The Super Smash Bros. Roster Buster Tier List

A “Roster Buster” meets a “Tier List”. This might be the most trendy thing I’ve ever done; may as well put “3 a.m. gone wrong!” in the title at this point. But with my Friend’s Meta and Arti doing a Race for Super Smash Bros (Arti is likely to lose at this rate, but I’m still rooting for him) followed by my nephews visiting and playing some Smash got me in the mood to talk about this game/series. And I have way too many ideas to write here, so for now I went to the “Roster Buster” approach. On the off chance that you don’t know what this is, a “Roster Buster” is when you cut a roster down in size (often half or more) to its bare minimum. It’s fun for most since it forces them to consider heavily who they do or don’t want and to keep every factor in mind. But I’m not like most people.

This is where the “Tier List” comes in. Instead of just cutting them out, I made a list of the “absolute musts” for me and then made tiers for how bad I want those who are left. (Characters I’d want and would prioritize, character’s I would miss but can let go of, and characters that I simply wouldn’t miss if they were dropped). I also separated some of the clones and echo fighters into a separate tier list, just to avoid tier from getting too cluttered. All images were made via Tier List Maker.

So with that said, how badly do i want certain characters to return in Smash?

The OG 12

The original 12 characters would, of course, return. The only reason I’m even bringing them up separately is because there have been times we almost didn’t get them back: Ness was going to be replaced with Lucas in Melee to go alongside Mother 3 (HA!) and Jigglyppuff was added last minute into Brawl (that’s why she didn’t appear in the Subspace Emissary; same with Toon Link and Wolf). I won’t bring them up individually here just to save time.

Fighters I Need

When combined with the OG 12, treating Pokemon Trainer as three fighters, and keeping in mind there’s an Echo Fighter I need later on the list, that brings things up to 44 characters – just a bit below Smash 4 WiiU/3DS. Basically, if these were the only returning characters, I’d be fine with only a few disappointments (provided some new characters were added in). As for the fighters themselves:

• Peach: Probably always going to be in Smash. Interestingly enough, Smash really plays up the girly side to her. Fair enough, since it makes her stand out. Strange that throughout the years, she’s never really moved beyond Mario 2 USA in terms of moves.
• Bowser: Make way for the King. Making him a wrestler in Smash 4 was really sweet and oddly fitting. Beyond that, I look forward to drop-kicking poor suckers into a 40% KO.
• Wario: There are more games starring Wario than Samus. Also, he’s been turned into the epitome of fat and gross.
• Diddy Kong: Reject Waluigi. Embrace MONKEY.
• Zelda: One of my mains, and the best design for her (which is impressive, since I don’t like the art style of A Link Between Worlds). I wish the alternate colors were a bit better (a red haired version for NES Zelda would be cool), but that’s for another day.
• Sheik: Would feel wrong to not have her, and I wouldn’t be able to make Naruto jokes to make my friends cringe.
• Ganondorf: Another one of my mains. It’s nice for him to actually be okay again. His sword’s hitbox is evil. Pure evil.
• Pokemon Trainer: I’d prefer to have the 3 Pokemon playable separately with a unique down B, but I’m not losing sleep over it.
• Lucario: Hey, look! It’s blue Goku! Also, I’m a Gen 4 fanboy. In fact, it’s one of the only two pokemon gens I’ve played for any significant amount of time. Meta also doesn’t like Lucario and I’m a petty person sometimes.
• Falco: What started out as a throwback to Fox’s N64 move set has been thoroughly declined, even more so than Luigi has at this point.
• Marth: Hey look, it’s blue Link!
• Ike: Hey look, it’s blue Roy! Also one of my mains.
• Robin: Hey look, it’s a Fire Emblem character without a counter! Incorporating weapons breaking is a nice addition, and is a good representation of the Fire Emblem game that, for better and for worse, popularized the series in the West.
• Meta Knight: Most people know how he ruined tournaments. I remember how 4Kids made him sound Hispanic for some reason.
• King Dedede: I actually wish his 4Kids voice was an option.
• Zero Suit Samus: I actually don’t like playing as Zero Suit Samus, but her move set is fairly unique.
• Ridley: Gotta give the team credit: they found the perfect size for Ridley where the large size was kept intact while not being too big but also not just being shrunk to Charizard size. Very respectable.
• Villager: The Killager. Just too creative of a character to drop.
• Little Mac: A personal favorite, although not exactly a main. Deserves more music in the game, though.
• Pit: May as well be a Sakurai original character at this point. That’s a good thing, by the way.
• Palutena: One of my mains and one of my favorite characters in general.
• Min-Min: A character I never knew how badly I wanted until she was added. Her inclusion made the lack of Chun Li a less bitter pill as well.
• Inkling: Woomy.
• Ice Climbers: Revealing them returning in the proper reveal trailer for Ultimate gave me an emotional high that the MCU could only hope to achieve. Please, never leave me again.
• R.O.B.: Some people really don’t like R.O.B. for some reason. Weirdos, I’d say.
• Mr. Game & Watch: The first real “meme” or “joke” character in Smash Bros, and the best.
• Sonic: The first of the third party characters, and one I really don’t want to see leave. I don’t even play as him all that often, but it feels like he belongs at this point.
• Pac-Man: The only character who I wanted to join Smash Bros that actually joined the roster.
• Ryu: Another character I personally don’t care for, but between him and Megaman, I think I’d rather have Ryu as the Capcom Rep if I had to pick one. I also just like the stage and music, for what it’s worth.

Fighters I Want

These are characters I would prioritize to get in but could live without if their exclusion led to newer characters (especially if it was characters I wanted). There are 15 total additional characters on this list:

• Mii Fighters: The Mii Fighter costumes are the best idea the Smash Team had. It helps that the costumes in Ultimate were really high quality (especially in the DLC). I could use with more options or fighter styles, but again that’s for another day.
• Piranha Plant: Reject Waluigi, Embrace PLANT!
• King K. Rool: I actually didn’t want King K. Rool playable in Ultimate. Not because I actively hated the character, I just had characters I wanted more. The fact he’s now a character I would really want back over others should speak to how much I enjoy playing as and against him.
• Roy: I liked playing as Roy before he was good. He’s not in the clone/echo fighter section because he officially has one in the form of Chrom.
• Olimar: The Flying Pikmin single-handedly turned Olimar from an annoying and gimmicky character into a tactical fighter unlike any other.
• Wii Fit Trainer: A character that is payable literally because Sakurai wanted someone no one asked for.
• Shulk: I should really play Xenoblade.
• Pyra and Mythra: I really should play Xenoblade 2. I definitely prefer playing as these two to Shulk, and the switch mechanic from Zelda/Sheik fits them perfectly. If for whatever reason they couldn’t return, I’d like to see this mechanic return via Lana and Cia from Hyrule Warriors.
• Snake: He’s so out of place here; I love it. Shame there probably wouldn’t be any new codec conversations.
• Joker: The Persona summon is one of my favorite gimmicks to a fighter. He’s not useless without it and he’s not overpowered with it. The music slaps (and fits Smash really well) and the stage is one of the more interesting ones since more stages are “Battlefield but with background stuff”.
• Banjo and Kazooie: Take everything I said about King K. Rool and apply it here. Both are Rareware characters, too.
• Terry: My favorite of the Fighting Game fighters, hands down. I only picked Ryu over him because he’s from Street Fighter. If this list was nothing but my favorites, Terry would take his place.

Fighters I Would Miss

Now for the section where I choose characters that I still enjoy having in the game but am far more willing to let go of. AKA when my friends on Discord start to not have fun reading this.

• Bowser Jr. & Rosalina: both are characters I enjoy for how creative they are, but there are plenty of Mario Characters as it is, and if I had to pick some to drop, these would be the two I personally would be the most okay with. I enjoy Bowser Jr. the most between these two.
• Mewtwo and Greninja: I actually enjoy playing as both of them move set wise, I just have other characters I’d rather have if I was forced to pick, and there’s no shortage of Pokemon to play as. That’s on top of how there’s always going to be the new Pokemon added from the newer games.
• Byleth: While I rolled my eyes when Byleth was revealed, the rest of the trailer and the gameplay breakdown won me over. The weapon transformations representing the adaptable nature of the units in Three Houses are clever.
• Isabelle: Good Doggo. Also a massive troll character. Not sure if Isabelle is going to stick in the Animal Crossing series as the new face of the series, but it’s understandable why she’s in smash. If Animal Crossing is going to have two reps, Isabelle is a good choice. If it’s only going to have one, Villager is the better choice.
• Megaman: The announcement of Megaman was the start of “Smash Hype”. It was when a character getting revealed became an event. He’s a fun projectile-only character; if the stage and music were generally better, I might have thrown him in the want category.
• Simon: Of all the fighters in this section, he’s easily my favorite to play as. But I like the music and stage more than the character if I’m honest.
• Cloud And Sephiroth: Falls into the category of Megaman where I like playing as the characters, but the stage and music (what little there is) I enjoy more. That said, I play as Tifa via Mii Costumes more than either of these two.

Fighters I Wouldn’t Miss

I’m going to get some colorful commentary on Discord for these.

• Incineroar: While I love the visual style and flair of this character, he’s my least favorite newcomer in Ultimate and the only one to actively disappoint me. His move set just never clicked with me.
• Corrin: Unbelievable – a Fire Emblem character I don’t like. Corrin, similar to Byleth, was thrown in to advertise the newest Fire Emblem game. Now ignoring how Three Houses was much more well-received than Fates, Corrin had to have all of his gimmicks toned down harshly in Ultimate to make him fair, and at that point, I’d rather play as Zero Suit Samus. Combine that with a surplus of Fire Emblem characters, and I would actively vote Corrin off the roster if given the chance.
• Duck Hunt: A creative character, but Ice Climbers are a better representation of the NES era of Nintendo with a better gimmick to boot. A character I find more boring than anything.
• Hero: I may like TF2, but Smash Bros. does not play well with random crits. I wouldn’t have as big of an issue if the Hero could at least receive random crits as well as deal them – a risky character through and through. But instead, the Hero’s RNG is the spell system, making it really hard to actually perform an attack you might want. Also, Kamikaze can burn in hell. The music is honestly the best thing about the Hero DLC.
• Sora: The opposite of Hero – I kinda like playing as Sora, but the rest of the additions – especially the stage and music – were really underwhelming. I know to most Sora was a dream come true, but I’m not a Kingdom Hearts fan. It was funny to make jokes about locking people in the Disney Vault, but it’s not a joke I need to make in every Smash game moving forward.
• Bayonetta: Bayo ended up in this tier through a combination of there being other SEGA characters I’d rather see and sheer indifference.
• Steve: The reveal was really funny, and the fact you need to play Minecraft to play as him is funnier. That said, it also makes him really annoying to play in a remotely serious environment. For both Steve and Sora, I’m glad they were added, but I don’t need them back for more. The stage was cool, though.
• Kayuza: The only DLC character I didn’t like. His reveal trailer wasn’t all that interesting, his gimmick is that he has eight directional attacks (meaning it’s twice as easy to perform the wrong smash attack), and his special moves really left me underwhelmed. I like the music – Namco fighters always have a great OST – but I’ll take Yoshimitsu any day, sword fighter complaints be damned.

Echoes and Clones

And now for all the characters based on other fighters. They get their own mini section since they take comparatively few man-hours to make and as such their inclusion rarely comes at the cost of content elsewhere, according to Sakurai himself. I didn’t count any characters who had been “declined” over the years like Luigi, Falco, or Ganondorf. That said, I put them all here at once this time.

• Daisy: Best girl. If anything, I’d like to see her be given her sports outfit(s) and have her represent the sports spin-offs, but having Peach’s move set on a redhead is perfectly fine with me.
• Dr. Mario: I think the good doctor would be a nice collection of Mario’s original move set, so keeping him here would give them a reason to experiment with Mario’s moves more in future entries.
• Toon Link: Take what I said about Dr. Mario, but apply it to Link, and with the most adorable character Nintendo ever made. Wind Waker is still better than Majora’s Mask, by the way.
• Lucina: My nephew would kill me if I didn’t put her in this tier.
• Pichu: Another good joke character. I like the idea of a character with a strong attack and good throws having the downside of hurting itself. That said, Pichu really benefits from the decimal percentage values, allowing for better scaling with the self-damaging than Melee could ever hope to achieve.
• Ken: Ken’s cool. Just not someone I’m desperate to have back.
• Dark Pit: I’m fine with him, and would in fact expect him to return. Just not someone I’d riot over if he was gone.
• Dark Samus: I’m fine with her, and would in fact expect her to return. Just not someone I’d riot over if she was gone.
• Lucas: Sorry Arti, I know he’s a favorite of yours (especially from the Brawl days). It’s just that I rarely play either Ness or Lucas in the first place.
• Richter: If Simon comes back, bring Richter along. If not, no reason to have him.
• Chrom: Similar to Dr. Mario, Roy serves as a fighting style of the old version of Marth. Chrom is just Roy with Ike’s recovery while lacking Ike’s side special that makes up for his otherwise awful recovery. So yeah, into the Corrin bin with Chrom.
• Wolf: Eh. Never cared for Wolf in Smash, even if the character himself is rather cool.
• Young Link: Was cool to see him back for Ultimate. I don’t need to see him again, though. Toon Link is just better.

Newcomers

I have several, as does literally everyone else. I have a list of 20 characters I really wanted in Smash Bros. Ultimate. Needless to say, I didn’t get a single one. However, none of those 20 are here. Instead, these are a different set of 20 characters I chose from a tier list maker that are not part of the list I’m currently working on.

• Chun-Li: I was hoping for her as a new addition since she’s one of the few Street Fighter characters I played as back in the SF4 days. I’d be fine with M. Bison, too.
• Jack: I don’t care how toned down it’d have to be, but having the Madworld soundtrack in any form would actually make me flip. I’m also curious how Jack’s chainsaw arm would translate to Smash.
• Bandana Waddle Dee: I have a lot of respect for Sakurai not wanting to over-represent his own creation, but I think one more Kirby character would be totally forgiven. Especially if said character was the hardest boss in all of existence.
• Ratchet And Clank: I’m a simple person. A gun-toting redneck with a talking jetpack sounds like fun.
• Kasumi: “Do you really just want to play as a hot red-haired ninja girl?” Yes, and I’m tired of pretending I don’t.
• Sly Cooper: My favorite Sony mascot. He’d be in Rachet’s place if I could more easily imagine a move set.
• Raiden: If we get a second Metal Gear rep, I can’t think of someone more deserving. And while I find the Metal Gear Rising soundtrack just a bit overrated, it’s still a damn good soundtrack.
• Scorpion: I’d like him to visually be based more on the arcade games, but having the tether kombatant from hell in Smash would be… surreal, actually. Surreal is usually a good thing here, though.
• Paper Mario: I think Sakurai would take notes from all of the games, instead of just old or modern PM. I would just focus on characters from the DK, Yoshi, and Wario series first.
• Cooking Mama: Such an amazing chance for a joke character. But if I’m being honest, a Mii Fighter Costume would leave me just as happy. So I can’t put her any higher.
• Lloyd: I just remember playing him in Super Smash Flash 2 and having fun with him. So seeing an official take on the character would be cool.
• Juan: I just want a brawler style of character that isn’t Incineroar. Also curious how such a stylized character would look in Smash’s art style.
• Geno: Not a character I personally care for, especially since Rosalina exists. But I’m not opposed to him or anything.
• Heavy: Look, I love the TF2 cast, but Smash just isn’t for them. Now, if this was about Mario Kart…
• Crash: Has always been firmly in the “characters I just can’t get interested in” category. My thoughts on Crash as a series could be its own article someday, but for now, I just don’t see his moves as interesting and have dozens of characters I’d rather have.
• Tracer: Being a cute waifu shouldn’t be enough for a Smash slot.
• Fawful: I don’t get the appeal behind this character. At all. Even in the RPGs, there are several better characters.
• Freddy: I’ve seen actual requests for this character from people who aren’t children. Kill me.
• Chorus Kids: The Smash 4 Leak is the only reason people want this character in my opinion. Nothing about the characters is noteworthy otherwise.
• Waluigi: Do people like Waluigi? Or do they just like Waluigi memes? Because if you think he’s this fourth-wall-breaking mastermind of a character… then you like the memes a lot more than the character.

As for everyone else I really want (on par with Chun-Li and Jack), that’ll have to wait a while longer I’m afraid. This article was just something I did over a weekend because I was put in the mood for it. I’m hoping to have a proper Awful Archive by the end of the month (got an interesting game lined up), so look forward to that.