With Ultimate’s sizable roster it might seem a little intimidating to pick out a few and call those characters your own, so here’s a small list of characters and their unique traits that will lend themselves to beginners attempting to learn the game well.
With over 80 characters, newcomers may find themselves struggling to pick one out to call their own. Even if picking out a character to play as is a low-stress task, it still helps to be able to start from a smaller character pool. Here are some of the characters I recommend trying out if you’re trying to get into the game. I’ll describe what makes them so great both for beginners and what makes them strong characters in general.
The first character on the roster and arguably the most iconic gaming character, Mario is a solid first character to start your career with. He’s easy to control and maneuver around, both on the ground and in the air, has solid, strong attacks that are easy to understand and grasp, and he has a few tools at his disposal to zone enemies with, giving him a few options that make him more fleshed out than a character who only deals damage through melee/physical attacks.
He has a decent aerial game, with his up aerial being a valid tool for continuously attacking enemies in the air, a ridiculously satisfying finisher with his forward aerial that can send opponents tumbling down the stage, a kill throw, a move that reflects incoming enemy projectiles in his side special, and he has a pretty standard recovery.
So, a decent combo game means he can rack up damage and hits, and he has the ability to kill his opponents with stronger attacks and even a kill throw. So where is Mario lacking?
Ironically enough, it’s his standard style of gameplay that also serves as his downfall. He doesn’t have too many crazy kill confirms, he’s a mid-weight character, and his non-commitment to a side means his move set isn’t all too deep.
Despite all this, however, that isn’t to say Mario can’t be used in competitive play as players have placed into the top 10 while using him. If you really enjoy how he plays, then it may be worth your time to try and devote more effort developing your skills with him further.
When it comes to beginner characters, Kirby is an excellent solid choice to consider picking up. His recovery allows him to cover lots of distance both vertically and horizontally, so if you’re constantly getting knocked off the stage while trying to learn the game, you’ll have an easier time getting back with Kirby’s multiple jumps.
His moves are all pretty standard physical melee attacks, but most special about Kirby is his special ability to copy character abilities. Their special abilities become yours, so depending on his opponent, Kirby’s special move could be a powerful melee attack, a valuable projectile attack useful for zoning, or maybe a less-than-stellar special move. Regardless of how powerful your opponent’s special attack is, though, by copying their ability it allows for Kirby players to get more firsthand experience in learning their opponents’ moves.
Unlike Mario and the rest of the other recommendations, however, Kirby sees very little use in competitive play due to faults in his character such as his light weight, slow aerial speed and less than stellar hitboxes. Despite this lack of competitive viability, however, I still believe he could be a strong character to pick up for first-time players.
Representing the heavy class of characters, Ike is a great fighter for beginners to pick up and play. Being a heavy character, his moves are all hard-hitters so racking up damage and finishing off opponents when they’ve taken lots of hits is no problem for him. His large sword also gives his attacks large hitboxes which, when combined with the sweeping motion of his moves, means his attacks cover a lot of area.
Another benefit of his attacks is how well they combo with his neutral aerial. Whether a forward aerial, a backwards aerial or a upwards aerial, as long as you land a single neutral aerial attack first, you’re practically guaranteed to land a second hit. This is a very dangerous disadvantage for your enemy as this easy combo of Ike’s will grant you both damage and knockback.
Ike also has a few solid recovery options as well. His side special attack gives him potential to recover to the stage from a large, horizontal distance. His up special also has him jump quite high up into the air. While these two options cannot be combined with each other, the ability to have either vertical or horizontal recovery puts him above most other heavies, who, while also being difficult to knock off due to their heavy weight, struggle greatly to recover off the stage due to subpar at best recoveries.
His down special is also a valuable tool for both experienced and new players alike: a counter. If an opponent lands an attack while Ike’s counter is active, he will take no damage and instead counter their attack with an attack of his own. What makes counters even more valuable: the strength of their attack will scale based off the attack they are countering. It’s a simple, easy to grasp concept that newcomers can enjoy using, but more experienced players will be able to fully use it to its full potential by predicting attacks and having one more tool at their disposal to punish their opponents’ mistakes.
Newcomers should be aware of Ike’s weaknesses, though. As a heavy, it may be tempting to simply continue spamming moves due to their high damage output and knockback, but it’s vital to remember that punishing a heavy’s predictable playstyle is much easier to do due to their attack animations taking much longer to finish, thus they are left vulnerable much longer. Their heavy weight also makes them an easy target for combos and, though Ike’s recovery is notably better than his fellow heavyweights, recovering from far away is still a major point of concern for him.
And those are my recommendations! One fighter from each weight class and each with a good amount of variation in their playstyles. I hope that this helps you get closer to finding a character who you can truly call your main and if you like one of these characters so much, you should feel free to call them your main!
At the end of the day, keep in mind that these are just suggestions as well. After all, experimentation and firsthand experience will always be the greatest teacher, so don’t be afraid of picking a character outside of the box! Just know your limits and don’t get too frustrated if you don’t like how certain characters feel, even if they’re the ones on this list! You have plenty of options!
