Is Greninja too unfit for Smash?

[BlackSheepOfSmash]

I knew that Greninja was an iconic powerhouse for the Pokémon and Smash franchise. He once had its Ash-Greninja Bond Phenomenon only in the seventh Pokémon Generation, ever since his absence as in Generation VIII Pokémon main series video games, his return as in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet suffered his polarizing response following its Protean ability alteration and his Ash-Greninja Bond Phenomenon not existent anymore. Right now, I’ve gotta show you this video below:

So do you think that Greninja was too unfit for Smash? Why? Please let me know, thanks.

 

[Igneo]

nah i dont think it

 

[Quillion]

Yeah, he had a really high peak, but Greninja is one of the biggest fall-offs in terms of going from his peak to now.

Somehow he went from being "character well-known and loved" to ultimately being flavor of the month.

 

[Louie G.]

Greninja won Google's Pokemon of the Year contest in 2020 with 140,000 votes, above Lucario in second place with about 103,000. That was 7 years after his debut, with two new generations having released since. I'm not the most plugged into Pokemon's community these days, but I don't think that's an insignificant victory. Most modern starters quickly fade into the background with the following generation.

Of course, things could have changed over the last three years but I struggle to call Greninja "flavor of the month" if he was able to persist that long. And ultimately the Pokemon meta, the main topic of this video, doesn't really reflect how your average fan would feel about their favorite Pokemon. Maybe he's not as big as he was at his peak, but neither is Lucario.

And I mean, at the time he certainly fit well and that addition aged well into Ultimate. Moveset wise, he was practically built from the ground up for Smash so it was kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Maybe moving forward he won't be as much of a priority as some of the evergreen Gen 1 Pokemon and Lucario, but I think he has a good chance of being kept around. I don't think he's unfit for Smash at all.