Nerf

Nerfed is a term to describe the weakening of certain attributes of characters when making a sequel. It is often done as an attempt to balance the roster. The best example of this is Kirby's transition from the original Super Smash Bros. to Melee. Kirby went from being one of the best (tier-wise) characters to being one of the worst.

"Nerf" as a verb has been in common use when talking about character or attack changes in all kinds of games, from RPGs to FPSs. The opposite of nerfed is buffed, which describes an improvement in quality.

For example, from Melee to Brawl, Peach's forward throw and down smash have been nerfed, and she cannot double-jump cancel anymore.

The term "nerf" is derived from the brand of toy known for its soft foam-like substance. This substance allows for safer play, as little chance of injury comes from impact with such items. In effect, a projectile is less damaging because it has been "nerfed."

Characters who had attributes nerfed from SSB to Melee

 * Kirby: arguably the worst ever nerf in a Smash Bros. game. He lost lots of power, speed, priority, and range in his attacks. His horizontal aerial movement is drastically slower, and he is easier to combo, making a character with terrible stats in Melee.
 * Luigi: Lateral Air speed, Super Jump Punch's jumping distance, and Luigi Cyclone's recovery distance have all been lowered. This makes it harder to incorporate these abilities into a horizontal recovery. Green Fireball size has also decreased.
 * Mario: Super Jump Punch's jumping distance has been reduced. Also, Fireball size has decreased.
 * Ness: speed, range. Up smash and Down Smash are weaker, no longer a KO move. Forward smash is much slower.
 * Pikachu: range, being candidate for chain grabs.
 * Yoshi: Specials, combo ability on floaty characters.

Characters who had attributes nerfed from Melee to Brawl

 * Captain Falcon: Slower attacks; D-Air needs to sweetspot to meteor smash, is weaker, and the nipple spike has been removed; F-Air (The Knee) is much harder to sweetspot and has less knockback; lower traction; Falcon Kick no longer regains his double jump after it has already been used; an extreme decrease in priority, making it nearly impossible to approach safely; f-smash weakened significantly (went from being the 3rd most powerful f-smash to 19th). He is overall a slower and much weaker character. He is considered the most dramatically nerfed character in Brawl.


 * Falco: Nerfed in many of his KO moves; F-Smash is slower, weaker, and needs to sweetspot to be a good KO move; N-Air is no longer a KO move; D-Tilt does not KO until extremely high damages; Falco Phantasm's Meteor Smash is weaker. Fire Bird travels a shorter distance, is now a multi-hit attack, and is much weaker (is now incabaple of KOing); slower dash speed; his reflector can no longer be held. However, these nerfs did not have much of an effect, as Falco has the exact same tier ranking as in Melee (4th). This is mostly dued to him picking up a new style that adapts to Brawl well (ex. he is now capable of major chain-throwing).


 * Fox: Shine combos no longer exist; up smash is slightly weaker (it is however, often considered the best u-smash in Brawl); uair is much weaker (no longer KOs under 150% reliably); Fire Fox is weaker and can no longer KO; he is even lighter and dies much easier in Brawl; and his Blaster travels roughly half the distance it did in Melee.


 * Ganondorf: Slower attacks, dash speed, and air speed; lower jumping height; poorer mobility; and lower priority (though his priority wasn't decreased as much as Captain Falcon's); Wizard's Foot no longer enables a midair jump if one was used already. Some of his attacks were drastically weakened in Brawl, most noticebly his bair, u-smash, d-smash, Dark Dive, and the grounded Wizard's Foot. Overall, he is slighty weaker and is much slower.


 * Jigglypuff: Reduced combo ability; Rest is a lot weaker in terms of knockback; three aerial attacks weakened (most notably its bair); f-smash is weaker; smashes are slower and have longer ending lag. Now ranks the slowest dash speed in the game, and has been seconded by Yoshi for highest air speed.


 * Kirby: Kirbycide F-throw and B-Throw no longer Kirbycide; U-Throw can only Kirbycide on certain stages. Swallowcide now KOs Kirby and his victim at the same time. Even though the Kirbycide is less effective in Brawl, he has recieved buffs in many, more important areas.


 * Link: Much slower air speed; shorter grappling device; infinite sword stab in neutral combo removed; Spin Attack no longer semi-spikes and is worse for recovery. His Boomerang, replaced with Gale Boomerang, has lost range and speed, and doesn't deal damage when returning (instead pulls foes with it). He is overall slower and is much worse in recovering (could be the only character who has a harder time recovering in Brawl.


 * Luigi: Fair and dair are much weaker (fair is faster and the dair is easier to meteor smash with however); Super Jump Punch has more ending lag; Fireball's range is shorter.


 * Mario: The power and range of many of his moves have been slightly decreased; his F-Air now needs to sweetspot to meteor smash and is weaker; Fireball's range reduced. Replaced Mario Tornado with F.L.U.D.D., reducing his overall recovery. Because of Brawl's new autosnap feature, cape is less useful.


 * Marth: Shorter grab range; shorter sword (therefore shorter range overall); tipping his attacks is more difficult; neutral attack combo is slower; dash speed slightly reduced. Shield Breaker is no longer as useful for edgeguarding and it's lost overhead range, as it is now a stab instead of an overhead swing.


 * Mr. Game & Watch: D-Tilt is weaker; neutral attack is now a trapping move instead of a KO move; Oil Panic maximum damage reduced from 200% to 60%.


 * Peach: Shorter midair jump; decreased power in F-Throw; down smash completely nerfed in every aspect, especially in KO power and damage output (can no longer KO and it went from being the best d-smash to arguably the worst), could be considered the single most nerfed attack in the series; substantially reduced air speed; can no longer Double Jump Cancel; slower falling speed.


 * Samus: Projectile game and finishers drastically weakened. Smash Missles are slower and significantly weaker (could KO under 150% in Melee but can't even KO at 300% in Brawl; Charge Shot is weaker (could KO under 80% in Melee but cant't KO under 125% in Brawl; nair was significantly weakened (went from being the second strongest sex kick to one of the weakest). Her bombs are less effective for recovery, and now no longer explode when in contact with opponents (only after their internal timer is finished).


 * Sheik: D-throw is now completely incapable of chain throwing; all of her aerials were weakened; fair can still semi-spike but was weakened significantly; up smash is much weaker and sourspot can no longer KO reliably; she is also lighter and is easier to KO.


 * Yoshi: Egg Roll can no longer can be used for recovery; smashes are weaker (particularly D-Smash); F-Air now needs to sweetspot to meteor smash and is much weaker (is now only a average meteor smash while it was the second strongest meteor in Melee; Yoshi Bomb and Egg Throw have lower knockback; he can no longer Double Jump Cancel. Egg Lay's KO potential is lower because of the slow falling speed of the egg and higher starting height.