Honest Content recently released an interesting video that talked about the low tiers of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. More specifically, it highlighted what made the low tiers so bad in that particular game.
The last tier list for Super Smash Bros. Brawl positioned Mario, Samus, Bowser, Captain Falcon, Link, Jigglypuff, Zelda, and Ganondorf in the F tier group, the lowest tier category. Notably, all eight of these combatants are returning veterans from Smash 64 and Melee.
Most of these characters have found their way into the F tier group due to the substantial nerfs received during the transition from Melee to Brawl. Oddly, Mario, Samus, Link, and Ganondorf were mid tiers in Melee, but still received nerfs without any compensation.
For Mario in particular, this was the first time that he used F.L.U.D.D. for his down special. While this move certainly had its usages in Smash 4 and Ultimate, this version of the special was far too weak in what it tried to do to be of much practical use.
Captain Falcon and Jigglypuff were generally seen as top tiers in Melee. Looking back, it was probably fair that they were nerfed from what they were able to do in Melee, but the nerfs went too far in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
As for Bowser and Zelda, they were already weak characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee that didn’t really get enough buffs to be relevant in the new game. While some players believed that they could’ve worked in theory during the early days of Brawl, this just didn’t pan out for either fighter.
It’s also worth mentioning that some players believe Ivysaur to be the worst overall character in Brawl. However, Ivysaur has the redeeming quality of being able to switch to either Squirtle or Charizard during gameplay. Still, this is only enough to make the Pokémon Trainer an E tier combatant.
Check out Honest Content’s video that talks about all the low tiers of Brawl below: