Majestic Twelve - Best Fighters of Smash Bros

Continuing out Top 12 lists of all things Smash, I thought we’d have fun with a character list with the best and worst. Again, much like the top stages, this isn’t solely based on competitive reasoning. How the character plays, my personal preferences, and references to the characters original games all help in this decision. While I can’t legitimately use characters from Smash 4, I can reference Mega Man and Villager as they are playable in the demo, so I can actually provide input there.

#12 – Link (N64) – Link is an interesting character with a wide arsenal to deal with enemies and it seems like he’d be a killer on the battlefield. That being said, he’s always been rather sluggish, causing him to be in lower tiers for pretty much all of Smash. But I like him solely for the fact he demonstrates more skill and worth here than in any single Zelda game. I mean… he can jump! He never could in Ocarina of Time. Not even over the little gaps or up small ledges. Why he never could never made sense. It was always frustrating! Ahem… While he isn’t perfect, he’s, overally, just a fun character to mess around with, especially for beginners still learning the basics.

#11 – Samus (N64) – Another character who has always been on the sluggish side of things, Samus has a wide array of battle options as well from fairly strong close-range attacks and charges to lasers, missles, bombs, and ranged grapples. Samus has never been one I’ve been particularly great with, but using her in a match is almost always fun. Fighting against her… not so much. Especially when they spam missiles over and over because they can’t think of any better moves to do.

#10 – Roy (Melee) – I don’t care if Marth was objectively better. Roy always looked cooler, had fire effects on his weapons, and always seemed like the more interesting character of the two. I always found it odd that Marth was picked to move on in the series and Roy was left behind. I have gotten over that long ago, but it still sucks that Roy is just gone and doesn’t even get an assist trophy or alternate costume option for Marth. Come on, Nintendo. Where’s the love?

#09 – Fox / Falco (N64/Melee) – Alright, I’ll catch shit for this, but let’s try explaining. I love the StarFox games, so they both had to make the list. And both have been (at one point or another) fun to play. Also, Falco is a shameless clone of Fox (less so in Brawl, but still) so I didn’t feel right making them separate characters. Fox was most fun for me in the N64 game and while I still enjoyed him in Melee, competitive players just killed my enthusiasm for Fox in the slightest. Then Brawl came around and killed Fox outright by making him incredibly floaty and lacking any real good combo-moves. Falco ended up becoming the better and more fun character to play in Brawl… but wait… there was another…

#08 – Wario (Brawl) – Wario is a bizarre character in that his moves can be extremely good if used properly. He movies with bizarre animations that take some getting used to and he’s just funny with his various attacks and personality quirks. He’s also the character the most costumes as of Brawl, which is pretty interesting. He’s never been one of my best characters, but he’s always been a fun one to just pick up and annoy friends with. The best part is his insane recovery with the Motorcycle that can drive through the air for a short amount of time (longer if using mods).

#07 – Kirby (N64) – Kirby was one of the most unique and best characters in the original game. And while his uniqueness continued, many will tell you he stopped being as good in Melee and didn’t become fun again until Brawl, but was still outmatched by several better characters. Regardless, you can’t help but love Kirby for his unique ability to copy the moves of others. Then again, Sakurai (creator of both Smash Bros and Kirby games) is someone you’d expect to go out of his way to make Kirby continue to shine on as one of the most original characters in the game. Plus Snake-Kirby is still among my favorite imitations along with Ganon-Kirby just because seeing Kirby with bizarre hair-styles or a beard is always good for a laugh.

#06 – King Dedede (Brawl) – When first introduced, I’ll admit, I was not a fan of King Dedede. For me, he moved too slow to be enjoyable. He felt like a rip-off of Kirby with his multiple jumps and inhale move.  But I grew to enjoy using him when I installed mods that helped buff a variety of characters, include Dedede. After using him a lot, I have to say the tactic of flooding a field with Waddle Dees is incredibly amusing. And for as slow as it is, his hammer is just devastating when it hits. Dedede is by no means a perfect character but one that I’d be terrified to fight in the hands of a good player. His updates in Smash 4 seem to show major changes such as his removal of Waddle Dees for a more consistent toss of Gordos. I’m looking forward to trying this out and seeing how it’ll impact the game. But for now, Dedede from Brawl is pretty fun.

#05 – Peach (Melee) – One thing I’m looking forward to in Smash 4 is the inclusion of more female fighters in the game so that way I can diversify my list a bit better next time. Until then, Peach will hold the top female fighter spot at #5. She’s the character who you can annoy just about everyone with from her comical variations of smash attacks, her butt bunce, or her extended period of floating in the middle of the air. But aside from just being an annoyance, she’s also a very capable fighter with some surprisingly effective attacks if you know what you’re doing. It makes one wonder why she even needs Mario to save her if she can handle herself just fine here against Bowser and other even more dangerous threats. On top of that, with mods, she has some of the most entertaining alternate costumes like Saria or Lord Etna from Disgaea.

#04 – Pikachu (N64) – I don’t play Pikachu much anymore. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the character, but I’ve grow since the days of the N64 and have found other characters I just enjoy to play as a lot more. But Pikachu deserves this spot near the top not because its good. Hell, Pikachu is a good fighter in terms of speed, range, and ability to stun targets with certain hits. For me, Pikachu is the reason I got into Smash Bros. I got into Pokemon as my first real gaming experience. When I saw Pikachu in another game, I became intrigued and decided to give it a shot. As a result, I found other amazingly cool characters alongside Pikachu and wanted to try their games out as well. If not for Pikachu or Smash Bros, I would never have played Metroid, Legend of Zelda, Fire Emblem, Custom Robo, Kirby or even StarFox. And many of these games are among my favorite games of all time. So, regardless of the character in the game, Pikachu is a special character all around where if he wasn’t in Smash Bros, I probably wouldn’t even be making this list. Party hats off to you buddy.

#03 – Wolf (Brawl) – My favorite character from the StarFox games FINALLY made it into Smash Bros (only to not return for the next game). And, very much unlike Falco, he doesn’t feel at all like I’m playing a clone of Fox. Yes, there are similarities, but Wolf is admittedly slower, heavier, and much stronger in terms of damage output. He’s also much more aerial focused with a special talent for juggling his targets. The way his “cloned” specials function in comparison to Fox and Falco are also very unique and require a bit of a learning curve to use them most effectively. He also has one of the best theme songs of any character in the game (barring one other). I’m disappointed Wolf won’t be returning for Smash 4, but I can still hope DLC of some kind will eventually come out with him included.

#02 – Sonic the Hedgehog (Brawl) – Yes… I’m very surprised Sonic could only make the #2 spot as well. What do you want me to say though? You know why he’s here. Sonic the Hedgehog games are among my favorite. Sonic has the traits I love best in Smash as well. He’s fast, can spend most of his game with some insanely fun air-combos, and he’s great for edge-guarding in ways other characters would all be jealous of. And he’s got my favorite character theme songs in the game. Problems? Two. First, his Final Smash is stupidly overpowered and it either needs to change or be nerfed a bit to be less stupid. Second, two of his specials are basically the same exact move (spindash). While I know each one supposedly functions differently, I still think it’s silly that the developers couldn’t come up with two distinctly different moves to give him instead of just two slightly different versions of what is basically the same move. It feels kind of lazy and uncreative. You think clone characters taking whole move sets from characters is annoying? Try a character who doesn’t even have four distinctly different special attacks. I still love Sonic, but there’s so much more that could be done here. This leaves the top spot open for only one other…

#01 – Ganondorf (Melee) – If you had told me when Brawl released or even back in the days of Melee that Ganondorf would by my favorite character in Smash Bros, I would have called you fucking insane. He’s slow. He’s a horrid Captain Falcon clone (I say horrid because it doesn’t make any sense for his character). He’s outclassed by SO MANY other characters. And he’s hard to learn how to get good with. So what changed? Again, Brawl mods. The mods we installed made Ganondorf fast enough to keep up with some of the other fighters and give him a better ability to survive. His attacks improved in terms of hitbox radius and damage output. In short, the mods I use (the Brawl-Minus mod) made Ganondorf the monster he was always meant to be in this game. I love villains and Ganondorf always intrigued me, but it wasn’t until he was playable in the mods that I actually enjoyed him. Smash 4’s custom movesets look to be doing the same thing as the mods, offering ways to improve your default Ganondorf, and that has me excited for the release of the game. Because I stand with Ganondorf and you should too since he is the best and most monstrous figure in Smash to date.

That’s all for my top 12 best Smash Bros characters. Tune in again soon for more top 12 lists and remember to keep on smashing!