You’ve seen the videos. A blurry Fox McCloud zip-zooming across a CRT television like he’s got a personal vendetta against physics. It’s been over two decades, and honestly, the Smash Bros Melee all characters list is still the most debated, analyzed, and obsessed-over roster in fighting game history.
Why? Because Melee is a beautiful accident.
Nintendo didn't mean to make a high-speed competitive masterpiece. They wanted a party game. But they accidentally gave us a roster where the difference between a "good" character and a "bad" one is the difference between a Ferrari and a tricycle with a flat tire.
The Starter Squad and the Hidden 11
When you first pop that tiny purple disc into a GameCube (or, let's be real, load the ISO on Slippi), you start with 14 faces. You get the classics: Mario, DK, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu, Ness, Captain Falcon, Bowser, Peach, Ice Climbers, and Zelda.
But the real meat of the game is locked away. There are 11 unlockable characters that require everything from "just play a lot" to "do this very specific, weirdly timed thing in Adventure Mode."
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- Jigglypuff: Clear Classic or Adventure mode once. Basically a freebie.
- Dr. Mario: Beat Classic without continuing as Mario.
- Pichu: Beat Event Match 37. Warning: he hurts himself. It’s sad.
- Falco: Beat 100-Man Melee.
- Marth: Use all 14 starters in VS mode or clear Classic with everyone.
- Young Link: Clear Classic with 10 characters.
- Ganondorf: Clear Event Match 29 (Triforce Gathering).
- Luigi: This one is legendary. You have to cross the finish line in the first stage of Adventure Mode with a "2" in the seconds digit of the timer. Then you fight him and Peach.
- Roy: Clear Classic with Marth without continuing.
- Mewtwo: Play 20 hours of VS matches. People used to leave their consoles on overnight for this.
- Mr. Game & Watch: Clear Classic, Adventure, or Target Test with every other character.
The Tier List Reality Check
If you're playing for fun, anyone works. If you're playing to win, the Smash Bros Melee all characters hierarchy is brutal.
Fox is the king. He’s been the king since the Bush administration. His frame data is basically cheating—his Shine (Reflector) comes out on Frame 1. That’s $1/60$ of a second. If you can move your fingers fast enough, Fox is untouchable.
Then you have the "High Tiers." Marth has a sword that hits from a different zip code. Falco has lasers that ruin your momentum and your day. Sheik (who lives inside Zelda’s down-special) has a grab game that feels like inescapable quicksand.
Then there's Jigglypuff. People hate the "Puff." She’s slow on the ground but a monster in the air, and her "Rest" move kills at absurdly low percentages. It’s basically a jump-scare in video game form.
The Viability Gap
Here is the part most people get wrong: they think they can make Bowser work.
You can't. Not really.
Melee has a "Line of Viability." Above the line, you have characters like Captain Falcon and Peach (thanks to Armada for proving she’s a beast). Below the line, you have the "low tiers" like Kirby and Bowser. Kirby in Melee is a tragedy. He was amazing in the N64 version, but in Melee, he’s lighter than air and hits like a wet noodle.
Bowser is even worse. His "Jump Squat"—the time it takes for him to actually leave the ground after you press the button—is 8 frames. For comparison, Fox's is 3. In a game where every frame is a life-or-death struggle, being 5 frames slower just to jump is a death sentence.
Why 2026 is the Year of the Mid-Tier
Something weird is happening lately. For years, the meta was "Fox vs. Marth" forever. But players like aMSa (who plays Yoshi) and Jmook (who plays Sheik/various) have blown the doors off.
We are seeing a resurgence in characters people used to call "unplayable."
Take Link, for example. People used to think he was too slow. Now, tech-wizards are using bomb-drops and z-axis shenanigans to make him look like a top-tier threat. It’s not that the characters changed—the game hasn't had a patch since 2002—it's that human beings are getting better at exploiting the glitches and physics of this beautiful, broken engine.
How to actually "Git Gud"
If you want to master the roster, don't just pick Fox because he's "the best." Fox requires the hands of a concert pianist. If you miss one input, you SD (Self-Destruct) and lose.
- Start with Marth or Sheik: They teach you the fundamentals of "spacing" and "neutral" without requiring 400 inputs per minute.
- Learn to L-Cancel: This is non-negotiable. If you don't press L, R, or Z right before you hit the ground during an aerial attack, your character will sit there in "landing lag" for twice as long.
- Wavedashing is easier than it looks: It’s just a jump immediately followed by a diagonal air-dodge into the ground. It lets you move while standing still. It’s the "Melee Glide."
Melee isn't just a game; it's a lifestyle for the people still playing it in 2026. Whether you're a Falco main who lives for the "dair" or a Ganondorf player who just wants to land one big punch, the roster offers a depth that modern games often trade for "balance."
Balance is boring. Melee is chaos.
If you're looking to jump back in, your best bet is downloading the Slippi launcher. It adds rollback netcode to the game, making online play feel like you're sitting on the same couch as your opponent. From there, head to the "UnclePunch" training mod to practice your combos. You'll need it, because the kids playing this game now are terrifyingly good.