Most underdeveloped characters in the current meta?

[Xandercosm]

I'm gonna go with:

#1
#2
#3
#4
#5

They are all characters that have been played here and there but they clearly do not have adequate representation at the moment.

As for, for Pac-Man, he has some of the most ludicrous setups of the entire cast that can deal massive damage and KO super early. I think the reason people have overlooked him is because he is so hard to play and be consistent with (honestly, the same probably goes for everyone on this list).

In the case of Mewtwo, there is basically no reason the lack of representation (he's the only exception to what I said before). He basically has the power, combos, frame data, and more to compete with the rest of the cast as well as a lot of things that are completely unique to him. He has massive potential and I think his rise to fame is probably right around the corner.

For Greninja, I would say his biggest issue is the fact that you have to outplay your opponent by a mile to get even the slightest reward off him. I think he has potential but probably will never get much rep since, if you are looking for that same character archetype, you can find it in Sheik who is much more solid all around.

For Yoshi, he has the tools, the power, the combos, the setups, everything. He's just really wonky to play and that turns a lot of people away. He's clearly got potential as you can see from his performance in Japan so I think it's really just a matter of time until someone picks him up and shows what he can do.

For Toon Link, I would put him in top 15. Genesis 3 was the best proof anyone could give of his massive potential. I don't think he's terribly underrepresented (which is why I put him in 5th place) but he could use more. He's got pretty much the best projectile in the game, save for Sheik's needles and he has a lot of power and speed. He's got the most potential of anyone on this list, in my opinion. Hopefully more people pick him up and show what he's got.

 

[TheGoodGuava]

Oh yeah I actually forgot about the big friendly dragon who I main and didn't even mention lmao

He's got a lot going for him that nobody has even bothered to look at. Hes a great edgeguarder, he refuses to die, his neutral actually isn't very bad at all if you know his spacing options, he has a great set of throws with one of the best kill throws in the game and a combo throw that's good for low percent combos/strings and higher percent mixups that can kill pretty early if you get sweetspots, good OoS options, etc. Honestly I don't know why everyone puts him as like bottom 10 on their lists, hes got a lot more potential than just bottom ten

 

[TheGogiCarter]

In my opinion it's pac man, pits, and marth

 

[C3CC]

Mewtwo. He'll end up being high tier one day. Mark my words.

 

[Deleted member]

Mewtwo doesn't lack representation. He just lacks results at nationals, which will hopefully become rectified this year or later on in the future. His results at a local/regional level are all quite good. He all has Mewsquared, Blue, Rich Brown and Reflex (although a secondary in his case) all repping him.

Oh yeah I actually forgot about the big friendly dragon who I main and didn't even mention lmao

He's got a lot going for him that nobody has even bothered to look at. Hes a great edgeguarder, he refuses to die, his neutral actually isn't very bad at all if you know his spacing options, he has a great set of throws with one of the best kill throws in the game and a combo throw that's good for low percent combos/strings and higher percent mixups that can kill pretty early if you get sweetspots, good OoS options, etc. Honestly I don't know why everyone puts him as like bottom 10 on their lists, hes got a lot more potential than just bottom ten

Zard doesn't have a good out of shield game. He has good out of shield options, but his ****ty traction prevents him from using them effectively.

My guess as to why he's put at bottom 10 is because well... nobody really plays him unfortunately. His matchup spread is thought of as pretty bad as well, but I can't really say for myself.

 

[TheGoodGuava]

Mewtwo doesn't lack representation. He just lacks results at nationals, which will hopefully become rectified this year or later on in the future. His results at a local/regional level are all quite good. He all has Mewsquared, Blue, Rich Brown and Reflex (although a secondary in his case) all repping him.



Zard doesn't have a good out of shield game. He has good out of shield options, but his ****ty traction prevents him from using them effectively.

My guess as to why he's put at bottom 10 is because well... nobody really plays him unfortunately. His matchup spread is thought of as pretty bad as well, but I can't really say for myself.

Its not as bad as you'd think, for instance I would consider the charizard vs bayonetta to be nearly even but other matches (mostly characters with top notch frame data) he fails in because he can't keep up with the pace of the match

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Zard doesn't have a good out of shield game. He has good out of shield options, but his ****ty traction prevents him from using them effectively.

As someone who mains Zard, that's not necessarily the case.

Zard's best two options (grab and Fly) have tremendous range) Charizard actually has the largest non tether standard grab range in the game.

To give a good example, he can grab Bayonetta out of Heel Slide before she touches him. It's that nuts.



Regardless, the most underdeveloped characters are...



The Miis because they get treated unfairly and people are scared to main them.


Because literally no one plays him.


Because almost no one plays them.


Because people aren't playing him competitively when he has the tools.

 

[Diddy Kong]

Mewtwo has quite some representation as of late.. I find it hard to put him here with the likes of Mew^2 scoring so greatly with him. However, I think he has potential to grow even more. So I'll rate my underdeveloped tier list with a bias towards characters I think hold more potential than their current representation.

1: - Obviously, with recent buffs, an amazing character. Very strong, lot's of combos, awesome projectile, good recovery, and light weight might be a blessing in disguise seeing he profits from rage so much.
2: - Like Mewtwo, recent buffs made him far more powerful. He's not the Marth from Melee, or even Brawl, but he's still a strong character with amazing spacing game, enourmous range, and a tipper that kills extremely early.
3: - Nobody really plays him. NAKAT once did nicely with him, now Lucas has faded into obscurity. He's got strong combo game, and good utility with projectiles. He's heavily overshadowed by the stronger, and far easier to use , so that also doesn't work in his favor.
4: - Totally absent from the metagame. Abadango used him once, probably dropped him, and nobody simply cares for the character due to the weird changes in moveset. He's still viable tho I'd say.
5: - Once called the 'King of Heavy Weights' because DK and Bowser where still bad before their buff patches, but since Customs died out, nobody cares for their old pal from the Pokémon RBY days anymore. Yes, Dragon Rush is amazing and without it Charizard is a total different character almost, but he literally has had no representation ever.

Honorable mentoins:

Continueing this list...

- Amazing neutral, good at footsies, and is pretty good at stage control. Even if Little Mac isn't the greatest character due to no aerials basically, and having no recovery, I feel he's seriously underdeveloped. He's straight forward, but able to put most characters on the defensive quickly. I really hope someone develops this character one day.
- Held back greatly due to losing badly to Sheik, but he has great matchups all over the cast. Nerfs made the character less appealing than innitually, cause Greninja was probably the best character in the game at one point (this says a lot with pre-patched Diddy and Sheik around). He's got good frame data, a good projectile, and good kill confirms. Yet, he's very technical, and due to Sheik being so damn dominant he might not be 'worth the effort' to some. Which is a shame.
- ESAM plays him, that's why he was in the Top 5 of the first tier list. But... Pikachu's metagame outside of ESAM is quite lacking. So lacking indeed, that he doesn't deserve the Top Tier placement at all! Especially over the likes of Diddy, Fox, Mario and Cloud. So while he's overrated, he's also underdeveloped outside of ESAM. Thanks to this all, Pikachu will probably drop a LOT in the next tier list. Which I think is justified, but also a shame in the same way.

 

[Bowserboy3]

He all has Mewsquared

"Alt" 0178.

You're welcome.

Mewtwo. He'll end up being high tier one day. Mark my words.

I wouldn't go that far, but mid tier, or potentially high mid tier is within the realm of possibility now. He's got lots of good options now.

 

[divade]

The miis. No question because some people don't even want them in tourneys, so they are heavily under played. even if you could pick one fully styled mii fighter for a whole tourney, the meta would shoot up and people would want to use them.

 

[C3CC]

"Alt" 0178.

You're welcome.


I wouldn't go that far, but mid tier, or potentially high mid tier is within the realm of possibility now. He's got lots of good options now.

No no, you'll see one day, my friend, and you'll remember my words... To the high tier he goes! Just watch! :D

 

[Korrin]

No no, you'll see one day, my friend, and you'll remember my words... To the high tier he goes! Just watch! :D

Just like lucas. If you dont beleive me look up hakii on youtube. His lucas is amazing. He bodied a ness with his lucas that had previously bodied a different lucas.

 

[C3CC]

Just like lucas. If you dont beleive me look up hakii on youtube. His lucas is amazing. He bodied a ness with his lucas that had previously bodied a different lucas.

Yes! Lucas is also a character with a lot of potential and he will end up higher than where he is right now.

 

[Thirtyfour]

Some argue the reason she never gets and changes each patch is because she's not represented any.
Probably the first heavyweight with grab combos. On the same page as Jiggs when it comes to patch changes.
Fell off after 3ds to WiiU nerfs. A shame when he probably has the most evolved footstool tech in the game.
Roy main bias.
Allowed in low tier tournaments for some reason.

 

[KERO]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there's a difference between underdeveloped and overlooked. In Greninja's case, while I feel he's certainly overlooked by a lot of the community, the sheer amount of combos, footstool tech, and options players, as few as there are, have found for him are staggering. I'd say Greninja is actually probably among some of the more (if not most) developed characters in the game. Even mid-level Greninja are pulling off footstool combos with him now, just over a year into the game. Like many characters that were hit hard by a patch or are bottom tier, the few that have stuck with Greninja are extremely passionate about the character, and I do feel being hit so hard so early created an incentive for us to do what we could to keep the character relevant, and we've been constantly experimenting ever since. I honestly do feel confident in saying that we probably would not have figured out at least a third of what we have had Greninja been able to continue to get away with raw Usmashes, early Uair kills out of Uthrow, and shuriken spam because most of us would be content with having such strong tools. Greninja having three very noted reps at a top level in aMSa (at one point), Some, and iStudying in spite of his mid to high tier status and setbacks both in terms of reputation and gameplay is also very evident of the character having had quite a bit of development.

Now, just from my own experience, characters that I feel are underdeveloped would include Palutena, Wario, Lucas, and Charizard. Yoshi allllso might be underdeveloped, but I'm more willing to attribute my lack of knowledge with him to him being criminally underrepresented. I'd also include Miis here, which like Palutena, were hit hard when customs were dropped. I can't really recall seeing Miis or Palutena undergoing much if any development since then.

Lucas is DLC, but I feel he's had less development than any other DLC character besides maybe Roy. Might be because he was unfortunately overshadowed by Ryu and Roy somewhat as well as being seen as inferior to the other EB representative on top of not really appealing to people that played him in Brawl or P:M (I say this as someone that mained Lucas for low tier in Brawl).

Wario just doesn't seem like a character I've seen really change much since day 1 for some reason, and Charizard... as noted, just seems outright ignored, and people can't really seem to figure out much to do with him that really makes him stick out (maybe after the air speed and landing lag buffs, this will change?). I'm probably missing some other characters, and I might be wrong with these, but they are the ones I look at on the CSS and think, "Man, what does x character even do in this game?"

As far as overlooked characters go, there are a lot, but the ones that stick out to me, especially based on how developed they are as characters, are Pac-Man, Greninja, Olimar, Toon Link, and Mega Man. Yoshi also surprises me since he's a very solid character but has shockingly little representation. I can at least attribute the first five being overlooked to them all having high learning curves or having an unpopular optimal playstyle, but Yoshi just perplexes me. Like many have said, why play Greninja when Sheik exists (although, in reality, they differ quite a bit, at least to me), or Olimar when Rosalina exists? While all of these characters seem to have one or two players at the top demonstrating their potential, they're sorely lacking representation at lower levels.

Edit: Not gonna say any of these opinions are objectively right. If someone wants to correct something dumb I've said, go ahead. Always happy to learn more about the game, given 90% of my time with it is spent focusing on the frog.

 

[TurboPikachu]

because the one top player representing dropped her in favor of Mario

 

[Deleted member]

because the one top player representing dropped her in favor of Mario

Hungrybox isn't and never was a relevant Smash 4 player.

And incorrect. He dropped Jigglypuff for Ness.

 

[TurboPikachu]

\

Hungrybox isn't and never was a relevant Smash 4 player.

And incorrect. He dropped Jigglypuff for Ness.

He confirmed in his November/December 2015 Twitch streams that he was switching to Mario. However, it seems he cannot make up his mind over time.

 

[G-Guy]

- I feel people are really sleeping on G-dubs. There is that one Guy from Mexico (forgot his name) who is doing really well with the character and held his own vs. Esam's custom-chu. Not to be underestimated.

- I feel the ticking time bomb is another character being slept on, maybe the new nerfs to the top ladies of the game will make characters like Wario pop up more often in the tourney scene

- I know about Reflex's Shulk, but he's still a character with bursting potential.a long range arial with the same landing lag as Sheik's Fair is not to be tempered with.

 

[Kapus]

I'd say Wario and G&W.

 

[Mr. B]

Mewtwos metagame is being thoroughly worked on (visit the mewtwo boards!) and already has decent representation although not many actual big wins (this will change soon). His most recent round of buffs have made him extremely viable, especially with the top tier nerfing.

 

[Bigbomb2]

There's definitely quite a few:
/ - There's a lot you can do with both characters and their projectiles. Both handle very different but there is a lot of sweet stuff they can pull off.
- Poor Puff
- He needs some meta pushing. He's been getting some sweet buffs so I'd love to see him more
- This is just a given
- His arts give him so much versatility. I'm excited to see where Monado boy goes
- Pretty sure this is one of my personal worst MU's but Wario always seem to be good at catching me off guard. He's just really tricky to fight and I think he can only go up from here

There's still probably a few more