Editor’s Note: The following is part four of a series of articles on various playable characters from the fifth installment of the popular video game “Super Smash Bros.,” available on the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. It is intended for competitive and semi-competitive players of the game.
For this week’s article, I wanted to write a quick bit about the first character I ever mained in Smash 4: my old friend and the character which I based my gamer name off of, Meta Knight. For a quick introduction on Meta Knight, Meta Knight was infamously known as the most broken character of all time in Brawl. In Brawl, Meta Knight was by far and away the best character in the game: No disadvantaged matchups, not even a matchup where Meta Knight didn’t hold advantage in. There was a small handful of characters within the large cast that could even stand a chance against Meta Knight, to the point where if you didn’t play those characters, or play Meta Knight yourself, you had absolutely no chance of succeeding at the game’s highest level.
It is fair to say that the transition from Brawl to Smash 4 was initially extremely unkind to Meta Knight. When the game first came out, Meta Knight quickly lost the transcendent, omniscient status and fell very far, below the depths of viability and into the discussion for worst character in the entire game. Gone where the many tools that made Meta Knight so amazing in Brawl. Thankfully, the game would go through many many updates which have returned Meta Knight into viability, albeit still nowhere close to how Meta Knight was in Brawl. Nowadays, Meta Knight is firmly entrenched within the game’s twenty best characters. That is to say that Meta Knight is viable, and is a popular counterpick against some of the game’s best characters, but is very, very far from being among the best in the game.
So, let’s check out what’s good about Meta Knight.
The first thing we need to address is that Meta Knight, before the battle even begins, is already extremely threatening; Meta Knight’s dash attack is in the discussion for the best of its kind in the game, because Meta Knight gets so much out of landing it. When you combine this amazing dash attack with a wonderful up air, Meta Knight getting six jumps, and Meta Knight’s Shuttle Loop, Meta Knight has the ingredients for a lethal ladder combo. It’s this very ladder combo that makes Meta Knight viable. This ladder combo is capable of killing a very large majority of the cast anywhere from as early as 25 percent to as late as about 50 percent, depending on the character. This trio of weapons is what forces any character in the game to immediately respect and be mindful of Meta Knight’s ground game, lest they end up falling behind and losing their first stock very, very early.
Another good thing about Meta Knight is his ground speed. Sixth best in the game, this speed, when combined with Meta Knight’s fairly fast ground attacks, makes Meta Knight’s neutral game very smooth and refined. This gives Meta Knight a chance at competing with defensive play, and gives Meta Knight a very good punish game and advantage state. Some characters, such as Bowser and DK, can be in a world of trouble if Meta Knight can get them in the air, as they really cannot land without overcommitting to a very risky option or venturing offstage, both which could potentially backfire with some very dire consequences. Meta Knight is able to draw advantage against characters most sword based characters struggle with, such as Villager, Samus and Luigi because of this.
A third thing Meta Knight has going well is having a fantastic recovery game. Meta Knight has three options that can be used to effortlessly recover against most opponents. Meta Knight can Shuttle Loop below the stage, an attack which is very fast, hits through the ledge, and is difficult to challenge. Meta Knight can Drill Rush towards the edge. This option is a little bit riskier because it leaves Meta Knight vulnerable to drop-down aerial attacks, such as Captain Falcon’s down-air, but this move is virtually impossible to challenge linearly, as the Drill Rush has amazing priority thanks to its small amount of intangibility. Finally, Meta Knight can use the Dimensional Cape to reach the ledge. This is a fairly passive option that can be beaten out by a well timed hit box at the edge, but it is an option that can be used sparingly to throw the opponent off. These options, combined with Meta Knight’s six jumps mean that if Meta Knight is not KOed by an attack, he will pretty much definitely be returning to stage.
On the other end of the spectrum, Meta Knight struggles to find a niche in today’s metagame. Bayonetta and Zero Suit Samus offer similar ladder combos to what Meta Knight has, and they are definitely more viable in the overall metagame than Meta Knight is. Cloud and Marth make for better sword characters, while Mario can do most of what Meta Knight can do better. Meta Knight does have some intrigue as a counterpick character to characters such as Rosalina, Mewtwo, and Ryu, characters who are very highly regarded in today’s metagame. Rosalina, in particular, is hard countered by Meta Knight; being able to claim to hard counter a top 5, potentially top 3 character is no joke. However, this doesn’t give Meta Knight quite enough to see representation at the game’s highest level: Meta Knight is useful as a secondary to players who main a character who loses badly to the aforementioned three, Rosalina in particular, but that niche has waned within Cloud’s rise to prominence, as Cloud is better than Meta Knight and can handle the aforementioned three characters well enough.
Overall, Meta Knight doesn’t hold disadvantage to any character in particularly badly enough where you couldn’t get away with solo maining Meta Knight, in theory. Were it not for the fact that Meta Knight is somewhat outclassed by better characters, Meta Knight would definitely see more representation and would be more viable. Having said that, it is fair to argue that time placed into learning Meta Knight may be better spent elsewhere. Even with that, a fair diagnosis on Meta Knight’s viability would be: good, good enough to survive at the game’s highest level, but outclassed and arguably not worth using at this level of play.