Smash Ultimate has been out for over a year now and it’s still hard to believe what Nintendo and series’ creator Masahiro Sakurai have done. The game features nearly 80 characters all equipped with unique movesets and final smashes – and many of which fans never believed would actually make the final roster.
That’s why we were baffled with all the negative reception surrounding Sakurai’s newest inclusion, Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Sure, it’s another Fire Emblem character, but we got Ridley, King K. Rool, Simon/Richter Belmont, Joker from Persona and somehow, someway, Banjo-Kazooie. So instead of joining much of the Smash community in complaining, let’s talk about the strongest additions to Smash Ultimate.
10 Isabelle (Animal Crossing)
Isabelle certainly was hyped up during her debut trailer, as we not only got confirmation that our favorite city planner would be included in the game, but also received the news of a new Animal Crossing game. In the words of the great Lou Reed, “Just a perfect day.”
All wasn’t as peachy once players got to try out Isabelle though, as she was a clear downgrade from her Villager counterpart. Villager’s Side B was replaced with a fishing rod which proved to be a neat, but a gimmicky move and instead of planting trees she set gyroid mines. A fun character to play, but far from high tier.
9 Incineroar (Pokémon)
A new Smash game always guarantees that a Pokémon character from the current generation of games will make the roster. So once Ultimate was announced fans got to speculating as to who would be the representative among the Gen VII starters.
Primarina, the water type was immediately ruled out as it was a mermaid of sorts that only seemed to make sense in the water. So it was between Decidueye and Incineroar – thankfully both designs were really good – and the latter of which was chosen. Incineroar is a solid character and if you know how to use him he can prove to be troublesome, but he’s far from the game’s best.
8 Ridley (Metroid)
We still get surprised seeing Ridley on the character selection screen as he was chopped up long ago as a character who would never see the light of day in a Smash game. The obvious reason being that he was just to massive and shrinking him down to fighter sized would be too weird. Well, it’s still a bit strange, but Sakurai does what he always does and managed to pull it off.
The problem is that Ridley is still one of the largest characters in the game and while size is advantageous in a real fight, it’s certainly not in Smash. It’s one of the reasons that Pichu, Game & Watch and Squirtle excel.
7 King K. Rool (Donkey Kong Country)
Man, did people think King K. Rool was broken when this game came out, but no, he’s straight trash. It’s like when Smash 4 first came out and people were like “yeah you’re good, but can you take on my Little Mac” (yes that was a thing for a little).
K. Rool was hype for a week before people found out he was combo food that was primarily chosen by inexperienced gamers. He can still be rather frustrating to play against however, thus his spot on this list.
6 Simon/Richter Belmont (Castlevania)
Did somebody say projectiles? Simon and Richter Belmont were another hype addition to the game, especially for the old school gamers who grew up on the legendary Castlevania games. Equipped with a whip the length of the stage, holy water, throwing axes and boomerangs, they are easily one of the mos annoying to play against. Oh and they have a tether to make things even worse.
If you come across a Belmont player online they are likely going to spam you with projectiles until you inevitably take your own stocks, quit, uninstall the game and decide to never play again.
5 Hero (Dragon Quest)
Boy was this character controversial when it dropped on the scene. Equipped with a RNG mechanic that ranged from a harmless projectile to an explosion that takes up the entire screen to a move that kills you instantly. People were pissed and rightfully scared that Hero would destroy the game with his seemingly broken moveset.
As usual, the Smash community was overreacting and Hero proved to be a really good character that suffered from clear flaws like a bad recovery and slow movement speed. But if you’re playing online and you come across a Hero who knows what he’s doing you’re likely going to be uninstalling the game again.
4 Banjo-Kazooie
Sure we still ask ourselves how Ridley and King K. Rool made it in the game, but there isn’t a day that we turn on Smash Ultimate and aren’t pinching ourselves to ensure ourselves that we aren’t dreaming about Banjo-Kazooie’s inclusion.
Banjo was one of the primary reasons that the N64 was so successful and when developers Rare moved onto Microsoft we figured we’d never see the pair on a Nintendo console ever again. Well not only did we get Banjo-Kazooie back on a Nintendo system, but in one of their most popular games ever. Plus the character is really solid and is determinant on how good the player is.
3 Terry (Fatal Fury)
Smash Ultimate may be one of the greatest fighting games of all time, but is simultaneously one of the best marketing schemes in gaming history. Smash has revived the careers of Sonic, Pac-Man, Earthbound, Fire Emblem and most recently Fatal Fury with the inclusion of Terry.
Characters from other fighting games such as Ryu and Ken have a streaky history being high tier in some patches and so-so in others. Terry however, is a beast and much of it can be attributed to his “Go” mechanic. He can kill super early, can essentially combo off of any move and has high survivability – all-in-all a great character.
2 Inkling
Inkling is the representative from Nintendo’s most explosive new property, Splatoon. It was sure thing that the characters would be included in a new Smash game whenever that was to happen. But when they were the feature characters in the debut for Ultimate throwing people for a loop in thinking it was Splatoon 3 – boy, was that just some pure concentrated hype.
So Inkling got off to a good start with Smash fans and they also ended up being one of the best overall characters in the game. They’re a lot like Diddy Kong in Smash 4 in the sense that there so well-rounded and aren’t really that hard to pick up.
1 Joker
Smash Ultimate has felt like a never-ending hype train that seemed to culminate with Joker from Persona’s trailer at the 2018 Game Awards. He was to be the first of the fighters from the promised Fighter Pass DLC and opened the possibility for anybody, freaking ANYBODY to be in the game.
People were rightfully going nuts, but they went even crazier when the community thought the character was broken. You see, the best Smash player in the world MKLeo was ripping the meta in half with his dominating Joker play. Thankfully everyone came to the conclusion that while Joker is really good, MKLeo is also a god.
NEXT: The Top 10 Characteres Featured In The Smash Franchise
