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

MYTHRA
Mythra_SSBU.png

Fighter Number: 80
Fighter Group: Ultimate Newcomers/Fighter's Pass 2
Franchise: Xenoblade
Game of Origin: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Nintendo Switch, 2017 (US, JP, EU)​

It kinda feels weird getting to Mythra already. It feels almost like getting to Part 2 before we get Part 1. Though perhaps that's my fault to begin with for splitting them off in the first place. I think the main reason I did so is that there would not be a weird part where less then 5 characters are covered. Making the character count 85 so that each month eventually evenly divides. Plus Mythra feels closer to Sheik then the Pokemon Trainer pokemon, as Zelda and Sheik have been separated since Smash 4. Since of course Mythra is the alter ego of Pyra in Xenobblade 2. Who doesn't appear until the end of Chapter 3. Don't worry, I'm not going into much more spoiler-ific detail for those who want to someday play Xenoblade Chronicles 2 other then more vague stuff. I'll just say the moment Mythra first appears is one of the more emotional parts of the game. Though Mythra naturally plays a huge part in an expansion of Xenoblade 2 called Torna: The Golden Country which is a prequel story to Xenoblade 2's story.

But with trying to tiptoe around plot details. I guess I can talk about Mythra's personality. Pyra in short is the nice soft-spoken girl, while Mythra on the other hand is the more reckless, short-tempered of the two. Or what would some would say, the tsundere. Mythra really likes to cook, but the downside is she's quite bad at it and she's not one you want to tell her that.. Despite being basically two sides of the same coin, Pyra and Mythra is pretty much the subject of a "Waifu War" where fans argue over who is the better girl. Even if in this case it feels like that either way you'd have one or the other. I believe Sakurai even makes a somewhat tongue-in-cheek joke when he says he prefers Pyra… in terms of playing as her he says. (The question is now whether that's really how it is or if he actually does like Pyra as a character more, or even possibly… more attracted to)

Anyhow, in Smash. Mythra is the faster and more combo-heavy focused of the two. I think it's probably ideal to try to use both in battle when the situation calls for it. Perhaps Mythra to build up damage, and Pyra to finish things off. Although, I'm sure it's very possible to go Mythra solo as I don't think it's as clearly lopsided towards one transformation like it was for Melee and Brawl Zelda/Sheik. Though I guess one fun note about Mythra is how it technically makes it so Fighter's Pass 2 was actually 7 characters. Pyra and Mythra even got their own fighter number. Made me almost half expect that if Gen 8 was getting representation, it might of gone with the Trainer so we'd have essentially 8 characters for the price of 6. That said, having a character that's technically two is kinda like having a fast food place giving you a few more nuggets then you paid for. Certainly not something to complain about.

One thing I should note is that Mythra's element is light, and she's perhaps implied to be able to move at least close to the speed of light. Which probably should arguably make her the fastest character in Smash. However, we still have Sonic the faster then her on the ground. Either Mythra's holding back in Smash. Or Sonic has some power himself that he's hidden. Pyra better look out, as this could be the result one day.

Anyhow, I'll get into more details whenever Pyra is chosen by the voters. As again, it doesn't feel right getting into everything with other part of the duo.

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It probably shouldn't be a surprise though perhaps still a slight spoiler for this list that Pyra will probably be where Mythra is is the list. But anyhow, Xenoblade 2 still probably needs more time to get any higher in terms of merit should it have any more impact on the Xenoblade franchise. Though at the very least I think it's fair to put Mythra above the Wii Fit Trainer, but behind Steve. Both the trainer and Steve are older then Mythra but Mythra plays a large part of her game while Wii Fit Trainer as I've explained before it's possible to mostly ignore her in Wii Fit. Steve is mostly higher for being older, and also the knowledge that should a Xenoblade 3 happen, it may have almost nothing to do with Xenoblade 2's setting outside of the possibility of characters returning as DLC. Since the first Xenoblade's universe seems quite different then Xenoblade 2's. Maybe I'll explain some of that whenever we get to Pyra. Though I'll still try not to be too detailed for those who may be interested in trying out the game one day. At the very least from the voting results, it looks like I'll get to go into the first game

1. Link
2. Banjo & Kazooie
3. King K. Rool
4. Sonic the Hedgehog
5. Pit
6. Ness
7. Steve
8. Mythra
9. Wii Fit Trainer
10. Chrom
11. Dr. Mario
12. Piranha Plant
 
ROSALINA & LUMA
RosalinaLuma_SBBU.png

Fighter Number: 48
Fighter Group: Smash 4 Veteran
Franchise: Mario
Game of Origin: Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo Wii, 2007 (US/JP/EU)​

Super Mario Galaxy was certainly a pretty mind-blowing game in the franchise. Mario hopping across these very diverse planets and galaxies. While some fans would kind of lament the less open-world feel that was present in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine until it was brought back in Super Mario Odyssey, that didn't mean Galaxy wasn't an amazing game. It's probably still up there as a candidate for the best 3D Mario of all-time. Mario Galaxy was and still is an absolute blast.

However, there is one aspect of Galaxy that isn't exactly underrated. But at the same time brought an element that's rare in the Mario series. In that it provided some pretty subtle story telling. Super Mario 64 and Sunshine were both games where the main plot is the same, Mario saves Princess Peach from the clutches of Bowser. Maybe Sunshine had perhaps some arguably environmental themes if you maybe look into it a bit too deeply. But aside from perhaps the Mario RPGs do we get anything close to a story that starts sweetly enough with a girl who agrees to help a little star-like creature called a Luma find their mother. But later in the short, and bittersweet story we learn that that the little girl's own mother is deceased. But the lumas cheer up the little girl by basically becoming her family, with the little girl as the Celestial mother that they were looking for the entire time. It's implied this girl grew up to be Rosalina. A touching story in the style of a children's book that helps Rosalina, who aside from the beginning and the end of the games is mainly an NPC. I'm not sure Rosalina ever gets the attention she did without the extra touch of that story from within the game.

It's because of this story that many have come to say that Rosalina is the best "princess" in the Mario series (Even if she's not exactly a Princess in the traditional sense). Peach has the longevity and is an important character, though at some point for some having saved her so many times she could be almost seen as just an obligation for each Mario game being kidnapped all the time. And while Daisy isn't kidnapped in any games outside of the first first Super Mario Land, her outreach is limited to the spin-offs. And she has a hard time escaping Peach's shadow, especially after she's put down as an Echo in Ultimate (But more on that whenever I get to Daisy). While Rosalina is perhaps technically defeated by Bowser, she isn't kidnapped in Mario Galaxy. She's Mario guide to the many galaxies, and the ending of Super Mario Galaxy almost makes her seem like some kind of goddess as she reaches a huge size before what seems like the entire universe reboots itself.

While almost hard to believe at this point of time, despite the success of Galaxy. It took a decent while before Nintendo really promoted Rosalina afterward. Rosalina did get to immediately be put in Mario Kart Wii. Which shouldn't be understated. But then it's a full two years later where we got Galaxy 2. Though throughout most of the game we barely see Rosalina. instead the main assistant is this big plump luma named Lubba who probably quickly become something of a replacement scrappy. Rosalina does appear in the game but only at the ending, and again if you 100% the game. While perhaps you could argue that's them knowing just how special Rosalina was that they saved her for special occasions in the game. I don't think we could fault people who were fans of the character for thinking there's a fair bit of disrespect of tacking Rosalina at the end where as Rosalina was just about always there in the first game.

After Galaxy 2, Rosalina's next appearance was in Mario Kart 7. Which wasn't that much of a surprise since she was in Wii. But it then took yet another two years for Rosalina to make an appearance. But this would finally be the turning point. Nintendo celebrated 2013-2014 as the year of Luigi, but honestly. 2013-2014 also felt very much like the year of Rosalina too. Staring with Super Mario 3D World, Rosalina announced as the only other bonus character in the game. This was her first playable appearance in a Mario platformer, a pretty big step that not even spin-off regulars like Daisy or Waluigi have achieved even to this day. (No, Daisy fans. I don't count Super Mario Run). She'd appear for the first time in the Mario Party series in Island Tour. Not playable, but those who have gotten Superstars recently know that's changed quickly since then. she was DLC for Mario Golf World Tour, and naturally was in Mario Kart 8. Even receiving a baby form in the game (Which got some people upset that she wasn't red haired like in the storybook)

But then came perhaps her biggest surprising appearance. During Smash 4, when it came to Mario speculation. It was mainly between Toad, Walugi, Paper Mario, and Bowser Jr. Any other characters either considered too minor or not as popular, or they were too new. Rosalina certainly had popularity, but enough to get in over the four mentioned? Sure Rosalina was getting some decent promotion at the time, but I don't think it was highly expected for her to actually make it into Smash. Some would even deride her that she'd just be a Peach clone (Including perhaps a bit of a monkey's paw, for fans who'd had preferred Daisy to get in first). But then on December 18th of 2013, Satoru Iwata would tell us to please take a look. It starts oddly enough with Kirby flying through Space, was it a new Kirby? Then about 10 seconds later we have a look at…. Rainbow Road?! Were they adding Kirby to Mario Kart?! (Keep in mind this was before we knew Link was going to be in Mario Kart 8, so if it had been. Would of been the first non-Mario character in a Mario Kart game at that point not counting the arcade games or customizable miis) Kirby then zips past the drivers before suddenly a Launch Star appears and something disturbs Kirby's warp star path that makes him crash onto Rainbow Road. From that light, a smaller yellow one comes down and reveals itself to be a Luma who goes to check if Kirby is ok, the racers stop where Kirby landed, with Donkey Kong humorusly poking Kirby, as a blue flash appears before them, the Luma happy to see whoever it is. And in seconds we see the dress of the new fighter that scrolls on up to reveal the tagline "Rosalina & Luma Launch into Battle!".

It was certainly a shock to the speculators that had transfixed onto the four mario characters I mentioned before. Toad fans I remember feeling especially bad for, because the pic of the day prior to the direct was one of Link about to shoot an arrow at poor Toad. While perhaps not intentional, perhaps signifying that Rosalina had just gotten Toad's chances killed. At the very least for those who were speculating those other 4 characters, they'd still get Bowser Jr. later. But I do think Rosalina was one of those pleasant surprises in that she's a character that was accepted as popular and she did have a unique attribute no other fighter had being a puppet fighter where Rosalina can be somewhere while Luma's at the whole other end. Pretty helpful in fights with more then two since you can conceivably attack two characters at once with good Luma placement or even in a one-on-one make it so Rosalina and Luma work together to combo the opponent to oblivion. It's true that she probably had less merit then the 4 most speculated Mario characters at that time. But I don't think it was regarded as a bad choice. More female characters to play as is certainly a good thing. Smash 4 really helped add a good amount of female characters throughout it's choices. And it's not like Rosalina would disappear anytime soon after her inclusion. She's appeared as playable in almost every spin-off game since. Just two days ago, she was seen as a playable character in the new Mario Strikers, so her future remains as bright as ever. Rosalina's been a quick rising star ever since her Smash inclusion.

And in terms of characters in Smash that would probably make perhaps one of the most heartwarming crossovers, is Rosalina meeting Lucas from Mother 3. For obvious reasons.

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While Rosalina is the 5th unique characte for one franchiser, and sometimes that can be detrimental to merit especially for some of the newer characters in a long-running franchise. But we should say that by now 2007 is a good while ago while at the same time understanding that when it comes to the flagship franchise, Rosalina has grown into a strong part of the Mario series. She's earned her place as a staple of the franchise. And I think that's enough to put her above characters like Pit and Ness that while they're entirely unique franchises, certainly aren't going to have the consistent future that being in the Mario series provides. She is at least still below Sonic, not having near the longevity of the blue blur even if you only include Sonic's history on Nintendo consoles. Not that it matters merit-wise but I would like to note that Sonic has beaten Mario to the punch with games that have a major part of the game take place in space with a brand new character that got popular partly thanks to quite a tragic backstory, both referring to Sonic Adventure 2. Though hopefully Mario never has to have a Rosalina spin-off game where she's wielding guns and swearing like said certain character, heh.

1. Link
2. Banjo & Kazooie
3. King K. Rool
4. Sonic the Hedgehog
5. Rosalina & Luma
6. Pit
7. Ness
8. Steve
9. Mythra
10. Wii Fit Trainer
11. Chrom
12. Dr. Mario
13. Piranha Plant
 
Whilst everybody's getting ready for the Super Bowl later today (...Or the puppy bowl or whatever activities if you're not watching the fesitivites for the big game tonight). It is now time to get into our voting for the March issue. As always, a week from now will lock in the character in 5th place. Though as of current stars. We have a whooping 10-way tie for the final two spots that I would be appreciate to break. But here's our standings right now.

Luigi 20
Duck Hunt 10
Min Min 10
Ike 8
Ganondorf 8
Jigglypuff 8
Wolf 8
Simon Belmont 8
Byleth 8
Olimar 8
Fox 8
Toon Link 8
Dark Pit 8
Mario 6
Inkling 6
Mewtwo 6
Little Mac 6
Ridley 6
Zero Suit Samus 6
Lucas 6
Captain Falcon 6
Peach 4
Bayonetta 4
Bowser 10
Mii Fighters 2
Cloud 2
Diddy 2
Wario 2
 
1. Dark Pit
2. Luigi
3. Rosalina and Luma
4. Bowser
5. Lucas
 
My bad
1. Dark Pit
2. Luigi
3. Bowser
4. Lucas
5. Robin
 
HALF-WEEK WARNING!

Reminder that this Sunday decides who will be #5 of the fourth batch. Currently, there is a 3-way tie between Duck Hunt, Jigglypuff, and Dark Pit. (Technically 5-way. But both Captain Falcon and Min Min got to 10 via 2 people's vote. And that gives them an edge in the tiebreaker). If there should be no votes until Sunday, I will grant the 5th spot to Duck Hunt. Because Pitohui's vote is the oldest out of the single 1st place votes between the 3 characters.

Luigi 28
Bowser 26
Min Min 10
Captain Falcon 10
Duck Hunt 10
Jigglypuff 10
Dark Pit 10
Ganondorf 8
Simon Belmont 8
Byleth 8
Olimar 8
Fox 8
Toon Link 8
Ike 8
Mario 6
Inkling 6
Mewtwo 6
Little Mac 6
Ridley 6
Zero Suit Samus 6
Mii Fighters 6
Peach 4
Bayonetta 4
Bowser Jr. 4
Lucas 4
Wolf 2
Cloud 2
Diddy 2
Wario 2
Donkey Kong 2
Robin 2
 
DUCK HUNT IS LOCKED IN!

Luigi 28
Bowser 26
Captain Falcon 10
Min Min 10
Duck Hunt 10

Now we're a week from deciding #4. At the moment that'll be Min Min if nothing changes. (Cause Waluigi Time's first vote for Captain Falcon is older the either of the votes for Min Min)
 
I have to concede that Dr. Mario is a dubious choice in hindsight for a fighter, as good as he is to control. The changes in Ultimate were made to justify every Melee clone fighter as their own number. Even Daisy would have made sense as a clone fighter back then, but it was apparent that a costume change was considered an acceptable enough change. It's also a pity that Dr. Mario is too much like Mario, meaning that anything from his puzzle game series is minimal (the Capsules is the only thing from the series). To finish this, it's interesting how the home series never used "Megavitamins" to refer to Dr. Mario's capsules, yet this is the name of the special move, even in other languages that never used it (Dr. Mario 64, which used this term for an unrelated thing, was only released in English before Melee). Ultimate ended up correcting this oversight, only leaving the official name of the move intact, but other languages that used this term like French stuck with it.

SonicMario said:
Pit even keeping the character design upgrade received in Brawl ever since.
Click to expand...
One thing that is fascinating about Pit is that he is designed like he came from a parallel universe where Kid Icarus games were still being made throughout the console generations. That's why it's not a perfect rendition of the old design (e.g.: Ice Climbers, Duck Hunt). You can almost feel that there were already plans to put Kid Icarus back in the modern spotlight, because his rendition in Uprising felt like a smooth progression for the IP.
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Thank you for reading.
 
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HALF-WEEK WARNING

There's been no change since Sunday. So all I can report is Min-Min is still slated to be #4 should nothing shake up things
 
LAST CALL!

Tomorrow #4 is decided. Again, there has been no change since last week. If that should continue into tomorrow. Min-Min will be the next one locked in.

Luigi 28
Bowser 26
Captain Falcon 10
Min Min 10
Duck Hunt 10
Jigglypuff 10
Dark Pit 10
Ganondorf 8
Simon Belmont 8
Byleth 8
Olimar 8
Fox 8
Toon Link 8
Ike 8
Mario 6
Inkling 6
Mewtwo 6
Little Mac 6
Ridley 6
Zero Suit Samus 6
Mii Fighters 6
Peach 4
Bayonetta 4
Bowser Jr. 4
Lucas 4
Wolf 2
Cloud 2
Diddy 2
Wario 2
Donkey Kong 2
Robin 2
 
I am not sure how it affects your voting, so I will vote for these:

  1. Captain Falcon
  2. Jigglypuff
  3. Wario
  4. Pac-Man
  5. Mario

Thank you for reading.
 
1. Dark Pit
2. Mario
3. Byleth
4. Jigglypuff
5. Min-Min

i like to cause problems on purpose :luigi:
 
Well, since because of Smasher's vote Pittoo could have a chance…
1. Dark Pit
2. Lucas
3. Robin
4. Donkey Kong
5. Wolf
 
So... with 6 votes/vote changes that have drastically shaken up things. I'd thought it'd be a good idea to have an update post on our current Top 5.

Luigi 34
Jigglypuff 30
Dark Pit 26
Byleth 24
Duck Hunt 10

It is now Byleth slated to be locked in tomorrow currently
 
DARK PIT IS LOCKED IN!

Luigi 34
Jigglypuff 30
Byleth 28
Dark Pit 26
Duck Hunt 10

Now we're a week away from deciding the Top 3 and thus the 2 going into the Shroom. At the moment it's looking like that'll be Luigi and Jigglypuff.
 
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