Why is Little Mac the Bermuda triangle?

[KingTeo]

I've been consistently noticing this since the demo came out. I don't think I've ever experienced a character with a more mysterious reputation. People will cry that he's overpowered and in the same breath say that he's too simple and have never lost to him. People complain that he's underpowered, overpowered, but almost everyone actually agrees that he's midtier. Everyone hates him for being cheap and overpowered yet there's characters like Rosalina who has the same amount of "cheapness" but with none of the weakness.

And then gameplay-wise you have the character breaking boundaries and treading through uncharted territory as simultaneously being the best character(groundgame) and the worst(airgame). He's one of the quickest characters with a mechanic usually reserved for the slowest heaviest hitters(super armor), and still manages to have a pretty devastating gimp tool despite his characteristic horrible airgame. Nothing makes sense on Mac's wild ride.

Has there ever been another character or another anything at all with as inconsistent a reputation as Little Mac?

415

 

[PeterJude]

He also has 16 costumes. As the 8 costumes seem to have been inspired by having 8 player Smash, we can only assume the existence of 16 player Little Mac Madness.

415? What is this countdown to?

 

[many37]

Well keep in mind that in order to force Little Mac to be in the air longer, he needs to rack up damage and in order to rack up damage on Mac, you need to deal with him in the ground every time you fight him.

Because of how the game works (you need to rack up damage in order to kill) and because of how broken Mac is on the ground, most people have difficulty fighting Little Mac. Rosalina is pretty cheap (her "cheapness" being compatible to that of Little Mac) but for different reasons. She has amazing stage control capabilities thanks to her Luma, a ridiculous down B, and a pretty good recovery.

As for have we ever had a character with an inconsistent reputation as Little Mac's I do not remember if we ever had a character with such a reputation, but I guess Jiggs (great air game/bad ground game) maybe a close equivalent to Mac in terms of reputation.

 

[HeavyLobster]

As for have we ever had a character with an inconsistent reputation as Little Mac's I do not remember if we ever had a character with such a reputation, but I guess Jiggs (great air game/bad ground game) maybe a close equivalent to Mac in terms of reputation.

Puff was and is nowhere near as polarizing as Mac in terms of air and ground game, and she's never had a reputation like Mac. As far as characters who are like Mac in that they're dominant in neutral and super vulnerable to punishment, Melee Fox comes to mind, though Mac isn't as versatile in neutral and is much easier to gimp, so there's nothing in Smash history that really compares to Little Mac.

 

[SmasherP83]

No offesnse but when I see a Little Mac I really don't need to try. They just kill themselves.

 

[many37]

Puff was and is nowhere near as polarizing as Mac in terms of air and ground game, and she's never had a reputation like Mac. As far as characters who are like Mac in that they're dominant in neutral and super vulnerable to punishment, Melee Fox comes to mind, though Mac isn't as versatile in neutral and is much easier to gimp, so there's nothing in Smash history that really compares to Little Mac.

That's what I thought that Mac is pretty much unique in his status in the community. I kinda guessed when I said Jiggs because its the closest thing to mind that came to me. I was trying to make an analogy in terms of reputation by comparing Jiggs to Mac. I never intended to include the gameplay aspect of both characters.

 

[Doruge]

No offesnse but when I see a Little Mac I really don't need to try. They just kill themselves.

You've never seen me then

 

[FloatingMew]

You've never seen me then

There's suiciding spammy Little Macs... Then there's scary good Little Macs

 

[Oilpath99]

People that claim Mac is OP or Up are just delusional.

I think he's a solid high or upper mid tier character, nothing more or less.

 

[Antonykun]

I think people Mac's reputation comes from the fact that he has a huge bell curve in his skill curve gives a lot of power for a very small skill cost but at the same time he has the recovery of Melee Fox in a game where recover is key. This means that you can lose to a weak player because of how they were playing, but more often than not win against most Macs you meet. The really good Macs play some serious risk/reward scenarios in their heads because against good opponents rushdown is really risky.

 

[Warlock*G]

[...]he has the recovery of Melee Fox[...]

Melee Falco even.