Look, I know that the title is click-baity, but hear me out. I know Samus isn't the best, not even top 30. But I do think that she has some great things about her.
-2 good projectiles
-Good combo game
-Good aerials
-Decent landing options (Up, Down, and Neutral air)
-Fully charged Neutral B gives her a somewhat early kill move
-Bombs give good mixups, mobility, combo-material, etc.
-Good spike
Now, I can understand why people think she sucks. And I can understand. Please tell me your opinions! (Just don't be mean.)
I'll say that a few of these points aren't really true. At the same time, some of the points brought up still provide proof enough that Samus isn't the garbage character so many people think she is. I'll preface this by saying that the whole argument about Samus being the worst character in the game is perpetuated by people that have never seen a good Samus yet heard about her bad hitboxes and lack of kill throws so just assumed that she had nothing besides those and CS.
On your first point: Samus has no good projectiles. CS is decent but has a few things that hold it back like not being able to charge it in the air and the startup lag on it allows her to be hit and, thereby, lose the entire charge without firing anything. Her missiles are bad and need to be changed to be usable in all MU's. I guess you could call her morph ball bombs a projectile as they can be reflected but, if we're considering them to be a projectile, then they kinda fail at being a projectile (They're more like mini-zoning tools and the real strength of the move comes from momentum reversals).
On your second: I agree. Her combo game is a lot better than some characters which, imo, should place her higher than "worst character ever" by itself. Having a good combo game, being able to rack up 30%+ from one grab, is a big deal in this game. Not to mention, Samus has a kill combo on some stages that can kill at 0% (Especially on Delfino). Some characters have no followups from throws and can't get over 25% from their BnB combos. This is a big strength for her.
On your third: Her aerials are decent, not great. Her uair is probably her strongest aerial next to bair. Fair is ok but the hitboxes don't loop well and the landing lag on it is atrocious. Dair has some weird hitboxes, comes out kinda slow, and also has some bad landing lag. Nair is questionably useful. her old nair was far superior.
On your fourth: Her only really reliable landing option is uair and the hitbox on it doesn't make it as reliable as other landing options in the game like Pika or Sheik. Considering she actually has one, though, means her landing game is better than a lot of the cast that doesn't have a single landing option. More points for her not being worst character.
On your fifth: I agree though it's not really a super reliable one as it doesn't kill early except near the ledge or offstage. Drop zone CS is fun though and very effective in some MU's. I will also add dair to the list of early kill options as well as having one of the best options for killing an opponent whose shield is broken (dirty bomb) and she can actually break shields which makes that even better.
On your sixth: I also agree with this though they have to be used sparingly since the lag on them is bad so they can be taken advantage of. Bombs are one of her best all-purpose tools.
On your seventh: Should be combined with early kill options.
A lot of the people saying Samus is the worst character just haven't seen Samus played well. That goes for a lot of the characters people claim to be worst character in the game. I would actually add a few things to the list such as a good recovery with two options (tether and up-B) as well as a recovery stall (bombs). Good offstage presence with nair sending opponents at a very bad angle, fair being a good multihit for going through airdodges, and dair as a good meteor smash plus bair stage spikes and ledge trump>bair.
She's also got zair which is one of the best spacing tools in the game. Plus, she has a frame 3 jab which a lot of characters would love to have (Zelda, Link, Dedede, etc.).
On a side note, I kinda wish people would stop arguing over who the worst character in the game is. Honestly, with smash 4 being the best balanced game in the franchise, there really isn't a worst character in the game because all the bottom tier characters can go head-to-head with each other and be fairly even. Some of the bottom tier characters can do well against mid and top tier characters (See ESAM's Samus against Larry Lurr's Luigi). There is no one character in the game that literally struggles against everyone else in the game. Sure, there's a bottom tier but no worst character within that tier.
I've used one on a PKT2, and the Missile gimped Lucas. If you'd like, it's in a Samus montage I made a bit ago. I can show you true Missile gimps like you mentioned. I can give you the link if you want.
