2019 will be Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's year. Released towards the tail end of 2018, Nintendo's brawler assembled all combatants who have previously graced the franchise's iconic stages. Along with being a brilliant fighter in its own right, Ultimate feels celebratory. With the proving to be a commercial and critical success, the console demands high-quality titles to maintain its momentum. Simply put, games seldom get any grander than Super Smash Bros. Ultimate!
Any fighting game encounters balancing issues. Be it Street Fighter V or Dragon Ball FighterZ, certain characters tend to float to the top. Taking into account the prominence of competitive online modes throughout the entire industry, studios cannot afford to ignore such criticisms. Even if not deemed suitable for eSports, a brokไen roster negatively affects a game's casual potential. Who wants to perpetually fight the same two opponents?
Now𝕴, in all fairness, certain warriors should demand a greater level of commitment from players, but, ideally, practice is the only thing standing in the way of victory. A mastered Kirby should be able to defeat an amateurish Bayonetta.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's roster is relatively well-balanced, but there are a couple of noticeable exceptions. Ramping up the gameplay's speed and limiting the defensive options, Nintendo's brawler rewards aggressive play. Here are 10 characters so strong they break the game (꧂and 10 who are too 💃weak)!
20 ꧑ Strong: King K. Rool 🦄
Immediately following Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's release, King K. Rool near instantly amassed a reputation for being overpowered. While harder to push off the stage, heavy characters historically tend to struggle in the franchise. Despite speeding up the combat, Ultimate leveled the playing field fo𓆏r the different classes, with K. Rool and Bowser not requiring ten hours to perform a ♔jump.
King K. Rool has a solid argument for being the roster's only worthwhile heavy competitor, but the villain's success seems to be chiefly restricted to the casual . Donkey Kong Country's reptile exists to put newcomers in their place! With a solid counter move and his unbreakable super armor, King K.൩ Rool hits like a tank. Recently, the has begun t🌳o turn against K. Rool. If things continue down this road, he might need a buff!
19 Weak: Bayonetta🍸
Last time out, PlatinumGames' Umbra Witch destroyed the competition! If this list was expanded to encompass all Super Smash Bros. titles, Smash 4's Bayonetta would feature on the side. Unsurprisingly, Nintendo nerfed Bayonetta's flamboyant protagonist.
Who said Nintendo does not listen to fan feedback?
On a surface level, Bayonetta's move-set remains principally unchanged; however, nowadays, the fighter's attacks can be countered with ease. In the previous entry, Bayonetta's expansive combos meant a KO was always a string of punches away. nerfs the ꦗwitch's destructive capabilities, in fact, Bayonetta lacks a strong KO ability. Nintendo may have overcompensated.
18 ꦛ Strong: Inkling ܫ
Ranked as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's strongest character by , a professional player deemed to be among the world's best, Inkling should be feared! Promoted to the full roster in 2018's entry, Splatoon's squid requires some pಞractice. Unlike the other fighters, Inkling's moves are directly linked to an ink meter that determines whether an attack can be performed. Once accustomed to the c🌳haracter's abilities, Inkling transforms into a nearly unstoppable force!
Spraying any ink on an opponent amplifies their sustained damage by , which is comfortably the most overpowered passive skill in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Inkling's sends out a hard-to-avoid sonic blast that sends opponents flying out of tᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚhe arena.
17 Weak: Little Mac ജ
Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. accomplished the impossible. Somehow, they managed to take one of s weakest characters and make them even ! Little Mac's deficiencies are too pronounced to ignore, with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's offensive-driven combat poorly complimenting the boxer's deඣfensive fighting style.
Little Mac's attacks are nowhere near as situational as in the previous entry, but the athlete's guard breaks down too quickly. The boxer's strength lies in his powerful punches, but Little Mac is at his weakest while on the ground! Such a fighter is simply not dynamic enough to accommodate for Ultimate's fast-paced action.
16 🅘 Strong: Pikachu/Pꦛichu
Pikachu seems to improve with each new entry. Early on, Pokémon's electrifying mascot languished amon🦩g the lower tiers, but buffed a number of the pocket monster's stats. N♈evertheless, Pikachu ranked below the roster's mightiest members.
That's no longer the case!
loves the yellow fictional rodent, with even the baby variant faring quite well. Barely weighing more than a feather, both characters are susceptible to knockbacks, but Pikachu's speed and combo strings more than make up for any faults. Pichu may even eclipse its older sibling, as the baby version has access toಞ rage that steadily increases the knockback potential of various attacks.
15 ꧅ Weak: Mario
Nintendo's definitive mascot is a non-starter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. With the exception of newcomers who want to learn the ropes with a reasonably well-rounded fighter, Mario is currently worthless. The former plumber has access to an array of effective moves, but any positives are undermined by a weakened Super Jump Punch with inadequate combo potential.
At the moment, there is no point wasting time on Mario. The Mushroom Kingdom's savior fares well against mid-tier opponents, but th🐟ose are normally ignored by competiti🍷ve players. By aiming to satisfy everyone, Mario ends up offering little to no advantages.
14 Strong: Marth ꦫ
Marth gamed the system. In order to compliment some of the new mechanics, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate buffed and neutered certain characters, with the hopes of balancing the roster. One of seven Fire Emblem faces to make the cut, Marth's close-quarters battle style is tailormade for Ultimate's fluid gameplay mechanics.
Want to ruin someone's day? Dash cancel into a dancing blade!
Ultimate's dash mecha♏nic is far more than any of the previous iterations, with the movement seamlessly transitioning into all attacks. The gameplay rewards instinctive play and continuous movement; consequently, Marth's quick maneuvers lend themselves brilliantly to such a system!
13 ♊ Weak: Ganondorf
The Legend of Zelda's iconic antagonist was a glorified jobber in Smash 4. among the likes of Jigglypuff and eclipsed by the mighty Bowser Jr., Ganondorf was laughably bad. Surely, Super Smash Bros. will not repeat the same mistakes in Ultimate!
Super Smash Bros. learned nothing. OK, that is not entirely true. 2018's Ganondorf is slightly less embarrassing than his predecessor, but Nintendo neglected some of the character's glaring flaws. Ultimate incentives players to attack rather than defend, but the latter remains an important element worth considering. Ganondorf barely qualifies as a glass cannon,🅺 as the villain's attacks are hardly overpowered. Ganondorf's terrible recovery is also an expl𝓀oitable weakness.
12 💎 St๊rong: Peach
Who needs Mario? Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's Peach trounces the plumber every day of the week! A mid-card talent in the Wii-U entry, Peach has firmly shed her damsel-in-distress status for the sequel. Along with everyone else on the roster, Peach is quite n💝imble on her feet, but the princess benefits from a few unique workarounds that bestow an edge over the competition.
If mastered, aerial hoping allows players to maintain the offensive regardless of the opponent's position, while also serving as a last-ditch trick to reverse a knockout. Ultimate nerfs this ꧑particular technique, but Peach's floating ability circumvents this restriction. Along with a potent move-set suited for both close and ranged battles, Peach is a force worth reckoning!
11 Weak: Ridley ღ
After years of begging, at long last, Nintendo added Ridley to Super Smash Bros. Samus Aran's archenemy, the monstrous alien is a bra🧜wler at heart. As a relatively slender member of t𓂃he heavyweight class, Ridley benefits from a touch of speed withheld from Bowser or King K. Rool; conversely, Metroid's villain is more susceptible to knockbacks.
Ridley and Inkl✱ing are both niche competitors with steep learning curves, but the former is not truly worth the effort. Ridley dominates the airwaves, but a larger than normal hitbox and a below average recovery move are unavoidable weaknesses.