Many of the characters in Ultimate are well-balanced. Nonetheless, there are some hot contenders for who could be considered the worst Smash character.

Every iteration of Smash has seen characters climb up and down tier lists, with some changing drastically from previous games. For instance, in Smash 4, Zelda was considered the worst Smash character. Now, she sits comfortably mid-tier.

While jumps like Zelda’s aren’t common, there are some characters that consistently stay near the bottom of the tiers. Though those mainstay low tiers are some of the worst Smash characters, they are nowhere near the least viable.

I’ve combed through the Smash Ultimate roster extensively and can definitively say that the following three are the worst Smash characters in Ultimate.

Picking the worst character in ‘Smash Ultimate’

Ridley

Let’s get right to the point: Yes, he is too big. Ridley’s down taunt reveals just how ginormous this space pirate stands, and in Ultimate, being that big is a cardinal sin. While he does hunch over in battle, that stance doesn’t prevent him from being one of the easiest characters to juggle and abuse.

On top of his humongous character frame, he is nowhere near the heaviest of the heavyweights. His lack of substantial weight (in relation to his large frame) subtracts from his survivability, making characters like Charizard and Bowser much better alternatives.

A trend that you’ll see on this worst Smash character list is that of horrible recoveries. While Ridley’s isn’t the worst recovery out of these three, it sure is abysmal. He has three jumps, a side-b command grab/drift option, and a really, really clunky spacie up-b. Unfortunately, it’s all so punishable, leaving him without any options offstage other than to nair for his life.

Nair remains his only viable off-stage option to trip up opponents, as his down air sends him plummeting to the blast zone, and his back-air/up-air have a pitiful range. Maybe we never should have begged for him to be a part of the roster after all.

Dr. Mario

Perhaps tied with Little Mac for worst Smash character recovery, Dr. Mario is like regular Mario, but much less viable. His cons far outweigh his pros, making Dr. Mario an easy opponent to defeat with a couple of decent reads.

While his normals and aerials do pack quite the punch, a character with a counter can easily punish his heavy-hitting moves with some big damage. Blocking is key here, as he doesn’t rely as much on grabs as regular Mario, seeing as Dr. Mario’s throw followups are nearly nonexistent.

The Doc simply cannot recover offstage. Once you get him in a ledge trap situation, it’s game over. He will attempt to make it back by mashing down-b tornado, but his up-b followup is laughable. His forward air and up-b do pack some great power, but they’re easily avoidable, making them non-starters.

If you were wondering if you should pick up Mario or Dr. Mario, consider the following: Do you want to actually win? If so, pick the original plumber, and leave his surgical alter ego out of the fray.

Little Mac

Little Mac has always been known as a character with a horrible recovery. As a matter of fact, it’s pretty much his one defining attribute. Ever since his introduction trailer in Smash 4, players were told that Mac would have absolutely no air game. In Ultimate, his air game has only gotten worse.

A small apparent buff to Mac’s recovery comes in the form of side-b into up-b followups. In Ultimate, he went into freefall after side-bing. Now he’s more predictable in his recoveries as he desperately spams side-b first. As long as you don’t fall for his falling counter recovery, gimping him at incredibly early percents is an easy task.

If your shield is taking heavy damage from some forward tilts and forward smashes, fret not: Mac’s roll game has been completely nerfed in Ultimate, definitively making him the worst Smash character. In Smash 4, he relied on his ability to attack your shield, roll back, and then attack again. Now that repeated rolling is punished with slower rolls, he simply will not know how to approach a player that is shielding.

His K.O. punch serves as a handicap, making him much more aggressive than is optimal. I guarantee that you will be able to keep away long enough to stall out his K.O. punch, further frustrating any Mac player. He is a low midweight, has horrible airspeed, and less kill setups than you may have thought.

There’s a reason Little Mac is the only character of his type: It simply does not benefit a player to always be on the offensive. He has no defensive options (other than the aforementioned predictable counter), and is easily flustered.

Who is the worst ‘Smash’ character in ‘Ultimate’?

Related: How to defeat the five top-tier characters in Smash Ultimate

While it was easy to define nearly any heavyweight in previous games as being low-tier, Ultimate has ensured that most (save for Ridley) are viable, thus leaving open a lot of possibilities for worse characters in Ultimate. Keeping in mind that this sort of thing is subjective, who would you say is Ultimate‘s worst character?