Marth = Too Popular?

[Dreadlord Santa]

I think I'm finally beginning to notice this. I went to a Virginia tournament last Saturday, and between my singles matches at some point, I looked around the room. I was astonished to see that, even with 8 T.Vs, there wasn't a single one without a Marth on it. One even showed 2 Marth players! It's starting to really mess with my drive to improve as a Marth player... I really like playing as him, but it seems like it's going to be impossible to become anything greater than a face in a crowd, now. Is this just some sort of weird MD/VA phenomenon, or is the rise of Mew2King really causing such a spike in Marth playership? I mean, I always knew he was one of the most played characters, but not by THIS much, trumping even the spacies. As an interesting side note, Chu Dat was the only one out of the top 4 that doesn't play Marth. M2K, Azen, and KM all played Marth pretty much throughout.

So, what do you all think? Should I be worried about playing Marth when there are so many people that are so much better than me who play him? Am I overreacting? Are all the high-tiers this popular, and I just don't notice it? Should I just wait for Brawl to come out, and see what happens then?

 

[Emblem Lord]

Marth is easily second best in the game.

People want to win.

Nuff said.

And yeah people wanna emulate pros. This is also a factor.

Don't sweat it though. Just play the game.

 

[takieddine]

Marth has unparalleled power, mobility, range and priority. Turns out thats just the stuff you need to win at this game...

 

[The Cape]

< mow

he's also the easiest top tier to play. Yeah, I was also at that tournament. In the poll of what character do you play, marth was the first place @ 17%. I also saw a comment on there how fox/falco are way more common, but it was neglected that fox and falco are 2 different characters.

 

[thebluedeath1000]

Shiek is the easiest top tier to play, I disagree with that.

 

[hellsoldierx15]

every character takes skill to play, and I especially wouldn't say marth is out of that category.

 

[UMBC Super Smasher]

Looks like marth will be in SSBB too! woo hoo

I enjoy marth dittos, so let people play marth. Most people don't use him well anyway.

Just for the record:

sheik is the easiest character to use to place well in tournaments.

I don't understand how anyone without a lot of experience can play marth well.

 

[Puffin]

How do you know Marth will be in Brawl, UMBC?

 

[Dreadlord Santa]

I never thought they would remove Marth from Brawl's roster. He's just so universally popular now... still, nothing's guaranteed. I WANT to keep playing Marth, I just have a terrible tendency to always pick ridiculously overplayed/overpowered characters in almost every game that I play, and I don't want to do the same in this game because it's probably my favorite game ever. I want to be more unique than just another garden-variety Marth player, and I doubt that anyone's really capable of rising above garden variety with the incredible amount of skilled Marth players there are out there. I want to become extraordinary in these games because I'll never be able to accomplish it in real life, and I've got a fantasy prone personality... bah, nobody cares about all that.

I saw that poll, but tricked myself into thinking that the reason Marth scored so high was because it was all the scrubs posting, with none of the really good players because they so rarely post in polls and such, but apparently, that's the only reason that his victory wasn't a landslide v_v Ah, well, I digress.

 

[Smash G 0 D]

I was at C3 as well. Marth can be easily picked up.. plus his 5000 ft sword range gives him a fairly good advantage.

 

[Miggz]

What is all this stuff about Marth being easy to pick up? Marth can be played in SO many different ways. Perhaps some people's ways of playing are easy, but other styles are very hard to master.

As for the post topic, I love fighting other marths. Fighting other and better marths means learning more and improving. XD

 

[NES n00b]

He isn't as easy as Sheik or Peach at least. <.<

Does it really matter, though? Almost every character is easy to play (at least that is my opinion). At least this character is cool while others are not. lol

 

[lemmybemmy]

I used Marth before I even knew that Smash had a competitive scene. I used to be a Roy player, but Marth was just so much better.

 

[balladechina212]

More Marths? Bring em on. I excel at Marth dittos.

 

[thebluedeath1000]

Lets not toot our own horn now.

Scrubs can overwhelm you in large numbers.

 

[pdk]

So, what do you all think? Should I be worried about playing Marth when there are so many people that are so much better than me who play him?

how do you think people improve at games? by getting trounced over and over then learning, seems like in your position you should be welcoming this more than anything

 

[kiwiii]

marth is kinda overrated. he's a broken character but..
people never worshiped him this much until m2k's rise
i bet if he mained sheik, they'd be doing the same with her.
or any high tiers in general

..just my two cents

 

[Miggz]

Nah, Marth was popular since the Ken saga. =P

Roy isn't that bad, he can give Marth a decent match at times, assuming the level is balanced and both players are pretty skilled. ^^

 

[the.letter.y]

Yes, I definitely agree that Marth has become overly popular. Probably because:
1. pros use him
2. he's easy to learn/use
3. he's awesome (range, speed, etc.)
4. he's hot (yay fangirlishness!! XD)

And no, that last one is NOT why I use him (even if he is ^^; ). And come to think of it, I really don't use him that much any more...oh well, one less Marth player for yall to worry about! ^-^

 

[Deleted member]

nah, marth is easier to use than sheik, technically. sheik has needles cancels and auto-cancel aerials and a few extra cancels to learn, marth only uses basic tech skills, namely fastfalling, l canceling, crouch canceling, and wavedashing.

azen was the best in the US until ken showed up, who was the best in the world until m2k showed up. All marth, simple pattern.

 

[Miggz]

Well at least we can agree that sheik is the easiet to get teh hang of. I would still defend the fact that obtaining a "solid" marth is pretty tough. ^^

 

[thebluedeath1000]

Umbreon mains shiek so his point doesn't matter to us marth mains...

>.>; Kidding mow.

 

[Miggz]

Yeah I mean...I like Sheik and all, but her combos are so...easy. I just like the skilll and creativity one can put into Marth combos and style. I have never seen too many different styles of Sheiks, which is kinda sad. She is an awesome character, I like her allot, but she is just not that hard to play as, compared to Marth.

 

[Emblem Lord]

lol. M2K stated he could win any tourney with anyone in the top 5.

Edit: And Marth has some advanced tricks up his sleeves as well. Some auto cancels and d-tilt cancelling.

 

[ArcNatural]

nah, marth is easier to use than sheik, technically. sheik has needles cancels and auto-cancel aerials and a few extra cancels to learn, marth only uses basic tech skills, namely fastfalling, l canceling, crouch canceling, and wavedashing.

azen was the best in the US until ken showed up, who was the best in the world until m2k showed up. All marth, simple pattern.

I guess we just don't count PC Chris at all. And the fact that PC Chris DID win OC3. And that during his reign he mainly used Falco, and since the rise of M2k's Marth PC Chris switched to maining Fox for the most part. I'm not going to bother to get into any more specifics but I think M2k, PC, and KDJ are fairly even if they play each other enough.

The fact is, between Ken and M2k there was in fact PC Chris who was regarded as the best. And I think there was a fairly short stint where everyone thought KDJ was as well.

 

[Brightside6382]

Who cares if there alot of Marths players u should be asking urself how many of them are top level material. You'll find more top level fox/falco's then you'll ever find top level Marths. Does it really matter if there are now 2x more bad Marth players?

 

[Rune]

nah, marth is easier to use than sheik, technically. sheik has needles cancels and auto-cancel aerials and a few extra cancels to learn, marth only uses basic tech skills, namely fastfalling, l canceling, crouch canceling, and wavedashing.

azen was the best in the US until ken showed up, who was the best in the world until m2k showed up. All marth, simple pattern.

Bull. Sheik might technically be more technical, but Marth has to cope with a lot more while doing his technical stuff. Having to constantly keep an eye on his spacing and having to deal with his laggy attacks and maneuvers ('cept for his dash) makes it a lot harder to preform, even though his game might be more basic.
Playing Sheik feels like a freaking walk in the park, you can get away with small screw-ups a lot easier than with Marth, in turn making it a lot easier to focus on your tech game.

So, yes Sheik has a harder technical game, but Marth has to do his under harder circumstances.

The reason everyone and his mom plays Marth, is because it's easy to get good with Marth. But getting great with Marth is a whole different story.

 

[thebluedeath1000]

Nice ending there rune, Tell your mother I want a mm.

Everyone has posed good agruements but its abit different.

Mow says what he says because he is more biased on shiek I suppose, rune and the rest main marth so we see things differently.

I do have to agree with marth being harder because shiek is a pick up and play type of character to me.

 

[Anomic_Punk]

Whether Marth is popular or not is kind of irrelevant, as brawl will be coming out soon, right?
But just to add my two cents to the topic, I'd say that he's only become more popular because of how good he is.
In any competetive fighting game, those who play it seek to emulate those who place the best, by copying tactics, combos, or character choices.
M2K, Azen, and Ken, are/were some of the highest placing competitors in big tournaments.
It follows naturally that new people to the game, or those who have previously not experienced success in the tournament scene, would want to choose Marth because they see him winning so much.
But besides that, whats more satisfying than tippering or spiking an opponent?

 

[FrostByte]

It's as simple as getting good at Marth dittos. /thread. My view on this is that I don't want anyone to beat my main with the same character and that's why I gay as much as possible in dittos, though there aren't many Marth mains in the UK in general.

 

[Eternal phoenix Fire]

Haha!! I guess dreadlord santa is living in a "mini SoCal" enviornment.

And I do agree, Marth is easier to use than Sheik.

 

[Klowne]

I can see where UmbreonMow is coming from with his last comment. For THE MOST PART, regardless of the tier list, the "current best player" has always been a marth user for some reason.

 

[Miggz]

What about Roy...I hear some say Roy is tougher. :S

I think its even with them, its just two different goals to aim for with Marth and Roy due to their sword sweet spots. They both have the same moves, but some are more important then others when yah compare them. :/

 

[Brightside6382]

Roy is terrible, end of discussion.

 

[Miggz]

...Point taken. ^^;

 

[kiwiii]

Bull. Sheik might technically be more technical, but Marth has to cope with a lot more while doing his technical stuff. Having to constantly keep an eye on his spacing and having to deal with his laggy attacks and maneuvers ('cept for his dash) makes it a lot harder to preform, even though his game might be more basic.
Playing Sheik feels like a freaking walk in the park, you can get away with small screw-ups a lot easier than with Marth, in turn making it a lot easier to focus on your tech game.

So, yes Sheik has a harder technical game, but Marth has to do his under harder circumstances.

The reason everyone and his mom plays Marth, is because it's easy to get good with Marth. But getting great with Marth is a whole different story.

agreed. learning techy things isn't all that makes a character difficult to learn
iono
everyone's different. there are people who think sheik is a hard character to learn, and marth amazingly easy..but i find sheik a hundred times easier to use. many people find her boring for a reason

 

[Dreadlord Santa]

Phoenix: Ha, SoCal wishes it was as good as MD/VA ^_^

Anyway, I don't see what Marth dittos have to do with this topic - I basically made it to bemoan the fact that there are starting to be more and more people playing Marth just because he's a strong character choice, that can beat out a lot of the most common opponents you will face. I'm worried about being lumped in with these sort of people wrongly; I've played mainly Marth since waaaayyyy back in 2002 (Yeah, I was poor and couldn't get the gamecube until my birthday) I love his playstyle, the way he handles, pretty much everything. I think about it sometimes, and realize that, even if I could trade out any single move that Marth has for any other move in the game, I wouldn't - yes, even the Usmash. I just like every facet of how he plays, and it pains me to come to realize that I'll probably never be appreciated as a player because I'm just one of a great multitude of O.K Marth players.
Yes, I'm waiting with bated breath for the release of Brawl, to find out if A.) Marth is still in it (which I already expressed my opinions on) and B.) if Marth's strengths are toned down a bit, and see how many people jump ship, while I stay right where I am. I just don't want to blend in, but also don't want to abandon my perfect character. Come to think of it, why the hell did I say anything about changing my main? I'm never going to do that...

 

[flaco]

I also use marth he is a good character to use

 

[Deleted member]

another marth won a major tournament, ken won evo world.

 

[Miggz]

Why am I not surprised. ^^;