Mega Man

Mega Man (ロックマン, Rockman) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. All Stars. He was announced at Nintendo's E8 2018 Direct Conference presentation for the game, becoming the first-revealed of the six third-party characters in the game along with SEGA's Sonic and Bayonetta, Bandai Namco's Pac-Man, fellow Capcom character Ryu, and Square Enix's Cloud. He does not widely use hand-to-hand combat, instead relying on the large arsenal of ranged weaponry he has amassed by defeating boss characters in his own games. His sound effects are reused from the vast number of retro Mega Man games he has appeared in.

Mega Man currently ranks 16th on the SSB4 tier list, in B tier as a high tier character. Mega Man's most prevalent advantage is that he has among the best projectile games in Smash 4, with his wide array of projectiles being able to keep opponents away. He excels in pressuring as a result, with his Crash Bomber able to pressure shields easily. This is made more effective once combined with Mega Man's grab game; his grabs are among the fastest in the game, with his down throw being a decent combo starter while his back throw is a decent option for racking up damage and KOing after 155%.

His overall endurance is also above average, being the heaviest medium weight (alongside Shulk) with high falling speed; this allows him to take many vertical hits before being KOed, while also having a strong, long-distance recovery move in Rush Coil which does not leave him helpless, along with the unique ability to be able to use his recovery again should he be reversed by characters like Mario. He also excels in racking up damage, with his dash attack, up smash, up aerial, back aerial and back throw being useful for inflicting high amounts of damage. Mega Man also boasts a surprising amount of raw power, as many of his attacks are among the strongest of their kind: he has the second strongest up tilt and third strongest down smash. Finally, Mega Man is tied for the highest air acceleration and possesses the highest air friction in the game, which grants him extremely fluid control in the air (including the ability to zig-zag while jumping).

Despite these advantages, Mega Man is not without flaws. His grounded mobility is comparatively low, with his dashing speed in particular being the 13th-slowest in the game. This leaves Mega Man at a disadvantage against characters with better mobility such as Sheik and Fox. Mega Man's melee attacks also have short range overall despite their extensive utility, causing him to struggle up close against characters with long and/or disjointed range like Marth, Link, Shulk, and the high ending lag on his attacks puts more stress on this flaw. Mega Man's above average weight and falling speed also works against him in that it causes him to be an easy target for combos and juggles. Ironically, Mega Man's strong, projectile-heavy playstyle also serves as his most obvious flaw; powershielding, reflectors, absorbers, and other such anti-projectile tools will quickly shut down both Mega Man's approach and defense if used properly.

Overall, however, Mega Man is a strong contender in the Smash 4 metagame, although his high learning curve lends itself to a rather low amount of tournament representation compared to other high-tier characters. Mega Man also has plenty of results to back up his tier placement, with both Kameme placing 2nd at EVO 2016 and ScAtt placing 5th at Super Smash Con 2016 with him, the largest and third largest Smash 4 tournaments to date respectively. This has resulted in him having the third highest improvement from the first tier list to the second tier list (at 13 spots, with Marth at 22 spots and Mewtwo at 27 spots), effectively going from the middle of the tier list to one of the most viable picks in competitive play.