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Game: Sakurai's Four Pillars of Character Virtue, Day 23: Waluigi/Wonder Red!

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Al-kīmiyā'

Smash the State
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This is a new forum game in which your favorite newcomers will duel each other on the battlefield of uniqueness, appeal, contribution to game balance, and fit with the style of Smash Bros.!

This is taken from Thinkaman's GDC 2008 Meeting Masahiro Sakurai thread. As far as I could tell, that is where these four criteria originated. Pay special attention to the description of "contribution to game balance." I have had to discount people's scores for balance because they are not judging the criterion according to this definition.
[collapse=Criteria Explained]
1. [appeal] The character's inclusion must make people want to play the game.

This is infinitely harder than you and I think, because we are so jaded by our own perspective. I would insist that Viewtiful Joe would be the best character ever, but I'm not sure people would really want the game more. Neither of us would have ever thought of ROB, and yet "ROBOT" was the CROWD FAVORITE by FAR in the GDC matches the CAs had. Everyone loved him! We as gamers are way too biased to make this decision easily.

2. [uniqueness] The character must be unique.

The character must have identifying features and abilities that would make them different from existing characters, so that they add something to the game.

3. [style] The character must fit into the style of Super Smash Bros.

The character obviously has to be able to fit into the framework of how smash works, obviously Pac-Man and L Block would not work. (My examples, not his.)

4. [balance] They must contribute to the game balance.

Everyone has to fit together. Every new character must counter some characters and be countered by others, and they must fit in one giant contiguous mesh.
[/collapse]
Granted, Sakurai might not stick to these criteria, but I think they are a good judge of a character's chances barring access to Sakurai's thoughts.

The Rules:
  • Each day will consist of two parts.
    • Posters will discuss how the next day's character succeeds or fails in each of the four criteria
      • Day 0 will consist solely of this part.
      • The point is to hear everyone's views before assigning a rating.
    • Posters will assign the current day's character a rating of 1 - 10 in each category, giving a total of 4 - 40. Some people have used scores of x.5. I did not originally intend that to be an option, but there seems to be demand for it, so you may use them. However, only x.5, not x.7, x.8, etc.
  • Each poster will also be given the opportunity of nominating two characters (or one character twice) for voting.
  • Notes:
    • Confirmed characters are inelligible for voting.
    • As I understand it, "contribution to game balance" refers to a characters role in balancing out the roster, not in how balanced their moveset will be in terms of tiers.
    • I suspect that each of the four criteria are not weighted equally in Sakurai's mind, but I do not have any way of finding out if or how they are weighted. Therefore, characters will be ranked by their total scores. However, there will also be rankings of characters in each criterion.
    • I reserve the right to discount any score that is not based on the definition of the relevant criterion.
My responsibilities:

I will update the nominations list and the scores in the original post once a day at midnight. Additionally, I will provide a weekly overview of votes and discussions for the given week's characters.

[collapse=Nominations]

Knuckles 2
Waluigi
Skull Kid 2
Chibi-Robo 2
Wonder Red 2
Tails 2
Bandana Dee 1
Bomberman 1
Krystal 1
Tamagon 1
Plum 1
Impa 1
Doshin the Giant 1
Ruka Minanuki 1
Zael 1
Tingle 1
Captain Syrup 1
Jeff 1
King K. Rool 6
Takamaru 6
Dillon 6
Slime 5
Dr. Kawashima 5
Nintendog 5
Dixie Kong 5
Little Mac 5
Palutena 4
Isaac 4
Bowser Jr. 4
Lip 4
Tiki 3
Mewtwo 2
Paper Mario 3
Pac-Man 3
Sukapon 3
Professor Layton 2
Shulk 2
Black Shadow 2
[/collapse]

[collapse=Results]Ridley

Uniqueness: 8.3
Appeal: 8.6
Balance: 8.7
Style: 9.1
Total: 34.7

King K. Rool
Uniqueness: 9
Appeal: 9
Balance: 8.8
Style: 9.7
Total: 36.5

Little Mac
Uniqueness: 8
Appeal: 7.8
Balance: 8.3
Style: 7.3
Total: 32.2


Paper Mario

Uniqueness: 6
Appeal: 6.5
Balance: 8.5
Style: 9.3
Total: 30.3

Isaac

Uniqueness: 9.5
Appeal: 8.6
Balance: 10
Style: 9.3
Total: 37.4

Palutena

Uniqueness: 8
Appeal: 8.5
Balance: 9
Style: 9
Total: 34.5

Slime

Uniqueness: 10
Appeal: 7.5
Balance: 9
Style: 8.5
Total: 35

Takamaru

Uniqueness: 9
Appeal: 7.5
Balance: 8
Style: 9.6
Total: 34.1

Dr. Kawashima

Uniqueness: 10
Appeal: 0
Balance: -
Style: 0
Total: 10/30 (13.3/40)

Dillon

Uniqueness: 9.5
Appeal: 8.3
Balance: 9.5
Style: 10
Total: 37.3


Dixie Kong

Uniqueness: 5.3
Appeal: 7.3
Balance: 5.8
Style: 6
Total: 24.4

Nintendog

Uniqueness: 10
Appeal: 4
Balance: 8
Style: 1
Total: 23

Bowser Jr.

Uniqueness: 7.7
Appeal: 8.3
Balance: 6
Style: 9.7
Total: 26.3

Lip

Uniqueness: 9.3
Appeal: 5
Balance: 9.6
Style: 8.5
Total: 32.4

Pac-Man

Uniqueness: 7.7
Appeal: 9.3
Balance: 8.7
Style: 7
Total: 32.7

Sukapon

Uniqueness: 9
Appeal: 4.5
Balance: 8
Style: 8.5
Total: 30

Tiki

Uniqueness: 9
Appeal: 8
Balance: 9
Style: 8
Total: 34

Mewtwo

Uniqueness: 8.5
Appeal: 10
Balance: 7.3
Style: 8.5
Total: 34.3

Professor Layton

Uniqueness: -
Appeal: -
Balance: -
Style: -
Total: -

Shulk

Uniqueness: -
Appeal: -
Balance: -
Style: -
Total: -

Black Shadow

Uniqueness: 6
Appeal: 4.5
Balance: 5
Style: 6
Total: 21.5

Knuckles

Uniqueness: 4
Appeal: 5
Balance: 6
Style: 5
Total: 20
[/collapse]
 

SpaceJell0

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Ridley should be ok in all areas but a slight hold back with balance and uniqueness in my opinion. He'd have to be a really unique anorexic dragon to fulfill uniqueness and his resizing would factor greatly into his balance, which is the shaky part. But he has a lot of appeal and cool style!

Cool game idea btw!

Edit: I'd like to nominate Chibi-Robo!
 

Al-kīmiyā'

Smash the State
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I agree. I think he's not that unique, unless they give him way more aerial moves than Charizard.
 

Pacack

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I would say that Ridley passes with 9s and 10s except in "style" of smash bros, which I would say is around a 7. Ridley is one of the most unique things I've ever heard; a purple-space-alien-pirate-dragon-thing that also happens to be a large, mid-weight aerial fighter. I don't need to even talk about his appeal, tbh. He's one of the most wanted newcomers, is well-recognized by fans, and appeals even to people who know nearly nothing about him. He would likely be fairly balanced, but not perfect. He would be weaker on the ground, but would be an aerial monster; and would be large, yet only middle-weight character. He would be rather slow on the ground, fast in the air, but rather easy to attack. his style is a bit more mature, but could easily be fit into the world of Smash Bros. if people like Snake, Bowser, and Ganondorf can be.

I'll be back tomorrow for a more thorough (yikes) analysis.
 

Al-kīmiyā'

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Even if you don't post an analysis of Ridley today, I encourage you to nominate characters. Otherwise, I will choose tomorrow's analysis character.
 

Swamp Sensei

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I'd say Ridley works perfectly in all areas.

He can easily be made to be unique.

He has a lot of appeal.

Balance is no problem.

And Style works as well. We got Snake. Ridley should be just fine.

Also, I'd like to nominate K.Rool.
 

Pacack

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Even if you don't post an analysis of Ridley today, I encourage you to nominate characters. Otherwise, I will choose tomorrow's analysis character.
I would recommend the following to you, even if it's not quite a nomination without me knowing how many may be nominated:

King K. Rool
Little Mac
Mewtwo
Mii
Pac-Man
Chrom
Lucina
Roy
Takamaru
Chibi-Robo (since I saw his support thread crop up recently)
Anna (FE)
Lucario
Lucas
Wolf
Falco
Toon Link (/Young Link?)
Sonic
Snake

That should keep you busy for awhile, I guess.
 

Al-kīmiyā'

Smash the State
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Cool, I'll be listing all the nominations when I change the day tomorrow sometime.
 

KingofPhantoms

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I'd say Ridley has high potential, he wouldn't be that similar to Charizard, and probably not at all, given how Sakurai seems to be moving towards newer things, by now I don't expect any true clones.

He certainly fits the others as well, very popular and wanted, balance wouldn't be much of an issue, and he would most certainly fit into Smash .

I nominate Little Mac.
 

MasterOfKnees

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Incoming super-biased post:

Ridley:

Uniqueness: Ridley will be the first aerial based heavy weight character. There's actually not a single one of those yet. Dedede has multiple jumps sure, but except for his B-Air he isn't anything special in air, and his playstyle is more about harassing people with your range, like a real bully. Charizard is also heaps better on ground, despite being a Flying-type his aerials are really sub-par, plus he's part of a gimmick character. Ridley would be about throwing people up in the air, and then try and rip them to shreds there. Plus, as Ridley does often in his games an aerial grab would also be very unique, though I'd limit it by making it last for a very short amount of time and it should be limited to gliding, as to not make it too overpowered. 9/10.

Appeal: Every casual in the world of casuals loves dragons, that's pretty much a fact. Add that to the fact that he's one of, if not the most requested newcomer in the West, and he is one of the characters that excels the best in this category. 10/10.

Balance: Again, we haven't had an aerial based heavy weight character, so he'd bring something new to the table here. Plus, we're lacking not only heavy weights, but also villains. He'd also rep an under-repped series. There's also only one other dragon in the roster, so he wouldn't feel like he's just another sword user or anything to that extent. He'd bring a ton to the balance of the roster in general, and hardly anyone would bring as much to it I feel. 10/10.

Style: Brawl's boss battle proved that he fits graphically into the style of Smash Bros. He's a rather colorful character too, being bright purple and all, and he'd certainly not come off as a regular and boring kind of character in looks. His fighting style is no more brutal than Charizard grabbing you and chomping you, and with Snake and Ganondorf in it's no problem either way. 9/10.

Nominations:
2x King K. Rool
 

Guybrush20X6

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Unique: Yes
Appeal: For Metroid and Brawl fans
Balance: A little hard to balance but brings new things to it.
Style: Lots of it.

Let's nominate some borderline ones, see what happens. Krystal and Bowser Jr.
 

OcarinaOfDoom

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Unique: YES
Appeal: He's a dragon. Nuff said.
Balance: Yes.
Style: If we got Snake, we could easily have Ridley fit in the style of Smash Bros.

Nominate:
Little Mac
 

Sabrewulf238

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Personally I think Ridley is very unique, at least in terms of nintendo characters. As for appeal, well I'm not a metroid fan but I would like to see him playable. Even if you never heard of metroid he has that lizard/dragon appeal going for him. Not as sure about balance but I don't see major issues. As for style, yeah sure...I kinda feel like this is the least important of the four because really the style of smash bros should be dictated by the characters and not the other way around.

Nomination:
Isaac
Chibi Robo
 

Anomilus

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Okee, okai! Time ta take mah crack at this!

-- RIDLEY --

Uniqueness:

In regard to pure visual aesthetics, Ridley does share some physical similarities with the pokemon Charizard and a few general similarities with Bowser. Otherwise Ridley really is pretty unique a character that has yet to grace a Smash Bros. roster. While being a flying lizard-like tailed creature like Charizard, Ridley takes on a more detailed sinister and alien style. This contrasts with both Charizard and Bowser's more visually light-hearted style.

Regarding potential behaviors, Ridley sports a very unique temperament from any other Smash character. A mixture of cunning, cruelty, and possibly some sadism, this could play very well into how Ridley acts. He has claws, fangs, a long tail... the works. And he uses them without a sliver of hesitation. He's also deceptively intelligent; He's not restricted to acting like a snarling wild beast, so he could exhibit some additional style of his own to reflect his cruel nature.

Overall, Ridley definitely can be made unique and to stand out considerably from the rest of the cast and other previous Smash characters. Admittedly, it does require actually understanding who Ridley is. Just glancing at him may not immediately give the impression that he has something unique to offer.

8/10 - Unique for sure, but not a total stand out. Initial glances might not reveal Ridley's subtleties.

Appeal:

People like dragons. People like pirates. People like space aliens.

Ridley is an Alien Dragon Space Pirate. And a high ranking one at that. He's also ferocious and brutal and a proven challenge. It's no wonder he has amassed a very sizable following.

On the other hand there are two things I have to note. The first is that his aesthetics do not appeal to everyone. Of note, some like to call him the "anorexic dragon". He is definitely a unique kind of design where his neck is unusually long and scrawny compared to his large head, and his rib cage seems to exist just right under his skin in place of actual pectoral muscles. It's been known to turn some people away.

The second issue is a much worse one, and a recent one at that. Thanks to the infamous game "Metroid: Other M", Ridley received a very..... interesting new look. It's unfortunately flipped the appeal around. The new design seems to turn away the large majority, including many of Ridley's fans. It does find some favor with a small group of people. The reason this issue is considerably larger is that because Other M was the latest Metroid game, it is possible that a playable Ridley would take this form.

I have something else to say, but I think it better fits in the Style category, so for now...

8.5/10 - Sports several popular characteristics sure to draw most people to him. Hurt by the prospects of adapting a considerably uglier version of himself.


Balance:

This is a trickier category to consider because people can see a character's potential in several different ways.

Looking at what Ridley immediately offers, firstly he's a villain. A true unwavering evil villain. The only other character filling this role is Ganondorf. Afterward, Ridley would be the first truly evil inhuman creature in a Smash Bros. roster; Mewtwo is close, but it's well established that he's not actually evil. Finally, Ridley could be the 2nd alien to be in a roster, the first being Pikmin & Olimar. These characteristics ensure that Ridley does not upset any sort of characteristic balance.

In terms of statistical balance, Ridley possess the potential to fill a unique role of his own. While it's easy to peg him as a slow heavyweight due to his size, that really wouldn't reflect him as well. An alternative is that Ridley can become the largest cruiserweight character. This would make him exceptionally risky to use. It's also typical for large characters to be very strong. Ridley in his games isn't known for powerful single blows but rather for whittling down his enemy with many attacks. To reflect this, Ridley could trade power for range and damage. There is also the fact that Ridley exhales fire, a very common element in Smash. However Ridley is much more known for exhaling fireballs and not fire streams. A unique enough approach to how he uses projectiles can be found.

Finally, Ridley is prime for being a multi-jump gliding character, but this role isn't uncommon. To make up for this, Ridley could possess unusually high aerial agility. This makes sense in relation to his games, though this might be a bit difficult to safely introduce into the roster. Either way, only King Dedede and Charizard are large multi-jump characters, and both are not exactly known for their grace in the air. Ridley on the other hand is best known for his aerial abilities, so he can potentially fill that role.

Overall, Ridley definitely can be placed in the roster and retain the balance. But it might get a bit tricky.

9/10 - Quite heterogeneous when it comes to his video game character, Just a tad homogeneous when it comes to fighter archetypes.

Style:

I have to assume "Style" has to do with how a character's looks and behaviors stay within the sensible and acceptable realms of the Smash Bros. series and continues to remind people what they are playing. Frankly, the stuff the series has already done would make Ridley feel right at home. Ridley is a ferocious brutal creature literally armed to the teeth with brutal appendages. And so was Giga Bowser. Otherwise, I can't think of anything that Ridley does or could do that Sakurai would not like to see performed in the game. Plus, Ridley was a boss in Brawl, so his style's already pretty accepted.

9.5/10 - Practically accepted already, Ridley exhibits nothing that would stand out against the style of Smash Bros. No adjustments necessary.

OVERALL - 35/40


Oh yeah, nominations: Lip (Panel De Pon), Paper Mario
 

Smashoperatingbuddy123

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Appeal 10/10

Ridley is a dragon whos the leader of the space priates in metroid series and is
the most requested newcomer
recently his fighting area in other m is confirmed last tuesday
Appeared in most of the metroid games

Style 9.5/10
Machete sharp teeth
treatening wings
purple (30% sure is the most popular color)
Muscles (from other m ridley)
A long tail with a razor tip on it

Balance 8/10
Heavy character
Slow
With the flying based characters
Can get a non cheap moveset
Can be shrunken and Dark phazon made the best one so far (aka does not look weird shrunk

Unique 10/10
Shares characteristics with charizard (im sure ridley will not be clone if confirmed
Would be the second metroid character
Would be the first character with a charge up fire attack (i mean fire type attack not plasma not shadow ball not aura and charge smash attacks do not count)

Overall 37.5

Hope i did it right on how this new game works this should defiatly get pinned
 

Al-kīmiyā'

Smash the State
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Im seeing a lot of great responses.

Due to the server downtime, the next day will not start until 7pm est today.

I feel like I need to repeat that my goal was to have analysis appear one day and voting the next. Paradoxically, those who posted some of the best analyses also posted scores. Maybe this just means they are suggesting scores for the next day's voting. I hope that's it, because I would be reluctant to have to ignore scores on a great post for voting on the wrong day(if they do not post again on the right day). It could also mean that they don't like the two-day format. If this is the case, please explain your issue(s) with it to me, as I am willing to change it.
 

Dark Phazon

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Appeal 10/10

Ridley is a dragon whos the leader of the space priates in metroid series and is
the most requested newcomer
recently his fighting area in other m is confirmed last tuesday
Appeared in most of the metroid games

Style 9.5/10
Machete sharp teeth
treatening wings
purple (30% sure is the most popular color)
Muscles (from other m ridley)
A long tail with a razor tip on it

Balance 8/10
Heavy character
Slow
With the flying based characters
Can get a non cheap moveset
Can be shrunken and Dark phazon made the best one so far (aka does not look weird shrunk

Unique 10/10
Shares characteristics with charizard (im sure ridley will not be clone if confirmed
Would be the second metroid character
Would be the first character with a charge up fire attack (i mean fire type attack not plasma not shadow ball not aura and charge smash attacks do not count)

Overall 37.5

Hope i did it right on how this new game works this should defiatly get pinned
Urrr...i appreciate the love but i cant take the credit for that pic because it isnt mine......i saved it from someone else here....i dunno who though....
 

Xhampi

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Urrr...i appreciate the love but i cant take the credit for that pic because it isnt mine......i saved it from someone else here....i dunno who though....
I was the one who post it here first, but it isn't mine either.
It's from a video of Pizzadudemanguy and since I couldn't find the pic anywhere else (I had to take a picture of the video with my computer) I will assume he is the one who made it, here's the video in question (picture at 4:18) :

That guy not only make great videos but he also make awesome pics ^^
 

Al-kīmiyā'

Smash the State
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I have updated the original post with the following clarifications:

Edit: Some people have used scores of x.5. I did not originally intend that to be an option, but there seems to be demand for it, so you may use them. However, only x.5, not x.7, x.8, etc.

Edit: I suspect that each of the four criteria are not weighted equally in Sakurai's mind, but I do not have any way of finding out if or how they are weighted. Therefore, characters will be ranked by their total scores. However, there will also be rankings of characters in each criterion.

I will update the nominations list(Edit: and the scores) in the original post once a day.
 

Kon

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uniqueness 9.5/10
No similar looking Nintendo character, so Ridley would look unique. His fighting style could be very unique too, so with a good moveset, all in all, his uniqueness would be out of question. Metroid has only Samus (and ZSS) to represent the franchise. Ridley as a major character from the Metroid series would just be a perfect choice.

appeal 9/10
I can't remember any character from the Nintendo universe that looks similar to Ridley. This shows that already the way he's looking would bring something new to SSB4. I have only played one Metroid game, but I feel like Ridley would be a nice addition to SSB4.

contribution to game balance 8.5/10
As already said, Ridley would be a slow but strong character as we know already from characters like Bowser. Ridley also would be a heavyweight and you could count him to the bigger roster characters like Bowser, Donkey Kong,...
He could be a character that is flying all the time as well as a character that is moving most of the time on the ground. I would prefer the second one.

fit in Smash Bros style 9/10
As already said, even if you don't know much about Ridley, he could be integrated easily. The size discussion is ridiculous because there are more characters sized up oder sized down than Ridley. Why should Ridley be threaten differently?

Total points: 36/40

I want to nominate Dillon(Dillon's Rolling Western) and King K.Rool(Donkey Kong) too. They were already nominated, but in that case, the score of both characters is increasing, right?
 

Al-kīmiyā'

Smash the State
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I want to nominate Dillon(Dillon's Rolling Western) and King K.Rool(Donkey Kong) too. They were already nominated, but in that case, the score of both characters is increasing, right?
Yes, the nominations are tallied for voting order.
 

APC99

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Uniqueness: Ridley is a giant purple dinosaur dragon from space. He's got uniqueness to spare, with his razor tail, air grab and fireball breath.7/10.
Appeal: Brawl fans, Metroid fans, Barney fans, anybody who wants to look dangerous while playing. 8/10.
Balance: They can do it. He'd add an aerial heavyweight to the game. 7/10.
Style: He fits perfectly. 9/10.


Nominations:
Tamagon
Little Mac
 

?????????????

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I was the one who post it here first, but it isn't mine either.
It's from a video of Pizzadudemanguy and since I couldn't find the pic anywhere else (I had to take a picture of the video with my computer) I will assume he is the one who made it, here's the video in question (picture at 4:18) :

That guy not only make great videos but he also make awesome pics ^^
Yep, I made that picture.
 

Al-kīmiyā'

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Day 1: Ridley/King K. Rool

Please analyze King K. Rool and vote on Ridley! You also get two more nominations.
 

Guybrush20X6

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Ok King K. Rool

Uniqueness: Much like Ridley and Charizard get compared, Rool is similar to Bowser in a number of factors. Both are big, mean, reptilian antagonists and steal the hero's love (Peach/bananas) for some unexplained reason. K. Rool has however a number of things going for him. His attack patterns in his boss fights are unique and his obesity lends itself to different movement, especially since Bowser limbered up

Balance: I see K. Rool as a heavy slow character with powerful projectiles to compensate for his movement.

Appeal: A lot. Fans have been asking for him for ages and will be glad to see him after he was dropped from the DKCReturns series.

Style: Fits.

Ridley

U: 9
B: 8
A: 10
S: 8

Nominate: Issac and Shulk
 

MasterOfKnees

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King K. Rool:

Uniqueness: While some people compare his looks to Bowser's, there's really not much to find there. K. Rool is a character I support solely for his moveset potential, he can have the most whacky and downright fun moveset in the game. Gameplay-wise he'd be incredibly unique, however, I do see the concerns regarding him being another big green reptile. 9/10.

Appeal: While we Nintendo fans LOVE K. Rool, the typical gamer might not. When I first saw K. Rool I thought of him as nothing more than a fat alligator, and didn't care much for him. I also thought he was a slightly less inspiring Bowser, just being an alligator instead of a turtle. Still, once you get to know the character and his personality he's great. 7/10.

Balance: He would rep an under-repped franchise, we need more villains and heavy weight characters too, so he's much like Ridley in this category, except that Metroid needs it more than DK does imo. 9/10.

Style: K. Rool is without a doubt the newcomers that'd fit best into Smash's style. His whacky personality and moveset would fall right in place with those of Dedede and Wario, and his general structure and everything just falls right in place with how Smash works. 10/10.

Ridley Votes:

Uniqueness: 9/10

Appeal: 10/10

Balance: 10/10

Style: 9/10
 

Al-kīmiyā'

Smash the State
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Woot, the game is back!

Because of the DDoS, Day 1 will extend until tomorrow at 7:00 pm EST. If anyone doesn't vote on Ridley in time, I will check if they gave scores in their discussion post and count those, but this is a one-time exception.
 

Diddy Kong

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Ridley:

Uniqueness: 7/10

Many of his artibutes are already part of one character in Smash. Dragon? Check, Charizard. Aerial-based character? Check, Pit. Breaths fire? Check, Bowser and Charizard. Sure, Ridley uses them on his own way. But it'll work only cause those characters already excist. He'd still function quite on his own way though, so he still gets a solid 7.

Appeal: 7/10

It'll be Other M Ridley people. Don't get it twisted. Yes, he'll be updated to match Samus' graphic level, but still: Other M Ridley. He's got enough 'cool factor' to appeal to most casuals though. Buff purple space dragon will be received well. But not extra-ordinary. Would've got an extra point if Super Metroid's design was likely.

Balance: 4/10

I speak of gameplay balance here. He's got a lot of options that could really make him overpowered. To most, he should be strong, fast, have incredible recovery, be a heavy weight, spam projectiles and have amazing range. This is not quite like any other Smash character, cause even the Top Tiers in all other games had AT LEAST their weight as a weakness (despite awesome recoveries). Disjointed hitbox with the tail? Hah... It's like you combine all the best aspects of Falco, Marth and Donkey Kong. Sakurai stated he could be 'a little slow though' so that'd be a thing. He could also be believably relatively light for his size. Not being much heavier than Samus for example. But that could make him a bit like Mewtwo. Another compensation could be sluggish or awkward ground moves, making Ridley ace in the air. I think I'm being generous with a 4 here. Ridley has issues fitting as a propper Smash Bros. fighter. Not impossible, but DEFINITELY a glaring disadvantage.

Style: 10/10

Nothing to complain about here. I believe it's Ridley's style that gave him this much fan support. He would probably be a heck to play as.

Total: 28/40

Yes, I'm prepared for backfire.

King K.Rool:

Uniqueness: 10/10

Can't think of another character that would work as good and creatively as King K.Rool. He's got so many options. And especially now Bowser is looking to be reworked, adding a new extreme heavy weight with K.Rool seems a better idea than ever. He doesn't has to be extremely offensive, rather be real good at keeping others at bay with surprisingly quick moves, and projectiles. Still, he'd have amazingly strong moves to, and his crazy, maniac personality allows for a lot of freedom of choice. Also his build, and being a crocodile in general. The Blunderbuss form DKC2 alone allows for a lot of awesome moves.

Appeal: 7/10

Mostly known by Donkey Kong Country fans alone. Yet, that doesn't mean he's not a well known character. To other casuals who don't know him, he might come off as similar to Bowser, but his playstyle would convince them otherwise.

Balance: 8/10

Reasonable build to base a character of, or at least a general playstyle. Glaring weakness in speed, but would have some speedy moves. He's the only real heavy weight that actually has a great chance, so that alone would balance things out a lot. A heavy character being good at defensive options, have good speedy moves, and projectiles would certainly help making heavy characters somewhat better. Still, he could still end up being weaker than average cause he could possibly have bad jumps, be chainthrowed, bad recovery or speed.

Style: 9/10

Only loses one point cause he'll be portaited as a slow heavy weight. Those are not always the most popular of characters, but he has enough personality and moveset potential to balance that out. His moveset basically writes itself, but allows for quite some freedom to. It's really hard to make a boring King K.Rool moveset in the first place.

Total: 34/40
 

Louie G.

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So here goes.

RIDLEY:

Appeal: 6/10
Lots of people want Ridley, but only in the USA, not too many Japanese. Still, a lot of Americans do want him. Also a lot of Metroid fans out there. There is a good number of Too Bigots out there though, that also lowers the score. Not to mention, he would probably be based on Other M, displeasing many a Metroid fanboy.

Uniqueness: 8/10
Not much to be explained, we are at a lack of giant purple space pirate dragons. Although he could potentially share a move or two with Charizard or Bowser, overall he would be very unique and a perfect Smash Bros addition. An aerial based heavyweight would be interesting...

Balance: 6/10
Ridley would contribute a playstyle not yet seen in Smash. A heavyweight character who is best in the air. His only competition in the air would be Jigglypuff and Pit basically, two aerial based characters who exceed in that area. He would be heavy and hard to KO, and of course really big. While his character wouldn't be too fast on land, he could easily be quite speedy in the air. It's really a matter of where he is placed to talk about balance. In the air, he would be amazing with few flaws, while on land he would be an easy target for the fast guys. So overall, although he would be average on land, he would be a little less than balanced in the air.

Style: 10/10
Diddy said exactly what I would have. Ridley would be super fun and would fit in perfectly.

So my score: 30/30

Not bad...
But I'm a little surprised. Here I thought Ridley would be a great fit, but I guess he's got a few drawbacks of his own. I don't have my hopes up anyway.
Stage hazard, you know.
 

Louie G.

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KING K. ROOL

Appeal: 10/10
King K. Rool is a wacky character that everyone seems to love, including me. Would anyone complain about K. Rool in Smash? I think not.

Uniqueness: 10/10
King K. Rool has no chance at all of being a clone. Let's get that out of the way. He has many alter egos that can all be incorporated in his moveset, making him a diverse and unpredictable character. King K. Rool is also surprisingly fast for such a big guy, something not seen in Smash, and doesn't hold a sword. He would be incredibly unique.

Balance: 9/10
King K. Rool would be a big projectile fighter, something different for a heavyweight. He would have a good advantage over strict melee characters because of this, plus he would be a big strong guy like Bowser. Of course he would be easy to hit because if his size, not to mention the fact that he would almost definitely be slow, giving the upper hand to speedy lightweight characters.

Style: 10/10
I see no reason why K. Rool wouldn't fit right in along everyone else.

Score: 39/40

King K. Rool is easily one of the best possible choices for a new character.

Edit: I nominate Paper Mario and Palutena.
 

Al-kīmiyā'

Smash the State
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I appreciate insight into how balanced a character's moveset might be, but that is not what 'balance' refers to in this context.

From the OP:
electric mouse said:
As I understand it, "contribution to game balance" refers to a characters role in balancing out the roster, not in how balanced their moveset will be in terms of tiers.
I am adding the following to the OP as well, since these criteria don't seem to have the most intuitive definitions: This is taken from Thinkaman's GDC 2008 Meeting Masahiro Sakurai thread. As far as I could tell, that is where these four criteria originated.

1. The character's inclusion must make people want to play the game.

This is infinitely harder than you and I think, because we are so jaded by our own perspective. I would insist that Viewtiful Joe would be the best character ever, but I'm not sure people would really want the game more. Neither of us would have ever thought of ROB, and yet "ROBOT" was the CROWD FAVORITE by FAR in the GDC matches the CAs had. Everyone loved him! We as gamers are way too biased to make this decision easily.

2. The character must be unique.

The character must have identifying features and abilities that would make them different from existing characters, so that they add something to the game.

3. The character must fit into the style of Super Smash Bros.

The character obviously has to be able to fit into the framework of how smash works, obviously Pac-Man and L Block would not work. (My examples, not his.)

4. They must contribute to the game balance.

Everyone has to fit together. Every new character must counter some characters and be countered by others, and they must fit in one giant contiguous mesh.
 

Al-kīmiyā'

Smash the State
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I encourage diddy kong and louie g. to edit their posts with these clarifications in mind.
 

Violenceman

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Ridley:

Uniqueness: 7/10
In terms of design, Ridley is probably one of the most stand-out characters that could feasibly end up in Smash Bros. Smash has very few "monsters" in its roster; characters who are just feral beasts with very little human about them. Bowser (especially Giga Bowser) is probably the closest and he is being made more anthropomorphic in design in this game (Wolf too, with his stance and the way he howls, but that is a distant second). Even the Pokemon selections lack monstrous characters and monster is in the name. Ridley would really stand out there. In terms of play style...less so. His attacks would presumably revolve mainly around scratching, biting, and flame-based breath weapons, all of which are already pretty well represented so far. His tail attacks do offer some new perspective, and the idea of grabbing someone and taking them to the air is really exciting. Plus, a heavy character who focuses on aerial combat? That's a pretty new concept and breaths some new life into the "heavy" roster.

Appeal: 9/10
Well, it's Ridley. C'mon. Who doesn't love Ridley? The vast majority seems to be clamoring for his inclusion, so I think the appeal is going to be high, regardless of what design they go with for the character. As long as he captures the Ridley essence, I think people will be happy. Plus he finally adds a second Metroid rep (that isn't Samus), which fans of the series have been begging for. Even if someone doesn't like Ridley or doesn't like playing as him, if they are looking for a good villain character to fight against, Ridley would fit that bill perfectly.

Balance: 6/10
One of the biggest problems with adding a "Boss" character to Smash Bros is that Bosses, especially arch nemesis ones, are usually designed to be the biggest badasses in the game. Stronger, faster, and better than the player character in order to really challenge them. And when trying to translate a boss character into a playable fighting game character, fans are going to expect faithful recreation of that character. This means something has to give or the balance is going to out the window. As others have mentioned, Ridley would be expected to be fast, strong, heavy, great recovery ability, killer in the air, etc. That's a tough act to balance out so it. But not impossible. Making Ridley abysmally slow on the ground (both in movement and attack speed), but faster in the air would be a reasonable compromise and if he had a fast fall speed, that could balance out when players try to keep him airborne as much as possible.

Style: 9/10
Ridley is brimming with style points. As I said above, he is a monstrous beast of a character, which is something Smash doesn't really have and would really fill a niche in the game's roster that would be different from every other character. And yet, Ridley doesn't feel out of place; he still feels very much "Nintendo" and as long as his visual style fits in with Samus, he will fit right in just fine. His moves and gameplay would easily fit right in with typical smash combat, being mostly straight-up physical melee combat without anything too complex or convoluted to weigh it down.

Total: 31/40
Not too shabby, Ridley. I personally was never really all that much of a Ridley supporter, but the more I've thought about the character, the more and more potential I see. I do hope he shows up on the roster this time around, although I won't be too surprised if he doesn't.

Sorry for all the extra chatter...wanted to analyze as well as vote on Ridley.


King K.Rool:

Uniqueness:
Hello large, heavy, evil, green reptile king. Yeah, that's kind of a cheap shot, but the obvious comparisons are there. I suppose you could use one of K.Rool's costumed appearances (the pirate and mad scientist one in particular, but even his Mario Strikers costume would give him some added identity), but I think we all know he would almost definitely have his classic look. And I just can't picture him in a smash game and not playing a lot like Bowser as well (moves not withstanding). Where he stands out, of course, is his wide variety of attack possibilities from his various game appearances and you can't deny he has a lot of history to play with. Yet I feel many of his moves might be a tad too eclectic. Throwing his crown would of course be there. Using his Blunderbuss from DKC2, sure. A little out of place without the pirate getup, but not too far off. But the helicopter pack from DKC3? The boxing glove uppercut from DK64? Summoning Meteors from DK Jungle Climber? There are a lot of moves that feel out of place without context. Since K.Rool adopted whole new personas in each new game, his moves feel tailored to that identity. A truly varied moveset would possibly come off as too wacky and disjointed, and his moves would probably end up relegated more to DKC (throwing crown, high jumping, charging back and forth, etc.) to keep a more uniform feel.

Appeal:
Like Ridley, K.Rool is a fan favorite and probably the second most popular villain character. He is a pretty fun and wacky character too, and would be a hoot to watch in action, especially with his various facial expressions. But while Ridley really fills a void in the Roster in terms of design and personality, K.Rool really doesn't and wouldn't stand out to non-Donkey Kong fans they way Ridley would to non-Metroid fans. K.Rool's inclusion feels like it would be pretty much fan service. Really good fan service, mind you, but fan service nonetheless.

Balance:
Again, like Ridley, K.Rool has to deal with the "Boss" issue of being fast, agile, heavy and strong all at once in the DKC games, which obviously can't be expected in Smash. However, I don't think anyone will be disappointed if K.Rool moves slowly and lumbers like a heavyweight in the game. It would be interesting if instead he looked big and heavy, but was actually a speedy lightweight; unfortunately I don't think that would really happen if he was added. So as a traditional heavy character, K.Rool would not really be causing any balancing issues and pretty much fit into the framework as it exists. But he would not bring too much new to the table either. Maybe a heavier focus on projectiles would separate him from the heavies, but not as much as an aerial Ridley would.

Style:
Our crocodile monarch fits in visually with the style of Smash Bros, so no worries there, especially with the more vibrant "cartoon" bent the new game is taking (he would fit in better here than say Brawl). But again, I worry that finding a good balance for his play style and move set would prove too difficult, either being too plain and heavy-character-stereotyped or too far out and nonsensical. Nailing down what K.Rool's style actually is and how to represent it isn't impossible, but would take a lot of effort and does not jump out at you the way most of the roster does.

Summary:
Oof. Sorry, K.Rool. I really do like the character and have fond memories of squaring down against him in the DKC games. But I just don't think he would smoothly translate to a good Smash Bros character. I can see a good character there, maybe take the Baron K. Roolenstein persona and flesh out a move set based on that identity. But as just K.Rool, especially if you are trying to roll all the appearances into one character, there just is no center to work from; it is all over the place and lacking one uniform identity.


For the next round I nominate Isaac (Golden Sun) and, oh why the hell not, Plum (Mario Golf).
 
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