Now that I have some good time to myself, I'll go ahead and give y'all my reasoning on my tier list to the best of my ability.
For starters, let me use a more condensed version of my list in order to show you a better understanding of it, and first up is:
Top Tier
The first thing you'll notice from my list is where I have
Ryu at; he's pretty high up there. There's a lot to consider when figuring out where to place a character on a tier list, from results, to frame data, to match-up spreads, you name it. But something you should always take note of, I believe, is a character's punish game. This is where
Ryu shines the most. One simple screw-up in neutral and you take an unreasonable amount of percent, or better yet, get KO'd incredibly early. The best part? Just about everything he has is guaranteed. If I had to describe competitive Smash 4 in one word, it would be just that. And this is not something that's only exclusive to
Ryu, of course. You'll find that every character in top tier has something of the sort that works at a certain percentage range that makes them so deadly to play against, and there's a reason they do it better than the characters below them on the rest of the tier list.
(Thinking about it again, maybe, "guaranteed" is best used for another Smash game like 64. But I digress.)
To go into a little more of why I rate the punish game in a character so highly, well, let's face it. We're not all perfect. Never can we play at our 100% best, and if we did, I'm sure we'd all be playing
Sheik by now, timing each other out because no one would ever be able to land a hit on anyone with anything other than Needles. But that can't be farther from the truth. When you think about
Ryu's weaknesses and what holds him back as a competitior, you think, "Oh, well he has a hard time catching someone who's keeping him out and running away from him." Well, you're not entirely wrong. But something I've learned over my time with playing
Ryu, over my time with experiencing many different types of match-ups and playstyles, is this:
You can only run away for so long.
So long before you put yourself in a bad spot where you can no longer run. So long before you mess up. So long before you lose the lead. Make no mistake, it's going to happen. And it's going to happen more often than you'd like to think. One of the reasons, I believe, that makes
Ryu more capable of doing just this is the stage list. I come from a city (Houston) where my local TO (Xyro) utilizes a much more diverse stage list, along with 3 stocks, and we've had many different kinds of stages that were legal that you would've never guessed would be on there. Skylot, Wuhu Island, Kongo Jungle, Peach's Castle, Suzaku Castle, Wii Fit Studio, Colosseum, etc. Imagine trying to catch someone like
Sheik or
Sonic on THOSE stages.......HELL NO. I would probably have to switch to a secondary if that were the case. Luckily for me, most of those stages are gone now, and only a few of them still remain. But boy, am I glad when we only have to play on neutral stages. So much less room to work with, and I think that's a good thing for most of the cast. But this discussion on stage lists is for another time, though. I hope I was able to get my point across here.
So can
Ryu be higher, in my opinion? Yes. Can he be lower? Possibly. More time is needed. As long as he's undeniably a top tier at this point, I can work with it.
Now what of the other characters in top tier?
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Sonic's speed gives him arguably the fastest punishes in the game, but his KO set-ups are inconsistent.
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Rosalina creates a great wall with Luma and can even KO relatively early, but anti-Luma tech and having some questionable match-ups is what I believe holds her back from top 3.
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Pikachu has an amazing combo game and quick punishes, but not the best at getting the KO before their opponent does to him because of how light he is. Has potential to only move up, and already has on most of these other tier lists.
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Mario troubles me. I don't know if I should move him down or keep him where he is. Is he truly better than the characters below him in this tier? Perhaps because his weakness are not as prominent as the others and doesn't have as much to work with as those above him is why I have him where he is.
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Fox is amazing, but some of the match-ups he has to deal with are just not worth it, like
Sheik and maybe
Ryu. His weight and recovery hold him back a little, but I mean he can easily move up in the tier, too.
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Meta Knight is top tier at this point in the meta, and I won't deny it. One of, if not, the best KO set-up in the game. And while it's not necessarily all that he has going for him, his linear playstyle is what I think it's holding him back a bit right now.
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Villager is freak'n scary, with a powerful zoning game and having just about his entire moveset KO you at some point or another. Also one of the best edgeguarders in the game. Not too much guaranteed stuff to work with, though, and some match-ups can be really troublesome.
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Ness and
Diddy are hard to gauge. Guaranteed combos and KOs, but those recoveries and possibly their weight among other small details leave them struggling against certain characters. Still top tier nonetheless.
The last character I have in top tier that I also just recently added was none other than
Cloud. At first I had him as the borderline between high tier and top tier, but I wasn't certain enough if he was truly a top tier character or not. Genesis showed me the truth. This character is a menace, and I love it. Hate fighting against him sometimes because it's a nightmare, but still, I love it. Let me try to explain.
Oh, power creep, that's how!
Cloud is what
Little Mac can only dream of becoming one day. Well, more like never.
Cloud's Limit Break mechanic took all the negatives about
Little Mac's KO Meter mechanic and just threw it out the window. Instead of gaining Limit from attacking or taking damage, why don't we also let him charge it too, which by the way, can force his opponents to approach him? Oh, and wouldn't it be a good idea to let him keep his Limit on him for as long as he wants until he gets KO'd? Wouldn't want our poor wittle baby to lose his Limit by getting hit, now would we? And how's about we let him Finishing Touch in the air with no repercussions, AKA, let him KO punch in the air? By the way, we forgot to mention that he also gets faster while he has his Limit.
Ok.
Cloud also has something that no other sword character really has, and that's frame data with reasonable auto-cancel windows on all his aerials bar Fair, along with great priority, speed, and reach. Oh, and a projectile! He makes it very hard for just about any character to land back onstage. Great damage output with KO set-ups, too. His recovery is also underrated, in my honest opinion. I believe he has all the makings of a top tier. And don't even get me started on him in doubles....
One last thing I would like to add before I move into high tier, and this also has something to do with
Cloud: Some of these characters in top tier share this crazy aspect in that they can KO you earlier than everyone else in the game, and with some consistency, too.
Zero Suit Samus combos you from 30% and KOs you with Boost Kick at the top of the blast zone most of the time,
Ryu Shoryukens you as early as 50% anywhere on the stage and KOs you,
Rosalina can Uair you at very low percents with Luma and KO you off the top with sometimes just two simple Uair strings,
Mario's rage Super Jump Punch can KO you off the top starting from a simple Dthrow,
Meta Knight Uairs you into a Shuttle Loop at almost any percent at the top and KOs you,
Cloud steals your soul with Finishing Touch whenever you give him the chance to, and even
Ness can KO you extremely early with PK Thunder 2. These characters can come back at any moment in a match, and they can do it without too much trouble.
High Tier
I'll go ahead any only point out the oddities here.
No matter how you look at his mechanics,
Lucario will never be bad. Yes, his neutral game is very lackluster, and he may not be that fast, but all he needs is a few hits to close out a stock once he has aura going. It's not that he even needs set-ups for him to KO reliably (after all, the latest patch nerfed his Aura Sphere) because a single read at 40% with a Smash Attack or Bair or Uair is going to KO most of the rest of the cast on just about any stage. His fear factor is great; just has more noticeable weaknesses than those above him.
Taking another look at it, I do have
Peach pretty high up there, huh? I'm sure a lot of people can agree that her high learning curve gives her a lot of potential overall. Float Canceling is so good. Her combos are so good. Her Fair is so good. Match-ups play a bigger role in
Peach than in most characters, I feel. She does good against anyone that doesn't keep her out of the air well, and even then, like I said, her Float Canceling makes a great baiting option, and her grabs are also not bad, either.
Pacman plays the keep-away game better than many, and has arguably the best item game. A master of his craft. I'm not sure if he can go up any further at this point or if he's only going to go down from here, though. It's not that his match-ups are too difficult, because he does have a lot of tools and tricks that can get him out of tight spots. Maybe it's just that it's all he really has going for him. He's still always going to be a tournament threat, at least in my book.
On the subject of zoning and camping, other characters that come to mind here are
Toon Link,
Olimar, and
Megaman. Out of all these characters,
Toon Link has the easiest time finishing off stocks. His Bombs and Boomerangs lead to a Fair or Uair, and he even has a great combo game to go along with everything, too.
Olimar does best against shields compared to his other comrades, in my opinion, while
Megaman's got a bit of it all with Pellets, nice grabs, and an amazing Bair. Not that easy to compare them to each other, to be honest, as they each have their strengths and weaknesses based on the match-up at hand. Solid high tiers that make great secondaries.
Mid Tier
To me,
Roy shouldn't be that far from Ike on any list. I found it a little difficult to place
Roy in mid instead of high. He's everything
Marth wanted to be in this game, just like how
Marth was everything
Roy wanted to be back in Melee. Better frame data, grab follow-ups, solid aerial combos, and a bit faster in the mobility department make him vastly underrated overall. His grab range kinda hurts, though, and his reach is not the greatest, but he's meant to be more in-your-face and upfront with everything he does. I guess being slower than other characters who were built to play that type of playstyle with more ease is what left me with no choice but to put him here. The same can be said about
Greninja in high tier, really. Perhaps more results will come soon enough for our hero.
Falco the true hidden boss in this tier. The patches have made him so much better it's crazy. Combos everywhere, including from grabs, surprisingly very strong, and a superb aerial game. He's a lot easier to play now, and a lot more fun at that. Just fast enough for his moves to earn some respect. Once people figure out how to play him in neutral and find a way to set-up his KOs better, he'll definitely move up some spots.
My past mains lie here in both
Shulk and
Robin. They will never be low tier to me, but do they ever have a shot at becoming high tier? I used to believe they were.
Shulk can play a part in many match-ups, but also lose very badly in a good number of them. And
Robin may lose more match-ups than
Shulk, but at least he can get by them with much less trouble.
Shulk's Monado Arts are one of Smash 4's greatest secrets, and should never be left undiscovered, while
Robin's tomes and Levin Sword usage can play a key part in his next step to greatness. What I'm trying to get at here is, they have some of the best special moves around. One day I would like to come back to them for tournament play, but the journey with
Ryu is far from over.
Mewtwo made quite the jump since the last patch. His moves connect to each other much more nicely, along with less endlag on his aerials to make that dream more of a reality. I don't view him much as a glass cannon, honestly, as most others do. He also used to be my main at one point. There's something about a good
Mewtwo that's really hard to hit....
Nothing too out-of-place in this tier to me. But as for the next one....
Low Tier
The first two characters bother me to no end. Are
Doctor Mario and
Bowser Jr. really low tier characters? I don't care how much slower
Doctor Mario is compared to
Mario; I worry about letting his other half run rapid through low tier tournaments. Same can be said about
Bowser Jr. to a lesser extent. Heck, I'm probably the only player who voted
Bowser Jr. for low tier! But I cannot wrap my head around the thought of him effectively approaching certain characters. Clown Kart Dash can only get you so far, right? How does he deal with those who continuously keep him out? Now don't get me wrong, I think he's not that bad, even if he ends up being a low tier after all. I mean, his juggles with his aerials are pretty sick, and multi-hitting Smash Attacks are super good. But is it enough?
Mii Brawler and
Mii Swordfighter are definitely better than people think. Well, maybe at least
Mii Swordfighter. Their specials are most certainly underrated over their other custom moves, but in the case for
Mii Brawler, they are significantly worse.
Mii Brawler has super good frame data, but no way of reliably KO'ing or even setting up into it. And while
Mii Swordfighter may be a bit more on the slower side of things, he can KO much earlier than his other brother from another mother. To me, they are very close in skill.
I think that's all that needs to be said about my list. Never thought I'd make a post this big! At first I was very weary of making a tier list in the first place, especially with our last patch right around the corner, along with two new characters that very well could change the meta, for all we know. As hard as it was to make this myself, I don't think I'm TOO far off from everyone else's.......right guys?
Guys?
TSM ZeRo
, that would of course be even better--at the time the tier list is published.
