The Cheapest Characters In Smash Bros.

The fighting genre typifies the kind of diversity that appeals to hardcore and casual gamers alike. While games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate occupy the far end of the spectrum when it comes to roster variance, any fighting game worth its salt has a wide range of characters and styles. When a newer player begins to find the moves they enjoy most, a well-designed fighting game has a character at the ready to become their main.

Balancing that kind of variety is hard, though, making the occasional controversy inevitable. For a franchise with as massive a roster Super Smash Bros., balancing is something that has to be done over time. It's impossible to get it right prior to launch, and series creator Masahiro Sakurai knows it. Because of that, Sakurai tends to lean toward creating powerful, experimental characters, and that had led to some frustrating fighters. Here's our run-down of the cheapest characters in Super Smash Bros. history.

The Ice Climbers are an example of a fighter that does one thing and does it very well. Nana and Popo don't really set the world on fire when measured by traditional metrics of play, and most of their moveset is too gimmicky to work at the top levels of competition. The key word there is most, though. The Ice Climbers were at their casual best in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and it was because of one concept that would come to terrorize those who played against them: wobbling.

Wobbling is an infinite combo that was exclusive to the Ice Climbers, and was performed in a way that made it impossible to break out of Popo's grab while an opponent was continuously hit by Nana. The technique could also be performed on every roster member except another Ice Climbers player. Wobbling was performed by desyncing the Ice Climbers, which then allows them to act differently, as described in the technique.

Wobbling is one of the most frustrating mechanics that ever existed within the series because once it's happening, there's no way to break out of it. Because of the Ice Climbers' other flaws, they never achieved the kind of tournament success one might expect from a mechanic that powerful. Still, if a friend ever busted this out during a party, there was a decent chance they'd be looking for new friends by the end of the night.

Inkling was the front-runner for a character that might be too good in the early going of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Historically, characters that are new to the series are the first to be labelled as problematic simply because they are unfamiliar to the community. That was likely the case with Inkling, who doesn't really possess any of the qualities that make a character broken.

What Inkling does have, though, is one of the fullest, most reliable kits in the entire game. Inkling has strong options for offense, defense, edgeguarding, ledge trapping, and recovery, to name a few of the more important evaluation categories for competitive Smash viability. The only thing holding Inkling back is a lack of range, but that's a common flaw in most Smash characters and simply prevents Inkling from being oppressive.

So what's cheap about Inkling? The character is simply annoyingly consistent. With no weaknesses and a feel bad attack in the paint roller stun, playing against Inkling can simply be a miserable experience. The character also possesses a relatively easy learning curve, meaning that Inkling showed up early and often in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate online multiplayer experience.

There's a reason that Kirby has remained a bottom-to-mid tier fighter for most of Super Smash Bros. history. Kirby was actually one of the best fighters in Super Smash Bros. 64, so much so that he had to be significantly nerfed prior to Melee.

The Pink Nightmare is the favorite creation of series creator Masahiro Sakurai, which probably influenced how the designer approached the character's moveset in the first iteration of Smash Bros. In Super Smash Bros. 64, Kirby had a huge hit box on most of his moves, which made it easy to clip characters who appeared to be just out of range. Kirby also had a relatively quick movement speed, especially compared to his later versions.

The cheapest thing about Kirby was his smash attack. It was, quite simply, overpowered, being capable of KO'ing an opponent who was as healthy as 80% damage. Sure, it's easy being one of the best characters on the smallest roster Super Smash Bros. has ever had, but Kirby was the cheapest, too — a trait he has dropped since.

Bayonetta might have been a huge problem for Super Smash Bros. 4 in her own right, but she wasn't the only one fans were annoyed with. Final Fantasy 7's Cloud was also a completely busted fighter who came via DLC, kicking off fan debate about whether or not Nintendo was making a grab for money with the game's add-on fighters.

Cloud's Buster Sword made him abysmal to fight against. It gave him some of the longest reach the series has ever seen and some of the most bizarre, disjointed hitboxes in Super Smash Bros. history. Cloud's limit break meter was also something that opponents needed to keep track of, but was only noticeable through on-screen cues, putting the onus on Cloud's opponents to add an extra element to their game. It's an unfair demand, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has since rectified that by nerfing Cloud's limit break.

Ultimately, it was Cloud's reach that made him so frustrating and cheap. It also made him more annoying in casual play – trying to explain to a friend why they're still getting hit by a character's attacks even when it looked like they dodged was the source of a lot of discontent in multiplayer SSB 4 settings.

Mr. Game & Watch enjoyed his best success when he was on the Super Smash Bros. Brawl roster, existing as a high-mid-tier fighter that even saw some serious competitive play from time to time. In that context, he was never really feared, nor was he the subject of a campaign to get him banned from tournament play.

The thing about Mr. Game & Watch, though, is that his Judge ability basically shouldn't exist. It adds an inherent amount of randomness to any game he's present in, and can change the tone of a match in an instant. Imagine a great battle between two competitors ending in a flash because the Mr. Game & Watch player got trigger-happy, went for Judge, and hit a 9.

Judge randomly displays a number on the hammer Mr. Game & Watch swings during its move execution, producing a random effect determined by the number that shows up. A 1 actually damages the Mr. Game & Watch player, while 9, the highest number, is almost always an instant KO. A 9 from Judge can even KO players at around 15% damage, which is an absurd statistic.

Mr. Game & Watch is cheap because things can be going so right against him only to see a stock evaporate out of nowhere because he high rolled a Judge attack on you. That's never a fun experience.

Marth was a solid all-arounder in Super Smash Bros. Melee who really wouldn't have made this list had he not also been the progenitor of the Ken Combo. The Ken Combo was a series of moves developed by a professional Marth player named, well, Ken, and while it wasn't broken by any means, it sure felt like it when it happened to you.

The Ken Combo would see players execute a progression of neutral aerials, forward aerials, and a down spike that would juggle a character off the edge of the map and then send them hurtling toward their doom. The thing about the combo was that it wasn't actually that easy to pull off – many players would attempt it in tournaments and miss, and it required a level of precision that didn't usually exist in casual household matches.

That said, it still felt incredibly cheap to watch. The combo had very little play to it once it was in progress, and getting caught in a Ken Combo could make an exciting match suddenly end on the spot. Marth in Melee isn't anywhere near the most egregious of Super Smash Bros. cheap characters, but he deserves a spot on the roster of the cheapest thanks to the existence of Ken Combo.