Oh, erm, thank you. I actually had intended to do them along with today's nominations; since we weren't going to be predicting a new character, I didn't see the need in sorting through them twice while I could do it in one shot. I'm not scatterbrained, I'm calculating! Anyway, thank you and sorry for the confusion.
Here we go. It's time. Blaziken vs. Sceptile.
Let's do this!
1) It seems strange to say it here, but Sceptile holds the type advantage in this duel. We already have a fire-type Pokemon in this Smash game.
We already have a fighting-type Pokemon confirmed. We do not have a grass-type Pokemon, and I believe that Ivysaur is most likely gone; a grass-type would
nicely round out the starting-type triangle and Sceptile is the best man for the job. Still, this is only a minor advantage to Sceptile in my eyes--while there is a
possibility they'd want this balance, I just don't think that they'll feel the need to put in a grass type just to have a grass type.
Small advantage- Sceptile.
2) Blaziken is the more popular Pokemon. Sceptile is the most popular grass-starter of all time, but Blaziken one of the most popular starters ever.
He's definitely behind Charizard, but only Blaistoise and Greninja can compare to him otherwise. Game Freak likes putting in
popular characters--just look at Greninja if you need proof of that. Honestly, this is a pretty significant advantage in my eyes, and it more than makes up
for Sceptile's advantage in typing.
Slight advantage--Blaziken.
3) Sceptile can offer more for the roster than Blaziken. I'm extending this beyond mere typing; Blaziken's moves just don't
stand out as much as Sceptile's. Sceptile has a large arsenal of draining moves and attacks like Bullet Seed and Leaf Blade stand out more than things like Blaziken's Flamethrower and Blaze Kick. Unfortunately, like with his typing, I don't feel this is a major advantage. Game Freak calls the Pokemon shots,
and I don't think they're as high on uniqueness as Sakurai is. When combined with the typing advantage, it does balance out Blaziken's popularity, though.
Draw.
4) Blaziken is more relevant than Sceptile as of right now. Sceptile will be making a comeback in the remakes, but Blaziken has already struck
the heats and minds of youthful gamers. He's been given the overpowered ability and distributed to the world; Sceptile has not been.
Additionally, Blaziken has a Mega; we're not sure if Sceptile will get one. Finally, Blaziken is a shoo-in for Pokken Fighters, which appears to be coming a reality soon, too; overall, I just think Blaziken has a leg up based on what we know now.
Advantage--Blaziken.
5) Aww, but why am I even doing this? The Hoenn remakes were confirmed too late to have an impact on the roster, right? Wrong. Game Freak must have been planning these for over a year now; it's very possible that they could have talked to Sakurai about it. Greninja showed that they planned things out in advance, and this shouldn't be too different. This would also give an advantage to Blaziken; they've been pushing him just like they pushed Greninja; it would mean that they're setting stuff up.
Blaziken used Blaze Kick! It's Super Effective! Sceptile Fainted!
...unfortunately, it doesn't really matter much. There really isn't enough room for Pokemon characters for me to consider them too likely. I have both Mewtwo and Jigglypuff at 85% now. I think Mewtwo is still considerably higher than either of these goons because he has all of the advantages that they do (relevancy, popularity, etc.) to a greater extent; Jigglypuff is a tradition that I doubt Sakurai would willingly give up even if Game Freak wanted to move on. Squirtle and Ivysaur are still contenders, but I don't think they have much of a shot; I'm at 10% for Squirtle and 5% for Ivysaur.
I'll give Sceptile a 15% chance and a 25% chance for Blaziken;
I'm not expecting one of the two, but I think they have a very solid shot. Their chances are pretty much mutually exclusive.
WANT SCORES: 100% each
My first Pokemon game (and one of my first games, period) was Pokemon Blue Version. I loved that game even though I really had no idea what I was doing at times. I never got Flash, I got stuck for weeks in caves, I couldn't figure out how to get to Saffron City, I had to have my mom read me a lot of dialogue because I was too young to understand a lot of it. Nonetheless, I eventually beat the Elite Four and captured Mewtwo, but it took me a long time; by the end, I could read well enough to get by on my own, and I had gotten really addicted to the Anime, TCG, and Pokemania as a whole.
I jumped into Pokemon Silver not long afterwards. To this day, I cite Silver as my favorite Pokemon game. Since I was experienced enough to know what I was doing, I was able to absorb Silver like I did no game before it. I talked to every NPC and explored every hidden area. I still remember the feeling when I managed to get into Kanto; I was shocked that the game wasn't over and so happy to return to the place from Pokemon Blue. In the second Generation, I drew deeper into Pokemania; the Anime became my obsession, and I kept on collecting cards, but I also searched out Pokemon novels, Pokemon coloring books, Pokemon everything.
The one thing I didn't have until the Third Generation, however, was a friend to play with. My cousin had played the original games, and I had a few acquaintances who played Gold and Silver, but most of the kids my age just collected Pokemon cards. However, I managed to get one of my friends into Pokemon during this generation, and that made my investment in the franchise so much greater. My friend (who remains my best friend to this day; we went to the launch of X and Y together and are so hyped for the remakes) and I went through Ruby and Sapphire dozens of times. For two or three summers, we would restart and beat the games multiple times; we'd race, we'd battle, and it was great. Although I still think Silver is the better game, I have so much more nostalgia and have played Sapphire so many more times than really any other game; heck, I just did a nuzlocke a month or so ago.
Want to know one thing that stayed pretty much the same in all of those runs? Almost every single time, I would pick Sceptile. Almost every single time, my friend would pick Blaziken. Blaziken is his favorite Pokemon to this day; he has multiple level 100's trained for competitive battles. He loves Smash, too, and while K. Rool is his most wanted character, Blaziken is his second most wanted. I would be absolutely estatic for him if Blaziken were confirmed, and I love Blaziken, too--the anime battle between Blaziken and Charizard made me obsessed with him for a time. Sceptile is one of my favorite Pokemon ever, and I would love to see him in Smash, as well--my farewell to the Anime (and really to all of Pokemania bar the games themselves, which I still love) was the battle between Sceptile and Darkrai (who is one of my most hated Pokemon).
Yeah. That's pretty much all I have to say. I have more than just nostalgia for these two; my love for them has carried over to the present day. One of these two may be replacing Mewtwo in my signature very soon.
DAY OVER
RETURN OF...
Well, you know who's going to run the Kid Icarus day, right? The reason I delayed that day is because HE wasn't available for today...
