It's been just over a month since Ultimate was released and many players, new and old, are still finding the task of picking a main quite difficult. In this piece, I will lay out a simple guide to help you in picking an effective main that fits your playstyle, likes and much more.

Start Open Minded

I made the mistake of trying to pick a main, specifically Peach, before I ever touched the game. I only got the game at Christmas, yet I was looking up combo footage and general gameplay to make my decision before playing the game. This was the biggest mistake I made because I spent the first few days of playing, trying to force myself to play the character I picked when their playstyle never matched mine. In the end, it just meant I completely wasted my first few days of game time.

Go into the game with a completely open mind and ready to learn the game before learning a specific character. Use the time you have when first unlocking characters to try out other characters, rather than sticking with a character for a lengthy amount of time.

Do Not Pick from Tier Lists and Who Pros are Playing

Another mistake I made before I got the game was that I was obsessed with tier lists and that clouded my judgment of certain characters. When I noticed that characters such as Kirby and Donkey Kong weren’t in the top tiers, I completely disregarded them. However, after playing the game I fell in love with Kirby and his playstyle to the point where I didn’t use another character until at least ten hours of game time.

The funniest thing about this is that the character I dropped Kirby for was Donkey Kong and he instantly became my new main. He still is one of the main characters I play and currently has the highest score for me in multiplayer games. This should be a lesson for you all that tier lists really don’t matter at the casual level of the game.

Play to Your Strengths and Likes

The key thing to do when you start playing the game is to find the style of play you like. That can vary between different methods, you may like to zone your opponents and keep them away, you may like to play sword characters, or you may like characters that are heavyweights (characters that hit hard but are quite slow).

There are so many more playstyles that I could list and it’s your job to try characters out and see what playstyle you enjoy and fits you. Like I mentioned above, I tried playing many of the top tier characters and struggled to win games. However, when I identified my playstyle and played characters I liked, I started winning.

Recommendations for Each Playstyle

I am now going to give you some characters that will suit the main playstyles that you will find in the game. First off let’s start with some very basic characters that will allow you to learn the basic mechanics of the game; Mario, Kirby, and Cloud. You start off with Kirby, so it makes sense to learn the game with him and he also has an easy recovery for beginners to utilise when learning the game. Mario is just a solid character all around, so he will allow you to learn everything at a basic level. Cloud is probably the easiest sword character to use so if you are planning on having a sword character as your main, Cloud is a solid start.

If you are looking to play someone who has to be up close and personal to your opponent to really run the game, then you will be looking at characters such as Roy, Chrom, Fox, Pikachu, Ryu, and Ken. Roy and Chrom are very good sword fighters who you don’t need to specifically hit players with a certain part of your sword to maximise damage. Pikachu has great speed so is incredibly useful up close and he is considered one of the best characters in the game. Ryu and Ken are your traditional guys up close, who deal decent damage and are quite quick, but not the quickest, overall, both fighters are very good.

If you are looking to play someone who has great zoning potential and are very ranged fighters, then you’ll be looking at characters such as Simon, Richter, Link, Olimar, and Snake. Richter has a great move set that allows him to keep his opponents at long distance and combo them there. He also has moves that allow him to transition from close up to long range so you can keep sword fighters out of range. Link is a very good character if you like fast characters that bolt in and out of combat. He has great zoning capabilities and his general speed can make him a tough fighter to lock down in one position. Snake is a great character to play if you like both range and up close as his move set is a complete mixture of the two.

If you are looking to play someone who has great grappling and is a heavyweight, then you’ll be looking to play characters such as King K. Rool, Donkey Kong, and Bowser. King K. Rool is a fantastic heavyweight fighter who is considered one of the best fighters on the game. His move set is incredible and, with him being a heavyweight, he is more difficult to kill. Donkey Kong is another great fighter who has really easy combos to learn and these combos actually pay off in damage. Bowser was massively buffed heading into Ultimate and it comes through as he is once again a great heavyweight fighter. Just like the others, he has a good move set that couples well into being a heavyweight.

Conclusion

To sum this whole article up, all you need to do is play the game initially, identify your playstyle, identify fighters you like and just ignore tier lists and who the pros play. The best way to win in Ultimate is to play characters that you have fun with. You will not succeed in Ultimate if you force yourself to play a character that is considered the best by someone else. Play for yourself and just find characters you like, even if you do it through the means of liking the character because of the game he/she is from.

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