Super Smash Bros. All-Time Merit Ranking (Finale in Issue 194!)

HALF-WEEK WARNING

There's been no change but still heading into the half-week Daisy and Pichu are currently on top. And Villager as the 3rd non-shroom section

Daisy 30
Pichu 30
Villager 14
Pokemon Trainer 14
Wolf 12
Ike 12
Little Mac 12
Lucina 4
Palutena 4
Hero 4
Terry 4
Richter 2
Roy 0
Lucario 0
Dark Samus 0
Young Link 0
Ken 0
Corrin 0
Incineroar 0
Kazuya 0
 
LAST CALL

There's been no change, tomorrow decides the January issue. Daisy and Pichu still currently the Top 2 and Villager the 3rd non-shroom section.
 
Oh shoot, sorry for the lateness. But...

ALL CHARACTERS LOCKED IN!

Daisy and Pichu will be the January characters!

Daisy 30
Pichu 30
Villager 14
Pokemon Trainer 14
Wolf 12

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Now the attention shifts to February. And the character pool is looking real small now. There's only 15 characters to choose to vote for. Currently Palutena is placed in 5th. But there is 4 characters tied here that might need some breaking up

Ike 12
Little Mac 12
Hero 4
Lucina 4
Palutena 4
Terry 4
Richter 2
Roy 0
Lucario 0
Dark Samus 0
Young Link 0
Ken 0
Corrin 0
Incineroar 0
Kazuya 0
 
HALF-WEEK WARNING

Heading into the half-weekm it's still Palutena who will be locked in should nothing else come up. But Little Mac has surged a bit in front of Ike currently.

Little Mac 16
Ike 12
Hero 8
Lucina 4
Palutena 4
Terry 4
Richter 2
Young Link 2
Roy 0
Lucario 0
Dark Samus 0
Ken 0
Corrin 0
Incineroar 0
Kazuya 0
 
LAST CALL

Hero will be locked in tomorrow if nothing else happens

Little Mac 22
Ike 12
Young Link 12
Palutena 12
Hero 8
Lucina 4
Terry 4
Incineroar 4
Richter 2
Roy 2
Lucario 0
Dark Samus 0
Ken 0
Corrin 0
Kazuya 0
 
1. Lucario
2. Little Mac
3. Ike
4. Palutena
5. Dark Samus
 
IKE IS LOCKED IN!

(Palutena and Ike were tied, but 4 people voted for her while there was 3 for Ike.) Though Palutena will be next if nothing more happens

Little Mac 50
Young Link 24
Lucario 20
Palutena 18
Ike 18
 
HALF-WEEK WARNING

Into the half-week, Palutena is still who's next to be locked in currently

Little Mac 50
Young Link 28
Lucario 20
Palutena 18
Ike 18
Hero 8
Dark Samus 6
Corrin 6
Lucina 4
Incineroar 4
Roy 2
Kazuya 2
Terry 0
Richter 0
Ken 0
 
I forgot to give the last call yesterday. So to make up for it. I'll make sure to be fair and allow one more day before locking in Palutena. The deadline will still be Sunday for the final 3 though. So...

LAST CALL

Palutena will be locked in tomorrow if nothing else happens
 
RYU
800px-Ryu_SSBU.png

Fighter Number: 60
Fighter Group: Smash 4 Veterans/Smash 4 DLC
Franchise: Street Fighter
Game of Origin: Street Fighter (Arcade, 1987 (US/JP/EU)​

The Smash fandom can be a little divisive on many fighters, or well I guess no matter what the new fighter is there will tend to be a subsection that really hates the choice. But perhaps a surprising topic of divisiveness in Smash's history was the topic of putting in Fighting Game characters. On one hand, it should make perfect sense. The fighting game character is looking for a new challenge, and this Smash tournament allows them to fight against many of Nintendo and Gaming's best. On the other, there are some who would have preferred Smash give a chance to characters that were not already in competitive tournaments in other games. And in some cases it comes down to not wanting them because those who know how they work in their old games could potentially come in and absolutely wreck someone in. Because whenever Sakurai has added a fighting game character, he's thrown the simple gameplay out the window and placed in advanced button and thumbstick combinations that will make most casual Smash players make their headspin.

The first ever fighting game character we got however was indeed the most iconic Fighting game character of all time. Moves like the Hadouken and Shoryuken are part of the osmosis of stuff you become familiar with even if you've never played a single Street Fighter game. Street Fighter probably wasn't the first fighting game ever, but it was certainly the franchise that popularized the idea of health bars, learning difficult to perform but rewarding combos, and varied characters. And that would get passed down to many franchises down the line including the other fighting game franchises represented in Smash and many others. Smash itself probably doesn't exist without Street Fighter. As heck, Street Fighter was among Sakurai's games he played back when he was a competitive game player. It wasn't the only game he played tourneys for (More on that for a certain other character), but it certainly had to have had some impact on him and how he would try to make Smash a game that's more accessible to the average gamer then the type of fighting game Street Fighter is as he knew firsthand what kept more casual players from checking out such games.

Though it certainly eventually didn't stop them from eventually adding Ryu and others to the game, and make it fully capable for veterans of those fighting games to wreck others if they know their original game. Ryu is kinda hard to use if you've hardly played any Street Fighter game but can still be fun. Just can be hard in the middle of Smash gameplay to really focus on when and/or how to change between light, medium, and heavy hits seamlessly. But if you knew how Ryu works in most Street Fighter games, you'll likely devastate many in your way.

Sadly, Street Fighter's mainline games have generally avoided Nintendo consoles since the Playstation era. So as a general 3rd party, the relevance has dwindled compared to some others. It can't be denied that of course Street Fighter II was the one that really put the franchise on the map. (Between how many versions they made of that game). But otherwise, they've stuck mainly to the more retro titles when doing anything for Nintendo. While recent Street Fighters have maintained being on other consoles and on PC.

I have no personal attachment to Street Fighter myself, but I am certainly aware of many things through osmosis. The Guile theme meme, some notable M. Bison quotes from the live action Street Fighter movie as well as the cartoon. And some awareness of many of the characters, though you certainly couldn't rely on me to know every detail on each Street Fighter character. But it's easy even from a surface level to see the impact Street Fighter has had.

___________________________________________________________________

Ryu will no doubt be the highest of the fighting game-origin characters. Though the franchise losing it's status a Nintendo staple past the SNES era has certainly hurt it at where it could have been. Otherwise Ryu would have an argument to be up there with Simon, and maybe even fellow Capcom-originated Mega Man himself. As things stand right now, I think I'll put Ryu below the Square boys of Cloud and Sora. But at the very least above characters that debuted in the Gamecube era. Because even with diminished Nintendo relevance, it feels like it'd be odd to put Mr. Fighting Game below the likes of Bowser Jr. and Olimar.

1. Mario
2. Link
3. Pikachu
4. Donkey Kong
5. Kirby
6. Samus
7. Luigi
8. Wario
9. Yoshi
10. Bowser
11. Peach
12. Mii Fighters
13. Mega Man
14. Pac-Man
15. Diddy Kong
16. Banjo & Kazooie
17. Simon Belmont
18. King Dedede
19. Mewtwo
20. Ridley
21. King K. Rool
22. Zelda
23. Ganondorf
24. Mr. Game & Watch
25. Sonic the Hedgehog
26. Cloud
27. Sora
28. Ryu
29. Bowser Jr.
30. Olimar
31. Fox
32. Rosalina & Luma
33. Marth
34. Zero Suit Samus
35. Toon Link
36. Isabelle
37. Inkling
38. Snake
39. Shulk
40. Pit
41. Ness
42. Captain Falcon
43. Robin
44. Jigglypuff
45. Duck Hunt
46. Greninja
47. Steve
48. Lucas
49. Pyra
50. Mythra
51. Joker
52. Sheik
53. ROB
54. Min Min
55. Byleth
56. Ice Climbers
57. Wii Fit Trainer
58. Chrom
59. Dr. Mario
60. Dark Pit
61. Piranha Plant
 
PALUTENA IS LOCKED IN!

Sunday now decides the Top 3 for February! Right now that would be Little Mac and Young Link. With Lucario being the 3rd non-shroom section

Little Mac 50
Young Link 28
Lucario 20
Palutena 18
Ike 18
 
BAYONETTA
800px-Bayonetta_SSBU.png

Fighter Number: 63
Fighter Group: Smash 4 Veterans/Smash 4 DLC
Franchise: Bayonetta
Game of Origin: Bayonetta (Playstation 3 & Xbox 360, 2009 (JP), 2010 (US/EU)​

Oooh boy, here we are with what is probably to this day still one of the characters that almost always results in heated conversations in the Smash fanbase.

We will get one thing out clear, it's plain to see Bayonetta is perhaps one of the oddest 3rd party characters to be chosen for Smash. While the series has been made a Nintendo exclusive ever since the 2nd game, the franchise still feels like it's a ways away from feeling like a Nintendo staple. Part of that is the series is a little newer then most franchises in Smash, along with the very tone of the Bayonetta games clashing with the general image of Nintendo. I mean sure, there's other violent game franchises that were put in Smash before and after. But at almost no point do Metal Gear or Castlevania have moments of gore that would make Mortal Kombat blush like the Bayonetta games. Noooooot to mention clear as day nudity (In which Smash had to censor, if it had been accurate to the games… everytime Bayonetta would do one of her hair attacks (Which is her smash attacks mostly) you would see quite a bit of skin that'd probably be too uncomfortable for some people. I'd almost be curious how many kids there who played Smash 4 and or Ultimate that were curious about the Bayonetta series only for their parents to research the series and be immediately concerned.

Though there are certainly at least 2 other reasons Bayonetta is a controversial subject in Smash Bros. history besides the fact that her franchise is by far the one that sticks out the most in terms of Mature-rated games represented in the roster. The first being just how competitively-broken she was in Smash 4. Smash 4 actually generally had a fairly balanced tier list back in the day… that was until Bayonetta arrived on the scene to wreck things almost as if not as bad as what was voted #1 for this month's issue of the Shroom. She could arguably be considered worse because of how fast she wrecked the competitive scene where it probably took at least some time of analyzing Meta Knight to come to the conclusion that hardly any character countered them. It was quickly rectified in Ultimate, where they had to make sure Bayonetta did not ruin the new game's competitive scene if the game was to thrive.

And lastly, there's a good amount of debate if the marketing for her when she was announced was really… truthful. For you see, after Bayonetta was announced. It made it seem like she was the winner of the Smash ballot… despite Bayonetta being a generally niche series at the time. It did try to explain it that Bayonetta was #1 in Europe and there was also the disclaimer of "Realizable characters". In truth, the ballot was more so for Smash Ultimate then it was for Smash 4. But because we generally thought that's what the ballot was for (Even I was guilty of once thinking Cloud was included because of Ballot votes for example). We know now that the true winner of the Smash Ballot was Sora, it just took a real long while and some lucky talks with Disney to make it happen. But part of the controversy around Bayonetta is how there was extra Zero Suit Samus files in the datamine found shortly before or after the Smash ballot. And it'd be credible to believe that Bayonetta was built off of Zero Suit Samus. This would mean that Bayonetta was being worked on just as votes were cast, which would indicate it didn't matter how much Bayonetta was actually voted. She might have been the last character of Smash 4 regardless. And because Nintendo is unlikely to ever announce the full results of the ballot, we'll never really know for sure. And even if they did, who knows if people would even believe the results after all this time. But regardless of what really is the truth about Bayonetta's inclusion. It just creates a real infamous air around Bayonetta in Smash that may never truly go away.

Also, you would think with Bayonetta being only a 3 game series that it'd be one series I've never played before… but well. I have a bit of an interesting personal story. You see, my local library has the ability to rent games for a time just like any book. One day, they had Bayonetta 2 for the Switch there. And it was a copy that included a digital code for the first Bayonetta. Now normally when you bought this edition it was so you could have both games at once. But I didn't buy the game, I rented it. And was able to see the code in full for the first Bayonetta game. In short, I basically got to own the original Bayonetta for free since I was the first one to either use the copy and/or the first to notice that I could place the code in the Switch eshop. So I actually have played Bayonetta and completed the first game's story. It wasn't something I ended up being too terribly interested in, but a free game was a free game. And I could clearly tell how odd it was that Bayonetta got in Smash with all the stuff I saw in the game. It's the kind of stuff that could honestly make you believe Doomguy or Mortal Kombat characters aren't entirely ruled out as options despite the ultra violence. It was pretty obvious what Smash had to tend down in order to get Bayonetta to fit the E10+ rating.

With Bayonetta technically being a Sega character, not to mention of course that Bayonetta is now a Nintendo-exclusive 3rd party character. (As currently only the first Bayonetta is multi-platform) It's probably pretty likely that Bayonetta's one of the ones likely to stay despite being feeling like she's one of the more out-of-place 3rd parties. It's likely she won't ever feel like a general gaming icon on the level of Mega Man, Pac-Man, or Sonic but perhaps in some way she was placed to give a little more hope in the future to smaller 3rd parties that normally don't feel like they're of legendary status to make it in one day. Even if there's the suspicions about Bayonetta's inclusion being rigged from the start, it still has that form of impact that more then just a few number of possibilities were there for Smash Bros.

___________________________________________________________________

It should be understood merit-wise that Bayonetta's definitely in the lower half. Though at the very least having about 12-13 years (And not being an echo fighter) of existence as a franchise helps with avoiding our current Bottom 10. I'm putting her a spot behind Steve. They debuted at around the same time, though Steve has the general gaming sphere advantage over Bayonetta, being the highest selling game of all-time and all. Though I'll put her above the japanese exclusive Lucas, for if you need to learn how to talk to a lady ask your mo- oh… well… I imagine that's actually pretty awkward for Lucas

1. Mario
2. Link
3. Pikachu
4. Donkey Kong
5. Kirby
6. Samus
7. Luigi
8. Wario
9. Yoshi
10. Bowser
11. Peach
12. Mii Fighters
13. Mega Man
14. Pac-Man
15. Diddy Kong
16. Banjo & Kazooie
17. Simon Belmont
18. King Dedede
19. Mewtwo
20. Ridley
21. King K. Rool
22. Zelda
23. Ganondorf
24. Mr. Game & Watch
25. Sonic the Hedgehog
26. Cloud
27. Sora
28. Ryu
29. Bowser Jr.
30. Olimar
31. Fox
32. Rosalina & Luma
33. Marth
34. Zero Suit Samus
35. Toon Link
36. Isabelle
37. Inkling
38. Snake
39. Shulk
40. Pit
41. Ness
42. Captain Falcon
43. Robin
44. Jigglypuff
45. Duck Hunt
46. Greninja
47. Steve
48. Bayonetta
49. Lucas
50. Pyra
51. Mythra
52. Joker
53. Sheik
54. ROB
55. Min Min
56. Byleth
57. Ice Climbers
58. Wii Fit Trainer
59. Chrom
60. Dr. Mario
61. Dark Pit
62. Piranha Plant
 
HALF-WEEK WARNING

Into the Half-Week, Little Mac and Young Link are still in the Top 2. However, the margin between Lucario and Young Link are now VERY slim. Any vote for Lucario higher then a 5th place vote (And/or people who prefer Lucario who have already voted for him put him two more places) will launch him into the Top 2

Little Mac 50
Young Link 26
Lucario 24
Palutena 18
Ike 18
Hero 10
Dark Samus 6
Corrin 6
Lucina 6
Incineroar 4
Roy 2
Kazuya 2
Terry 2
Richter 0
Ken 0
 
LAST CALL

Young Link seems to have pulled away to secure the 2nd spot for the February Shroom issue. But it isn't clinched until tomorrow

Little Mac 50
Young Link 36
Lucario 18
Palutena 18
Ike 18
Hero 16
Corrin 14
Lucina 10
Dark Samus 8
Incineroar 6
Terry 4
Roy 2
Kazuya 2
Richter 0
Ken 0
 
1. Corrin
2. Little Mac
3. Dark Samus
4. Lucina
5. Hero
 
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