Smash Bros.'' history. He is designed around RPG elements, boasting an MP system and some of the most luck-based mechanics ever put in a ''Smash'' game. He has a 1/8th chance of critical hits with smash attacks that can kill or shatter shields with ease. His menu down special that has tons of great options such as stat buffs with the most infamous ones being a OneHitKill, a guaranteed recovery from anywhere, a constant reflector, a SuicideAttack with an unblockable blast radius and extreme kill power, and a [[InstantDeathRadius massive explosion that can easily kill]]. However, this all comes at the expense of a terrible normal moveset, and he becomes very vulnerable if caught off stage with low mana. The luck and language issues led to [[https://www.destructoid.com/smash-ultimate-s-hero-is-banned-by-a-major-australian-tournament-organizer-563935.phtml some banning]] [[https://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-france-bans-hero-and-future-dlc-characters-from-official-smash-bros-ultimate-tournaments/ him outright]]. On the other hand, Hero's weaknesses and heavy reliance on luck would lead to overall dismal results, ensuring the bans would get retracted and only a few players continuing to use him to middling success.

* '''[[Franchise/DonkeyKong King K. Rool]]''' is a very peculiar case of this. He's a typical MightyGlacier SkillGateCharacter, but with both some unique strengths and weaknesses. He's got a counter that can reflect projectiles, has his own projectiles, he's the heaviest character, possesses super armor on his stomach when using several of his moves, has attacks with pretty decent range, ''really'' good vertical recovery, and an easy edgeguard tool with his Blunderbuss. His weaknesses, however, start weighing in the more you get used to him; the super armor on his belly breaks if overused and leaves him stunned, most of his fastest attacks have hefty endlag, his crown toss projectile can be used against him, his reflector counter loses to other reflectors, and he has bad ground and air speed, one of the biggest hitboxes of all the fighters, and a weak combo game. Despite all of this, with online input delays factored in, K. Rool players online are able to exploit his range, projectiles and burying tools more often, making him a force to be reckoned with. It seemed likely that he would have been unable to leave bottom tier without significant changes. However, the 6.0.0 patch would grant him some buffs that alleviated some of his bigger issues, namely by making his neutral aerial safe on shield, Blunderbuss being faster and stronger, as well as his up aerial being a more reliable killing option. Patch 8.0.0 would also improve K. Rool further, notably making his belly armor able to take more damage before breaking. King K. Rool fares much better now compared to release, and current consensus on the croc seems to be that while he still has serious core issues that limit his effectiveness, he can get the job done under the right circumstances.

** Diddy managed to emerge as one of the best fighters in ''Smash 4'' while also being one of the least technical, giving him a rather low learning curve. He had a highly effective combo throw that could easily lead to a chain of aerials at low damages, while leading to unavoidable KO follow-ups at high damages. This is on top of his moveset containing fast and hard-hitting moves with good reach, some of the best grabs in the game, and his up-air being an incredibly fast move that could hit far below Diddy and above him at the same time. While it was debatable if Diddy was actually the best character, ComplacentGamingSyndrome set in hard as competitive players swarmed to Diddy in droves, and tournaments ended up featuring many Diddy dittos. Diddy would become [[TheScrappy widely despised by both the competitive and casual community]] — aside from his utter dominance of the metagame, his [[BoringButPractical boring, repetitive playstyle]], low learning curve, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and goofy design and monkey noises]] made him adespised character by players of all sorts. Fortunately, nerfs in patches caused people to abandon him; you'd better believe [[http://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/32nsee/hoo_hah_has_been_nerfed/ people were happy about that]].

** In ''Smash 4'', the elimination of chain-grabbing wasn't enough to get DK viewed as anything higher than low-mid tier. The 1.1.0 patch changed everything for him by reducing the knockback of his up-throw, granting him an effective combo starter that allowed him to rack up damage frighteningly quick. Donkey Kong would garner respectable placings from many players throughout the remainder of ''Smash 4'', his most notable achievement being a 7th place finish at 2GG: Civil War, regarded as the most difficult ''Smash 4'' tournament. By the end of ''Smash 4'', DK was viewed as a respectable high-tier character.
** In ''Ultimate'', while DK did receive numerous buffs, the few nerfs he did receive dramatically offset what he had gained. His once-reliable up-throw lost its combo potential, and his unsafe kit means that ''he'' will usually be punished for landing a move on an opponent. Balance patches would provide small but helpful buffs, and patching has somewhat improved his standings. While there have been some solid Donkey Kong placings in tournaments, his flaws are very exploitable, and he remains a character that can't rely on his overwhelming strength, which leaves him with little else.

* '''[[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 Pyra and Mythra]]''' benefit from the same streamlined transformation mechanic as Pokémon Trainer, but uses it to arguably even deadlier effect. While optimal play requires extensive use and knowledge of both sisters, Mythra is considered the better one out of the two and where most of the pair's strengths lie. Mythra has excellent mobility; she packs the fastest inital dash in the game, and her frame data is absurdly good. She has excellent aerials that can be cancelled to near spammable levels. Lightning Buster's hitbox is huge and has good kill setups, negating her supposed weakness of lackluster [=KO=] power. Her hurtbox "pancakes" in many animations, making her hard to hit. Finally, Foresight significantly slows the enemy down upon dodging; this allows for potentially devastating punishes, and works against just about anything with a hitbox. The swap mechanic with Pyra also allows Mythra to make up for her lack of KO power, allowing the Aegis sisters to be very adaptable. Although Pyra is generally more niche than Mythra (such as having a worse disadvantage state), she still benefits from powerful disjointed moves with great range that kill at absurdly low percents. On top of everything else, Pyra and Mythra's moves are very straightforward, allowing them to forego the DifficultButAwesome aspect of a transforming character that's prevalent with the Trainer. This, combined with [[BreakoutCharacter their immense popularity]], has given the duo a [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome humongous player base]]. A lot of people consider the Aegis sisters as the only characters that can rival Joker and Pikachu for the best in ''Ultimate'', resulting in the sisters drawing significant ire in competitive play for their great kit and sheer ubiquity.

* '''[[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 Aegis sisters. Mythra has excellent mobility; she packs the fastest inital dash in the game, and her frame data is absurdly good. She has excellent aerials that can be cancelled to near spammable levels. Lightning Buster's hitbox is huge and has good kill setups, negating her supposed weakness of lackluster [=KO=] power. Her hurtbox "pancakes" in many animations, making her hard to hit. Finally, Foresight significantly slows the enemy down upon dodging; this allows for potentially devastating punishes, and works against just about anything with a hitbox. The swap mechanic with Pyra also allows Mythra to make up for her lack of KO power, allowing the Aegis sisters to be very adaptable. Although Pyra is generally more niche than Mythra (such as having a worse disadvantage state), she still benefits from powerful disjointed moves with great range that kill at absurdly low percents. On top of everything else, Pyra and Mythra's moves are very straightforward, allowing them to forego the DifficultButAwesome aspect of a transforming character that's prevalent with the Trainer. This, combined with [[BreakoutCharacter their immense popularity]], has given the duo a [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome humongous player base]]. A lot of people consider the Aegis sisters as the only characters that can rival Joker and Pikachu for the best in ''Ultimate'', resulting in the sisters drawing significant ire in competitive play for their great kit and sheer ubiquity.