If items were turned on in Smash 4

So I had a silly idea. What if items were turned on in tournaments? Better yet, what if each player could choose one item to turn on? How would you pick your character based on the items chosen, or vice versa? I’ll be making this into a series where I’ll cover a few items in each.

Just a disclaimer, the only time I do play with items on is in Smash Tour. Other than that, no matter if it’s against CPUs or friends in a free-for-all or a 1v1, we don’t even speak of items.

Hammer
So the first item I want to talk about is the Hammer. And.... sure, the Golden Hammer too. This item hits like a truck, but that’s pretty much all it lets you do. So if you’re thrown off-stage or you accidentally walk off while the Hammer is active, you’re pretty much dead. The Hammer’s hits can also be countered. So there are two categories of characters that would be able to beat the Hammer. Characters like Samus who have a long-range tether grab so they can throw their opponent off safely and characters like Marth with a counter, because it’s much easier to counter a Hammer’s hits than pretty much anything else, because you’ll know exactly when they’re coming. Good luck waiting out that counter. But which character would benefit the most from turning on Hammers? Well, I’d probably say characters that don’t hit very hard or have reliable early kill moves like Sheik or Jigglypuff.

Smash Ball
Why people make petitions to turn Smash Balls on in tournaments I’ll never understand. The Smash Ball, when broken, allows whoever got the last hit on it to activate their Final Smash. OK, common knowledge, whatever. Most Final Smashes were nerfed from Brawl to Smash 4, and newcomers’ Final Smashes aren’t particularly strong either. Two characters stand out as dominating the Smash scene if Smash Balls were enabled. Marth and Lucina. Their Critical Hit is an instant OHKO, so as soon as they get the Smash Ball, you’ve basically lost.

Home Run Bat
The Home Run Bat is a move with insane startup lag, but when the move finally comes out, it’s a OHKO. But again, it can be countered. Unfortunately, it does lose quite a bit of knockback, but it does a bit more damage, because that’s how counters work. The knockback is still insane and can kill at 30% [citation needed].

Ok then, so.... looks like Marth and Lucina would be top tier with items on because they can just counter everything and then kill you. Oh wait.... ZeRo said that he thinks Marth and Lucina are already top tier. This is Matt, signing out. Er, off... Shoot.