In every fighting game, gamers have always argued over one question: Which character is best? For Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, a dedicated group of competitive players have attempted to answer that question. In their second official tier list, the group has declared that Diddy Kong is the strongest fighter in the game, although not by much.
Diddy Kong is joined in the “S Tier” by Cloud, Sheik, Rosalina and Luma, Mario, Sonic and Fox. All of these characters have earned their spot due to consistent placings in national tournaments. Elliot “Ally” Carroza-Oyarce won EVO 2016 with Mario, while Gonzalo “ZeRo” Barrios won the tournament Endgame with Diddy.
The game’s weakest characters, residing in H-tier, are Charizard, King Dedede, Zelda, Ganondorf and Jigglypuff.
4BR (Smash 4 Back Room) is made up of over 50 top level competitive players. Each player casted their vote for every character, who were then ordered by their highest average placing.
The Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Tier List in its entirety
Debating tier lists is great fun, although it’s important to recognize the inevitable imperfections of any list. The meta-game at top levels is constantly evolving, and new play styles always can shake things up. Patches are released, and most of them render old lists irrelevant. Top players sometimes make weaker characters look stronger than they truly are which consequently makes it challenging to gauge a character’s true skill. This list is just meant to give fans a glimpse at what the Smash 4 metagame looks like now, and it will definitely evolve over the years.
The list has not been universally accepted by top players. ZeRo, widely regarded as the best player in the world, tweeted his opposition to the list loudly. He called it “by far the worst I’ve ever seen” and is currently creating his own list on Youtube.
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U has been a major hit amongst series fans. The mileage competitive players are getting from the series’ fourth entry is somewhat surprising, because creator Masahiro Sakurai has long viewed the series as a fighting game for casual players. Smash 4 was the second biggest event at EVO 2016, under only Street Fighter V, and its community keeps growing.
There are lots of way for fans interested in following the competitive community to get involved. Top players are always steaming matches and tournaments on Twitch, and Youtube channels dedicated to Smash are great learning points. Here are links to some of those channels: imESAM (lighter, fun channel), ZeRo (in-depth analysis) and shofu (a goofy channel focused on For Glory online play).
