Smash Ultimate tier lists reveal a new top contender after Byleth update
Step aside Joker.
It’s been over a month since Smash Bros. Ultimate received its 7.0 update that added Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses to its roster of fighters, and since then the game’s best players have had ample time to suss out how the update has impacted the best and worst characters in the game.
Characters like Pikachu, Peach, and Inkling have sat on top of many tier lists since Smash Ultimate's earliest days. Over time, newcomers like Joker have shaken up the rankings but now a fighter that’s been in the game since Super Smash Bros. Melee has against all odds rocketed to the top of all tier lists thanks to a new pro player who showed everyone the character’s true potential — despite the character being a little two-dimensional.
Mr. Game & Watch is now widely considered to be in the upper echelon of Super Smash Bros Ultimate’s 75 characters. The 2D, shapeshifting fighter was initially seen as a mid- to low-tier character, but Enrique “Maister” Hernández Solís has shown the world what this unorthodox character is capable of.
Say hello to the retro crusher of souls.
Maister managed to take second place at Frostbite 2020 and Detroit tournament on February 21 and is the only top-ranked Mr. Game & Watch player at the moment. He blazed past the competition with Mr. Game & Watch’s stellar edge-guarding and solid airspeed. He was defeated by Smash Ultimate’s best player at the moment, Leonardo “MKLeo” López Pérez, in the grand finals, but his rise in Smash Ultimate dominance has become proof that Mr. Game & Watch is not to be slept on.
Here’s a rundown of some recently released tier lists where Mr. Game & Watch appears near the top.
Leonardo “MKLeo” López Pérez 7.0 tier list
MKLeo is the best 'Smash Ultimate' player as of March 2020 and considers Game & Watch to be among "the best of the best" fighters in the game.
MKLeo is currently ranked number one on the Panda Global Ranking (PGRU). He tallied up his 7.0 tier list on February 3, a month before he’d face Maister at Frostbite but he was well aware of how deadly the 8-bit fight can be.
“We all know what Game & Watch can do,” he said in a YouTube video. “He has a very good matchup spread and he only loses to some characters.”
Gonzalo “Zero” Barrios Barrios 7.0 tier list
Some of Zero's past tier lists have had Game & Watch listed as a mid-tier.
Zero is widely considered the best Smash 4 player of all-time. He published his 7.0 tier list to his nearly one million YouTube subscribers on February 13.
While he didn’t go over what he thinks are Game & Watch’s best attributes, he placed the retro fighter next to characters like Inkling, Wolf, and Wario who have consistently been among the best Smash Ultimate characters since the game came out.
William “Leffen” Hjelte 7.0 tier list
Game & Watch consistently places somewhere in the top 20 in many pros' tier lists.
Leffen is one of Smash Bros. Melee’s best players of all-time and also considers Game & Watch as one of the strongest characters in the game. While he doesn’t personally enjoy the way the character is optimally played, he couldn't deny just how effective the fighter can be in the right hands.
He specifically referenced Game & Watch’s Side Special move, Judge, which has a one out of nine chance to deal massive damage and kill most characters in the 0 to 20 percent damage range.
“[He has a] RNG zero-to-death combo,” Leffen in his February 6 tier list video. “Up-B out of shield has nine frames of invincibility. You can’t ledge trap him because his ledge animations are different and don’t have a tell.”
Adam “Armada” Lindgren 7.0 tier list
There's no stopping this 2D beast.
Armada, who’s considered to be one of the five gods of Melee, put Game & Watch among his top 10 best characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Much like MKLeo, he says that Game & Watch performs extremely well against the game’s best characters thanks to his unique toolset.
“He’s a character that has been climbing recently in my opinion,” he said in his tier list video. “It feels like Game & Watch has a good matchup spread against some of the best characters like Pikachu, Inkling, Peach, Snake, Wario.”
There’s a new menace in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and he literally looks like a piece of cutout black construction paper. So it may be time for you to re-pick your main.
