Rosalina SATISFACTION: 60%
Let me put it this way:
I was a Toad supporter. My ideal Mario rep was taken out of the equation a while back. Yet I expected and accepted the fact that we would be getting one anyway. I expected Bowser Jr., I was hoping for Waluigi; I considered Rosalina a distant black horse candidate. Somehow, she's pulled out on top, and I can see why: as I put in my rating of her "
she's the rising star of the Mario franchise." She may not have the history of Toad or the ubiquity of Waluigi, but she is the one that's grabbing major roles left and right. She started strong in Galaxy, and has rebounded lately to become playable everywhere.
I still like Waluigi and Bowser Jr. and especially Toad a lot more. Even so, I can say that I'm satisfied with Rosalina. She's a pretty decent character. I'm not in the "we need females" boat, but I acknowledge she brings a slight bit of diversity to the roster.
She's a bit too much like Peach in design for my comfort, but she interacts well enough with other Smashers, as the trailer highlighted. One must also consider Luma, too---he's as much of a character now as she is. Good--I like the little guys.
Lumas' very prominent position in her design and moveset makes this much more bearable for me; I was merely expecting one of them to fulfill the Toad or Waddle Dee roll.
Part of the reason why I gave her a paltry want score the last time is that I feared she was semi-clone material; instead, I'm seeing one of the most unique characters in the game. As mentioned before, Luma seeming makes her more like an Ice-Climbers than anything else.
I'm not really a man for gimmicky characters (Olimar and Ice Climbers are two characters I rarely touch), but
I admit it can add some great variety. I do fear they took a while perfecting this mechanic, and that this could have been better spent making simpler characters.
One thing that I like: the surprise. I love when a character surprises me. I did not expect Rosalina to be in this game, and seeing her was a shock. I've mentioned before that I love surprises; I love seeing logic overturned.
Wii Fit Trainer was a bit TOO much of a surprise for my liking, but Rosalina was a pretty good surprise--she makes a degree of sense and looks really inspired. And since she was a "good surprise" for me, she gets 60% in satisfaction. I'm looking forward to her, even if she isn't a game-seller. To me, Mega Man is 100%, Villager is 95%, and Wii Fit Trainer is 40%;
in other words, Rosalina can't compare to my more wanted characters, but she's still good in my eyes.
I think she blends well with other characters. She's from Space.... remember that good 'ol Melee Space Travelers mission?
Concerning Rate their Chances:
How many times have I said in the past: "the magic of this game is seeing how miserably wrong we were when the game releases", and helping us better our predictions for the next game. We've been caught off-guard today; we weren't exactly dumbfounded like with Pokemon Trainer, R.O.B., or the Wii Fit Trainer, but we really weren't expecting this. People on Miiverse and FAQs like Rosalina; that made it incredibly likely that she was irrelevant. I do hold to this: I think we should keep out current approach, with a few notes.
She reaffirms that popularity matters (she's not popular here, but has a following elsewhere).
She also confirms that characters will only be added if they can be made unique and bring something new to the table;
all four newcomers this go round have been incredibly unique.
A bit too similar for my liking, but she's just so unique I can't stay angry.
Concerning Other Characters:
I put our odds at getting one Mario Newcomer at 90%; it's become far more important to Nintendo from the Wii days onwards and it was pretty obvious to me that we were getting a character. However,
I'd say our chance of getting a second is low; somewhere from 20%-40%, maybe? The fact that all of them are revealed already makes me suspicious for one more hidden one, but I don't think it will crowd things TOO much. With this in mind, Jr. is down to about 20%, Wa down to about 10%, and Paper Mario 7.5%? I dunno. Honestly, I could see Waluigi go without a mention, Bowser Jr. become an AT, and Paper Mario get a stage. That seems plausible.
Other characters that were impacted include Palutena and Starfy.
Ah, Starfy. Will we really get two star-shaped protagonists in one installment? I think not. His chances have been halved, methinks.
Rosalina has a bit of what I thought Palutena would play like in her and they do have a similar aesthetic; I think she gets hurt a bit, but nothing too significant.
Also: I was pretty much dead-certain of a Mario character. One of the 6-10 Newcomers was always going to come from this series, in my eyes. So, when one of them did, it doesn't necessarily hurt the chances of characters from other series, as one spot was always set aside for a Mario newcomer. This, of course, excludes those like Starfy who are just too similar for comfort.
...and they all took a hit that day. Sadly.
, looks like no import for us... Same with Dragon Quest Monsters 2, but that's got a long translation process so I would expect a delay between the games being on Direct... I'm still hopeful smash is going to make DQ rise again in Europe and America! Especially with the low bar for entry set by Rosalina.
