Why is Ganondorf considered worse than Mac?

[Codebox]

Its no secret that Ganondorf is considered the worst character in Smash Ultimate, and don't get me wrong he's really bad. By why is Mac considered better considering he's nonexistent Air game and maybe worse recovery than Ganon?

 

[StrangeKitten]

Mac is at least fast, and pretty hard to play against when he can armor your moves. Ganondorf is very sluggish and won't get much use out of what little armor he has. And then there's also KO Punch, adding another layer to make Mac difficult to fight. Even if you played well against Mac, if he got a just few hits on you, you're dead from a move you can't shield (it's worth noting that there's also a buffer of some time before you can start taking KO Punch away, so while it is easy for Mac to lose it, it's more difficult to take away than you might think). Ganondorf can't boast the same thing outside of his extremely committal options (Volcano Kick, Warlock Punch, smash attacks with a lot of charge) which you will maybe land once every 100 games. Mac is also small, especially his low-profile dash. And lastly, I think Mac has the better recovery, because he at least has a side B to help him out. All Ganondorf has is an up B that is only slightly better than Mac's, and both are heavily hindered by horrendous airspeed. So that's why I think Mac just barely edges out Ganondorf.

 

[Ridley_Prime]

Ganondorf's up B itself isn't that bad for recovering in vertical distance, and if you hold down during it you can do that uppercut from below ledge for up B poking. Plus you can do up air just before up B if you want a tad more height, but for recovering horizontally he suffers, with his side B still putting him in freefall even though others can use their command grab side B's in addition to their up B for recovering.

Even with moves like Volcano Kick and Warlock Punch being rarely if ever used, Ganon still has plenty read based kills with his other moves, which is how you should be playing him anyway; getting reads or bait and punish. I used to consider Ganondorf better than Mac at least for the longest time, but even with all that said, there's a legit case to be made with Mac > Ganon, along with the other usual considered bottom tiers, making Ganondorf still the #1 worst in the game in that sense.

But the gap for Ganon still isn't nearly as big as it used to be in previous Smash games, so it's not all bad, especially with some of his matchups being more manageable now. Between that and his few perks, you just gotta look at the silver linings with him more than anyone.

 

[StrangeKitten]

But the gap for Ganon still isn't nearly as big as it used to be in previous Smash games, so it's not all bad, especially with some of his matchups being more manageable now. Between that and his few perks, you just gotta look at the silver linings with him more than anyone.

I second this! He's still got a lot of flow to his gameplay and doesn't feel all that awful. It's less him being bad, and moreso other characters being good.

 

[Idon]

It's less him being bad, and moreso other characters being good.

No... no he's pretty bad still. You could put Ult Dorf in 64, Melee, Brawl, or Smash 4 and he would still perform... poorly.

 

[StrangeKitten]

No... no he's pretty bad still. You could put Ult Dorf in 64, Melee, Brawl, or Smash 4 and he would still perform... poorly.

I don't feel like he'd be too bad. Ultimate 'Dorf has some nice things going for him. Nair and fair wall out opponents pretty well, Flame Choke and Wizard's Foot provide pretty fast burst options (heavily flawed ones, but they still see use), and the range on Dorf's smash attacks is useful. He wouldn't be top tier or anything, but I could see him in mid.