Steve has been added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as the game's eighth DLC fighter. With his arrival, the teams at Bandai Namco, Hal Laboratories, and Nintendo have also introduced some new adjustments and changes for the characters in the game. It's been a few months since the last character balance patch, which launched with Min Min from ARMS, was introduced back in June, so players have been eager to get their hands on the latest fighter updates.
Across the board, almost every character that's seen changes has been buffed. Out of every character touched in the patch, Ness, Ice Climbers, Sonic, Lucario, Bowser Junior, Simon, and Richter seem to be the biggest winners. Sonic is perhaps the most surprising name to appear on this list as he was deemed to be so powerful that he was banned in some online tournaments. While some newcomers to the competitive side of the game might be surprised to see Ness on this list, a lot of his changes actually made a lot of sense.
A notable Sonic player, PowPow demonstrates one of Sonic's new combo.
While players used to playing the game online might be shocked that Ness and Sonic of all characters are getting buffed, the two infamously annoying characters will actually benefit from it. Because of the way that the game's engine works, moves that hit multiple times don't always work the way that they're intended to, with some moves allowing characters to just fall out of them, like Sonic's up-air attack and up smash attack and Ness's dash attack.
Both Lucario and Bowser Junior, on the other hand, aren't as much of a surprise - tier lists made by competitive players often included the two at or near the bottoms of their lists. Simon and Richter certainly weren't very high up on a lot of lists either. The Ice Climbers, however, are just ultimately so unpopular that they aren't easy to place on lists.
Whether or not these balance changes will shake up the competitive scene remains to be seen, but regardless of how the adjustments affected the game, it'll be the most interesting to see how Steve fits in. For the full list of character changes and adjustments, including specific changes about individual moves, check out the official Nintendo Support site.