How Broken Are Smash 4's Top Tiers?

Here's how good Smash 4's "Top Tier Characters" are... B Tier to S-Tier. A condensed breakdown of Smash 4's Best Characters.
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gnar
Jose Rosario
Trix
Laserman2
Joe McCully
Vicksin
Bavilla Merritt Jr.
JesCurious
Fleur
Noah
MonteRicard
SuperSonicBros
Kyle
NovaNite
Ari Freireich
Dash
J Sizzle
Toma_Strims
Cipher
Dante Sparkson

[@StanleySophana]

Fun Fact: Fox is the only character and Top Tier to never change positions in Smash 4's lifespan, that being 7th place

[@giorgioguercio3331]

Technically, he got stronger over time, but dlcs were too broken

[@A2ZOMG]

​​@@giorgioguercio3331Fox did good against most of the DLC characters except Bayo and his actual viability issue before that was Sheik and Luigi.

[@pamoon_]

I feel like Fox, Pikachu, Peach, ZSS and Diddy have been good or at worst decent in every Smash game they’ve been in.

[@abitofananimator5716]

Still so sad how they had to make Cloud's n-air animation look super weird to nerf the move.

[@caoinhnamkhanh2795]

better than before where its like the only move cloud needs in neutral

[@mycoinsyourpurse2244]

It was comically large.

[@A2ZOMG]

​​​​​@@caoinhnamkhanh2795 They just made that move Bair in Ult which is a *comically* more busted move than anything 4 Cloud had. Well actually 4 Uair was the real privileged move Cloud had back then but it's still not the insanity that is Ult Bair. It's actually hilarious how much better Ult Cloud is overall and how bad people were at fighting 4 Cloud who was certainly good but legitimately flawed.

[@caoinhnamkhanh2795]

@@A2ZOMG oh yea lmao that shits insane idk why they lowered BACK AIR landing lag so much

[@A2ZOMG]

@@caoinhnamkhanh2795 move not only is like -2 on block thus potentially safe on parry, they ALSO sped it up and made it better at hitting lower. Like yeah Ult Bair is the cancer that people claimed 4 Bair was (which was actually Bayo Bair in that game which had the same range but 2 less land lag frames and better kill power)

[@DeluxeGamer705]

Bayo, Cloud and Diddy would probably remain as the absolute MONSTERS of Smash 4. Also, the way how they buffed Mario, Sonic, Luigi and Falcon was like an apology after how they were in Brawl.

[@paulakroy2635]

Are we sure that Sonic isn’t a monster

[@Mike-di3mo]

Jigglypuff was nerfed why:( atleast puff is is better smash 4 then brawl because of the good results late game

[@A2ZOMG]

Cloud would fall off given more time in the meta given his Bayo MU was still really bad, and he's legitimately more fragile than Mac in 4. Talking about why people doom on Chrom in ult except it's arguably worse when you factor untechables at any percent.

[@dave9515]

@@A2ZOMG Bayo would probably fall off as well for a bit because witch time would be countered more and more forcing the mains to use bats withing more and better and as a result her combo routes would change too since a lot of her easy combos could be SDI'd. Optimal 4 we will never get to see sadly and there was so much tech that not everyone used as well like the tilt sliding that was found at the end of the game's lifespan and footstool combos when optimized would give a large portion of the cast tod's which would have been mad hype to see.

[@A2ZOMG]

@@dave9515 Witch Time actually doesn't fall off in several MUs in 4 because the risk/reward of Bayo lead camping is too broken. Certain characters can pressure it safer than others who are forced into playing very bad 50/50s to chase her landing because dABK ALSO is way too good in 4. Cloud for example is in fact very bad at playing that 50/50. That's a legitimate reason he falls off on top of him inherently just being extremely volatile due to being simultaneously the easiest character to combo and having a comically bad recovery.

[@NintendoTV64]

It's crazy how both of my mains, Diddy and Lucina, were amongst the best characters in the game, and while both were somewhat nerfed in Ultimate, they remained very consistent in terms of power.

[@spaghettiking7312]

Smash 4 is literally now just a historical curiosity.

[@tonberry2670]

Honestly? As much as 4 gets dunked on rightfully for a LOT of things, there were some pretty hype parts of it as well that I'm sad to see isn't remembered. Smash 4 Shiek, Captain Falcon, Marth, Mewtwo, Meta Knight, footstool setups, Perfect Pivoting, Bidou setups.

[@markoestebandejesusguzmanq5555]

+S 25:11 Bayonetta 23:25 Cloud 21:20 Diddy kong A 19:33 Sheik 17:54 Rosalina & luma 16:59 Zero suit samus 16:08 Fox 14:30 Sonic 13:15 Mario 11:51 Mewtwo 10:54 Marth 9:37 Ryu B 8:19 Corrin 7:34 Lucina 6:32 Pikachu 5:38 Meta knight 4:06 Lucario 2:58 luigi 2:12 Captain Falcon 0:54 princess peach

[@Arden2000]

This game was really fun when post-nerf Sheik was the best character. I remember the era between Ryu and Corrin very fondly

[@dimasddfoxy1492]

If you werent playing a top or high tier in smash 4 you did not have a good time lol

[@ZachHonest]

I agree 👍 💯

[@Arden2000]

Nah 2 framing with Ike's neutral b was jokes. Sheik and ZSS get sent offstage and they just die

[@UhhhDust]

You forgot to mention that prepatch smash 4 Luigi was the best character in the game. He takes the cake easy.

[@the_bookworm8281]

Vanilla SSB4 Luigi was far from the best character in the game, especially when you consider the actual god tiers of vanilla SSB4 (Sheik, Rosa, Diddy), but he is notable for being the only top tier in the vanilla game to not be top tier by the very end of the game. He was quite strong at the start of the game, and he had potential to develop even more, since it took towards the end of the game's life for Luigi mains to really abuse Cyclone gimping.

[@Juelz_GnW]

Pre patch Diddy is like 50 times better

[@randomguy8107]

3DS Sheik

[@hbudson1248]

Nice argument Unfortunately, prepatch 3DS Wario. Remember wectoring?

[@susiehaltmann3342]

I think yall are forgetting the actual best character and that… is Wario. Yes im not joking. Ok this applys to smash 3ds only. When the game first released wario was like actually BROKEN, there was a tech called “Wectoring” where if you hold the Circle Pad upwards just after Wario first enters hitstun, then a little under a second before the hitstun is about to end, hold the pad in the direction you wish to travel in. The greater the knockback Wario sustained, the more momentum he will gain when the hitstun ends. Which he can just use to shift his momentum to basically fly. Making it near impossible to edgeguard him. And when you wector back to stage, you can just waft and no one is able to do anything about.

[@jevorok3905]

I don't know who got the training mode footage for you but I'm willing to bet they don't have any serious time in smash 4 lol. It hurt to watch them struggle to connect moves

[@kendukin9725]

Every honest content vid has horrible gameplay accompanying whatever he's talking about, on top of everything he says sounding like it comes from an outsider to the scene paraphrasing the wiki

[@UltraNurture]

Great video, there's so many interesting variations of characters in Smash 4 and it's intriguing to see how some characters changed between Smash 4 and Ultimate. Also I hear the Marvel vs Capcom music you put in and I still can't believe that the classic Marvel vs Capcom games are back on modern platforms!

[@Monhamd1000]

Not to mention, the rage mechanic like good lord.

[@user-uk1xq1cf6z]

Here is every character of this video, im also gonna mention if they were buffed or nerfed in the transition from brawl to smash 4 and im also gonna mention if they are newcommers B TIER: Peach (buffed) Capitan falcon (mega buffed) Luigi (mega buffed) Lucario (slightly buffed) Meta knight (nerfed) Pikachu (slightly nerfed) Lucina (newcommer) Corrin (newcommer, dlc fighter) A tier: Ryu (newcommer, dlc fighter) Marth (slightly nerfed) Mewtoo (mega buffed) Mario (ultra buffed, the most buffed fighter in the transition) Sonic (mega buffed) Fox (buffed) Zero suit samus (slightly buffed) Rosalina and luma (newcommer) Sheik (mega buffed) S TIER: Diddy kong (despite being higher slightly nerfed) Cloud (newcommer, dlc fighter) Bayonetta (newcommer, dlc fighter)

[@notdreamland]

i really liked the editing style and the personalized overviews but i think gathering more tournament footage and/or practicing the things you're trying to explain better (i.e. falcon and luigi's combo game) could do a lot to help solidify what you're saying. for luigi specifically mentioning the cyclone gimping and not showing it left me feeling a bit off put

[@notdreamland]

great quality though

[@RNGuice]

Yeah the lack of an actual showcase is definitely a choice…

[@RNGuice]

Not to sound rude

[@the_bookworm8281]

Talking about SSB4's top tiers has always been pretty fun for me, especially since it is the Smash game that I first entered competitively. I also have fun talking about how absurdly broken the top tiers were in vanilla SSB4. Vanilla SSB4 Sheik is likely the 2nd most broken Smash character to ever exist, and we as a community are lucky that she got nerfed long before the game's meta saw semblance of being fully developed.

[@ErinLynagh]

You should go over top tiers from different patch notes in this and ultimate. I'd be curious to learn about early shiek and diddy. Also havent watched so if you did this already oops

[@Newbmann]

To awnser the title question YES

[@sapphire009]

23:36 It's all cool man we all played alot of Cloud and kept it in private out of sheer embarrassment, that's how much cloud was amazing. Anyone can just pick him up and do great with him, man really had it all in smash 4.

[@A2ZOMG]

@@sapphire009 everything except safe ground pokes and durability which actually makes him a volatile character if you're not specifically one of those 16f tether grabber characters that legitimately is unable to play neutral against him. Pocket Cloud was a good thing in 4 because the matchup specifically rewarded players that actually understood how the game works. You were rewarded hugely for labbing matchup specific punishes against Cloud by virtue of him being the easiest character in the game to combo and also having a recovery legitimately worse than Mac's.

[@auto1lija]

What is the song that starts at 19:25?

[@moth5414]

Still so pissed abt what they did to Rosa. Literally they just removed every single killing option from her kit and called it "balance"

[@kudokey]

People complain how broken Steve is but cannot compare how terrible characters were made and unblanced in smash 4

[@apmoln1815]

Underrated

[@ImNess_Earthbound]

Underrated

[@Pi-eipp]

When you do ultimate low tiers can you try not to insult my girl Isabelle

[@OrlandoAToons2008]

Bayonetta made a HUGE damage to Smash 4.

[@SonicTheCutehog]

Now for how bad and good Ultimate's low tiers and top tiers are respectively

[@Whalordius]

Meta knight actually has a lot of footstool combos that puts him on par with bayo when it comes to ToDs. His up air footstool resets force the opponent into perfect ladder %s and theres nothing you can do about it.

[@Whalordius]

Oh and sheik has ToDs on certain characters, just because they don't have a fast enough options. Fair nair extensions are busted

[@MarioKartChamp710]

I'm hyped for Ultimate's low tiers! I presume it will be D+ to E- tiers

[@TheDecentt]

I grew up with 4 and I can’t find the disc anymore :(

[@ajeff99]

Smash 4 was my favorite game of all time, at least in the 2010s decade. I think this is the best game I ever played. Everything was perfect! Perfect.

[@SiMgUrL1721]

At least, Mario's average to below average character abilities were finally fixed up in Smash 4. That's why he wasn't considered to be a good character in the first three Smash titles. It's also pretty interesting to see that this is the first time that both Luigi and Mario are considered to actually be Top Tier characters (aside from the early Melee Tier lists). I know that most people don't rank Mario and Diddy Kong high up on their personal favorite character lists like they normally do with Luigi, but it's pretty interesting to see that my top three favorites (out of 10 characters) (1. Luigi, 2. Mario, and 3. Diddy Kong) are considered to be Top Tier characters in Smash 4. LOL

[@BedrockBlocker]

I think Sonic was somewhat underdeveloped in that game, I think he could have reached top 3 Status if an extremely dedicated top player had picked him up. KEN was very good, but he was very aggressive and didn't abuse the character completely. Meanwhile the Rosalina, Fox and Diddy Metas were very optimized for example.

[@pabzplayz2330]

Fun Fact: Before Patch 1.1.1, Luigi was One of the Best Characters in the game

[@maximyllion]

note how most of them are dlc characters

[@JonnyJayKhan]

Smash 4 characters loved to spam up tilt huh

[@Vashkey]

14:32 please stop misusing the word ironic. Ironic is a word that describes something functioning opposite of it's intent.

[@apmoln1815]

Cool

[@badengee1291]

dawg literally EVERYONE played cloud in smash 4, that ain't something to be ashamed of it was normal

[@Lambs4lyf]

24:48 you mean down b. do you actually play the game?

[@Kaishidow]

Do you know Ultimate S ?

[@aiodyne]

4:47 non family friendly k word 🤯

[@jesuspernia8031]

Smash 4 got me into competitive smash. I just wish the game overall was better. It’s a huge step up compared to brawl competitively but as just a game overall it’s a huge step down. Without online multiplayer or without friends this game just has nothing. At least nothing worth playing compared to the other smash games. Even smash 64 has better single player content.

[@LloydTheZephyrian]

I personally prefer it over Ultimate. It feels a lot more fluid.

[@jesuspernia8031]

@@LloydTheZephyrian That is one thing in 4 that is a lot better. I really wish ultimate had 4’s fluidity. But I just think the other aspects make ultimate a better game to play overall. Also the fact that I stuck with Roy and wanted to die on the hill that he was a solid mid tier in 4 and now he’s one of the best in ultimate is just something I personally like.

[@LloydTheZephyrian]

@@jesuspernia8031 Cloud just felt so much better in 4, and I don't mean "top tier privilege being taken away" things like basically free limit and busted nair. Something about how he can just move around in a way that felt so dynamic in 4 was lost in Ultimate, though I'm not sure if that's down to Cloud specifically being changed or the engine changes as a whole impacting him. Also, I feel like jabs were much more useful in Smash 4 than in Ultimate.

[@RNGuice]

Genuinely I actually hate smash 4 aside from the fact that cloud was one of the most fun characters I’ve ever played in a fighting game😭 Smash 4 actually kinda felt like a fever dream to play, it was even slower than brawl but could also be played at a blistering pace at the same time. So it really felt like there was no cohesive gameplay. Stuff just kinda happened and either you died or you didn’t. Though I will say some characters felt amazing to move around with, I just wish they had a better dashing system like in melee; it was kinda painful to do anything when I dash once and I’ve got a full year’s worth of lag for trying to approach from the ground.

[@user-uk1xq1cf6z]

Meta knight is the only good kirby character in smash 4

[@pureplatinum6745]

Nice video but the background gameplay is terrible man

[@sparklingmiloticxd3473]

I really liked Smash 4 before Cloud and Bayo were released. It’s a shame, really. I want to play the game again sometime as it’s the first smash game that got me into playing it competitively, but those two characters are so broken that I don’t even want to deal with them. This might be a hot take, but I think Pre-Patch Diddy was more tolerable than those two.

[@chrisgil5446]

This background footage is so bad 😭 Pls put some tournament footage or SOMETHING

[@kovacsmark9436]

Marth was always top tier expect ultimate

[@RNGuice]

I miss good Marth😭

[@turkychuck3679]

Better nerf Greninja

[@BEEEELEEEE]

As a lesbian, seeing Bayonetta emblazoned with the word “TOP” in the thumbnail is making me laugh my ass off

[@albertthepeacock8020]

I wish all Rosalina and Bayonetta tryhards a very nice I hope your system breaks and you never play again

[@Dionaea_floridensis]

Yooooooo

[@TramiNguyen-oi3kp]

Kirby is my favorite Super Smash Brothers character!

[@abelattyjuggler2894]

Smash 4 actually looks better then ultimate sometimes

[@diegodankquixote-wry3242]

They are so horrifying broken its a a dead game and people would rather play brawl.

[@Bike-chan]

And then we also have brawl with meta knight and ice climber. Wdym?

[@kovacsmark9436]

The b tiers are mid tiers

[@jesuspernia8031]

No

[@user-uk1xq1cf6z]

They are high tiers

[@MarioKartChamp710]

The Mid tiers are the D and E tiers.

[@user-uk1xq1cf6z]

@@MarioKartChamp710 then what's C tier?

[@MarioKartChamp710]

@@user-uk1xq1cf6z C tier is high tier

[@Juelz_GnW]

Not gonna lie dude this channel is becoming really bad. The same content format with really basic info, editing, topics that everybody else has already talked about. Salem and M2k talking about the game for an hour is interesting because they know what they are talking about, interesting personality, different angles, relevance in the same scene. Also constantly mispronouncing and getting stuff wrong is really annoying too 24:49 I feel like making pm videos is def the move in terms of getting a loyal fan base and quality. Not trying to be a hater

[@robertlasher9246]

Idk how you can say “these characters peaked” when 3 of them made there debuts in S4 and one was arguably better in brawl with 2 bananas