A game like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has a ton of aspects that can be analyzed in terms of what makes a character good. With so many characters at your disposal, it can be a bit overwhelming to determine the reasoning as to why a character is viewed so highly. Some reasons can be obvious, such as a character having absurd hitboxes, strong combos, or seemingly very little weaknesses that can be exploited.

However, once you have a general understanding of how characters interact with each other, along with how the game functions fundamentally, one can begin to dissect as to why characters are better than others. This can vary between individual match-ups, stage selection, or simply just because a character is outright better overall.

An important note before moving forward is to understand that this list is not an end-all be-all by any means, but more of a general analysis based on individual characters, along with other contributing factors that are determined based on how fighting in Smash Ultimate works. Hopefully this becomes more apparent as the list goes, so without further ado, let’s get to it.

Recovery

This is an obvious one. Getting back onto the stage in any Smash game is a basic principle that newcomers and veterans alike can realize is very important. Unlike other fighting games, Smash puts a heavy emphasis on being able to stay on stage, hence the whole idea of “playing neutral” being so important, meaning how maintaining center stage is crucial if you want to have the advantage against your opponent.

Typically, recovery refers to a character’s Up-Special, which normally provides characters with a vertical recovery option. Virtually every top-tier character in Smash Ultimate has a good recovery, perhaps being able to recover from different angles or simply having multiple recovery options.

Take a character like Pikachu for example. Pikachu’s Up-Special can have two inputs, which effectively can change the direction in which he recovers, creating longer distances being traveled. Not to mention this move has a hitbox, so it makes it very difficult to punish. Alternatively, Pikachu can use his Side Special as a horizontal recovery option, making the character very unpredictable in terms of how he approaches getting back on stage.

Of course not every character is like Pikachu, but other characters such as Inkling or Pit, who have more vertical recoveries along with general floatiness, can cover a lot of distance in terms of getting back onto stage. Characters with multiple jumps also can be seen as a good recovery option, but more experienced players who understand those types of characters can easily exploit them. Recovering is a basic concept that separates a casual gamer to someone who clearly has a better understanding of the game.

Edge Guarding and Ledge Trapping Tools

Since recovering is very important in this game, characters who have ways to negate ways of recovering can be quite useful. This is where the terms edge guarding and ledge trapping come into play. Many characters in Smash Ultimate have clear tactics that can disrupt someone’s recovery option, making it that much harder for a character to get back onto stage. While some of these tactics are more unique to certain characters, others are fairly simple to understand.

Lucina is a good example of a character who excels in edge guarding. If your opponent is off-stage as Lucina, you can hang onto the ledge and put your opponent in a position to recover high. This is due to Lucina having kill options at ledge, such as Back-Air or Down-Air. Or if you are Lucina, or any character with a counter for that matter, you can punish characters who have a hitbox in their Up-Special by countering as they rise to the ledge and send them the opposite way. This is a simple technique that players are aware of, which makes recovering against characters with counters that much harder.

In terms of ledge trapping, the best example would probably be Snake. Snake has a multitude of ways to make sure you do not get back onto stage. This can come in the form of projectiles such as his Side Special or Neutral Special, or in the form of his Smash attacks, which pretty much eliminate certain options of getting back on stage. For example, his Up-Smash places a projectile that launches upward in front of him, pretty much negating the idea of jumping above him to get onto stage.

While Snake is an example of a character who thrives on stage control and ledge trapping, other characters like Villager have ways to negate options as well. An example of a Villager ledge trap would be using Side Smash to drop a bowling ball directly below you, hence punishing characters with vertical recoveries. Many characters have many different ways to ledge trap, requiring you to get a bit more creative in terms of knowing how to recover.

Out-of-Shield Options

For more experienced players, understanding a character’s out-of-shield options is crucial when fighting other characters. Simply put, what a character is capable of doing as a form of offense right after shielding is a tool many top-tier characters have.

An easy example would be Mario, who can Up-Special out-of-shield in order to get a character off of him. The importance of these options comes from understanding that shield poking a character can be crucial, for often shielding is your best option defensively, so having a quick option once shield is dropped in order to relieve some pressure can help change the pace of a match. For if one’s shield is brought too low, you run the risk of your shield being broken, which either means you take damage for free or lose an entire stock. Some characters rely on out-of-shield options as part of their playstyle, such as Mr. Game & Watch.

Mr. Game & Watch already has good defensive options, and being a character with a small model, it is already difficult to poke his shield at times. But if you make the mistake of over committing or getting too close, he can simple Up-Special, Up-Smash or short hop Neutral-Air to either get you off him or rack up some free damage. Understanding a character’s out-of-shield options can change the pace of a game entirely, which is why so many top-tier characters have these tools to help them in disadvantaged situations.

Frame Data

If you have ever witnessed a pro event on Twitch, you most likely have heard a commentator mention frame data. Frame data in Smash refers to the amount of frames that occur when inputting something into a controller. This then causes a sequence that can be categorized by a few parts: Start-up, active frames, and end lag. This is not a precise definition as to what exactly frame data means, but this is pretty much what commentators refer to when mentioning a character's frame data.

More often than not, when playing as certain characters you can get a feel as to what exactly is being described when referring to frame data. Like “Why does this move take so long?” or “How come that move did not land?” or “How come that character hit me if I used my move first?” All these questions can be answered by frame data. Most players generally get a feel for frame data just by playing as or playing against a character enough. But if you want a true explanation as to why certain interactions occur, there are websites online that focus on Smash Bros. frame data and show exact images along with giving exact numbers on what each input creates.

Player Bias and Representation

So this is a theory that many Smash pro players mention when referring to tier lists. Oftentimes, a person’s perception of a character can be skewed based on how often they see a character and the results they draw. For example, if one saw a lot of people play a character like Wolf and see that those players have good tournament results, one may think Wolf has to be one of the better characters. On the flip side, if one were to see a character like Ryu only being played by a small number of people and the results were poor, one may quickly assume that the character simply is not that good. This concept is fairly easy to understand, and ultimately can affect the way people view certain characters.

So an example of a good character with low representation would be Shulk. To many pro players, Shulk is viewed as a high-tier character, but since Shulk requires a lot of practice and not many people enjoy playing that style of character, along with there being other characters that are good with a similar style, Shulk is not seen too much in a competitive setting.

The opposite to this would be a character like Ike, who at one point in Smash Ultimate’s lifetime was viewed as one of the best characters in the game. But once it was dropped by pro players, specifically the ones who were winning with the character, people started to realize that the character was not necessarily that great, but rather the players who used Ike were.

However, more often than not one can tell whether or not someone is just really good with a character, but it is something to think about when analysing certain characters and their placement on tier lists.

Conclusion

There are a lot of variables that determine what characters are better than others. In terms of tier lists and the meta, this can be completely subjective as to who people view are the best characters. For oftentimes characters are viewed higher depending on how they match up against other characters. When it comes down to it though, players should play who they want to play, regardless of whether or not a character is viewed as a top-tier. However, if your goal is to just win, or your idea of having fun depends on winning, then perhaps you should consider these variables when determining who you should play as, for it certainly will help.