A heads up that Jigglypuff and Luigi are already submitted to the Shroom. Though I won't have Byleth's ready for a few more days. Anton did say it was ok for some hyperlinks to not be linked yet. For now, I'll put Dark Pit's up today, and then Byleth's on... maybe Tuesday? Either way though, without further adieu...
DARK PIT
Fighter Number: 28e
Fighter Group: Smash 4 Veteran/Echo Fighters
Franchise: Kid Icarus
Game of Origin: Kid Icarus: Uprising (Nintendo 3DS, 2012 (US/JP/EU)
Now here are back with an…
interesting one. Because we're back into the territory of some of the worst merited inclusions in the entire series. Because spoiler alert: Dark Pit's one of those. Remember back in Dr. Mario's section, I referred to "that one" characters for Smash 4 and Ultimate? Piranha Plant was of course Ultimate. But Smash 4's was Dark Pit. Though, I'm not going get as ranty as I was about Piranha Plant. Now, this is mostly because of how terrible the Plant's merit is, but it's easy to say that… Dark Pit's… aged a little better? I mean, he still has less merit then Dr. Mario. Which still says a lot. But I don't feel like I can be quite as harsh about Dark Pit as I may have been for Smash 4.
That's probably thanks to the introduction of Echo Fighters. So far in these merit rankings, the only echo fighter I've ever gotten to cover is Chrom. Who's a good choice, I said as much covering him. But Echo Fighters have inherently less merit then other kinds of fighters. Maybe that's a little unfair to characters who are echoes. Though the fact of the matter is, most echoes are characters that couldn't have gotten in any other way. If Toad wasn't making it in as a unique character, Daisy surely couldn't have. Chrom had missed his chance to be a unique fighter in Smash 4, he's only in because they could copy most of Roy's moveset onto him to satisfy the fans disappointed by him being essentially relegated to a joke in the Smash community. Dark Samus did not get to have any of her assist trophy abilities and played just like Samus. Simon and Richter's movesets were a fusion between their games. (And Richter is the more popular belmont in Japan). And Ken has the distinction of being pretty much
THE original echo fighter.
And then we get into the 2 retroactive echo fighters. Lucina and Dark Pit. Lucina was introduced like any other character though she turned out to play as essentially "Marth for Dummies" (As in no longer vital to learn how to space your hits to land tipper smashes). And then there was Dark Pit who had a few seconds cameo at the tail end of Palutena's trailer. Yet he didn't get like a tagline or footage of gameplay for him. So it easy to think he wasn't going to be a separate character. But then the ESRB leak came out and Dark Pit had his own spot, and when the game came out. He literally ends up being no different then Pit. The most laziest clone in Smash history (Up until a certain princess, but at least she has some form of marketability with having been in so many Mario series spin-offs).
While the existence of Echo fighters have cooled down Dark Pit's reputation, I feel it should be understood why there was some concern about an inclusion like Dark Pit as it was done in Smash 4. In the same game, you had characters with downright different character alts like Alph for Olimar and the Koopalings for Bowser Jr. Not to mention the existence of alts having a different voice set such as the gendered alts for Wii Fit Trainer and Robin. Yet despite how simple it could have been, Dark Pit was not an alt. costume, he was his own character. And while you could get into stuff like the electroshock being slightly different (As in knockback angle is different) from Pit's orbitars. The only real significant difference was final smash… which even then... Dark Pit's was basically just Zelda's arrow of light final smash and even when Zelda got a new final smash. It works the same way that Link's does in Ultimate. Sakurai supposedly said it doesn't make sense for Dark Pit to use the the three sacred treasures? The Koopalings weren't in Super Mario Sunshine, they didn't get to be Shadow Mario. I'm not saying I wanted Alph or each of the Koopalings to be separate fighters too, but Dark Pit's inclusion still seemed inconsistent and it raised an eyebrow where it seemed Sakurai was maybe putting a little too much love towards Uprising in Smash by adding Dark Pit alongside Palutena. (Not to mention that there's a lot of uprising enemies that were in the 3DS version's Smash Run.)
That said, characters like Dark Pit have some form of advantage in that they cannot be blamed for the exclusion of characters, because the only other alternative is that they're just not playable at all. It's why Piranha Plant has softened me on just about everything else. Piranha Plant was a unique fighter, that meant taking time away from characters that actually deserve it. And while I get why inclusions like Byleth or new gen Pokemon bothered people, they at least tended to represent their games as the main character and/or part of the starter trio of the latest Pokemon game. As much as I know it bothers some of the people who care about Merit, Smash is the ultimate promotional vehicle. And Nintendo may want to give new games a spotlight to make it more likely more people try out those games.
As I mentioned in covering the plant, there is many characters that could have filled in better for that individual DLC spot even if it were for a more promotional character. I actually would have completely understood if say the free bonus character was say… Eevee because of Pokemon Let's Go (I think at the time of Piranha Plant's reveal. It was still too early for a Gen 8 Pokemon even for promotional purposes). Whether the plant was Sakurai's or Nintendo idea, there was still time to say "Maybe that's taking a joke too far, we need this preorder bonus DLC to be someone special". Where as is with Dark Pit, it could have been possible that Dark Pit was simply going to be another Alph and/or Koopaling situation, but they decided to go a slightly extra mile with a whole character slot for him. Between Dark Pit and Piranha Plant it's a rare case where the laziness actually is beneficial in a merit comparison.
Still, compare Dark Pit's merit to anyone else other then the plant. And he still loses. Even to Dr. Mario, who while Dark Pit would have the argument that he's actually a separate character. Dark Pit does not have the longevity of Dr. Mario's existence, Uprising is just one game while Dr. Mario is a series of games, and Dr. Mario's actually developed more differences from Mario. From being there so players who are more comfortable with Mario's melee moveset with no FLUDD can use him, to the differences they added in Ultimate to justify his non-echo status more. If Kid Icarus ever gets a new game, and Dark Pit sort of becomes the Luigi/2nd player. That's where things can start to make a case that Dark Pit can get above Dr. Mario. Especially if the next game decided to differentiate them more. That said, if Echo Fighters as a concept returns it's very possible Dark Pit gets stuck on that label. And it'll forever limit any potential of him rising out of the Bottom 3 most merited inclusions in Smash history.
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So this one was easy. Dark Pit's only beaten out in WORSE merit by the plant. Nothing else to really say
1. Link
2. Banjo & Kazooie
3. King K. Rool
4. Sonic the Hedgehog
5. Rosalina & Luma
6. Snake
7. Shulk
8. Pit
9. Ness
10. Duck Hunt
11. Steve
12. Mythra
13. Wii Fit Trainer
14. Chrom
15. Dr. Mario
16. Dark Pit
17. Piranha Plant
