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It's quite impressive how much better Classic mode has become after it's migraine inducing interpretation in Smash Wii U. Unique runs for every character with a theme around them? Sign me up! Only real gripe, too many runs that end with a Master Hand fight (with Crazy Hand joining in at higher intensity levels). Especially since there's plenty of room to spice things up without even needing to add any new bosses to the line-up.
Shulk could have fought Galleom, Corrin could have fought Rathalos, Wario could have fought Giga Bowser, I could go on for hours. But all things considered, leaving out Master Hand and Crazy Hand altogether isn't a good idea either and there are some runs where they were the best possible choice. Ganondorf for example. His classic run is all about fighting heroes and protagonists which none of the bosses really fit in with. So it made sense to put Master Hand there. Ice Climbers is another good example. They're all about fighting other duos so Master Hand and Crazy Hand were the perfect boss. And there are a few runs where there's a tad bit more added to the Master Hand fight. Donkey Kong fights him somewhere other than Final Destination, Some characters like Pikachu fight a different character before fighting Master Hand right after, and some characters like Ryu bring a partner along for the fight.
But in the realm of the regular old "one character fights Master Hand with Crazy Hand joining him at 7.0 or higher intensity on Final Destination" let's brainstorm a few possible ideas for characters that may or may not be on the fighter pass where Master Hand is the best choice for the boss at the end of their Classic Runs.
Before we begin though. This needs to be made clear.
Only characters who do not have an option that is miles better than Master Hand will be listed. Whether that option is a boss already in the game or not.
Let's be real here. DLC characters are brand new content. While highly debatable in terms of the likely factor, a DLC character bringing in a new boss for their classic run is possible. But even if that doesn't occur, the possibility will cause me to leave a character out of these mentions if a good enough alternative to Master Hand exists. Say Shantae were to get in the game for example. Would Master Hand be the best choice of her boss? Or would it be more fitting if they added the Giga Mermaid to the boss line-up? How about Elma? I haven't even played Xenoblade Chronicles X yet and I can still tell you that Rathalos reminds me of the local fauna of Planet Mira much more than Master Hand does.
We're looking for character like, well, Joker. Persona and Shin Megami Tensei have options for a boss I'm sure. But Master Hand and Joker both being voiced by Xander Mobus makes Master Hand a fitting enough boss for Joker. Not the best reasoning in the world depending on who you ask but it works well enough for me. And let's be real, I can't list every possible option by myself. Even if I could I do want to leave some room open for other people to throw their own hat into the ring. Speaking of which, there may be a few examples that I am ill-informed of where a better option than Master Hand exists that I just don't know about. If that happens, feel free to correct me, just try to keep a tight lid on any spoilers from the respective bosses home series.
With that in mind, let's begin!
1. Bomberman
Oh dear. Well to address the elephant in the room Bomberman is already an Assist Trophy. To keep things simple, here are my thoughts on that whole debacle.
Spirits = Does not deconfirm characters
Mii Costumes = If it's a costume that debuted before Ultimate, then not a deconfirmation. But if it's a new one to Ultimate like Rex or Isaac, then probably a deconfirmation.
Assist Trophy = VERY likely deconfirmation
But at the end of the day that's all speculation right now. For the sake of "what-if?", we're going to be listing a couple of characters in those roles here.
In Bomberman's case, does he have options that work better than Master Hand at all? I can only remember about two bosses from his games that fit the "giant" bill and I just can't see any clever references to Bomberman's games in any of the current bosses. So yeah, Master hand it is. Though I will admit this is an example of a throw-away Master Hand fight. Which basically means have the character fight Master Hand because there's no other option. Kind of like what Ganondorf got.
Speaking of Ganondorf.......
2. Ganon
I know, I know. He's both a boss and Ganondorf's Final Smash. Thing is though, that's the Ocarina of Time version. I'm talking about the ALTTP/ALBW version which would offer a handful of abilities that the Ocarina version wouldn't. Besides, not only is Chrom a playable fighter despite also being in Robin's Final Smash, but Zero Suit Samus pretty much becomes regular Samus for her Final Smash in Ultimate let's be honest.
Ganon can still work as his own character. And if he gets in (somehow) then he faces a pretty similar situation as Ganondorf in regards to the classic mode boss. None of the bosses are really heroic and that's the kind of opponent Ganon is known to fight. So it seems we have another case of there not really being any options besides Master Hand.
3. Rayman
Now here's an example of a character where Master Hand is more than just "the only option" or "just as good as any other option". Master Hand is in my opinion an extremely solid choice for Rayman's classic mode boss to the whole theme of "limbless hands".
4. Itsuki Aoi
For the most part I tried to stick to characters that are at least notable enough within the Smash community to where people could say "Oh yeah, I've heard that name in speculation before". Consider this the exception.
Itsuki is the protagonist of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. A spin-off game in the Fire Emblem series that takes a lot of inspiration from the Persona games (Which makes sense. Same developer and all). I have played very little of this game but even I have seen first hand that it does have options for bosses that fit the whole "giant" bill. Thing is though when you combine the obscurity of this game with the bosses at least somewhat being Shin Megami Demon-ified versions of Fire Emblem characters like Aversa it almost makes you wonder what the point of taking time to develop a boss from this game would be.
They COULD do it sure. But in a way it feels like shoehorning in a boss just for the sake of having a new boss instead of having a solid idea for a great boss. And at that point, why not just stick with Master Hand?
5. Heihachi
Heihachi hails from Tekken. And while Tekken does have it's over the top fictional things like Heihachi's own move of strapping people to rockets it's got practically nothing in the realm of a giant boss enemy. Granted I've never actually played Tekken but I'll be very surprised if I'm proven wrong about this. Just like with Ryu and Ken, being from this kind of fighting game kind of limits Heihachi to just Master Hand.
6. Yuri Lowell
The last series I will mention here where my experience is limited. I've never played a Tales game before but a friend of mine has really been enjoying Vesperia lately. So I talked about the idea of Yuri in Smash with him and he mentioned that most if not all of the games giant bosses are reserved for sidequests. Yeah.......that's a bit of a roadblock. I suppose you could get away with having Yuri fight a Mii Swordfighter in a Zagi costume at the end of his run. But that's only if such a Mii Costume gets added and even then something about that just feels off. Usually when a single character is fought at the end they have some special property like being giant or turning metal for a rematch or being followed by a Master Hand fight anyway.
Fighting a Zagi costume Mii followed by Master Hand would admittedly be the best way to go about it but it still involves a Master Hand fight.
7. Skull Kid
The last character I will mention for this is the one that I think gives Rayman the most competition out of everyone listed here for having a Master Hand fight that actually fits really well. Skull Kid is from The Legend of Zelda and while that series certainly has a lot of options for a boss there is already a boss from that series in the form of Ganon. Sure no one ever said a series couldn't have more than one boss but that's not a route I see the developers taking.
And not only can I just not see Skull Kid fighting Ganon I just think fighting Master Hand makes so much sense for him. Back in the original Smash, Master Hand was kind of depicted as a kid playing with Nintendo toys. Which gave the fight against him at the end a sort of "rebelling against he who controls you" kind of feel. What's another term for controlling something? Puppetry. A term that fits Skull Kid's situation with Majora so, so well.
And that's everyone I wanted to mention for this. But like I said, I can't and didn't want to list every option. What about you guys? Any possible DLC characters you can think of where you could see or at least accept Master Hand being the boss of their classic mode run?
Former Entries where my opinion has changed:
Ryu Hayabusa
At first I thought Master Hand was fine for this character as Ganon and Dracula, while fitting the bill of demon, which Hayabusa has fought before, didn't have enough going for them to make them better options than Master Hand. But I no longer agree with this. I don't actually know how rare Demon fights are in Ninja Gaiden and with a lot NES inspiration likely being something Ryu would have I think it's fair to call Dracula a much more fitting boss for Hayabusa.
Rex & Pyra. Or just Rex depending on implementation
My main hesitance with this one was how Galleom, while fitting for Rex, fits better for Shulk and I didn't know if the same boss should have repeated for Xenoblade. But other series have repeated bosses, Shulk doesn't actually fight Galleom even though I think he should, and there are way too many Master Hand fights and not enough fights against other bosses anyway. I doubt Re & Pyra will get in, but if they do, I hope they fight Galleom.
Shulk could have fought Galleom, Corrin could have fought Rathalos, Wario could have fought Giga Bowser, I could go on for hours. But all things considered, leaving out Master Hand and Crazy Hand altogether isn't a good idea either and there are some runs where they were the best possible choice. Ganondorf for example. His classic run is all about fighting heroes and protagonists which none of the bosses really fit in with. So it made sense to put Master Hand there. Ice Climbers is another good example. They're all about fighting other duos so Master Hand and Crazy Hand were the perfect boss. And there are a few runs where there's a tad bit more added to the Master Hand fight. Donkey Kong fights him somewhere other than Final Destination, Some characters like Pikachu fight a different character before fighting Master Hand right after, and some characters like Ryu bring a partner along for the fight.
But in the realm of the regular old "one character fights Master Hand with Crazy Hand joining him at 7.0 or higher intensity on Final Destination" let's brainstorm a few possible ideas for characters that may or may not be on the fighter pass where Master Hand is the best choice for the boss at the end of their Classic Runs.
Before we begin though. This needs to be made clear.
Only characters who do not have an option that is miles better than Master Hand will be listed. Whether that option is a boss already in the game or not.
Let's be real here. DLC characters are brand new content. While highly debatable in terms of the likely factor, a DLC character bringing in a new boss for their classic run is possible. But even if that doesn't occur, the possibility will cause me to leave a character out of these mentions if a good enough alternative to Master Hand exists. Say Shantae were to get in the game for example. Would Master Hand be the best choice of her boss? Or would it be more fitting if they added the Giga Mermaid to the boss line-up? How about Elma? I haven't even played Xenoblade Chronicles X yet and I can still tell you that Rathalos reminds me of the local fauna of Planet Mira much more than Master Hand does.
We're looking for character like, well, Joker. Persona and Shin Megami Tensei have options for a boss I'm sure. But Master Hand and Joker both being voiced by Xander Mobus makes Master Hand a fitting enough boss for Joker. Not the best reasoning in the world depending on who you ask but it works well enough for me. And let's be real, I can't list every possible option by myself. Even if I could I do want to leave some room open for other people to throw their own hat into the ring. Speaking of which, there may be a few examples that I am ill-informed of where a better option than Master Hand exists that I just don't know about. If that happens, feel free to correct me, just try to keep a tight lid on any spoilers from the respective bosses home series.
With that in mind, let's begin!
1. Bomberman
Oh dear. Well to address the elephant in the room Bomberman is already an Assist Trophy. To keep things simple, here are my thoughts on that whole debacle.
Spirits = Does not deconfirm characters
Mii Costumes = If it's a costume that debuted before Ultimate, then not a deconfirmation. But if it's a new one to Ultimate like Rex or Isaac, then probably a deconfirmation.
Assist Trophy = VERY likely deconfirmation
But at the end of the day that's all speculation right now. For the sake of "what-if?", we're going to be listing a couple of characters in those roles here.
In Bomberman's case, does he have options that work better than Master Hand at all? I can only remember about two bosses from his games that fit the "giant" bill and I just can't see any clever references to Bomberman's games in any of the current bosses. So yeah, Master hand it is. Though I will admit this is an example of a throw-away Master Hand fight. Which basically means have the character fight Master Hand because there's no other option. Kind of like what Ganondorf got.
Speaking of Ganondorf.......
2. Ganon
I know, I know. He's both a boss and Ganondorf's Final Smash. Thing is though, that's the Ocarina of Time version. I'm talking about the ALTTP/ALBW version which would offer a handful of abilities that the Ocarina version wouldn't. Besides, not only is Chrom a playable fighter despite also being in Robin's Final Smash, but Zero Suit Samus pretty much becomes regular Samus for her Final Smash in Ultimate let's be honest.
Ganon can still work as his own character. And if he gets in (somehow) then he faces a pretty similar situation as Ganondorf in regards to the classic mode boss. None of the bosses are really heroic and that's the kind of opponent Ganon is known to fight. So it seems we have another case of there not really being any options besides Master Hand.
3. Rayman
Now here's an example of a character where Master Hand is more than just "the only option" or "just as good as any other option". Master Hand is in my opinion an extremely solid choice for Rayman's classic mode boss to the whole theme of "limbless hands".
4. Itsuki Aoi
For the most part I tried to stick to characters that are at least notable enough within the Smash community to where people could say "Oh yeah, I've heard that name in speculation before". Consider this the exception.
Itsuki is the protagonist of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. A spin-off game in the Fire Emblem series that takes a lot of inspiration from the Persona games (Which makes sense. Same developer and all). I have played very little of this game but even I have seen first hand that it does have options for bosses that fit the whole "giant" bill. Thing is though when you combine the obscurity of this game with the bosses at least somewhat being Shin Megami Demon-ified versions of Fire Emblem characters like Aversa it almost makes you wonder what the point of taking time to develop a boss from this game would be.
They COULD do it sure. But in a way it feels like shoehorning in a boss just for the sake of having a new boss instead of having a solid idea for a great boss. And at that point, why not just stick with Master Hand?
5. Heihachi
Heihachi hails from Tekken. And while Tekken does have it's over the top fictional things like Heihachi's own move of strapping people to rockets it's got practically nothing in the realm of a giant boss enemy. Granted I've never actually played Tekken but I'll be very surprised if I'm proven wrong about this. Just like with Ryu and Ken, being from this kind of fighting game kind of limits Heihachi to just Master Hand.
6. Yuri Lowell
The last series I will mention here where my experience is limited. I've never played a Tales game before but a friend of mine has really been enjoying Vesperia lately. So I talked about the idea of Yuri in Smash with him and he mentioned that most if not all of the games giant bosses are reserved for sidequests. Yeah.......that's a bit of a roadblock. I suppose you could get away with having Yuri fight a Mii Swordfighter in a Zagi costume at the end of his run. But that's only if such a Mii Costume gets added and even then something about that just feels off. Usually when a single character is fought at the end they have some special property like being giant or turning metal for a rematch or being followed by a Master Hand fight anyway.
Fighting a Zagi costume Mii followed by Master Hand would admittedly be the best way to go about it but it still involves a Master Hand fight.
7. Skull Kid
The last character I will mention for this is the one that I think gives Rayman the most competition out of everyone listed here for having a Master Hand fight that actually fits really well. Skull Kid is from The Legend of Zelda and while that series certainly has a lot of options for a boss there is already a boss from that series in the form of Ganon. Sure no one ever said a series couldn't have more than one boss but that's not a route I see the developers taking.
And not only can I just not see Skull Kid fighting Ganon I just think fighting Master Hand makes so much sense for him. Back in the original Smash, Master Hand was kind of depicted as a kid playing with Nintendo toys. Which gave the fight against him at the end a sort of "rebelling against he who controls you" kind of feel. What's another term for controlling something? Puppetry. A term that fits Skull Kid's situation with Majora so, so well.
And that's everyone I wanted to mention for this. But like I said, I can't and didn't want to list every option. What about you guys? Any possible DLC characters you can think of where you could see or at least accept Master Hand being the boss of their classic mode run?
Former Entries where my opinion has changed:
Ryu Hayabusa
At first I thought Master Hand was fine for this character as Ganon and Dracula, while fitting the bill of demon, which Hayabusa has fought before, didn't have enough going for them to make them better options than Master Hand. But I no longer agree with this. I don't actually know how rare Demon fights are in Ninja Gaiden and with a lot NES inspiration likely being something Ryu would have I think it's fair to call Dracula a much more fitting boss for Hayabusa.
Rex & Pyra. Or just Rex depending on implementation
My main hesitance with this one was how Galleom, while fitting for Rex, fits better for Shulk and I didn't know if the same boss should have repeated for Xenoblade. But other series have repeated bosses, Shulk doesn't actually fight Galleom even though I think he should, and there are way too many Master Hand fights and not enough fights against other bosses anyway. I doubt Re & Pyra will get in, but if they do, I hope they fight Galleom.
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Excuse me while I go to my happy shipping place.
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