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.

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.
 * Ness: speed, range.
 * 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(has also lost his nipple spike), lower traction, and a drastic decrease in priority, making it nearly impossible to approach safely. It is considered the most serious nerf in Brawl.
 * Falco: Nerfed in many of his KO moves: Down air Meteor Smash is harder to sweetspot, Forward smash is slower and needs to sweetspot to be a good KO move, Neutral air is no longer a KO move, Down tilt does not KO until extremely high damages and Falco Phantasm's Meteor Smash is weaker. Another major nerf is that Fire Bird travels less far. Minor nerfs are his slower dash speed, and his reflector can no longer be held and can only reflect projectiles in front of him.
 * Fox: Shine combos no longer exist, his finishing moves are slightly weaker (except his back aerial which is instead much slower), and his Blaster travels roughly half the distance it did in Melee'.
 * Ganondorf: Reduced speed and priority (though his priority wasn't decreased as much as it was for Captain Falcon), and Wizard's Foot no longer enables a midair jump if one was used already.
 * Jigglypuff: Reduced combo ability, Rest is a lot weaker in term of knockback, three aerial attacks weakened, now sole slowest dash speed, and no longer has the fastest horizontal aerial movement(still very fast in comparison to other characters in Brawl.), though only Yoshi's is faster. Smash moves are slower and have a longer end lag.
 * Link: Much slower air speed, shorter grappling device, infinite sword stab in neutral combo removed, and Spin Attack no longer semi-spikes. Link's Boomerang has lost range and doesn't do damage on the way back.
 * Mario: The power and range of many of his moves have been slightly decreased, his F-Air now needs to sweetspot to meteor smash. Fireball's range has reduced.
 * Marth: Shorter grabs, shorter sword (therefore shorter range), sweetspotting his attacks is harder, standard attack combo is slower, and his dash speed is slightly slower. Shield Breaker is no longer useful for edgeguarding.
 * Peach: Shorter midair jump, decreased power in forward throw, decreased range and power in down smash, horizontal aerial movement has gone from being one of the fastest to being slightly below average, and can no longer Double Jump Cancel.
 * Samus: Finishing moves and her projectile game were weakened, and Bomb Jump technique is now less effective as a recovery.
 * Sheik: Finishing moves (except Up Smash and Vanish) have lost a lot of their power.
 * Yoshi: Egg Roll can no longer can be used for recovery, smashes are weaker (especially Down Smash), F-Air now needs to sweetspot to meteor smash, Yoshi Bomb and Egg Throw are weaker in terms of knockback, and he can no longer Double Jump Cancel.