Maining a Character

In the world of Super Smash Brothers, you have a diverse and unique roster of Nintendo’s finest characters to play as. It can be difficult to find a character to devote your time to. So how do you choose just one character to main? From pros to beginners, players usually have three criteria to select a character. Depending on your goals as a player, some of these criteria may appeal to you more than others, but ultimately, these are just guidelines to help you pick a character!

Why solo-main?

You might have noticed that it is suggested that you main a character. While it can be good to take a break from just playing one character, dedicating time to just one character allows for them to be more developed than spreading your time across multiple characters. Ultimately, maining a character is a time investment, and you’ll see better improvement and growth when committing to one character than not. It’s also better to learn your character’s matchups and learn how to deal with their weaknesses as you’ll become a more balanced player.

 

For their strengths

While choosing the best characters will not make you instantly good at the game, it can certainly help you find success. The top tiers of a game have better tools to win, which is helpful, as most people don’t like losing. It’s important to understand that this shouldn’t isolate you to one character, as the best players in the world have been successful with a variety of characters, all with different degrees of viability. This factor appeals more to competitive natured players who want nothing to hinder their growth.

Examples of competitively strong characters are:

For their playstyle

It is important to pick a character that fits your playstyle, as you wouldn’t want to be stuck with a character you don’t like playing. Some examples of playstyles that you might enjoy include a rush-down style with Falco, where you can run in with a dair or nair to lead into swanky shine combos, or a more defensive style with Samus, where you can punish your enemy for making mistakes, rewarding your patience. Of course, that’s not to say that characters or you as a player are limited to a specific playstyle, but some characters lend themselves to a certain playstyle better than others.

Examples of aggressive characters are:
Examples of defensive characters are:

 

For fun

While this might appeal more to casual audiences, it’s also important to consider whether you have fun with the character. If you’re not having fun with your character, that’s reason enough to pick up a character you do have fun with. After all, this is a video game, and video games are meant to be enjoyed. Some players also resonate with a character’s lore, and their personality. Keep in mind that if losing is the reason for not having fun, practice may prevail. In my opinion, this is the most important factor to selecting a main.

Wrap-up

It’s good to try out many different characters before you settle on your main, as you might find a new character or playstyle that you like. Even if you do decide to change characters later on, hopefully this guide is helpful in selecting your main!