BAYONETTA
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.
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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
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4. Donkey Kong
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