Introduction
The competitive Smash scene has been blowing up with conversations revolving around Steve and Kazuya. These two characters have been doing amazing in tournaments, getting results over highly seated players in the recent “Gimvitational”. Because of this, talks of the two DLC characters being banned from tournaments have been going around. This is similar to the conversations that revolved around Bayonetta in Smash 4 and Meta Knight in Brawl. So should a Steve and Kazuya ban happen for Smash Ultimate?
No. Of course not. And I’ll tell you why. Most of this will be focused on Steve since there’s more arguments for him being banned than there is for Kazuya.
“If Bayonetta and Meta Knight should’ve been banned, then Steve should be too too, right?”
Before I address this point, I wanna make something clear. When talking about banning a character, comparing it to other ban-worthy characters in different games to justify your standpoint is a ridiculous thing to do, no matter which side you’re on. Even with the previously mentioned Bayonetta and Meta Knight, Smash 4 and Brawl are just… different games. There’s no reason to bring them up when the topic is Smash Ultimate. But if it’s a point people that think Steve should be banned are making regardless, then something they should consider needs to be shared.
Bayonetta and Meta Knight completely affected the game they were in for the worse. In Brawl, Meta Knight had so many tools and options that just didn’t allow his opponent to do anything in almost any situation. While Bayonetta in Smash 4 wasn’t as bad, she was the best character by a significant margin and could kill any character off of one touch due to how polarizing her tools were when combined with the mechanics of the game (not to mention her overwhelming presence and top placings in tournaments, to the point that the Grand Finals of the last Smash 4 EVO tournament was a Bayonetta ditto).
Steve, while being a great character, doesn’t really have any of that, at least not to the same extent. For starters, Steve isn’t even the best character in Smash Ultimate. There are several characters that are just better than him, like Fox, Palutena, Pyra/Mythra and Pikachu just to name a few. Steve also doesn’t abuse the mechanics in a way that no other character can. He has really good tools and hard counterplay (which we’ll talk more about next), but the design of the game doesn’t give him an unfair advantage at all. I wanna say again that it’s not reasonable to compare ban-worthy characters in other games to justify banning a character in a different game. However, even if you do that, there’s not really any good points to be made for banning Steve when doing so. Now, let’s focus on Steve’s tools…literally.
“Steve should be banned because his moveset is really broken.”
Honestly, it is pretty amazing. Steve has combos that can give 40%-60% with little issues. He can camp more effectively than just about any character with his block placements. He can also gimp recoveries with his blocks and shut down rushdown characters with his minecart (which doubles as a hitbox and command grab) and anvil. If he manages to get diamond tools, he just breathes damage and kill potential. Like I said, pretty amazing. These aren’t grounds for banning him though.
Sure, Steve has amazing tools, but he has glaring weaknesses as well. First off, there’s his range. While he can rack up a lot of damage, he has to get dangerously close to do so, close enough that most attacks could trade with him. A lot of his normal moves are like that. Also, while Steve’s minecart is an amazing projectile, his usage of it can be very predictable and situational. And last but not least is what I consider his biggest weakness: almost every attack he has requires resources.
Steve needs to mine to get resources and power up some of his normals. Those normals will also break with overuse so Steve will need to repair them throughout the game or just deal with them breaking. There’s also the fact that when he loses a stock, he’ll have to start from the weakest level again. Other attacks, such as the minecart and anvil, require iron to use. The minecart also needs gold and redstone to use a stronger and faster version of the move. Sure, these resources aren’t too difficult to attain with Steve’s camping potential, but if the pressure’s on him when he’s out of resources, he’ll have a difficult time getting the opponent off of him long enough to get a meaningful amount, especially on stages where the required resources don’t come by as soon as others.
“Steve is boring, which ruins playing and watching the game.”
His camping potential leads to him retreating behind a wall or offstage often. It’s due to this that people consider Steve “lame” and “boring to watch and play against.” This leads to people thinking Steve should be banned to preserve the fun of the game. This part is gonna be short because I think this is the worst point to be made, and there’s not a lot that needs to be said against it.
Steve may be boring and lame to fight and watch, but that all depends on the person. Personally, I agree that he’s boring and lame most of the time, but somebody else could think he’s amazing to watch due to all his tech and combo extensions with his blocks. It’s all subjective and situational. Even if Steve was factually lame and boring to fight and watch, there are many other characters that could fit that mold more than Steve, like Samus or Duck Hunt or Kirby. So banning Steve from a spectator standpoint is also ridiculous.
Conclusion
Smash Ultimate is widely considered the most balanced Smash game. I don’t think Steve or Kazuya are doing anything to change that at all, or will be anytime soon. It is reasonable to have discussions about banning characters that seem to pose a danger to the competitive scene of the game. However, the Smash community often discusses banning characters simply because they either don’t like them or don’t like to find ways to adapt to playing against them. Remember when everyone thought King K. Rool was one of the best characters because of his belly armor?
What do you think? How do you feel about Steve? Do you think he should be banned or not? Why do you feel the way you do? Where do you think Steve stands on the competitive tier list? I’d love to hear your thoughts.