Unpopular Smash Opinions (BE CIVIL)

[UserKev]

The purpose is not to get any Zelda character, but a character that you like, which usually means from a series that you like. I really don't like Twilight Princess and I think Midna is a very shallow character, so I have no reason to "rally behind her", even though I love Zelda in general.

Fan rally tribalism challenge shouldn't determine who is prioritized. Just need to establish a core interest. This is probably why a unique Zelda newcomer will likely never come to be since there is more divide.

Zelda speculation is one of the most unfun, pointless and frustrating. You could enter a lottery power ball with more luck.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Fan rally tribalism challenge shouldn't determine who is prioritized. Just need to establish a core interest. This is probably why a unique Zelda newcomer will likely never come to be since there is more divide.

Zelda speculation is one of the most unfun, pointless and frustrating. You could enter a lottery power ball with more luck.

Funny you guys are talking about Zelda newcomers.

When I made my big first party poll this year, I found we don't have a Zelda frontrunner.

We have three roughly equal in popularity Zelda characters. Skull Kid, Impa and Midna were all within twenty votes of each other.

 

[Louie G.]

I still heavily disagree with the sentiment that a lack of rallying behind one single character cannibalizes them all. This wasn’t even particularly true for K. Rool who is often used as an example, Dixie Kong support was still nearly as visible.

What is demonstrated by the Zelda deadlock is people want someone from Zelda, in general. It would be ridiculous for the team to look at this and shrug saying “well, people want them all too much. If one of them was popular and the other two weren’t, maybe we would add them”. Like no, they’ll just add whoever they think is most compelling.

It’s possible that this did have a negative effect on Ballot results, but those are ten years old now. Zelda has grown exponentially and tides have shifted upon the inclusion of a few other characters… I feel like Skull Kid support went up once Ridley and K. Rool were here, for example. But one way or another I think it would be pretty terrible if a decade old list of characters was the only way they judged fan demand.

…and yeah, feeling pressured to back one character as a means of checking off a list instead of vouching for who you actually want is lame. I wish we had done this for a series like Rhythm Heaven that may hinge on it a bit more, but even there I’m not gonna give everyone crap for not getting behind a concept as abstract as Chorus Kids.

 

[Among Waddle Dees]

Fan rally tribalism challenge shouldn't determine who is prioritized. Just need to establish a core interest. This is probably why a unique Zelda newcomer will likely never come to be since there is more divide.

I'm sorry, but I heavily draw the line at coining "tribalism" for discussion around franchise candidates. Shouldn't the fact that we have a common interest in a franchise getting some new character be enough to go off of? For as much as I hear about tribalism in Smash discussion, I ironically seem to find more accurate contenders of that term when there's a specific character seen as the top-runner, eclipsing anything else. I find it difficult to support this, especially since the larger franchises don't suffer from such impositions, even with their equally glaring omissions.

Also, is there actually an example of such a restrictive view on which character gets in paying off in Ultimate? Ridley might be a contender, but his chances didn't seem all that likely before he appeared. K. Rool was contending with requests for Dixie during most of his campaign, which left Dixie with nothing. Isabelle had some perceived priority but wasn't immediately pushed. Beyond that, the only real examples I can think of are from new franchises. But those are just colloquially agreed to need the main character first, and even Sakurai knows this.

 

[Louie G.]

But those are just colloquially agreed to need the main character first, and even Sakurai knows this.

And funny enough, in the case of ARMS and Xenoblade 2 this was subverted from fan expectation / demand in favor of what would be most practical and fun.

We can split hairs about why this was the case - would Spring Man have been the move if he wasn’t an AT? And Rex & Pyra was the initial concept, so Rex may have made it regardless. But to the point of this comparison, Ultimate didn’t restrict itself based on simply what people most prominently asked for. Instead in these cases kind of gave people something they didn’t know was on the table. I remember years back I vouched for Pyra without Rex and I was told off for it lol.

More and more that’s what I think will happen with whoever they pick for Zelda, but we’ll see.

Ridley might be a contender, but his chances didn't seem all that likely before he appeared.

I feel like Metroid is a special case where Ridley was one of the only characters fans saw as well… a real “character” worth adding in the first place. In a post Plant world maybe more people are open to Mother Brain or the Metroid itself but Ridley is easily the most firmly planted and realized character in the Metroid series beyond Samus (that’s why she was added twice, lol).

Dark Samus support was around here or there… and well, that manifested in Ultimate too, so there you go. In all this talk of Raven Beak or Sylux it’s funny to reflect on how limited the scope of Metroid discussion used to be.

 

[SharkLord]

Funny you guys are talking about Zelda newcomers.

When I made my big first party poll this year, I found we don't have a Zelda frontrunner.

We have three roughly equal in popularity Zelda characters. Skull Kid, Impa and Midna were all within twenty votes of each other.

To be fair, you mentioned you got turrned down by the Zelda subreddit, right? I wonder how much things would've changed if we got all the dedicated Zelda fans on board. I distinctly remember Anna dropped like a rock once the poll hit the FE subreddit, for instance.

 

[fogbadge]

To be fair, you mentioned you got turrned down by the Zelda subreddit, right? I wonder how much things would've changed if we got all the dedicated Zelda fans on board. I distinctly remember Anna dropped like a rock once the poll hit the FE subreddit, for instance.

hey I voted and I'm the biggest zelda fan going

 

[Wario Wario Wario]

64 and Melee's credits are better than the later games, but NOT because of the shooting - in fact, I'd argue the shooting is the main thing going against them and Brawl had the right idea of making the fictional cast roll interactive while the actual credits aren't - rather I think 64 and Melee's credits are mostly good because of the sheer amount of detail they give in relation to each dev's role, but I don't think any kind of gaming skill should've been necessary to view that information (which is also how I feel about ending-locked credits), especially in the case of Melee which had a legitimate shooting gallery with unpredictable targets.

It also really sucks that you can't properly skip any of the Smash classic mode credits, there's no real purpose for that, the fast forward makes the text unreadable and to my knowledge they've never been de-skippable so the "no, look, it's actually a minigame!" aspect isn't all too practical.