Casual Tier List

[Dapplegonger]

Most competitive smashers know about the tier list, and in competition characters like Fox, Falco, Sheik, and Marth are usually considered superior, while characters like Ness, Bowser, Pichu, and Kirby are believed to be clearly inferior.

However, in lower level smash, the competitive tier list generally means nothing. Some things might be similar between competitive tier lists and casual opinions, like Ness being at the bottom or Fox being at the top, or different, like Kirby being superior because of his far-reaching recovery and (at low levels) sometimes hard to combat suicide KOs.

With this being said, I am here to collect what competitive players thought the best and worst characters were before they played competitively or what casual players think the best and worst are now.

Please reply either with just a numbered list of the 26 characters from best to worst in a casual environment or with reasons why this project would be stupid (I'm curious). If I get enough responses, I'll crunch the numbers and see what people think.

To finish this off, I would just like to add that if anybody more qualified would like to take over this project because it seems like a good idea, just tell me in the comments that you would like to do so and you can use the information that has already been given in the comments before you.

 

[♡ⓛⓞⓥⓔ♡]

We often joke about this. I myself thought Kirby was the best due to his easy-to-perform b-specials. And Roy was the ****. Oh those days.

I won't post a list at this time but I think Link is one to commonly used casual characters (up-b).

 

[Pluid]

How casual are we talking here? Like, "I've just started playing this game a week ago" casual, or "I've been playing this game for a year or more, I don't know how to wavedash and I don't know who Mango is" casual?

 

[Dapplegonger]

I'd say something more like the second option.

 

[cisyphus]

Bowser, DK, Ganondorf, Roy, Link/Young Link, Ness, Zelda, and Kirby would definitely jump up on such a list relative to the tier list. I can see Sheik, Luigi, Ice Climbers, Jigglypuff, Peach, and Yoshi being undervalued as well. The rest would probably stay roughly where they are now. I've definitely heard people talk about Zelda being OP, with the only reason being "that aerial kick she does." Bowser, DK, and Ganondorf are good when your opponent's movement isn't on point since they can take you from zero to 70 in five hits or less. Roy gets tangent benefits from not knowing proper spacing and is generally just really cool. The Links have so many spamming moves that you can just push people away until you can UpB them to death. Ness has PK Flash and the yoyo to camp and spam. Kirby has a good recovery and the benefit of an immediately rewarding final jump (unlike Jigglypuff). Because of Zelda's hype, Sheik probably gets ignored some, especially with the uniformly lame side B and the technical aspects of the needles' value, as well as the lame forward smash; her combo game can definitely get passed over. Luigi's entire game is based on his ridiculous movement options, so someone not wavedashing with him will just think "but Mario?" Ice Climbers have so much technical work to do to be good that the casual player would never even imagine they existed. Jigglypuff's lack of a decent upB and a weird downB combined with her floatiness would be frustrating for any casual player to try at. Peach preys on crouch cancelers and needs good float tech to survive. Yoshi's at-first-glance terrible recovery ability and poor special movepool kills him as well.

It's probably something like
1. Fox
2. Falco
3. Captain Falcon
4. Roy
5. Link
6. Ganondorf
7. Young Link
8. Dr. Mario
9. Zelda
10. Marth
11. Pikachu
12. Mario
13. Samus
14. Sheik
15. Kirby
16. DK
17. Ness
18. Bowser
19. Peach
20. Mewtwo
21. Luigi
22. Yoshi
23. Jigglypuff
24. Ice Climbers
25. Pichu
26. Mr. Game & Watch

 

[Dapplegonger]

It's probably something like
1. Fox
2. Falco
3. Captain Falcon
4. Roy
5. Link
6. Ganondorf
7. Young Link
8. Roy
9. Dr. Mario
10. Zelda
11. Marth
12. Pikachu
13. Mario
14. Samus
15. Sheik
16. Kirby
17. DK
18. Ness
19. Peach
20. Mewtwo
21. Luigi
22. Jigglypuff
23. Ice Climbers
24. Pichu
25. Mr. Game & Watch

Thanks for responding, I wasn't sure if anyone was actually going to put any thought into this, so this is nice to see. You appear to have forgotten Yoshi in your list though.

 

[cisyphus]

Squeezed him in at 22! I forgot to account for Sheik/Zelda's shared slot in my numbering, so I thought I was done at 25.

 

[Tails_Glados_Puff]

Back in the days when i sucked, this is probably what i thought.

1.Fox
2. Kirby
3. Roy
4. Marth
5. Falco
6. Ganondorf
7. Young Link
8. Sheik
9. Captain Falcon
10. Zelda
11. Dr. Mario
12. Luigi
13. Mario
14. Bowser
15. Samus
16. DK
17. Link
18. Yoshi
19. Peach
20. Mewtwo
21. Pikachu
22. Ness
23. Mr.Game and Watch
24. Ice Climbers
25. Jigglypuff
26. Pichu

 

[Dapplegonger]

Back in the days when i sucked, this is probably what i thought.

1.Fox
2. Kirby
3. Roy
4. Marth
5. Falco
6. Ganondorf
7. Young Link
8. Sheik
9. Captain Falcon
10. Zelda
11. Dr. Mario
12. Luigi
13. Mario
14. Sheik
15. Samus
16. DK
17. Link
18. Yoshi
19. Peach
20. Mewtwo
21. Pikachu
22. Ness
23. Mr.Game and Watch
24. Ice Climbers
25. Jigglypuff
26. Pichu

Thanks for the input, but you have 2 sheiks and no bowser.

 

[Tails_Glados_Puff]

Thanks for the input, but you have 2 sheiks and no bowser.

Fixed. Also, cisyphus actually has two Roys.

 

[Dapplegonger]

SqueRoy's him in at 22! I forgot to account for Sheik/Zelda's shared slot in my numbering, so I thought I was done at 25.

Sorry to mess with your list again, but you have two roys and no bowser

 

[Briefs]

Here's my two cents:

Fox
Mario
Dr. Mario
Roy
Pikachu
Ness
Samus
G Dubs
Kirby
Link
Young Link
Sheik
DK
Yoshi
Zelda
Marth
Falco
Falcon
Luigi
Jiggs
Pichu
Mewtwo
Ganon
ICs - I thought they were only good for HRC
Bowser
Peach

This was based entirely on who I played as as a kid

 

[Deleted member]

Top:
Roy

Bottom:
Everyone else

/casuals

 

[Dapplegonger]

Here's my two cents:

Fox
Mario
Dr. Mario
Roy
Pikachu
Ness
Samus
G Dubs
Kirby
Link
Young Link
Sheik
DK
Yoshi
Zelda
Marth
Falco
Falcon
Luigi
Jiggs
Pichu
Mewtwo
Ganon
ICs - I thought they were only good for HRC
Bowser
Peach

This was based entirely on who I played as as a kid

I assume because hes nowhere else in the post that g dubs is game & watch and not Ganon? Although it's not like missing characters has been uncommon in this thread

 

[Pluid]

I assume because hes nowhere else in the post that g dubs is game & watch and not Ganon?

Dubs as in W so GW
(Edited after reading some more responses and thinking about it.)
1. Falco (Epic dair spikes and Fsmash)
2. Marth (Fsmash Fsmash Fsmash Fsmash)
3. Fox (Lazorz and C-Stick spam)
4. Roy (Best B move ever guys)
5. Link (So many throwy stuff and Up-B)
6. Kirby (3 million jumps and a hammer)
7. Pikachu (All my B moves are the best, especially down-B)
8. Samus
9. CFalcon
10. Dr. Mario
11. Jiggs
12. DK
13. Mario
14. Ness
15. Sheik
16. Young Link
17. Ganon
18. Mewtwo
19. Bowser
20. G&W
21. Zelda
22. Luigi
23. Peach
24. Pichu
25. Yoshi
26. IC's
I like this thread by the way, don't let this die.

 

[cisyphus]

I give up wow.

 

[Varist]

awful, awful lists in this thread

 

[Dapplegonger]

Would you like to provide productive advice or just make fun of what other people think. I for one find their input helpful because I'm curious to see what people think. Maybe giving a list of your own would give an example of a 'proper' list.

 

[sunshinesan]

Why is Roy always number one on these things? Because of his neutral B?

 

[Doser]

Would you like to provide productive advice or just make fun of what other people think. I for one find their input helpful because I'm curious to see what people think. Maybe giving a list of your own would give an example of a 'proper' list.

These lists are just people remembering/making up what they recall were the most threatening characters back when they were new. Not only does this imply many of these lists are not going to be accurate (since none of the posters here just f-smash still) but we are also forming lists not based on arguments or reasoning. This is just an opinion poll which ultimately doesn't have any strong case for its accuracy.

Not to mention the purpose of making a Casual tier list is pointless, people who play this game casually don't (and shouldn't) care about tier lists to begin with. This is just a masturbatory exercise.

 

[TheGoat]

As someone who has played with lots of noobs over the years, I can give my feedback for what a noob/casual tier list is like: usually for new players, or even player that have played a lot but not really frequently and without knowledge of competitive melee

1. falco, marth
these two can spam forward smash and win the game easily. Spammy falco is devastating to players that don't know how to shield, falco is arguably the best.

Roy is also pretty good, as is fox and peach's dsmash. Ganon is top tier if the player knows how to simply throw out fair and bair with some spacing.

Falcon is **** tier. Without tech skill and knowing how to SHFFL and tech chase he is useless.

Luigi is quite good as he can spam down smash.

Many of the low tiers are still pretty bad, like bowser kirby mewtwo and pichu.

Ultimately imo it comes down to having good spammable smashes, decent sex kicks, and a good easy recovery. In these levels of play advanced techniques that many characters rely on don't exist. Example with falcon, his smashes are quite slow (dsmash can be good) and all his moves are useless without knowledge of SHFFL. His grabs don't do much if you don't know how to SHFFL and tech chase too. His recovery is also bad and a noob will die easily while using him.

 

[The Star King]

Even when we were all scrubs, my friends and I all thought Marth was 10x better than Roy and chose him over that ****, dunno what you guys were smoking.

Puff was a "gimmick" because you just tried to rest people all game (because obviously that's the only saving grace of her terrible moveset right?), so it didn't work on people who knew you were gonna try that but destroy people who didn't know what they were doing. Space animals were still great. Peach is terrible. Link is pretty good.

 

[Alice!]

Among my friends G&W was considered the best, probably through a combination of folklore "he's the hardest to get" things and the fact that I mained G&W while somewhat being "that person" at the time. Also nair.

 

[Griffard]

Scrubs excel with Sheik and Marth. IMO

 

[toiletduck]

1. Marth is best for casual... that forward smash with no di... also shield grab lawl

2. After got to falco, that forward smash and laser spam

These are best for casuals, and I mean knowing nothing about the game and playing the like most of us play Marvel v Capcom when we are wasted
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As mentioned Jiggz is only about trying to rest and rollout spam, which at times works

Fox got that dash attack and upsmash, and is still fast

Sheik, imo, is actually a little harder at straight scrub lvl's

Link up B is OP, and honestly is so spammy that for noobs it's hard to approach and then not get hit with that spin move

Pika is pretty nice too, that down b, and projectile, and forward smash stays out for a while


Having projectiles really helps on that casual tier list

 

[Varist]

Would you like to provide productive advice or just make fun of what other people think. I for one find their input helpful because I'm curious to see what people think. Maybe giving a list of your own would give an example of a 'proper' list.

you keep saying i'm not allowed to criticize without giving my own list. i already did that. like i said, bad lists

 

[Gladiator]

I remember playing as a 7 year old and being shocked when I found out that some people could actually play IC's and win. To me, Pichu was more viable. I also thought that Falco was just a worse version of Fox, because let's face it, Falco's blaster sucks (not really) and his recovery is crap (still holds true).

 

[Redact]

When I was a scrub I just played puff and back aired the **** out of everyone. Never lost to anything lol

 

[ACDC]

As a beginner after 1 year of play I considered Roy, Ganondorf, Mario, Fox, Falco, Young Link, Dr.Mario and Luigi to be the best. I thought the worst characters were Yoshi, Kirby, Pichu, Mewtwo, Puffkins, Ness, Bowser and Ice Climbers to be the worst. The rest were somewhere in the middle. My opinions have changed immensely since that time of course, but it's fun to remember the ol' days sometimes

 

[ALittleFly]

One of my roommates who played the least of us did some character soul-searching after losing with Sheik too many times - he gravitated towards Falcon and Iceclimbers, though, because they scored easy kills with their strong smashes in 2v2s/ffas.

[Edit] But realistically there's going to be no real objective list bc casual players by definition don't have strong reasons to prefer certain characters so they default to subjective preference.

 

[Oaty]

Why is Roy always number one on these things? Because of his neutral B?

Roy is just a cool character. He's not particularly hard to kill with when you are a casual. Also his recovery isn't that bad at casual play because edge guarding isn't really a factor. His fully charged neutral B also might land a stray hit. Which is cool because of it's insane knockback.

When I played casually this was my list.
1. Marth
2. Pikachu
3. Roy
4. Ganondorf
5. Sheik
6. Falco
7. Young Link
8. Dr. Mario
9. Sheik
10. Fox
11. Kirby
12. Zelda
13. Bowser
14. Luigi
15. Mario
16. Yoshi
17. Mewtwo
18. Link
19. DK
20. C falcon
21. Samus
22. Game and Watch
23. Pichu
24. Ice climbers
25. Jigglypuff
26. Peach

 

[Landry]

I find it comical that no one with a join date before 2014 deigned to respond with a serious answer.

These lists are awful and this thread is pointless.

 

[Sarej]

Considering I only really played vs friends and my brother as Link... Which I never lost but I had no idea about wavedashing etc. though could take on 3 other lv 9's no problem. So really for me it was Link and everything else is just meh.

 

[Sarej]

I find it comical that no one with a join date before 2014 deigned to respond with a serious answer.

These lists are awful and this thread is pointless.

It's quite similar to people who talk about Vanilla WoW and how they knew nothing. Sometimes being a noob can create the best experiences.

 

[Pluid]

I find it comical that no one with a join date before 2014 deigned to respond with a serious answer.

These lists are awful and this thread is pointless.

No fun allowed?

 

[Landry]

No fun allowed?

You have much to learn, young one.

 

[Pluid]

You have much to learn, young one.

Ah, good ol' condescending attitudes. My friend, keep in mind that making a Smashboards account does not mark the official day of when people began playing competitively.
We've got to keep the positive energy flowing.
You, being as experienced as your are, I would like to see your version of this tier list. Your vast wisdom probably has much more value than mine.

 

[Gillmatic]

I thought Luigi was really broken. So many easy kills with Up B. I also thought Ganondorf was really good too, and I almost exclusively played Roy because he was a cooler version of Marth (I actually thought Marth was a girl for a while)

 

[Landry]

Ah, good ol' condescending attitudes. My friend, keep in mind that making a Smashboards account does not mark the official day of when people began playing competitively.
We've got to keep the positive energy flowing.
You, being as experienced as your are, I would like to see your version of this tier list. Your vast wisdom probably has much more value than mine.

I could give you my thoughts on the actual tier list. I have no idea how I'd rank a "casual tier list" because it's an arbitrary and stupid exercise with no real point. With many bad ideas I can at least understand the merit behind the original concept, even if it's poorly executed. But this is legitimately pointless.

 

[Elyssa Xey Hexen]

Every so often on Thursdays we stop trying to play and making sense. Our inner party gets to us and we start to evolve to other characters. Competitive topi tier remains top tier.