Nintendo remains one of the biggest players in the gaming industry thanks to its vast library of diverse and lovable characters. From Mario to Pikachu, there are plenty of powerful humans and critters alike that feature across their decades’ worth of games. But not all Nintendo characters are created equally.
Though many of Nintendo’s characters are strong and powerful in their own ways, some of them have flaws or weaknesses that can be pretty hard to overlook. Others still rely heavily on special abilities to make up for those weaknesses, and sometimes these abilities are a little too maxed out.
6 Kirby
This loveable little pink fellow is a star among Nintendo’s lineup and remains one of the most popular characters that the gaming company has created. Known for his sunny disposition and marshmallowy appearance, Kirby doesn’t seem all that overpowered at first glance. But his unique ability to inhale enemies and absorb their powers earns him a place in this list.
Kirby’s ability to copy the powers of his foes makes him the ultimate jack of all trades. As anyone who has played against him in Super Smash Bros. will know, Kirby’s copy ability can be downright annoying and is usually heavily relied upon by those who play him. Without this powerful ability, Kirby would be little more than a charismatic pink balloon.
5 Ness — Mother Series
Ness might one of the lesser-known characters from the Nintendo pantheon, but his legacy with the company stretches all the way back to the mid-90s. Though he first appeared in the cult classic EarthBound, Ness is mostly known among gamers today for his appearances in the Super Smash Bros. series.
Though he’s reasonably adept in his own game, in Super Smash Bros., Ness is a bit of a one trick pony. His directional attacks are based upon his psionic powers, but some of the specific moves have been copied from his other EarthBound friends. Spamming his PK Fire move can get players pretty far, but ultimately Ness is just a weaker version of his friend Lucas.
4 Rosalina — Super Mario Franchise
Since her introduction into the Super Mario Bros. universe back in 2007, Rosalina has become a key figure in the franchise’s ensemble cast. First appearing in Super Mario Galaxy, Rosalina has since appeared in over 10 different Super Mario Bros. games and series. But despite her popularity as a character, there are several weaknesses to Rosalina’s design.
Even with a handful of stylistic differences, Rosalina feels like a carbon copy of Princess Peach. She has little direct involvement with the resolution of Super Mario Galaxy or its sequel and seems content to leave the action up to Mario instead. This is all despite her own talent for magic, which allows her to teleport to and from space and generate force fields. These abilities are so overpowered that, when she appears in Super Smash Bros., the majority of her moves are based on Mario's moves from the Super Mario Galaxy games rather than her own skillset.
3 Midna — The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Midna is a character most Nintendo fans will recognize from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. In the narrative of this game, Midna is the cursed princess of the Twilight Realm who has been overthrown and transformed into an impish version of herself. This curse also deprives her of certain powers granted to the leader of the Twili people.
Though Midna is not exactly powerless throughout Twilight Princess, she is rather weak and highly dependent on Link as they travel through the world. The few abilities she does have grant her huge freedom of movement, as she is able to walk through solid objects and warp through the portals of Twilight.
2 Shedinja — Pokemon
With the Pokedex growing larger with each new release, the Pokemon game franchise has quite a few weak characters within its roster. But thanks to the ability to evolve Pokemon into a stronger form, many of these weaknesses can be little more than a temporary annoyance. Unfortunately for Shedinja, that’s not the case.
As the only Bug/Ghost type Pokemon, Shedinja’s design is heavily inspired by cicada exoskeletons. It is the fully evolved form of the Nincada and is born from the discarded husk of Ninjask. No matter how much this particular Pokemon is trained, Shedinja’s HP will always remain at 1. However, Shedinja is the only Pokemon to possess the Wonder Guard special ability, which allows it to take zero damage from everything except super-effective moves.
1 Captain Olimar — Pikmin
This intrepid space explorer is the main protagonist of the Pikmin franchise, another of the lesser known yet still recognizable series under Nintendo’s banner. The games are primarily puzzle and strategy based, and involve Captain Olimar exploring the newly discovered planet of PNF-404 and collecting ship parts or treasure.
On his own, and on a new planet with air that is toxic to him, Olimar struggles without help. He has very little in the way of combat skills and strength, and really only has his scientific curiosity. But on the planet of PNF-404, Olimar has an all-powerful control over its native inhabitants, the Pikmin. Without his ability to convince the Pikmin to fight for him or protect him, he very well might have died the first time he landed on the planet.