Smashboards Creates: Battle of AGES, a SEGA platform fighter

[Qwerty UIOP]

1. Gag Item
2. Peticopter
3. Light Phaser

 

[Deleted member]

1. Peticopter
2. Swirlmerang
3. Maracas

 

[OrpheusTelos]

1. Hand Scroll
2. Peticopter
3. Maracas

 

[cashregister9]

1. Popcorn shop
2. Maracas
3. Peticopter

 

[Champion of Hyrule]

1. Swirlmerang
2. Maracas
3. Segasonic Popcorn Shop

 

[tonygameman]

1. Wisp Capsule
2. Psychic Wand
3. Maracas

 

[osby]

1. Peanut Pedestal
2. Maracas
3. Light Phaser

 

[Speed Weed]

1. Peticopter
2. Hand Scroll
3. Peanut Pedestal

 

[YoshiandToad]

1. Peanut Pedestal
2. Hand Scroll
3. Maracas

 

[Speed Weed]

Alright, results time!

Here it is:

Phaser: 3 points
Wand: 2 points
Gag: 3 points
Maraca: 13 points
Swirl: 5 points
Scroll: 7 points
Copter: 13 points
Wisp: 3 points
Peanut: 7 points
Popcorn: 4 points

And so, we have two winners: the Maracas and Peticopter will be our two Season 1 items!!!

And now, it's finally time for our next character job. And we're finally doing new series reps! So get ready for.....

Job #221: Submit a character from a new series

Our other two Season 1 fighters will come from new series. We might do more specific prompts in future seasons, but for now, anything goes. Just as long as they're from a series that doesn't have playable rep yet. Disconfirmed series are also on the table. I'd leave it at that and say goodbye, but.....one last thing.

Starting with DLC, I'm introducing a new system in new series character prompts. Some of the series on the table still have multiple options, but instead of doing a third "submit a new series" prompt, I'm sorta merging it with the regular prompts. You can submit a regular-ass character, BUT if you want to get a series with multiple good options in, and you're not sure who the pick should be, you can just submit the series itself instead. I'll count it as "a character from (series)", and if that one wins, we'll do a job for characters from that series.

For example, let's say I want our roster to add someone from Mr. Doug's Big ****ing Adventure, and the series has multiple options. I could submit Mr. Doug, or I could submit "a character from Mr. Doug's Big ****ing Adventure", and if that wins, we'll do a job for a Mr. Doug's Big ****ing Adventure rep. Basically I think it'd be cool to still throw in that element of exploring options for a certain series while still keeping up the pace of regular jobs. Okay, that's officially it. HAVE AT YOU

 

[cashregister9]

Job 221

Amigo (Samba De Amigo)

The Main character of Samba De Amigo a 1999 Arcade game that gained popularity with it's ports to Dreamcast and Wii. Samba de Amigo is a Rhythm game themed after maracas and Amigo is just a fun character all around. Amigo is a staple of SEGA Crossovers.

 

[Megadoomer]

The Blacker Baron (Anarchy Reigns)

A reimagining of the Black Baron from MadWorld, with a few key differences - among other things, he's more of a heroic figure this time around, and he's actually black. (the Black Baron from MadWorld is allegedly doing blackface, though this is coming from the game's commentators, so I'm not sure how accurate that's supposed to be)

He uses boxing and wrestling moves enhanced by his flaming mechanical arms, and as he's a Platinum Games character, he's got style and flair to spare.

I figure we could dig deeper into Platinum's catalog of Sega-owned games/franchises, and the Blacker Baron seems like he'd be a lot of fun to play as. (I went with him over Jack because he doesn't take himself as seriously)

 

[Janx_uwu]

JOB 221: A Character from Mr. Doug's Big ****ing Adventure

lol just kidding

JOB 221: A Character from Altered Beast

A really well-known Sega series, and whose first game was, in fact, the pack-in title for the Genesis before Sonic was. It's a really fun 2D beat 'em up where you transform into different beasts over time, hence the name. I think it should be grouped up because I know there's been times in the past where Neff and Centurion have both been submitted, and for all I know the series has plenty of other great choices for a rep.

 

[tonygameman]

There's lots of characters in mind like the Gunstars Red and Blue, Honey/Candy, Cenes Crawford, Pengo, Space Harrier, maybe OutRun's Flagman, et cetera. Anyway, resubmitting a good ol'... cue the theme song sang by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi himself right below (which Masahiro Sakurai once searched up in Wii U's Karaoke Joysound), Sonic's motivational dress-up and a Dreamcast factory tour since having been friends as of 1991, the anime song legend Hironobu Kageyama (Dragon Ball Z fans out there may recognize that voice) joinng Mitsuyoshi-san in a live duet, and HENSHIN!

Job #221: DLC Fighter from a New Series - Taro Yamada (Rent-A-Hero)

(both images are original and Dreamcast/remake designs - his design may likely be an amalgamation of those with his Capsule Toy's shoulder pads in Shenmue)​

Taro Yamada is the main protagonist of a 1991 Japanese-exclusive action RPG game named Rent-A-Hero, which was released on SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive and used the same graphic engine as Sword of Vermillion (which got a fan translation in 2015). The game follows Taro moving to the town of Corja in Japan alongside his family (mother has a nice Opa-Opa apron) and younger sister Alisa (somehow related to Phantasy Star's protagonist by name), after his eccentric father changed jobs. During their house-warming party, he ordered pizza from 'Sensational Cafeteria' (or SECA in short) and instead received the Super Energy Combat Armor (coincidence by name? - as part of the "Rent-A-Hero" program) by accident, which gave him superhuman strength (after accidentally knocking out his father in a "Dadzilla" suit) and other gadgets. After realizing that he is required to pay a fee to rent the armor, Taro decided to become a titular part-time hero for hire (who looks like Captain Commando), performing various odd-jobs for the townspeople of Corja such as delivering food or finding missing children, before ending up in more intensive missions involving corporate theft, counterfeit money and mafia, even an ancient undead pharaoh (King Glutenramen) and ESP telekinetics, all while going against a fellow part-time hero and rival, Ultra Salaryman (or in full title, as lengthy as it sounds, "Ultra Great Super Hyper Miracle Strong Dash Top Fighting Salaryman").

Instead of traditional turn-based battles, Taro will face enemies in a similar format to 2D fighting games, akin to Street Fighter, SNK's titles (like Fatal Fury & The King of Fighters) and others, which was an unusual innovation for the RPG genre at a time. Rent-A-Hero was a self-parody of SEGA, with multiple games from their history at the time getting shout-outs (even arcade ones like OutRun, Power Drift, After Burner, G-LOC: Air Battle and Space Harrier play their memorable tunes from 08:26 to 10:41 in a description), a decade before SEGAGAGA was released (with a same-named protagonist), alongside cultural references of Sentai, American superheroes and Japan's culture/society between the 80's and 90's (like a man injuring his leg for trying the moonwalk of Michael "Yakson").

Despite being lesser-known compared to other Genesis games, Rent-A-Hero has proven to be popular thanks to it's comical tone and self-aware humor (SEGA's known for not being afraid of poking fun at stuff as shown in titles like SEGAGAGA), having gained a modern reputation as one of SEGA's fondly-remembered cult classics. The game is one of the 42 pre-installed games on SEGA Genesis Mini's Japanese release, the Dreamcast/Xbox remake (Rent-A-Hero No. 1, which had a cancelled English localization - even with a promo video) with Segata Sanshiro himself as a dojo teacher (which also has beat 'em up sections akin to SpikeOut), a live stage show in Japan and a theatrical movie/film in works (though there's been no news since it was announced a few years ago). A idea of people renting hero suits was later revived by SEGA in a Nintendo 3DS game called Hero Bank.

Rent-A-Hero was referenced and Taro himself even made appearances throughout numerous SEGA games, like Shenmue as a capsule toy (given that Yu Suzuki's AM2 team worked on both games and a Rent-A-Hero No. 1 remake being close in gameplay), a cameo in SEGAGAGA's final cutscene, a SEGA 60th anniversary icon in Sonic Colors Ultimate, a collectable in Earth UFO Catcher, a "rental hero" system in Sonic Forces, a selectable song in Samba de Amigo, a poster on Sarah & Jacky's stage in Virtua Fighter 2, container trucks with "Nomoruwa" written on them in SpikeOut Final Edition (based on Corja's president who Taro saves from assassination; the original arcade game's project codename was "Rent a Hero Returns" - at 1997), a "OKA" name entry song in Daytona USA, a puzzle in Picross S: Mega Drive/Genesis & Mark III/Master System Edition and Akira Yuki & Kage-Maru's pre-battle dialogue with Captain Commando in Project X Zone 2. And finally, Fighters Megamix with his own vocal theme from Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, where he fought various characters such as Virtua Fighters themselves, Fighting Vipers and of all things, Hornet from Daytona USA. Perhaps the Part-Time Hero job from Yakuza: Like a Dragon got inspiration from this, as well? (imagine a potential cross-franchise costume and next-generation Dragon Engine remake of Rent-A-Hero, given Toshihiro Nagoshi's experience in both IPs and similar gameplay)

For Battle of AGES, Taro Yamada would be a super fun character, who's not only a relatively deeper cut and legacy character pick, but also bring really cool moveset possibilities and tons of personality, given some tokusatsu-based and comical moments (given him being cheerful and curious, who always has interest in new things and sometimes gets himself into trouble because of this, talk about being a easygoing everyman-turned-hero like One Punch Man's Saitama) in his series, being able to perform various martial arts moves such as punches and kicks for primary attacks, but he also has projectile attacks (a slashing projectile's named Sonic Cutter and used at 1:42 in this tweet's video) with Super Energy Combat Armor's weapons/gadgets, even being able to charge up for powerful special moves with electric/energy properties in Rent-A-Hero No. 1 (techniques like Rent-A-Somersault, Energy Sword, Dragon Thunder which acts like 's Power Wave in Fighters Megamix below, Burning Claw, Self Recover for healing, Space Barrier, etc. - Ctrl + F in this page), which also apply for smash/strong attacks.

Borrowed from both the original game and Fighters Megamix (with his command/move list below), Taro's Super Energy Combat Armor has a gimmick/mechanic, the battery meter which depletes over time and lowers much faster when using special moves or fully-charged smash attacks consecutively. Once it drops to zero, his armor wil shut down and disappear into a civilian form (front/back; with a different SEGA shirt depending on palette), making him weaker in stats and unable to use special moves in their full potential, unless he's either KO'd or charged up it's batteries with a Shield Special, which fully refills his suit meter and allows him to use the Super Energy Combat Armor again.

Taro's female counterpart, Rent-A-Hiroko, who has appeared in various promotional materials, some merchandises like instruction books, plush dolls, even an afore-mentioned live stage show and seemingly her own cancelled spin-off, as told in Rent-A-Hero No. 1's ending credits (which didn't become a thing, however). She would also appear in his All-Star Move consisting of a tag-team beatdown with powerful martial art/energy techniques, and likely as one of the possible Capsule Toys for this series' line-up.

 

[osby]

Job #221: A Total War character

Being such a large series featuring casts from various times and settings, it's hard to pick a single character from Total War to be a playable character from the franchise. However, given its massive size of it and how much potential it has, I think it's sensible to add a fighter after a dedicated job. Total War already has a minigame and had some nominations such as Achilles, Zheng Jiang, and Shogun before.

 

[Qwerty UIOP]

Job 221: Submit a Gunstar Heroes Rep

 

[Flyboy]

Job 221: A 7th Dragon Rep

7th Dragon is a fantasy-turned-sci-fi RPG series by Sega that has four games spanning various eras and is notable for having a whole bunch of extremely, extremely cool classes. Gamblers, trading card summoners, hackers, and my personal favorite The Princess are all fair game. We've had a few 7th Dragon classes submitted throughout the course of this game and I think this is similar to Shining where some time of extended research could make for some really deep dives and fun movesets. Gives our roster a really unique flair.

I'll say that perhaps it's overkill doing another RPG character so soon, so I understand if now's not the time...but I wanted to get this series in the conversation because ever since Yoshiandtoad and osby opened my eyes to how cool the atmosphere and classes are it's really intrigued me.

 

[Speed Weed]

So way back when, about halfway through the base game, I submitted someone who I thought could be pretty cool. But I never really got around to putting them forward again for future jobs. They became kind of a one-and-done pick. That changes now, because I feel like they could have a legitimate shot in DLC. So here they are, the one, the only, finally being submitted again.....

Job #221: Cenes Crawford from Thunder Force V

Thunder Force is a series of shmups created by the now-defunct developer Technosoft. The series originally started as an obscure multi-directional overhead shooter, before transitioning into a horizontal shooter with its third installment. The series never exactly set the world on fire, but it has a significant following among retro gamers and is often held up as one of the finest shmup franchises of its kind. Unfortunately, as mentioned, Technosoft eventually went defunct. However, as of September 2016, SEGA now own the rights to all their properties. So we can add Technosoft stuff to our project now!

I think adding a Thunder Force rep makes sense, as ever since they acquired Technosoft, SEGA have been making pretty good use of the series when it comes to legacy stuff, particularly in joints involving developer M2. Thunder Force IV and AC both got SEGA AGES Switch ports, while the third game got on the Mega Drive Mini and the aforementioned fourth one is coming to the MD Mini 2. Not to mention how they've also been using other Technosoft IP like Herzog Zwei and Elemental Master. But TF is the biggest one, so it makes the most sense. It feels like they're keen on establishing the series as a part of the retro SEGA library, which makes sense! Thunder Force has always had a strong SEGA association, the third and fourth ones are very well-regarded big titles for the Mega Drive, and the fifth one was notably on the Saturn as well. In a way, it's always been somewhat part of the SEGA family - it just went from honorary member to actual member.

Cenes herself is the main protagonist of the fifth game. Born in Berlin, Germany, Cenes is the head of the combat unit 222 and pilot of the RVR-01 "Gauntlet". While the previous Thunder Force games mainly focused on the ever-present conflict between the Galaxy Federation and the ORN Empire, the fifth game shifts the focus to Earth. On there, the wreckage of the Rynex ship from Thunder Force IV is discovered and renamed "Vasteel", with its technology reverse-engineered to better mankind. However, **** hits the fan when the Guardian, an advanced AI made for the aforementioned purpose, goes haywire and uses the tech it created from Rynex to wipe out the human race - but not before humanity manages to fight back with their own "Vasteel".

So why Cenes? Well the situation with playable Thunder Force representation is interesting. The other idea I've seen thrown around is just adding Rynex as a playable fighter, and suffice to say I'm not really fond of that idea. Like, at all. I'd personally just rather have something with a bit more character, and my personal choice for an Actual Character would be Cenes because while there are canon pilots for other ships in the series, including Rynex, I'd go with Cenes cause A. she's by far the coolest of all of them, and B. TFV is noticeably more story-heavy than the previous games, and as such Cenes is much more involved in the actual game, which makes her more visible of a protagonist, and thus, more well-known - rather than the other canon pilots who aren't that prominent on their own and kinda just exist to be the pilots of their respective ships besides some lore tidbits in the later games, meanwhile Cenes is more of her own defined character. She might be the series' most iconic Actual Character, so she's a good choice if we're to take that angle.

So how could she fight? After all, she's a shmup character, she spends the game in a ship so she never really shows off much of her own combat chops. I still think you could easily spin something out of her, though. See, I was looking into how the Star Fox characters were implemented in Smash, and inspiration struck me when I saw the theories on how some of their moves seemed to be based on things the ships could do in Star Fox. And....that'd actually be a pretty dope way of implementing Cenes. Make her basically fight like a human RVR ship, give her a bunch of weapons that do the same stuff as all the different abilities you can get in the game, just make her this balls-to-the-walls bat** crazy projectile character. This way, you can incorporate all the crazy shmup bull** that comes with the territory while still adding someone with a bit more character than just A Ship. To me, she's sort of a Captain Falcon type, where she has a cool enough design that you can get away with kinda making things up and basing her more on the general series gameplay and it still feels natural.

Did I mention that the Thunder Force games have some kickass music? Because they totally do.

 

[OrpheusTelos]

I’m gonna throw out Fighting Vipers as a potential series for us to do a deep dive into. I’d like to see another fighting game rep in here somewhere and while Honey and Bahn are the more obvious picks, there’s so many other cool options for us to consider that I think a dedicated job would be worth considering.

For a Sega crossover fighting game, we have a distinct lack of any fighting game reps aside from Virtua Fighter. Ya know what, that’s something I think we should fix. And what better way to introduce another fighting game series than by reuniting Virtua Fighter with its sister series from the 90s.

Job #147: Fighting Vipers

View attachment 344874

Yeah, Virtua Fighter wasn’t the only 3D fighting game Sega worked in the 90s. Considering VF pioneered the 3D fighter genre, you bet your ass Sega was gonna capitalize on that success with more games utilizing that technology. One of the more notable examples of which was Fighting Vipers, released in 1996 for arcades and getting ported to the Sega Saturn that same year. The gameplay of Fighting Vipers is very similar to that of Virtua Fighter, but with a unique armor mechanic and focusing on a wackier cast of characters. Unlike VF which places a heavy focus on real-world martial arts, FV’s roster mostly consists of characters who are not traditionally trained martial artists, such as the fashion designer Honey, the sk8r girl Grace, a bear named Kumachan, and goddamn Pepsiman. This leads to each character having their own unique fighting style that would help them stand out amongst the other brawlers on our roster.

 

[Deleted member]

BD. Joe

Crazy Taxi is an iconic sega series. We do have a mini game. But I think this seires is big enough to get a playable rep. I considered a general "submit a crazy tazi character" round but I figure Joe would win out anyway. It would be interesting to work the mechanics of the series into his gameplay. He'd almost be like the Battle of Ages verison of Captain Falcon.

 

[YoshiandToad]

Wonderland Wars/League of Wonderland

Wonderland Wars is a popular MOBA game played in Japan, albeit almost non existent overseas bar the short lived mobile spinoff League of Wonderland. The series has had multiple championship tournaments for many years with the game only just slowing down now in popularity.

So what the heck is a Wonderland Wars? Well, the set up is famous fairy tale characters come to this world when their part in the story is done.

Cendrillion, aka Cinderella is the closest thing the series has to a poster girl who has the power to create crystal blasts with her clock hand blades but Little Alice (aka Alice in Wonderland) isn't far behind with her ability to grow in size and stomp her enemies underneath. And then there's the likes of the Little Match Girl, Red Riding Hood, Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Pinocchio, King Arthur etc all of whom have their own unique abilities.

The game itself is played with a unique pen like stylus that allowed players to draw out their attacks. The use of ink therefore is an important resource in the game.

Alongside the main heroes there's also a selection of lesser characters that act as henchmen to aid them in their quest to overtake the opponents castles. These are characters such as card guards from Alice in Wonderland.

I'm nominating the series because a.) It's very big in Japan, b.) Has a colourful cast to choose from and c.) Feels like it'd be a fun one to try and deep dive on.

Fun fact: Interestingly this wasn't Sega's only venture into using fairy tale characters in a competitive game, as a year prior to the release of League of Wonderland they released Revolv8 which contained different characters based off the same properties.

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

Alright, results time!

Here it is:

Phaser: 3 points
Wand: 2 points
Gag: 3 points
Maraca: 13 points
Swirl: 5 points
Scroll: 7 points
Copter: 13 points
Wisp: 3 points
Peanut: 7 points
Popcorn: 4 points

And so, we have two winners: the Maracas and Peticopter will be our two Season 1 items!!!

And now, it's finally time for our next character job. And we're finally doing new series reps! So get ready for.....

Job #221: Submit a character from a new series

Our other two Season 1 fighters will come from new series. We might do more specific prompts in future seasons, but for now, anything goes. Just as long as they're from a series that doesn't have playable rep yet. Disconfirmed series are also on the table. I'd leave it at that and say goodbye, but.....one last thing.

Starting with DLC, I'm introducing a new system in new series character prompts. Some of the series on the table still have multiple options, but instead of doing a third "submit a new series" prompt, I'm sorta merging it with the regular prompts. You can submit a regular-ass character, BUT if you want to get a series with multiple good options in, and you're not sure who the pick should be, you can just submit the series itself instead. I'll count it as "a character from (series)", and if that one wins, we'll do a job for characters from that series.

For example, let's say I want our roster to add someone from Mr. Doug's Big ****ing Adventure, and the series has multiple options. I could submit Mr. Doug, or I could submit "a character from Mr. Doug's Big ****ing Adventure", and if that wins, we'll do a job for a Mr. Doug's Big ****ing Adventure rep. Basically I think it'd be cool to still throw in that element of exploring options for a certain series while still keeping up the pace of regular jobs. Okay, that's officially it. HAVE AT YOU

Job #221: You know what I think would be fun to see? A toy soldier, or perhaps, a Clockwork Knight if you will.

Character Name: Sir Tongara de Pepperouchau III
Character Origin: Clockwork Knight (Saturn, 1994)

Honestly, I couldn't see anyone else from Clockwork Knight getting in. I did consider submitting a Toy Fighter job but nah, this feels like the most practical choice. I think Pepper would be a fun character to see - though his moveset would keep things fairly simple, with an incredibly lightweight sword-fighting style that's intended to show his clumsiness, but also his general skill (and maybe he could even have his horse Barobaro join in for a move or two, plus a few items from the original titles!) I think he'd be a fun "scrimbloy" pick for a few reasons - he's got a lot of personality that could be shown off through his movements, acts as a wonderful representative for the Saturn era (a criminally underrepresented era in a lot of SEGA crossovers IMO) and even has a degree of historical significance being that the first Clockwork Knight was one of the earliest examples of SEGA really digging into 3D modelling for their games. Overall, I think he'd be really fun to see, even if he's a little more obscure than some of the more obvious picks here!

 

[Speed Weed]

Alright, time to vote!

We have quite a selection this time around - here are our picks:

Amigo ( cashregister9 )
The Blacker Baron ( Megadoomer )
A character from Altered Beast ( Janx_uwu )
Taro Yamada ( tonygameman )
A Total War character ( osby )
A Gunstar Heroes character ( Qwerty UIOP )
A 7th Dragon character ( Flyboy )
Cenes Crawford (ya boy)
A Fighting Vipers character ( OrpheusTelos )
B.D. Joe (@Darkonedagger)
A Wonderland Wars character ( YoshiandToad )
Sir Tongara de Pepperouchau III ( KneeOfJustice99 )

Vote for your top 3 picks - keep your own submission in third place if you're going to self-vote.

 

[Qwerty UIOP]

1. Altered Beast Character
2. Sir Tongara de Pepperouchau III
3. Gunstar Heroes Character

 

[Champion of Hyrule]

1. Taro
2. Total War
3. Fighting Vipers

 

[Tankman from Newgrounds]

1. Fighting Vipers character
2. Amigo
3. Gunstar Heroes charater

 

[Janx_uwu]

1. 7th Dragon
2. B.D. Joe
3. Total War

 

[cashregister9]

1. Total War
2. Taro
3. Amigo

 

[tonygameman]

1. Amigo (biggest missing SEGA All-Star veteran - already have a stage and tracklist in mind, besides an accepted item from the previous job - go and make a fellow hedgehog by many good reasons, SC5 reporter, flying dream jester and egg-shaped spaceship mascot proud!)
2. Cenes Crawford
3. Taro Yamada

 

[Flyboy]

1. Amigo - He's probably the biggest regular Sega "All Star" that just missed the boat for base game and still has a real case to be made for inclusion outside of just "he was in some crossovers". He's a fun character with a great aesthetic and we need a stage and music from Samba de Amigo for sure.

2. Total War Character - We have a great side mode but there are some GREAT potential additions here. The original characters in this series are extremely cool. I'd love for us to do a cool deep dive. It'll be fun too when we get to the guest round because of Total War Warhammer...but that's a long time to come.

3. Cenes Crawford - Thunder Force is BIG for Sega and basically is why they bought Technosoft's library in the first place. As fun as it is to push Elemental Hero or their pinball games in my heart of hearts I know in a game like this Sega would go for the Thunder Force series.

 

[Deleted member]

1. Amigo
2. Total War
3. 7th Dragon

 

[Megadoomer]

1. Gunstar Heroes character
2. Fighting Vipers character
3. Blacker Baron

 

[YoshiandToad]

1. Sir Pepper
2. 7th Dragon
3. Fighting Vipers

Shout out to Amigo and Gunstar but I feel like Gunstar as a series select doesn't lead to as many options as other series.

 

[osby]

1. 7th Dragon
2. Wonderland Wars
3. B.D. Joe

 

[OrpheusTelos]

1. Cenes Crawford
2. 7th Dragon
3. Amigo

 

[Speed Weed]

1. Fighting Vipers
2. Total War
3. 7th Dragon

 

[Speed Weed]

Alright, it's time to show the results!

We'll be deciding on our two new series reps with this one, as both of this season's new series slots are "anything goes" picks. So here we go:

Amigo: 13 points
Baron: 1 points
Beast: 3 points
Taro: 6 points
Total War: 12 points
Gunstar: 5 points
Dragon: 12 points
Cenes: 6 points
Vipers: 10 points
Joe: 3 points
Wonderland: 2 points
Pepper: 5 points

So the third character in Season 1 will be none other than the long-awaited Amigo!!!!!! Congrats to cashregister9 for getting their submission in!!!

As for the fourth and final character in Season 1, uh....we have a tie between Total War and 7th Dragon. CMON GO VOTE IN HERE QUICK GOGOGOGOGO

Le vote | Straw Poll

What is your opinion? Vote now: Total War, 7th Dragon

strawpoll.com

 

[osby]

Amigo Moveset:

General playstyle: Amigo is a short, middle-weight character with impressive aerial mobility. In contrast, his ground mobility is below average, and can’t keep up with faster characters like Sonic. While his damage output is low, Amigo has excellent frame data in most of his moves, giving him strong and flexible combo options. He can also force opponents to approach him with his projectiles. However, he’s held back by his linear recovery and lackluster grab.

Notable normal attacks:

Amigo’s moves usually involve short disjointed hitboxes thanks to his maracas which he wields like blunt weapons.

Other moves, such as his up aerial and forward throw involve him kicking the opponent with his strong legs. He also uses his tail in quite a few moves, such as his grab, down tilt, and back aerial. His up tilt and up smash hits with his sombrero.

Specials moves:

Neutral Special: Shake and Spin. Amigo holds his maracas to both sides and rotates around himself like a spinning top, hitting nearby opponents multiple times before launching them with a somersault kick. He can slowly move back and forth while using this move and stall himself in the air.

Side Special: Maraca Toss. Amigo throws one of his maracas in an arc before pulling another one. Quickly tapping the button allows him to throw multiple maracas one after another but there will be a noticeable gap between two maracas tosses as Amigo needs to replenish them. While this projectile travels slow and doesn’t deal much damage, it causes a lot of hit stun, allowing Amigo to follow up with other moves if they connect.

Up Special: Shake and Wave. Amigo jumps high into the air while furiously shaking his maracas. He then holds onto his sombrero as it slows down his fall like a parachute. Hitting his hat in this state will force Amigo into freefall. This special sends Amigo a good distance but he can’t recover from afar if someone hits him along the way. The initial jump deals damage the anyone who comes near his maraca wave.

Down Special: Maraca Ball. Amigo shakes one of his maracas and creates a glowing sphere that stays in place for about ten seconds. Depending on how much the button held during the initial shake, the color will change, going from green to yellow to red. When an opponent comes in contact with the sphere, they will be inflicted with a negative status depending on the charge level. Green causes them to be knocked down, yellow forces them to trip and red paralyzes them.

All-Star Move: Samba de Party. An area of effect move. When initiated, Amigo starts to dance and shake his maracas, as confetti covers the music, and the BGM changes to Samba de Janeiro for a short while. As indicated by the glowing rings behind Amigo, anyone who comes near him will be helplessly forced into a dancing animation unique to each fighter. Amigo is free to attack anyone during this time, as his stamina and Assist cool down and also recover gradually.

Other:

Aesthetics: Amigo's appearance is similar to his roles in SEGA All-Stars games and some of his animations in particular are inspired by Tennis and All-Star Racing. If possible, his sister Amiga can be a palette swap character for half of his alternate costumes, or at least inspire them.

Entrance animation: Amigo is dropped to the stage by a parade float.

Taunts:
Taunt 1: Amigo pouts and drags one maraca on the ground while crouching.
Taunt 2: Amigo throws his hat into the air and catches it before putting it back on.
Taunt 3: Amigo jumps and claps his feet together.

Victory Theme: Minigame End (Samba de Amigo)

Victory Animations:
Victory 1: Amigo holds his fists together and shakes them with stars in his eyes.
Victory 2: Amigo reverences twice before back flipping and giving a pose.
Victory 3: Amigo shakes his maracas and jumps high into the air before crashing down. He quickly lifts his head from the hole he opened up and grins widely. References the opening of his game.

 

[Speed Weed]

Alright, these sorts of last-minute tiebreaker votes don't last very long, and we've gotten 10 votes now, so I'm closing it. Our final Season 1 character will be a Total War rep!!!! Congrats to osby for getting his submission in!

We're gonna get into the nitty-gritty of both our newest additions soon enough, but I figure we should get this one out of the way:

Job #222: Submit a Total War character

Er, yeah, now that we've decided on having a Total War rep, it's time to decide on which Total War rep! I encourage everyone here to dive deep for some cool picks, as this series has a lot of potential. Go off

 

[Flyboy]

Job 222: Zheng Jiang (Total War: Three Kingdoms)

I've submitted her in the past and I'm submitting her again. Zheng Jiang is one of the many faction leaders in the Three Kingdoms game and she's a bandit queen. I'll post my original writeup below, but basically she's the character that really sparked my interest in getting a Total War character in this game. She has an awesome design, cool moveset potential, and is a series OC. I highly recommend Three Kingdoms as a game to look into, because it's FULL of cool faction leaders that would make for great fighters.

I'm really excited for this job! I think we could do a deep dive and find AWESOME stuff.

Job #169: Zheng Jiang (Total War)
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Zheng Jiang is a faction leader in Total War: Three Kingdoms, the twelfth Total War game and apparently a franchise best-seller. It is based on the records of the Three Kingdoms and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, leaning into ancient Chinese history. Zheng Jiang is something of an original character for the game, as she is based on conflicting records of two bandit leaders named Lady Zheng and Lady Jiang, though other records say they're a single person...Anyway, her portrayal in this game is that of a clan leader with a bandit camp in the mountains, and her faction looks to aggressively overthrow the dynasties and empires that care not for the common people. She is unrefined and not-at-all noble, with her only goal being to watch the Han Dynasty fall, and that makes her a dangerous force in this war.

Zheng Jiang would fight aggressively and roguishly, as the Bandit Queen comes armed with two axes called the Red Sisters and the ability to deal poison damage. She would also have a rage mechanic with her tenacity and ability to stay alive making her stronger as the fight goes on. This also would be a way to reflect the gameplay of a strategy game as well, as they often reward long-term planning.

I went with Zheng Jiang out of all Total War characters because I think she's awesome. Three Kingdoms actually has a ton of really badass faction leaders, all of whom would be sick to see in the game. That said, I love me some ancient bandits and I think the aggression and poison axes help her stand out, and a Three Kingdoms character seems fairly unique in terms of character archetype.