GameFAQs Contests

Ulala
Last Contest: 2002
Last Game: Project X Zone 2 (2015), Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (2012)

http://board8.wikia.com/wiki/Ulala

Notice anything weird about that? Yeah, I wrote her description! I have never played a Space Channel 5 game, but the thing is, nobody on this board has. I remember when the long-defunct pre-Wiki Character Battle info site was being updated, whoever was running it (can't remember who you are, sorry dude!) needed people to volunteer to write bios for some of the characters, and Ulala was the LAST ONE to not have one, so I just did it to help out.

So I guess that shows how popular Ulala is. She got a bio after Gabe Logan and Mr. Driller.

Ulala seems to be one of SEGA's go-to characters for crossovers and the like. They want to remind you of Space Channel 5 but they don't want to go through the trouble of remaking, remaster or developing a proper sequel to it. Rhythm games have changed since Space Channel 5 and there's probably no room for it in the modern landscape of Vita-exclusive Hatsune Miku games.

Ulala probably has some fans but they sure as hell aren't here. Of all the characters from 2002 who are unlikely to ever come back, I'd say Ulala might have the slimmest chances of all, which is really saying something. At least other characters did so poorly they might get a joke nomination rally, or maybe they're actually getting new games like Serious Sam, but Ulala is just boring enough with a firmly dead franchise that there's nothing in the world that could ever get her back in.

...

And that's that for 2002! Wow, this project is taking a lot longer than I thought. It's weird to say that these contests are my "hobby," but writing these little bios and talking about the drama on the board surrounding some characters and matches is a ton of fun. I might make a spinoff topic or something and archive this for future reference when all my predictions are proven untrue in the coming months.

If anyone has any special requests or corrections, please let me know! If you wanna see more or less of me waxing poetic or more numbers or something, shout it out and I'll see what I can do.

ZenOfThunder posted...

I remember when the long-defunct pre-Wiki Character Battle info site was being updated, whoever was running it (can't remember who you are, sorry dude!)

MMXCalibur

man remember when Freewebs was a thing?

LeonhartFour posted...

ZenOfThunder posted...

I remember when the long-defunct pre-Wiki Character Battle info site was being updated, whoever was running it (can't remember who you are, sorry dude!)

MMXCalibur

holy s*** THANK YOU it was on the tip of my tongue!! does MMX still come around here?

every now and then he stops by to rank users with short summary and analysis

HaRRicH posted...

_SecretSquirrel posted...

I wouldn't put Crono in the upper tier of the Noble Nine, but I would easily take him above Crono

LOL, that should have been Sonic, somehow.

AiAi
Last Contest: 2003
Last Game: Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (2012), Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz (2012)

It's been 7 years since a Super Monkey Ball game, and 12 years since one was on consoles. Hard to believe 2006 was so long ago, but here we are, in 2018 with no Monkey Balls. How did we end up in this timeline?

AiAi was a one-and-done that couldn't break 10% against Link. I would argue that Monkey Ball is kind of a Nintendo franchise even though it's made by SEGA and that SFF was probably involved in some way, but does it matter?

AiAi was fresh off of Super Monkey Ball 2 in 2003. In 2018 he'd probably do even worse. Is it safe to say that Monkey Ball is a dead franchise?

Ganondorf
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017), Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (2016)

When we last saw Ganondorf he was doing one of those Ganondorf dives from Smash Bros and pulling Mario off the stage in a murder-suicide the likes of which we had never seen, leaving only the young and innocent Vivi to carry on to the next round.

Before that Ganondorf was once considered to be stronger than Link. Back in 2003, the conception was "villains are cooler so they must be stronger!" But then he lost to Magus in round 2. Magus lost to Knuckles a few years later, so where does that leave Ganondorf?!

The next year Ganondorf went toe-to-toe with Alucard, once against just barely squeaking by. He then got to his long-awaited match with Link, and... Well, he lost. He lost hard. I think the idea of SFF was gestating in the womb of Board 8 during 2003, and 2004 was an outright confirmation that people will just vote for the main character most of the time, although there are some notable exceptions. Why would you vote for Ganondorf, the dude you are trying to kill in most Zelda games? You get really attached to Link, why vote for the pig man that wants Link dead?

Ganondorf has been able to stand on his own since then. He's done respectably in these contests and proven he isn't just Link's b****. Unfortunately, the massive boost Link and Zelda are set to receive from BotW most likely won't apply to Ganondorf, who doesn't appear in his human form at all during the game. He's just so big ugly monster or giant cloud throughout the entirety, and he doesn't get any lines or even cutscenes setting him up. He doesn't even get enough respect to be called "Ganon," he is exclusively referred to as "Calamity Ganon" the entire game.

So will Ganondorf see a boost? Yes. Because he's Nintendo and this is now Nintendo Land. Will it be huge? Ehhhh... We'll see. Probably not.

ZenOfThunder posted...

It's being released by Devolver Digital, who actually is a pretty good publisher, so maybe if the game is good, cheap, on all consoles, properly hyped, well received, written in a way that Sam comes off as an actual character, and released during the nomination period, Sam might be able to get a 16 seed and get stomped again like he did in 2002.

This is the perfect summary of what it's like to be a modern game character on GameFAQs

LeonhartFour posted...

ZenOfThunder posted...

I remember when the long-defunct pre-Wiki Character Battle info site was being updated, whoever was running it (can't remember who you are, sorry dude!)

MMXCalibur

man remember when Freewebs was a thing?

I remember the Knuckles page having its music change from a Knuckles rap to the Fox NFL music for no adequately explored reason.

MMXCalibur was a quirky individual

but I miss the Prophet Challenge so much because of that quirkiness

I can still remember the excellence that was his Master Chief/Crash Bandicoot 2004 writeup

Tanner and Gordon Freeman's song was Loser by 3 Doors Down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pwdksVps-o

All of those Prophet Challenge writeups were gold.

Sam Fisher
Last Contest: 2007
Last Game: Ghost Recon: Wildlands (2017), Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist (2013)

There's a really touching moment in the recent Ghost Recon: Wildlands Sam Fisher DLC event where he asks what's happened to Solid Snake:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCvq-wj5ScY

"Then it's only me..."

I wish that were pertinent in a contest setting. Sam Fisher is as dead as Tom Clancy. Too soon? Sorry. Sam's series was actually really good, and Sam had his fair of decent showings, in the form of... beating Gordon Freeman and Simon Belmont. I remember him being better in these things. Whoops.

Sam didn't make it into the bracket in 2013, even though Blacklist was right around the corner. I don't think anyone on this site cared or ever cared at all about Sam, and now it seems like Ubisoft feels the same way. The fanbase was pretty upset when Michael Ironside was replaced as Sam's voice actor, and a lot of the diehards actually skipped playing that game, which is not good for a series on a downward spiral already.

If Sam were to appear today? Well, other than the free DLC mission in Wildlands, he hasn't had any real appearances in about 5 years, so it's safe to say he wouldn't do well anymore. Still, with the right match picture and matchup, he might be able to pull off a minor miracle.

Magus
Last Contest: 2003
Last Game: Chrono Trigger (PC)(2018)

I like to s*** on Crono a lot but I'm usually joking. Magus, on the other hand, deserves that s***. Terribly, liquidy s***.

I never got the hype surrounding Magus. To me he was always the Piccolo of Chrono Trigger. He's a big bad, he turns out not to be all that bad, then he just kind of... stopped being as relevant as Crono (in a contest setting). Anyone still unfortunate enough to be watching Dragon Ball Super knows what I mean.

Remember when Magus got punked by Sandbag? By Knuckles? He couldn't come close to Alucard. Then his bracket placement was so bad in 2013 that he ended up in Crono in Round 2.

Will Magus ever return to glory. Uh... What glory? The dude beat Ganondorf in 2003, the year that Zelda was at its lowest point. He also beat Otacon and Crash Bandicoot one time. Can anybody explain to me why year after year people crawl out from behind their rocks (their rocks that have a TV and an SNES installed with only Chrono Trigger on it) to proclaim that this year will be Magus' year?

Can I remind you that not even Square Enix cares about Chrono Trigger? Did you know there was a PC port just a few months ago? Did you know it was an awful, broken port of the iOS version put out just to make some quick cash at the expense of the uninformed consumer? Chrono Trigger is now being used as bait! The franchise is dead. Magus is dead. Was he ever really alive?

Sorry to everyone who likes Chrono Trigger, I played it once and it was pretty good. As someone who never got a real sequel to his favorite game (Elite Beat Agents) I know your pain and hope you one day get something better than a bad iOS port.

Luigi
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Mario Tennis Aces (2018), Super Mario Odyssey: Luigi's Balloon World (2018)

Luigi is the 2003 Champion that never was. People assumed he would be strong for some reason. I mean, he is. He's Mario's brother! Mario's Green brother. s***, what was his name again?

Green Mario has the same problem as Red Ryu: He's iconic, just not as important. Green Mario exists solely in these contests to job to promising newcomers or other high midcarders that want to impress. If you read Ulti's writeups for every match containing Green Mario, they usually mention he had a "solid performance."

2013 was the Year of Green Mario and he was given a match against Big Boss when MGS was at its strongest with Ness in the match to LFF him down to second place. He just can't get a break and has never really impressed in these contests, just disappointed.

So where is Green Mario now? Well, he's... got his own DLC in his brother's game that came a few months after the hype had died down. He hasn't had his own game since his year in 2013 when Green Mario's Mansion: Dark Moon came out as well as a re-skin of some Mario game where they made him Green. Everything else has been sports or party games or Smash Bros. There's a remake of his first Mansion game coming soon, but probably not in time for the contest.

I do not respect Green Mario. I don't think I can. I know some people look at him with endearment, but it's the same kind of look you give someone with terminal illness. It's sad to see that he never got his shot in these contests. With the increased focus on Nintendo on this site, you can expect him to get bumped up in strength, but that bump also applies to most of the characters that have beaten him before, so nothing will probably change for him. I hope I'm proven wrong, because even though I don't respect Luigi, I still love him in some weird way and I'm happy when he gets the spotlight. I think we all do.

Ratchet
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Ratchet & Clank (2016)

I cannot believe Ratchet had a movie. Like, for real, I can't believe it because I barely head about it or saw any footage from it. Apparently the movie-tie in game that was actually by Insomniac was good, but not like Earth-s***teringly good, just really above average. I almost think it got attention because the last few Ratchet games were so awful that any return to form was noteworthy.

Where is Ratchet on the fodder line? Is Vyse still the Fodder Line? I feel like Ratchet would be a solid pick for the new Fodder Line as he has a decent sized fanbase, a few OK wins, games and appearances coming fairly regularly, and pretty consistent performance from contest to contest.

Ratchet managed to beat Shulk and Eddie Riggs and that's really it. Is he stronger than that now? Well, people seem to care about the platformers they grew up with more and more, so he might have seen some growth. It says something that he's managed to stay semi-relevant after so many mediocre games. If he had any growth it's probably slim, but I think his general recognizability might keep him as a decent filler character that nobody will be miffed to see included.

On the other hand, if we never see Ratchet again that won't be a big loss.

hey now the only really bad recent R&C game is All 4 One

the movie made approximately 15 dollars though and I'm still not sure why they made it

game's great though

(Play Ratchet & Clank)

man I wish Vyse were still the fodder line

KOS-MOS
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (2017), Project X Zone 2 (2015)

I was never into any of the Xeno games, I actually got like 10 hours into Xenoblade but then I went an hour without saving and died so I stopped playing. It was really good though! Totally worth the five thousand dollars to get a used copy from GameStop that was actually new but they charged more for it used so they just opened them up and called them used.

I hate GameStop. They kind of shot themselves in the foot with how they structure their business model around pushing pre-orders and rewards cards and magazine subscriptions, making it super uncomfortable to shop there. Then they punished their employees for not selling enough so the managers started faking numbers. Now they're in the whole because everyone knows they suck and they have alternatives in the form of Amazon, Best Buy and digital, so they try making money on selling useless garbage like Pop Figures and I guess used cell phones or whatever the hell. What a trash company.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, KOS-MOS. Remember that Character Battle fanfiction where Tommy Vercetti beat Master Chief at Poker, and he made Cortana reprogram KOS-MOS into his sex slave? That was super creepy. Who wrote that? Why did you do that? It's the only thing I remember from that year's fic. Then I started writing them and boy were they awful. They're still on fanfiction.net somewhere but I forgot my old password to delete them. Hopefully nobody I know ever finds them.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, KOS-MOS. Remember that time CJayC forgot to make a match picture for KOS-MOS and for a few hours the poll just had no pic? I think it was 2008 when she was against Ganondorf and Frog. You could actually see from the trends that she didn't start gaining steam until she got her picture with the boobies. Some take it as definitive proof of TJF.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, KOS-MOS. I think the fact that I want to talk about everything but KOS-MOS is an indicator that she as a character hasn't had much going on recently. I didn't play Xenoblade Chronicles 2 but I hear it's great. I'll probably get it someday. Does she just make a cameo or something? I see it listed on her list of appearances on Giant Bomb but I didn't know she was in it. I hope I didn't just spoil something, s***. Sorry.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, KOS-MOS. She's had some OK performances. She beat Crash and some (more) obscure JRPG characters. She was pretty iconic of her generation, being on the front of the Xenosaga boxes. Everyone who went to GameStop would see those boxes all over the place. See, GameStop! Full circle.

So where is KOS-MOS in strength now? Probably weaker, unless she had some big role in XC2 that I haven't heard of. I don't think she'll be back unless there's a huge field, but the XS crowd seems pretty devoted, so maybe we'll see her slip in at a low seed. Hopefully she doesn't get matched up with Tommy Vercetti.

Full circle!

Isaac
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (2010)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6269
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6918

It's nice to see Isaac still getting some love! Not that Sakurai gives him any. As I said earlier, Isaac got cut as an Assist Trophy between Brawl and 4. Does that mean Nintendo no longer sees Golden Sun as relevant?

RPGs take a lot of time to make, and Nintendo recently announced a new RPG IP... For iPhones! Uhh...

If they aren't even going to use their existing IPs on their phone games, what hope does Isaac have for a comeback? His biggest ever win was Guybrush Threepwood. Yeah, maybe it's time for Isaac to go the way of his Assist Trophy and not make a return.

ZenOfThunder posted...

So where is KOS-MOS in strength now? Probably weaker, unless she had some big role in XC2 that I haven't heard of.

well she's in XC2 as an Easter Egg but I wouldn't expect that to help her that much

I worked a part-time job at GameStop once. Used my employee discount to buy a New game. Made an offhanded comment that it would help pump up their sales numbers. They proceeded to tell me that it would actually hurt, because their performance was graded by 'ratio of used games to new games', and by buying a New game I was hurting their ratio.

GameStop.

To be fair I think they make a larger profit from selling used games.

I see Isaac as the fodder line.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/5170-character-battle-ix-division-4-round-1-solid-snake-vs-isaac

22.2% on Snake in 2013, which projects to 20.65% on that year's Link (and we have a direct Snake/Link match). Dark Dawn was three years old at that point, had kind of disappointed people (and Isaac was barely in it) yet he still seemed to be doing about as well as ever.

In fact:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1312-north-division-round-1-samus-aran-vs-isaac
Assuming no SFF, that's pretty consistent!

I think Isaac gets his strength from being the main character of a nostalgic and well-liked JRPG with a pretty high playrate among the gamefaqs demographic and barring a major site shift that's probably enough to prop him up until the end of time. He never had any cultural relevance whatsoever so no need to worry about that fading and he's probably even immune to changing tastes as people age because his characterization was so minimal (in GS1) or dull (the other games) in the first place. His series looks dead now and a Smash appearance unlikely (especially given the Assist Trophy removal), so he probably won't boost. It's also notable that Isaac hasn't missed a character battle since the field was expanded in 2007 and apparently he even got a 6 seed in 2010 so he's likely to keep coming back.

Borderline Fodder Characters By Year IMO

2002 - Tails
2003 - Vyse
2004 - KOS-MOS
2005 - Terra
2006 - Axel
2007 - HK-47
2008 - Roxas
2010 - Prince Of Persia
2013 - Mr. Game And Watch

Mr. Game and Watch is borderline fodder IMO.

Isaac and all of Preston's suggestions from 2008 on are really good, I think Mr. Game & Watch could have a good shot at being considered the new Fodder Line. Honestly so much has changed since 2013 that I have no idea how our existing fodder/filler characters will perform in CBX.

charmander6000 posted...

To be fair I think they make a larger profit from selling used games.

yeah probably

when I used to sell insurance they tried to pressure us into selling more of the kind that made a bigger profit

that's just sales in general

Auron
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Kingdom Hearts HD I.5 + II.5 Remix (2017)

Recently my friends and I had this big ironic Beyblade tournament, but it was really just an excuse to get drunk and throw plastic toys at each other. I was in charge of the soundtrack and picked exclusively anime and video game music from the late 90s to early 2000s.

"Overworld" came on about halfway through the party, and one of my (very drunk) friends bolted down the stairs yelling "AAAAWWWW s*** IT'S DA AURON MUSIC!!!!" and then he tripped and fell and somehow didn't crack his head open

That's pretty much the most I've thought of Auron since the last contest. What's he been up to? Auron is definitely the strongest character from FFX, claiming a victory over Sonic at one point in his contest career.

However, because he wasn't the main character, Square throws him a lot less bones. He was lucky to make an appearance in Kingdom Hearts II, and maybe he'll even be in III, but II was a long time ago and III is still a ways away. The remasters were recent, but Auron fever seems to have died down a bit.

I remember in one of Ulti's write-ups for an early Auron appearance, he mentions that he would like Final Fantasy X-0 to become a reality so that Auron (and Jecht, I guess) would get a big contest boost. Is it too late for that to happen? In 5 years once that FFVII remake is out, will Square then dip into their back catalogue again and crank out the long-awaited FFX prequel?

Back on track, Auron has always done well in these things, but he was never strong enough to secure any major wins other than a small Sonic upset in the multis. In 2013, everyone expected him to kick L-Block's ass, but he wasn't able to do that and you aren't going to tell me he got LFF'd by Ezio. Is Auron weaker? I... really don't know. I love the guy, but he might be past his prime. He'll still be strong in a contest, but his level of strength will be debatable.

Bowser
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Mario Tennis Aces (2018), Super Mario Odyssey (2017)

I don't have many Amiibo, but I went out of my way to get the Mario Odyssey Bowser amiibo that's in the tux and tophat. For reasons unknown I refer to it as "Big Dick Bowser." I called him that once and my friend asked why, and I said "because he f***s." He then took a good look at the amiibo and nodded in agreement.

Bowser is going to get a Nintendo boost and an Odyssey boost, there's no doubt about it. He's also got that Smash 5 hype going for him. Bowser could be a powerhouse in this contest, but he usually has a really predictable path. He's had some close upsets but it's hard for him to seal the deal. Remember when he almost beat Snake in 2005?

But then Leon Kennedy gets ridiculously close to him and it makes you wonder where this guy is on the charts. He's also super susceptible to LFF and SFF. People seem to like Bowser, but not love him. If he's in a multi with other Nintendo characters, people will dive off the Bowser ship without much thought. If it's just Bowser in a match against non-Nintendo guys, he has the full force of #TeamNintendo behind him.

So Bowser's performance in CBX is going to be super dependent on the format and his placement. We could see Bowser getting pretty deep into the bracket this year, but we can also seem him out in Round 2 if he goes up against someone people care more about. Or maybe Mario Odyssey have made people fall in love with Big Dick Bowser all over again and he'll be a powerhouse. He has my vote.

Square has laid the groundwork for a possible FFX-3, so if they were to make a new FFX game, it would be a sequel and not a prequel.

Auron lost because L-Block got rallied, for the record.

I think 2005 was peak Bowser and peak Ganondorf. They got a big boost from the Villains Contest, for whatever the reason. I don't know if either one will ever be that strong again.

Ness
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Super Mario Maker (2015), Smash Smash Bros. for Wii U (2014)

Why were people surprised when Ness beat CJ? When did the board first figure out that games =/= characters?

Ness has a ridiculously loyal fanbase, perhaps one of the strongest I've ever seen. The dude has been in like... one game, and he's a Smash mainstay. Yet year after year he shows up and doesn't completely embarrass himself.

Not to say Ness ever makes a splash. As stated, he did beat CJ, and he spanked Travis, Jak, Zidane and especially Geno, and he got decently close to Big Daddy once. Ness weeds out the fodder from the actual contestants. Is Ness like some kind of advanced fodder line? He feels too strong to be the line itself but it's not like he's beating anyone that matters.

Anyway, yeah, Nintendo boost, whatever. Does it apply to Ness? Earthbound is on the SNES Classic, but does that help him out? My house mate is now able to play it for the first time and he likes it, but he's a pretty casual gamer. I don't think people getting the SNES Classic are unaware of Ness and Earthbound, so if he does get a boost, it will be minimal.

Summary: Ness and Earthbound's fanbase aren't going anywhere, the question is now just "how does Ness grow an existing fanbase without any new games coming possibly ever?"

Yoshi
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Super Mario Odyssey (2017)

People like Yoshi, right? He's kind of got the Bowser problem but bigger. Everyone knows Yoshi. They love Yoshi. Girls like to play as Yoshi when you invite them over to play Mario Kart or Smash Bros. Does the Yoshi fanbase go to GameFAQs? Not really. But GameFAQs still loves Yoshi enough that he gives some OK matches. Remember 2006?

Patriot Round 1 --- Defeated (3) Riku, 69394 [55.20%] - 56325 [44.80%]
Patriot Semifinal --- Defeated (2) Dante, 65497 [50.55%] - 64072 [49.45%]

He let Riku, not Sora, get super close to him, and yeah this was during that Kingdom Hearts hype, but it was Riku. But then the next round he managed to beat Dante and did respectably against Snake.

After that Yoshi kind of stopped being entertaining. He's not going anywhere and he's probably just as strong as 2013, but I don't think this is going to be Yoshi's year. He isn't even really in Mario Odyssey for more than a tiny bit, and his Switch game has almost no info so we won't be seeing it any time soon.

Yoshi is cool tho, not everyone can get good bracket placement so hopefully he isn't just turned into some kinda jobber for someone to punk in R2 this year.

Conker
Last Contest: 2005
Last Game: Rare Replay (2015), Project Spark (2014)

do you remember this hit video from Certified Racist Jonathan Aryan Jafari:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t_Co0gfj18

that about sums up Conker and how Microsoft has treated him. They don't give him a real game, they make some DLC for a game nobody bought with Conker assets so that you can make your own! Uh... Alright, I guess.

Rare Replay got some buzz but nobody cares.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6199-best-of-2015-xbox-one

I guess it technically is the best performing actual XBONE exclusive in that poll. That was 2 years ago, though, and if anybody did care, they probably don't anymore.

Conker holds a special place in my heart, I still have my cartridge and even my dad knows and loves Conker and still talks about him.

That doesn't matter much, though. Conker is dead at Microsoft's hands. Not even a big remake (which he kinda got at one point) could help him. There are better "edgy" Platform characters that exist now, Conker was just the first. Maybe they don't all say "s***" but you don't really need that to make that type of character good.

Sora
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Kingdom Hearts HD I.5 + II.5 Remix

In every single appearance since 2004, Sora has gotten to Round 3 and gotten knocked out. He's never gotten further but he's never fallen before then.

What's up with Kingdom Hearts? Well, the series is incredibly hard to follow and has been "kind of" dormant for the past 8 years. I say "kind of" because 2010 was the year Birth by Sleep came out, which, to me, is the last game in the series that was actually necessary to play.

But Square went out of their way to re-release everything from all those different systems into neat little packages, then put those packages into neat little packages, to make sure gamers are ready for Kingdom Hearts III which is coming soon-ish.

The KHIII hype is real, and I am on board that train, despite absolutely hating where the series has gone I still want to run around with Buzz and Woody and explore Big Hero 6 Land and s*** they have me by my goddamn balls, I hate Kingdom Hearts and what it does to me. I am a consumer pig.

Back to the point: Can Sora finally break out of Round 3? Will be finally fall flat on his face and get knocked out in Round 2? Well, Sora came dangerously close to Pikachu in 2013, but that's because Blue was in the match with them. Would Sora be able to beat Pikachu today? No, no way in hell.

Nintendo has just gotten stronger and the Square Family seems to have stagnated a little bit. Unfortunately, there are a ton of high-level Nintendo characters in Round 3, so Sora has a high chance of bumping into one of them and getting punked. If KHIII were to have some crazy announcements or trailers on the day of is R3 match against someone close to him in strength, maybe he can get a hype boost?

Sora will still be strong, but it's just bad timing for someone who has potential to be a juggernaut if his game were just a bit earlier on the release calendar.

people were surprised because we didn't realize RacistFAQs was a thing yet and Vercetti finished well above Ness in the 2004 X-Stats

plus 2005 was around the time GTA fell off the map because Vercetti went from beating DK and getting 34% on Mega Man (only a little worse than Tidus) as well as 39% on Zero to nearly losing to Kefka and only getting 30% on Crono

Master Chief
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Halo 5: Guardians

Mood setting poll: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6042

The most I ever see about Master Chief in 2018 are videos asking what happened to Halo 5 and the Halo franchise as a whole. Apparently that entire marketing campaign for Halo 5 where you were supposed to fight Master Chief was some kind of lie and that's only like the first hour of the game.

Halo used to have a really dedicated, passionate fanbase, and it was almost a movie/tv series produced by Stephen Spielberg. But then people stopped caring because Bungie stepped away and the new studio messed with the core gameplay and took the story in a direction nobody wanted to see, so that fanbase just slowly disappeared.

Couple that with the Master Chief Collection being a broken mess online (it still hasn't been patched) and you have a recipe for a character who gets blown out in Round 1 but Yuna in 2013. 5 years later, can we expect Chief to do any better?

Of course not! There's nostalgia for Halo 1 and 2 and maybe even 3, but probably not on this site. XBONE isn't the most popular system here, and while Halo used to be the must-have game for the console, I don't think that's the status quo today. He might do OK in multis, but probably not as well as he used to.

Chief could still squeeze out a minor victory in 1-v-1, but if gets a bad draw it wouldn't be shocking to see him give into his Master Choke habits once again. If contests become a regular thing again, expect to see the Chief slowly fade away until one day he just isn't in a contest and somebody makes a topic a few hours after the bracket was released asking "where's Master Chief?" only for a dozen of us jaded Board 8ers to respond "Who?"

Felix
Last Contest: 2003
Last Game: Golden Sun: The Lost Age (2002)

"Who?"

I actually never played Golden Sun. This guy almost beat Master Chief in 2003, but is that really an accomplishment? If he were to appear today he'd be fodder of the highest caliber. I don't even know what to say here. He wasn't even in that third Golden Sun game that Isaac was in.

My girlfriend just asked who I was writing about and I said "Felix from Golden Sun, I don't know what to say about him" and her response was "is that a game?"

s***

LOL Golden Sun

I always thought of Pac-Man as the fodder line, though he gets SFF'd easily so you can't exactly use him in the stats. Everyone knows who he is, but he has very few hardcore fans, so people will vote for him if they don't know/don't care about his opponent.

Then again he's in Smash 4 now so that might screw with his strength.

The fodder line used to be 20% (pre-SFF in the case of Nintendo characters, of course) against Base Link, but that value has been difficult to judge nowadays.

Zero
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Mega Man X Legacy Collection/2 (2018), Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite (2017)

There should be some kind of cool designation for characters like Zero, Auron, Sub-Zero, Ganondorf and Bowser that have always done consistently well in contests and only really lose to each other and the Noble Nine. Something that's cooler than "upper midcarder" or "near-elite."

Anyway, Zero is a beast in these things, and yeah he's had his fair share of beatings, but it's usually because he's way outside of his weight class. He's given some good matches and has destroyed other characters, but once his strength was well established he didn't waver much and it always made things pretty predictable for him.

He somehow failed to hold back Mega Man enough for Charizard to slip by in 2013, something almost everyone agreed would be the obvious outcome of that match. That probably speaks more for MM fans' loyalty to the Blue Bomber himself and not any real weakness on Zero's part.

But what's Zero been up to? Well, he was top-tier in Marvel 3, and I guess people used him in Marvel Infinite, but only about two dozen people bought that game. Other than appearing in crossover games and collections, Zero hasn't had his own game in 11 years. It's not like Mega Man X is a franchise still pumping out games, either. Zero is pretty much cruising by on good will and nostalgia at this point.

So in CBX, who knows where he'll stand? He's still a badass and people still know and love him. Capcom is only second to Nintendo in churning out beloved, iconic video game characters, and Zero has some kind of semi-immunity from age. He'll probably be consistent but I wouldn't take him over the other upper midcarders.

Ugh. Hate that term. Can someone more talented than me make a list of characters around Auron/Zero's strength and come up with a cooler name?

Captain Olimar
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Hey! Pikmin (2017), Smash Bros. for Wii U (2014), Pikmin 3 (2013)

I don't know what Hey! Pikmin is. I forget the franchise exists a lot of the time. You know who doesn't? Shigeru Miyamoto. He directed those short Pikmin movies that were exclusively on the e-shop, and apparently they were cute, but did they find any mass success?

I don't think Olimar has any real strength in these contests. Does anyone care about him? He's... nice. Got an OK design. He's the main character of what is basically a Nintendo B-franchise. Pikmin was a year old in 2003 and he only got a 16 seed, then Pikmin 2 was released around the nomination period for 2004 and he was absent. In 2013 he did OK against Shepard and was able to put a beating on Kain, but I think it's more the Sore Thumb Factor and general Nintendo bias at the time helping him. Also, it's Kain.

Smash 5 probably doesn't help Olimar much. I don't think Nintendo hype helps the "newer" Nintendo characters as much, like is Ike going to get a massive boost? Can't imagine Olimar love coming out of nowhere in 2018. It's doubtful we'll see Olimar again unless the field is massive.

I think "near elite" is a pretty good designation because people understand what it means and who it applies to.

The "near elites" have generally been considered to be:

Vincent
Squall
Tifa
Ganondorf
Bowser
Zero
Kirby
Luigi

although Vincent might not be there anymore

I'm not totally sure Zero is anymore either, really

Zelda, Pikachu, Yoshi, Big Boss, and Mega Man X could probably fit in that category, too. Maaaaaaaaaybe Sora, but he'd be borderline.

we've never really gotten a firm grasp on MMX's strength but he's probably in that tier

Wario
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: WarioWare Gold (2018), Mario Tennis Aces (2018), Game & Wario (2013),

It has been a decade since WarioLand: Shake It! for the Wii. Since them, we've had WarioWare DIY and Game & Wario, and now we have a WarioWare compilation coming out. Wario has been in tons of sports and party games, but in terms of "original video game that isn't a 'game maker' or compilation," the well has been dry.

But this is Wario, just Mario but fat(ter) and evil(?). People love him, right? Eh. Wario only seems to get votes out of obligation. Wario is the guy that your a****** friend picks in Mario Kart at a party. Does anyone have a real affinity for him? People who play WarioWare seem to love Mona, Jimmy, Ashley, everyone but Wario. People on this very board were ragging on him for "ruining" the Brawl reveal trailer.

Reminder: Wario didn't even get enough votes in the 2010 vote-in polls and missed the contest. That's pretty bad for a "core" Nintendo character. In 2013 he lost to Wrex from Mass Effect. Sure, Red was also in the poll, but he didn't even come close. Wario falls apart when facing someone with a modicum of actual fans. He's good filler but Wario is never going to be a real threat in that contest.

Shadow the Hedgehog
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Sonic Forces (2017)

Sonic Forces was the first time in 10 years that Shadow was actually playable in a Sonic game as a main character in his own missions. His story was free DLC, though, and it was obviously made on a budget because the cutscenes are all just dialogue boxes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0DyBi2Yl64#t=4m30s

Seriously, try to sit through that if you're not a Sonic fan. Yeeeesh.

So that shows where SEGA puts Shadow on the priority list, but at least he has DLC, unlike anyone else in that game.

So far, compared to the rest of Forces, Shadow's story adds way more than any other DLC or even some of the main plot threads like Classic Sonic. However, Sonic Forces didn't sell as well as Mania, and people seem to be taking big dumps on it, so if Shadow had a big chance for a comeback, it might be passed.

People s*** on Shadow, but people secretly like him. It's weird to say, but people did tear up back in the day when he f***IN' DIED at the end of Sonic Adventure 2. His game was a joke, yeah, and as a result, he missed two contests the same year and the year after (the year of Sonic 06), but regardless of how poorly those games were received, Shadow still gets a spotlight in all the spinoff games.

Shadow is often regarded as the most popular outside of the main three, and in Japanese character polls, he's always #2 behind Sonic. We are at this weird point where everything we hated in the early 2000s is now kind of cool again, or at least ironically cool, as evidenced by Pikachu making waves lately. There's a new generation of Sonic kids who grew up exclusively with the newer Archive comics, the mid-2000s games, and recently, Sonic Boom, which included Shadow in both the terrible game and the TV show. Normally I'd say that younger kids wouldn't come to this site, but younger Sonic nerds? Maybe.

Shadow could potentially do well if given proper bracket placement. All SEGA characters kind of share Nintendo's fanbase at this point, and they will probably receive a boost on a smaller level. I don't think he'll be getting to Round 3 but he might be able to impress. Could Shadow beat Zidane today? Maybe not, but it might be closer than we'd give him credit for.

This write-up was guest-written by my girlfriend who has an expensive Shadow the Hedgehog statue on the shelf next to her so please excuse any heavy bias.

Tom Nook
Last Contest: 2013
Last Game: Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (2017), Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival (2015)

I'm going out of order for a bit because I want to go to sleep, and Kefka involves too much research and thinking.

I love Tom Nook. I mentioned earlier that I only have some amiibos, well I have two Tom Nook amiibos because they were on clearance once so I got another one. Tom Nook is the f***ing boss.

While general audiences seem to also love the Nookie, it's more for the general recognizability that he commands as "that one dude from Animal Crossing, the game I kinda like and usually play when a new one comes out."

At this point, would Villager be a better rep than Nook? He's got a Smash game under his belt and is the subject of a bunch of memes. He's arguably a better rep. Would Isabelle do better? There's tons of por-- err, fan art of her floating around the internet, and she even managed to get into Mario Kart. Is Tom Nook's time finally up?

In any case, I assume Tom Nook would get a minor boost this year, and he's had pretty consistent new appearances as well as being in the smash-hit-for-a-week-because-that's-how-mobile-games-work Pocket Camp, and he has tons of merchandise and exposure.

Tom's had some small wins over Pyramid Head (although it was pretty close) and a throwaway Tales character, but he couldn't beat a main Tales character or a random Pokemon. I'd argue that Villager could beat Lloyd at this point. Tom Nook is probably better off sitting the next one out and passing the torch to the next generation.

ZenOfThunder posted...

Sonic Boom, which included Shadow in both the terrible game and the TV show.

I mean Shadow's barely in the TV show

(Sonic Boom is a great show and doesn't take itself seriously at all

literally the first episode is Robotnik rooming with Sonic and Tails while his fortress undergoes renovations)

My point is more that they got out of their way to include Shadow when nobody else outside of the main 5 plus Eggman, Orbot and Cubot are in it. They have a Metal Sonic episode and randomly a Vector episode. The writers mention how hard it is for them to get SEGA to let them use other characters, but for Shadow they managed to get him for both Season finales, and the plot of his first episode is "holy s*** it's SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG, THE SECOND MOST POPULAR CHARACTER"

well yeah but that's fanservice aimed at people who already like him to begin with

ZenOfThunder posted...

Isaac

Ah... I remember back in 2010 I saw this name and thought: "Whoa! People like Castlevania: Curse of Darkness as much as me?" Then I looked at the match picture and it turned out to be a guy from an RPG I had never heard before then.

By the way, when will Hector enter a contest anyway? He's the coolest Castlevania character of all time, imo.

Trump postpones decision on imposing steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada to June 1

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/steel-tariffs-deadline-1.4641458

Canada's exemption period was officially set to end at midnight April 30. But late Monday, Trump decided to give Canada, Mexico and the European Union another month to work out a deal with the Americans.

The Trump administration issued a statement saying it had come to a final agreement with South Korea on steel imports and had reached agreements in principle on steel and aluminum with Argentina, Australia and Brazil.

charmander6000 posted...

Trump postpones decision on imposing steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada to June 1

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/steel-tariffs-deadline-1.4641458

Canada's exemption period was officially set to end at midnight April 30. But late Monday, Trump decided to give Canada, Mexico and the European Union another month to work out a deal with the Americans.

The Trump administration issued a statement saying it had come to a final agreement with South Korea on steel imports and had reached agreements in principle on steel and aluminum with Argentina, Australia and Brazil.

Did you post in the wrong topic?

No I'm just wondering how Trump's tariffs would affect the upcoming character battle

>_>

<_<

It'll definitely affect the amount of anti-votes Steel-type Pokemon get during the Best. Pokemon. Ever. contest.

Yeah, I was about to make a steel-Pokemon-related joke, but I couldn't quite come up with something that connected Trump with contests.

Has there ever been a character from Canada in the Character Battles before?

let's count Commander Shepard since both of the VAs are Canadian and he/she's only listed as being from Earth (on certain profiles anyway)

Zen please do more write-ups.

When the politics topic starts melting into other topics, the world will reach its end.

LeonhartFour posted...

people were surprised because we didn't realize RacistFAQs was a thing yet and Vercetti finished well above Ness in the 2004 X-Stats

It was people's own stupidity to not consider Ness. RacistFAQs is a lame excuse when there were so many other things worth talking about... (His picture was a bit unrecognizable, so at least there's one possible reason CJ could have won.) I mean, Niko Bellic didn't come close to matching Vercetti either. But yeah, as you mentioned, it's suprising that some people thought Ness's raw x-stat was indicative of his strength, while completely ignoring that Ness nearly matched Scorpion's performance (though people said that Scorpion must have dropped a bunch or something).

What's interesting is that If Auron really was a smidge above Zero at that time based on their common opponent (Scorpion), Ness could have gotten has much as 48% on Vercetti in 2004! In fact, I think this result would have been more likely than, say, 43% on Vercetti. Add in the 2005 Nintendo boost (a "favorite developer" poll foreshadowed this), and the fact that CJ simply didn't seem as loved and iconic as Vercetti, and now suddenly Ness beating CJ seems like a real possibility. ...but everyone just ignored all that, of course. After all, Ness must be high fodder at best!

To this day I still wonder if Auron really was stronger in 2003/2004 than in 2005...alas, we will never know... (perfect example of my ancient x-stats nerdiness)