Getting into Super Smash Bros Ultimate seems like a daunting task. With a cast of 89 playable characters available in the game, most of whom with their own unique movesets and playstyles, it looks like there’s a lot to remember! So, to make the learning process easier, we’re going to be covering a concept that’s easy to grasp: weight.
What Is Weight?
Weight is a value assigned to each character that contributes to how easily they are knocked back. The higher the value, the heavier they are and the harder it is to knock them off the stage. Of course, the reverse is also true: if the value is smaller, they’re lighter and easier to knock off the stage.
These unique weight classes possess more qualities than just how far you get knocked back. Many characters in the same weight class will have common factors that serve as both strengths and weaknesses. Thus, it’s vital to know these categories to make the vast roster of Smash Bros Ultimate seem a bit less intimidating.
The above video showcases the difference in knockback between weight classes, starting from a lighter character, to a mid-weight character to a heavy character. Each character has already received an identical amount of damage, and was hit by the same attack. Note how the lighter characters are knocked back farther than the heavier characters.
Heavyweights
Characters who are heavy tend to look much larger, which comes with its pros and cons. On the one hand, a larger size means your attacks will generally cover a bigger space. These moves also tend to deal both lots of damage and knockback, making heavy characters ideal for punishing repetitive, predictable playstyles.
On the other hand, a heavy character’s larger size makes them an easier to target to hit or start a combo against. The constant desire to punish and land hard hitting moves can also, ironically enough, make their movements and playstyles predictable. Unfortunately, their move sets tend to be more shallow, focusing more on dealing lots of damage and knockback with one move rather than being able to perform combos to build up damage and setting up kill confirms.
Another thing to keep in mind about heavy characters is their recovery. While they’re harder to knock away, the act of getting back to the stage is difficult for a heavy. Most tend to have recovery moves that are either lacking in vertical or horizontal movement, or perhaps have recovery moves that leave them helpless to be punished while they try to get back to the stage. This flaw is made even worse by the fact that heavies, true to their name, will fall through the air rather quickly and are difficult to maneuver in the air, preventing their ability to escape from aerial combos.
Heavies also tend to have much slower running speeds, making it harder for them to either gain some distance or close the gap between themselves and their opponent.
Lightweights
Unlike their heavier counterparts, MOST light weights aren’t noticeably smaller in size than mid-weight characters. There are exceptions, such as Pikachu, Pichu, and Jigglypuff, who are all much smaller than regular characters and harder to hit. At the end of the day, however, all lightweight characters suffer from the same weakness: their ability to be easily knocked back. Even if they have taken less damage than a heavy or mid-weight character, attacks that these other classes could recover from could prove lethal for a light character.
To compensate for their fragility, however, lighter characters tend to have much more potential to perform combos. These combos often take time and practice to perform and master, thus usually giving these characters a higher skill ceiling than their heavier counterparts. Lighter characters can also suffer from a lack of kill moves, so while they may be able to start and perform combos that can rack up plenty of damage, they may also lack the kill moves to capitalize off of all that damage.
Back to their advantages, lighter characters have superior aerial maneuverability, allowing for them to easily juggle their opponents in the air with control over where they go. They also tend to have better recoveries that allow them to land on stage even if they’re knocked far back.
Their floaty nature also serves as a benefit as it prevents them from being caught in a combo as easily as heavy characters, whose weight forces them to quickly fall back down into their opponent’s attacks.
Mid-Weights
Mid-weights are, as their name suggests, in between light and heavy weights. They’re balanced fighters with neither the excess strengths nor weaknesses their more unique counterparts possess. Most of the game’s playable characters reside in this category, followed closely by the game’s population of heavies.
As a result of their balanced nature, the key to playing against these characters is a balanced playstyle. They are easier to start combos against than lighter characters and lack the immense kill power of heavy characters, however, some mid-weights have valuable tools to start combos of their own and have the kill-power to finish off these damage-dealing sequences.
Thus, they can be considered a jack of all trades, but master of none.
How to Identify a Character’s Weight Class?
Most characters can be classified into weight classes by a simple glance. If they’re large, the character is likely to be a heavy. If they’re smaller in size, they’re likely to be a lighter character. Those who are in between are likely to be mid-weight or medium characters. Though there are lots of fighters, classifying them under these 3 categories helps bring them all together in a more palpable way as each character in a class will share these common traits of strengths, weaknesses, playstyles, etc.
This link is a website that shows the weight of every individual in Ultimate’s roster. For convenience’s sake, here is also a list that categorizes characters (with a few self-explanatory subcategories of super heavyweight, featherweight, and balloonweight).
Exceptions
Though few and far between, there are a few characters who serve as exceptions to being classified based on appearance. Taller characters such as Rosalina, Mewtwo, and Sephiroth all tower over some of the lightweights and mid-weights, possessing bigger hitboxes and becoming bigger targets. This gives them both the weaknesses of a heavy and light-weight as they are both a bigger target and are easier to knock back.
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