I'm quite surprised that few have said the tier I believe... anyways, at my school, there has been a Smash 64 craze this year. So, people are literally playing all the time before school, after school, lunch, between classes, etc. So, from my experience there, here are what I see as the tiers (because I play a lot with people who play easily 4-5 hours a day, I think this is a bit closer, at least for FFA.)
(Explanation is below)
Tier list:
Top:
Pikachu
Kirby/Ness
Fox
Mid:
Mario
Captain Falcon
DK
Jigglypuff
Yoshi
Bottom:
Samus
Luigi
Link
1. Pikachu - Pikachu is decently fast, is powerful, has an amazing grab, is a really good edge-guarder, and has a really good recovery. Need I say more? If you know how to play Pikachu, he's an amazing but somewhat cheap character. Pikachu's aerial attacks often go through many other characters' attacks (especially Kirby's), and often set Pikachu up for his nice grab/throw. To kill characters on top, a combo of his moderately powerful A-up and then his thunder finishes many opponents. His grab is both powerful and fast, which also allows him to grab characters practically in mid-air. To edgeguard, all you need to do is back kick enemies away in mid-air (goes through many things, including Fox's Fire Fox), or use the powerful A forward smash attack on the ground (this is slow, but goes through nearly everything). Pikachu's only weakness is that he's kind of light, but that isn't a big deal when you can grab and edge-guard people without getting hit... that's enough about Pikachu and now....
2. Kirby - First, Kirby's recovery also goes very far, but the problem is that he's actually very susceptible to attacks when getting back on stage. For example, with proper timing, his Final Cutter can easily be interrupted, letting Kirby fall to his demise. However, few characters can affect him during those times and recover, so Kirby survives. A very powerful and often abused attack is the forward A smash. This attack often goes through many characters at once, and is a very good killing move. In addition, Kirby has 2 spikes. The first is his drill (A down), which only Pikachu, Ness or another Kirby can recover from, and his Final Cutter, which easily spikes all characters with enough damage. It's hard to catch a Pikachu with any of these spikes, but it can be done with proper timing. Kirby's up A is also rather powerful, and his side drill is pretty useful too. Basically, Kirby has an okay speed, but enough power, range, and recovery that makes him a deadly fighter.
3. Ness - The only reason that Ness isn't completely better than Kirby is because of his PK Thunder (B-Up), which can be easily interrupted by a Kirby or Pikachu (aka hitting the PK Thunder before it hits Ness) , which makes Ness fall to his demise. On the plus side, Ness's throw is very powerful, and easily be used.... I'll finish this later....
