Character Importance Tiers

[Illusive]

If you were to make a tier list of how important characters were to the smash series, or how deserving they are to be in smash (existing characters only of course), what would it look like?

General Trends:
Mario is the most important character
Link is the 2nd most important character
The original 12 (or at least the original 8) have a special place
After the original 12, Bowser is the most important
Of pokemon trainer's 3 pokemon, ivysaur is by far the least important, while charizard slightly beats out squirtle
The more smash games a character has been in, the more important they are
Snake and Sonic are both extremely popular, but as 3rd party characters hold little relevance to smash


Now for what I see as the tier list

*=Ranking was increased due to tournament usage (in any of the games)

God (Untouchable due to being in all 3 smash games):

Mario
Link
Pikachu
Samus
Donkey Kong
Kirby
Fox
~~~
Yoshi (the only one of the original 8 who's been questioned)
Luigi
Captain Falcon
Ness
Jigglypuff

Top:

Bowser
Peach
Ganondorf
Zelda

High:

King Dedede
Wario
Diddy Kong
Marth*

Middle:

Pokemon Trainer (Charizard>Squirtle>Ivysaur)
Meta Knight*
Lucario
Ike
Falco*
Sheik*
Olimar

Low:

Game and Watch
ROB
Wolf
Ice Climbers
Pit

Bottom:
Lucas
Toon Link
Zero Suit Samus

Unclassifiable: (they are either top tier because they're popular or bottom because they're 3rd party)
Sonic
Snake

 

[Mmac]

Oh boy, I'm not even going to touch this...

The original 8 is right though.....

 

[Illusive]

I am not professing my list to be correct, that's just my personal opinion. What do YOU think it should be?

 

[Mmac]

You know.... you didn't had to take it down because I made an assumption >_>

 

[Red Arremer]

Top Tier
Original 12 (Mario, DK, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu, Luigi, Captain Falcon, Ness, Jigglypuff)

Mid Tier
Everyone else

 

[HeroMystic]

The original 12 is GOD TIER. No character is more important than them, period.

Melee characters are High Tier.

Brawl characters are Low Tier.

 

[Red Arremer]

Why, I do like the addition of Wario and Olimar, though.

 

[M15t3R E]

Top Tier
Original 12 (Mario, DK, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu, Luigi, Captain Falcon, Ness, Jigglypuff)

Mid Tier
Everyone else

I agree with those 12, but not in that order.
Mario, Luigi, Pikachu, Link, Yoshi, DK, Kirby, Samus, Fox, Captain Falcon, Ness, Jigglypuff.

That order is taking into account all the $$$ each of those characters made for Nintendo.

 

[Red Arremer]

I was having them in the order of the roster in the game, with the secret characters added after the first 8, and in their roster positions.

 

[M15t3R E]

I was having them in the order of the roster in the game, with the secret characters added after the first 8, and in their roster positions.

Oh, ok then. My bad.
Well that's the order I would say from highest of the high tier to lowest of the high tier.

 

[Red Arremer]

Though F-Zero still has sold higher than Kirby or Star Fox. =P

 

[Collective of Bears]

Mewtwo, Dr. Mario, and Roy are high tier.

 

[Frown]

[Original 8 + Luigi]
[Zelda, Ganondorf, King Dedede, Metaknight, Diddy Kong, Bowser, Peach, Wario]
[Ness, Captain Falcon]
[Young/Toon Link]
[Fire Emblem]
[Falco]
[Olimar]
[Pokémon Trainer, Jigglypuff, Lucario]
[Wolf]
[Mr. G&W, Ice Climbers]
[Lucas]
[R.O.B., 3rd party characters]

 

[brinboy789]

uhhh...mario is first...yea...XP

 

[Sosuke]

The original 12 is GOD TIER. No character is more important than them, period.

Melee characters are High Tier.

Brawl characters are Low Tier.

I'd go with this. seriously.

Spoiler

Poor TL though. =(

 

[MyNameIsRyan]

Top Tier: Captain Falcon
Bottom Tier: Everyone else

 

[Snowstalker]

TOP:

Mario
Luigi
Pikachu
Pokemon Trainer
Link/Toon Link

HIGH:

Donkey Kong
Kirby
Samus
Yoshi
Bowser
Peach
Zelda
Ganondorf

MIDDLE:

King Dedede
Captian Falcon
Wario
Ness
Marth
Diddy Kong
Jigglypuff
Charizard
Squirtle
Falco
Pit

LOW:

Ivysaur
Olimar
Meta Knight
R.O.B
Zero Suit Samus
Sheik
Ike
Ice Climbers
Lucas
Lucario
Wolf

BOTTOM:

Snake
Sonic

 

[shaSLAM]

Top Tier: Captain Falcon
Bottom Tier: Everyone else

listen to the man...

 

[Hive]

Tada! A list everyone will disagree with
Top:
Mario
Link
Sonic
Samus
Pikachu
Donkey Kong
Fox
Snake
Zelda
Kirby
High:
Luigi
Peach
Diddy Kong
Captain Falcon
Pokemon Trainer
Olimar
Marth
Mid:
Ice Climbers
Pit
Ganondorf
Bowser
Toon Link
Yoshi
Ike
Falco
Wolf
Wario
Low:
Lucas
DDD
G&W
Zss
Jigglypuff
Sheik
Lucario
R.O.B.

 

[Scott!]

In my unprofessional opinion, Snowstalker's is pretty darn good. Everyone's in the correct tier, though I might shift a few around within some of the tiers. Olimar over Ivysaur, Meta Knight above both of them, Falcon over Dedede, and probably Sonic over Snake. But that's just my opinion, and it's definitely open to debate.

 

[Barge]

snake and sonic do not deserve to be in smash

Snake isnt from nintendo, yet he's godlier then everyone else in the game.

Sonic's from sega, but nintendo and sega are like affiliates now-a-days...he deserves to be in more then snake, but he shouldnt have been in here in the first place

 

[Frown]

Tada! A list everyone will disagree with
Top:
Mario
Link
Sonic
Samus
Pikachu
Donkey Kong
Fox
Snake
Zelda
Kirby
High:
Luigi
Peach
Diddy Kong
Captain Falcon
Pokemon Trainer
Olimar
Marth
Mid:
Ice Climbers
Pit
Ganondorf
Bowser
Toon Link
Yoshi
Ike
Falco
Wolf
Wario
Low:
Lucas
DDD
G&W
Zss
Jigglypuff
Sheik
Lucario
R.O.B.

lol

Explain yourself.

 

[Hyper_Ridley]

Sakurai's version

God Tier
Kirby
Meta Knight
Dedede

Top tier
R.O.B
Lucas
Marth

High
Snake

Mid
Everyone else

Bottom
Ganondorf (Why else would he have this sword -scandal?)

 

[ChronoPenguin]

The original 12 is overrated.
Srsly all you need for a Smash game is
Mario series
Pokemon Series
Zelda series.

Thats no joke, we'd all buy that, ya we'd buy a mario vs Mario thing or a Zelda vs Zelda or whatever.

But seriously those are the 3 biggest series at Nintendo (I believe Zelda is starting to decrease though)

So Im going to say
Mario, Bowser,Pikachu,Jigglypuff,Link,Ganondorf.

Then you put everyone else from different series.
Then you have Peach,Luigi,Zelda etc.
Not that Peach, Luigi and Zelda aren't important.
However Mario and Bowser are like...the BIG dogs in their series, and the same goes for Link and Ganondorf (I won't even touch SSB64) It's a fan service game right?
And when you here "You can be Bowser!" "You can be Ganondorf!" "Your Starfox" You go..."SWEET"
Peach, some people won't like me for saying it...doesn't make Smash feel like Smash, Smash isn't as good without her, but she doesn't bring the same aura to the table in my opinion.

It's about All-star series characters right? Peach should obviously be a part of it, but the way I see it.
If you took Mario,Bowser,Link,Ganondorf,Pikachu, Jigglypuff out...any 1 of them.
The game would be extremely wierd. It be wiered with some people taken out (lawl Mewtwo) but really wierd if those guys were gone.Some people say "but Ganondorf wasn't in SSb64"

Your telling me you give Zelda precedence over Ganondorf?
Thing is, the main villians of the series, they pretty much have a role bigger than the secondary main characters (Peach,Zelda, Shadow/tails etc.)


So ya...... if anything those guys. and if you say why Pikachu why Jigglypuff? They are some of the most iconic characters to the series, and in some ways more so than Ash/Red/Blue/Gold/ whatever trainer you can think of.

 

[HeroMystic]

Tada! A list everyone will disagree with
*list*

Your list was completely fine until I saw SONIC on top tier.

Srsly all you need for a Smash game is
Mario series
Pokemon Series
Zelda series.

Because the Metroid and Starfox series is so horrible.

 

[ChronoPenguin]

No I wasn't insulting the series >.>
It's just those are Nintendo's biggest (financial and popularity wise) franchises.
I was just saying without your top 3 franchises making an appearence....smash would be odd.
I'm not insulting the other series T_T.

Everyone wants to pick on me T_T.

 

[MasterWarlord]

God:
Mario
Link
Pikachu
Samus
Donkey Kong
Kirby
Fox

Top:
Bowser
Wario
Yoshi
Luigi
Ganondorf
Zelda
Captain Falcon
Ness

High:
Peach
Diddy Kong
Marth
King Dedede
Meta Knight
Ike
K. Rool
Ridley

Middle:
Olimar
Pokemon Trainer (Charizard >>> Squirtle >>>>>>>>>>>>> Ivysaur)
Lucario
Mewtwo
Jigglypuff
Wolf
Krystal
Isaac
Bowser Jr.
Black Shadow

Low:
Falco
Mr. Game & Watch (First big Nintendo hit)
R.O.B. (He increased system sales a lot)
Toon Link
Shiek
Pit
Zero Suit Samus
Geno
Roy
Dr. Mario
Young Link
Pichu
Ice Climbers

Bottom:
Megaman
Sonic
Snake

 

[HeroMystic]

No I wasn't insulting the series >.>
It's just those are Nintendo's biggest (financial and popularity wise) franchises.
I was just saying without your top 3 franchises making an appearence....smash would be odd.
I'm not insulting the other series T_T.

Everyone wants to pick on me T_T.

I just find your reasoning kinda flawed.

The Smash series is pretty much an advertising game. If you just kept the Mario/Zelda/Pokemon series in, you aren't doing much advertising.

And the Original 8 (maybe not original 12) is godly important. They're highly expected in the series, and alot of people can get angered without one of them on there.

Look how people reacted to not seeing Roy and Mewtwo.

 

[cheap_josh]

The original twelve are the most important, minus Ness (I've heard Jigglypuff is Pikachu's equivalent in Japan, but don't quote me on that), because they're all classic status. They're all in one of Nintendo's main franchises, they are the reasons to buy a Nintendo console.

Low tier should be Snake and Sonic. Sonic is Sega, but it's almost like Nintendo adopted him because his real parents (Sega) got into some horrible accident (Dreamcast). And Snake is a traitor...

 

[MasterWarlord]

The original twelve are not god due to being in the original twelve.

Bowser and Wario easily top Yoshi and Luigi. Wario has his own games while Bowser is the main antagonist, being the most essential person to the Mario series besides Mario himself.

 

[cheap_josh]

Bowser and Wario easily top Yoshi and Luigi

Not Wario, where would Wario be without Mario?
However, Mario and Yoshi are like bros (Mario World/Yoshi's Island). Luigi literally is a bro. He is one half of the Mario Bros.

Bowser, maybe. But he's the exception.
Still, the original twelve represent "the" franchises so I still say the original twelve.

 

[Hive Mind]

R.O.B. should not be this low. He basically stopped Nintendo from dying horribly in the video game franchise. Even though he did not make much money, he allowed future characters to also make money, indirectly making him the reason why Nintendo makes bazillions.

 

[Mr. Rogu]

um heres a list in my opinion so feel free to change whatever: note: this is a list of how important the character is in their game series and/or somewhat popularity, not a smash importance list. sorry if this is a little off topic

Top Tier:
Mario
Link
Sonic
Samus
Donkey Kong
Pikachu
Kirby
Fox
Yoshi
Solid Snake

High Tier:
Luigi
Bowser
Peach
Ganondorf
Zelda
King Dedede
Captain Falcon

Mid Tier:
Wario
Ness
Meta Knight
Young Link
Falco
Wolf
Diddy Kong
Pokemon Trainer
Toon Link
Ike

Low Tier:
Olimar
Pit
Ice Climbers
Lucario
Mewtwo
Marth
Skeik
Zero Suit Samus
Dr. Mario

Bottom Tier:
Pichu
Lucas
Game & Watch
R.O.B.
Jigglypuff
Roy

 

[HeroMystic]

The original twelve are not god due to being in the original twelve.

Well you just pretty much ***** your own argument.

 

[MasterWarlord]

I only put up the original eightas "God", and even then I booted Yoshi. They represent the core series of Nintendo, they deserve their positions.

Sonic and Snake have to be bottom because this is a NINTENDO list.

 

[ChronoPenguin]

The original 12 are overrated >.>
If we had a different set of 12 characters, we'd have you guys spewing the same thing.
Hate me if you wish, more than half the gaming world would not realize that Ness existed if he wasn't in Smash.
He's not important to Smash.

 

[HeroMystic]

The original 12 are overrated >.>
If we had a different set of 12 characters, we'd have you guys spewing the same thing.

I could've told you that one.

The fact that -are- the original 12 makes them important however. They already have their fans.

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

Tires don exits!

 

[KillamEXE]

God - Original 12

High - Everybody in Brawl

Low - Everybody taken out of Melee

Also, if it wasn't for Ness & Earthbound/Mother, HAL Labs might not have made it far enough to make Smash Bros.

 

[Mr. Rogu]

Tires don exits!

ya they do, there on my car. (someone else has said that before.) for that saying, they could of at least spelled it right