Why is your main your main?

[Nepht]

Mii Sword Fighter because I like making my own characters and Kirby because I like cake.

 

[ArcticKat]

I’ve regularly used Peach since Melee.
Super Mario Bros. 2 was the first game I remember ever playing, also the first game I’ve beaten on my own. There were four characters to play as, but I would always —always— play as the Princess for her cool floating ability.

… At least I’d like to keep saying Peach is my go-to character. Smash Ultimate has a rather annoying character selection interface. Since it won’t remember which character you were playing as from the last battle, I just meander my cursor to Ridley a lot of times.
Oy… it’s weird. I love Metroid, but I never thought Ridley was worthy of adding to the roster. When he was announced and we saw what he looks like, I thought he was just a hideous abomination.
But the more I think of it, the more I love it — how Ridley contrasts so much with the cutesy characters I usually pick — Peach, Villager, Jigglypuff. And it just amuses me to see Ridley put on a bunny hood or slip on a banana peel or something.

 

[RadiantTactician]

is one of my favorite video characters of all-time, and if weren't for him, I would've never gotten into various different genres of games than I would previously; I never would've guessed that the Fire Emblem series would become one of my favorite franchises. Plus, each of his attacks are so satisfying to connect!

 

[Deleted member]

is one of my favorite video characters of all-time, and if weren't for him, I would've never gotten into various different genres of games than I would previously; I never would've guessed that the Fire Emblem series would become one of my favorite franchises. Plus, each of his attacks are so satisfying to connect!

While he isn't my current main (Ness is), I agree with your post. He's the first character I played as in a Smash game, and, like you said (even though I haven't played his game), he's led me to my favorite series of all time, the Mother series, and has led me to being a Ness main

 

[MG_3989]

It seems like I’m one of the few people who picked up Ness while having no idea what Earthbound even was at the time. Of course I played it later and it just made me love Ness even more but I’ve never picked mains in Smash based on my favorite characters

 

[Wiziliz]

always and forever. I still have my EarthBound cartridge, strategy guide and the box they came in (still with the big Wal*Mart sticker on the front lol). I was actually going to buy Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for GB, but I saw that EarthBound was cheaper AND it came with a strategy guide! (For the record, I did end up buying LoZ:LA later, which was also excellent). It was the first video game that I would think about day and night the whole time I was playing. It was so quirky and different from anything that I had played before and coming from a small town really resonated with my middle-school-aged self.

When Smash Bros. was announced in Nintendo Power magazine with Ness as part of the roster, I was beside myself. The rest is history.

Damn, that's so nice, I hope to have the joy of one day discovering a character from a game I love getting in. While I love Ridley as a character, I don't have lots of nostalgia for the Metroid games. Hopefully Crash gets in and has a moveset that resonates with me. Or Louie, but I know that won't happen.
I main Ness because I find Ness really awesome. He's always been a character, where when I hear someone mains him, I think they're cool because of it, but until now, I've never tried to main him myself because I didn't think I'd be any good with him, and his moveset didn't work with me. However, I picked him up as soon as I unlocked him this time, and surprisingly, his moveset really resonated with me! Not sure if it's the change of engine or if I'm just better than I used to be, but I have so much fun with this character now! I'm still upset I forgot to save my replay of me landing a PK Thunder 2 that hit the stage, but rather than grabbing on the edge, went and hit Lucas (CPU, but it's still something I've never seen in my life, and can't find anywhere, so the chances must be incredibly low). Problem is, there are days where I'm just really bad with Ness. Something about how differently he controls, I guess, has it so that I'm thrown off if I try playing him after playing someone else earlier that day. Can take me up to a couple of hours to get good with him again after not playing him for a while, but when I'm doing well, he's probably my best character, other than Wario.

 

[MG_3989]

Damn, that's so nice, I hope to have the joy of one day discovering a character from a game I love getting in. While I love Ridley as a character, I don't have lots of nostalgia for the Metroid games. Hopefully Crash gets in and has a moveset that resonates with me. Or Louie, but I know that won't happen.
I main Ness because I find Ness really awesome. He's always been a character, where when I hear someone mains him, I think they're cool because of it, but until now, I've never tried to main him myself because I didn't think I'd be any good with him, and his moveset didn't work with me. However, I picked him up as soon as I unlocked him this time, and surprisingly, his moveset really resonated with me! Not sure if it's the change of engine or if I'm just better than I used to be, but I have so much fun with this character now! I'm still upset I forgot to save my replay of me landing a PK Thunder 2 that hit the stage, but rather than grabbing on the edge, went and hit Lucas (CPU, but it's still something I've never seen in my life, and can't find anywhere, so the chances must be incredibly low). Problem is, there are days where I'm just really bad with Ness. Something about how differently he controls, I guess, has it so that I'm thrown off if I try playing him after playing someone else earlier that day. Can take me up to a couple of hours to get good with him again after not playing him for a while, but when I'm doing well, he's probably my best character, other than Wario.

You’ll get better, he just takes a while to get used to, especially his more advanced play. And don’t worry about forgetting to save the PKT2 kill. I probably have more than 100 PKT2 kills and I only save the really cool ones. You’ll get plenty more

 

[UtopianPoyzin]

because she's good.

 

[Wiziliz]

You’ll get better, he just takes a while to get used to, especially his more advanced play. And don’t worry about forgetting to save the PKT2 kill. I probably have more than 100 PKT2 kills and I only save the really cool ones. You’ll get plenty more

I've gotten probably half a thousand PK Thunder 2 kills, but I've never been able to recreate the one where I hit the side of the stage with the PK Thunder 2, Ness paused for a bit, and then kept going forward, instead of grabbing the ledge, and hit the opponent. Not sure how to redo it, and I can't find it anywhere online.
Problem is that I'm not really loyal to my mains, I play a variety of characters, so it's challenging to get used to things like Ness and his recovery or Fox and his jumping/falling.

 

[Luigifan18]

It seems like I’m one of the few people who picked up Ness while having no idea what Earthbound even was at the time. Of course I played it later and it just made me love Ness even more but I’ve never picked mains in Smash based on my favorite characters

I'm in the exact same boat... I had no clue who Ness is when I started playing as him. I still haven't played Earthbound, actually... I should probably do that sometime.

 

[MG_3989]

I'm in the exact same boat... I had no clue who Ness is when I started playing as him. I still haven't played Earthbound, actually... I should probably do that sometime.

It’s definitely worth it. One of my favorite RPGs of all time now

 

[Krimnorr]

I tend to gravitate towards the characters that the majority deem mediocre or bad. In sm4sh, I mained Ganondorf, and in Ultimate I main Ridley. Back when he was first revealed, though I was happy for the fans who wanted him for the longest time, I never thought I'd want to play him; In fact, I had no idea who to play. It was only when the game was released for testing, and when people were downtalking him, that I decided he was the character. (It certainly helps that Ridley's character and moveset is appealing to me. Though I really love Kirby's games, there's a reason you don't see me playing him. I never liked floaties.)

I guess I do it as a personal challenge to prove that the characters aren't as bad as they're made out to be. Turns out Ridley is beginning to look promising. Even so, I'll stick with him. It'd be a success of proving his worth.

 

[Opossum]

I tend to gravitate towards the characters that the majority deem mediocre or bad. In sm4sh, I mained Ganondorf, and in Ultimate I main Ridley. Back when he was first revealed, though I was happy for the fans who wanted him for the longest time, I never thought I'd want to play him; In fact, I had no idea who to play. It was only when the game was released for testing, and when people were downtalking him, that I decided he was the character. (It certainly helps that Ridley's character and moveset is appealing to me. Though I really love Kirby's games, there's a reason you don't see me playing him. I never liked floaties.)

I guess I do it as a personal challenge to prove that the characters aren't as bad as they're made out to be. Turns out Ridley is beginning to look promising. Even so, I'll stick with him. It'd be a success of proving his worth.

I always did feel the early reactions of Ridley being bad were a bit premature. Like, when I actually got the game I didn't think he was bad at all.

Glad to see some people are coming around on him.

 

[staindgrey]

Because I was bored toward the end of Brawl's life cycle and picked up Zelda as a secondary, and now she's not bad. She, Young Link and Lucina were my most natural transitions and didn't require a ton of relearning for me to play.

 

[Crescentium]

because I wanna pocket things, drop bowling balls, and overall be a soulless nuisance that doesn't want you to play the game at all. Despite my signature, I'm still soul searching a bit, but Villy's a constant love.

I also have a softspot for / as disrespect picks. And recently, I've warmed up to / as well.

 

[leafgreen386]

In every fighting game I play, I pick characters with a strong neutral game. Characters that can safely pressure with defensive play, then trigger a sudden offensive when their opponent slips up. Turns out, this is a property that is almost exclusive to top tier characters, so I have a pretty good track record there.

In the case of palutena, I started playing her just because I liked her explosive flame, then as I played more, I realized the rest of her kit was actually really solid. Strong neutral, strong offense, but weak at getting out of enemy pressure. Exactly my kind of character. YL also ticks all my main checkboxes, who I still play as a secondary.

 

[Luigifan18]

In every fighting game I play, I pick characters with a strong neutral game. Characters that can safely pressure with defensive play, then trigger a sudden offensive when their opponent slips up. Turns out, this is a property that is almost exclusive to top tier characters, so I have a pretty good track record there.

In the case of palutena, I started playing her just because I liked her explosive flame, then as I played more, I realized the rest of her kit was actually really solid. Strong neutral, strong offense, but weak at getting out of enemy pressure. Exactly my kind of character. YL also ticks all my main checkboxes, who I still play as a secondary.

That's similar to how I started playing Jigglypuff; I came for Rollout and stayed for the aerials.

 

[EGsmash]

I've gotten probably half a thousand PK Thunder 2 kills, but I've never been able to recreate the one where I hit the side of the stage with the PK Thunder 2, Ness paused for a bit, and then kept going forward, instead of grabbing the ledge, and hit the opponent. Not sure how to redo it, and I can't find it anywhere online.
Problem is that I'm not really loyal to my mains, I play a variety of characters, so it's challenging to get used to things like Ness and his recovery or Fox and his jumping/falling.

What I think you're describing is what happens when you jam Down on the control stick as you're approaching the ledge. Instead of snapping to the ledge you'll run into it and bounce, and you can do a second PKT within a few frames to recover if you're fast enough. If you have an opponent who is camping right at the ledge it can actually hit them, but it's extremely punishable, very situational, and a high likelihood you'll end up SDing. Most characters won't snap to ledge if you hold Down on the control stick - most notably Ganondorf and C. Falcon's Up B will pass the ledge and get opponents on stage, and I think the Links' Up Bs do it too. This was a thing in at least Smash 4 as well.

Unless you're talking about that weird wall-riding thing that only happens on one side of the stage?

 

[Sean²]

Because I see my characters as more than a gray, lifeless clump of frame data and hitboxes. I need an emotional tie as well, or I get bored. I’ve never made the most optimal choices in my mains from a competitive standpoint, but I stand by them.

I’ve always sympathized with the villain, and always liked to play villainous characters in just about everything if they were available. I thought Wolf was a cool character in Star Fox 64. I played him in Brawl. Figured it was only natural to give him another shot. Turned out I liked the changes he got and just kept running with it.

 

[leafgreen386]

Most characters won't snap to ledge if you hold Down on the control stick - most notably Ganondorf and C. Falcon's Up B will pass the ledge and get opponents on stage, and I think the Links' Up Bs do it too. This was a thing in at least Smash 4 as well.

This also applies to holding up as well, at least with some characters. I've failed to snap the ledge far too many times with lucina, and I'm pretty sure it's because I wasn't releasing up fast enough.

 

[Swordmaster102]

I’ve been a solo main maining since about the midlife of sm4sh (he makes up of about 95% of my playtime, so I’m pretty much married to him lol). I would have a secondary character being (my favorite video game character, with Ryu being at about #2) but he is utter garbage in this game. I remained with Ryu instead of moving on like most unloyals to or because I love Ryu as a character even though he’s been moved out of the spotlight and nerfed. The main reason he’s my main now is because I saw someone use him online in sm4sh and was completely in awe of his playstyle (you can say I lost pretty bad XD). I continued later to buy him as a character and dumped my time into him while learning from watching Trela play him. Playing ryu also brought me to start playing SF more (I played some casually as a kid) and pursue being good with him in SFV as well.

I love his combos and taking the time to learn him more was always enjoyable since he is such a dynamic character unlike the rest of the cast. It’s much more uncommon now in 5mash, but I have a lot of good memories of rarely coming across another Ryu in sm4sh and learning from the way the other person would play him. Through fighting I could learn new techniques and combos that I never knew about. Now I pretty much have Ryu’s whole playstyle/combos locked in my head and there really isn’t anything left to learn, so I just play with him with ease. He’s the only natural feeling character in my hands.

Before I took the game seriously and went much more competitive when I started Ryu, I just went between playing and . I played in brawl and link in melee (but that was long ago).

 

[Deleted member]

and are the most salt-inducing juggernauts to curse Smash. I main them to prevent tilt (and because Big Guy loyalty).

 

[Gyrom8]

I usually have to have some kind of connection to a character's series if I want to main them. ROB is an exception though (cos how many ROB mains have actually played Gyromite?). Not sure why I picked him up - my only prior exposure to him was through Mario Kart DS - but I must have just liked his playstyle in Brawl, as I've been playing him ever since.

Olimar is more straightforward though, as Pikmin 2 is one of my favourite videogames and he was one of my most wanted newcomers at the time. Regardless of playstyle, I wanted to main him.

 

[Christian_CAO]

Since the dawn of 64 I've used him...
Since I suck at the game I've settled to play "bad"
Playing something akin to tag
Adapting that style more so because of Brawls Online lag
Even when planking the ledge wasn't abused in Smash four
I still did it despite knowing the pain I was in for
Here we are in Ultimate, I can't believe it either, in the sky I swear I saw flying pigs (bad, so bad, why? why!? did I do this, WHY!!?)...OWN it you fool, It's too late to go back!*
Hello, I'm a Puff main, but we just call her Jiggs

... Yeah Main for life.
I also really enjoy as well but this isn't about the second fiddle ( is also quite fun)

 

[Gryphon827]

I mained because I picked him up in World of Light after getting Merric, a spirit that specifically buffs 's attacks. I really enjoyed the character and started using him in online battles. He's good, but not broken.

However, I wasn't great at the game when I started playing online, so my GSP quickly fell into an unrecoverable state. I started playing other characters and ended up getting 3M GSP with , who is now my main.

 

[Wiziliz]

What I think you're describing is what happens when you jam Down on the control stick as you're approaching the ledge. Instead of snapping to the ledge you'll run into it and bounce, and you can do a second PKT within a few frames to recover if you're fast enough. If you have an opponent who is camping right at the ledge it can actually hit them, but it's extremely punishable, very situational, and a high likelihood you'll end up SDing. Most characters won't snap to ledge if you hold Down on the control stick - most notably Ganondorf and C. Falcon's Up B will pass the ledge and get opponents on stage, and I think the Links' Up Bs do it too. This was a thing in at least Smash 4 as well.

Unless you're talking about that weird wall-riding thing that only happens on one side of the stage?

I know about the second PK Thunder, but nah, it was a single PK Thunder. I ran into the ledge, and for some reason, it paused there for a second, before the momentum returned, and he kept going, not grabbing onto the ledge, and headbutting Lucas, doing the big PK Thunder 2 zoom before he blasted away.

 

[Deleted member]

potentially one of the most flexible characters in the game, with a lot of tech to boot. also xenogears/saga/blade is one of my favorite franchises of all time
when i wanna take a break from using all 2 of my brain cells to play shulk optimally

 

[WumboTheSecond]

I main cloud due to my love for final fantasy VII. Also while others may not share my opinion I believe Cloud is still competitively viable despite his nerfs. Cloud is a character that no matter win or lose, the matches are always fun to me and enjoyable.

 

[Praylewd]

- she has 3 spikes, an item, charge shot, nice off edge game and limit. I'm not great with counter picking or matchups but I feel like with discipline you can download your opponent and shift to the right emphasis of your kit. She so damn flexible.

 

[Tino]

- Because The Legend of Zelda is my favorite game franchise ever. Also the reason why I like playing as , and .
- Because the Tellius games are two of my favorite Fire Emblem games ever.
- Because she's my favorite Mario series character ever forever and always.
- Because Metal Gear bias.
- Because Final Fantasy VII is one of my favorite games ever and also what got me into Final Fantasy in general.

 

[SteadyDisciple]

I'll be honest, I started playing back in Smash 4 as a joke. I had a friend who I was chatting with, assessing different characters, and I was saying how bad I had heard the Trainer was. My friend starts saying how "I know this guy who is crazy good with Wii Fit.". Now, I'm way better at smash than this friend, so to prove a point about how he just wasn't at a level where character strength mattered much, I decided to try out the trainer. I won, as expected, but much more easily than I had thought I would.

From there... What can I say? I had a fun time playing the character, her style felt natural (I'm a naturally defensive player and smash 4 Trainer was the queen of planning), and the more I played her the more I kept winning. It was a beautiful (Wii) fit.

That said, what sealed the deal was the first time I went to a tournament. I live out in the middle of nowhere, so I rarely get to compete. There was a small tournament held at a convention I was at, and I decided to play Wii Fit, since she was my most winning character online. I flawlessly swept qualifiers, and made it to the semi-finals in a single elimiation tournament as a crowd and commentator favorite, only losing to the player who would go on to win the entire tournament (and would later become the #1 ranked player in the state). Even the last time I went to that tournament two years later, I was being recognized as "the Wii Fit guy". At this point, I couldn't change mains if I wanted to, but given how much better she is In Ultimate, I think we're just getting warmed up.

 

[Lord_Ghirahim]

He's fast and combo heavy which I like a lot.
He feel somewhat familiar due to his existence in Melee.
I'm in love with Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

 

[Xquirtle]

No particular loyalty here. I usually just main top tiers that feel good to play with a bias towards sword characters. Not really drawn to broken combos like the smash 4 pre nerf Diddy, but i like to have good frame data and hit boxes on my aerials especially. Really into wolf atm since his neutral just feels amazing to play.

 

[MG_3989]

Another reason Ness is my main is because he feels like the most creative character on the roster to me. He feels like he has endless possibilities. Once you get all his movement and kit down you can do whatever you want and you have so many options. While Ness has true combos they take a back seat to the freestyle strings and combos players come up with on the fly. He has an amazing comeback factor because you can flip a switch so quick and play at a different tempo and he racks up damage so fast. As a character he’s extremely creative

You can watch all the top pro Ness players play and they all have distinct style of play. I love that about Ness and that’s the kind of character that vibes with me best

 

[Olympia]

So my first mains were both & .
I was around 6 or 7 when Smash Bros Brawl came out. My Uncle had his friends over at the house for a Smash Party. They let me play with them until I had to go home. Back then, I was interested in characters that were around my age, so Ness was the first fighter that caught my eye when I first played.
After that day, I started getting into Smash Bros Brawl and the main characters that I would play the most were Ness and Lucas.
I ended up finding out about the Earthbound games from looking at Ness and Lucas videos on YouTube.
I then got into the Earthbound franchise since then.
So basically, I grew up with my Main.

My secondary character ended up being .

So I ended up taking a break from Brawl for various reasons (one such as that No one at my Elementary School played it).
Then I started Middle School.
I found out that my Middle School had this "game room" that a Nintendo 64 that everyone would always gather around to play Smash 64 on.
I ended up getting into that for a bit.
The problem was... Ness was garbage in that game...
So I ended up being forced to try using another character.
I saw someone playing as Kirby and saw that his air moves were very good (I had no knowledge of tier lists back then).
So I ended up using Kirby as my main for that game, and I almost never lost a game there.
Then a year later, Smash 4 comes out for the 3DS.
I mained Kirby for a while on Smash 4, but then ended up switching back to Ness.

So after 11 years of Smash, I'm still using the same main.

 

[FartyParty]

I started out trying to main Marth b/c I knew he was good and felt I needed a good character to help make up for my deficiencies as a player, and then I saw a video from ZeRo talking about how Lucina is better than Marth so I switched.

That's literally it. Lol. Granted I'm a lot better now than I was when this game came out 2 months ago.

As for my co-main Palutena, I just picked her up a little over a week ago planning on her being my secondary. I had been using Peach as a secondary, but it was becoming clear that getting good with Peach required more time than I was willing to commit for her to be a viable secondary so I needed someone else. So I went for Palutena as a new secondary b/c I always had trouble against her and thought I could benefit from a secondary with:
1) Matchup advantage against a majority of characters
2) Projectiles
3) Top tier recovery

It turned out Palutena was quite a natural fit for me and within a couple days I was playing at close to the same level with her as with Lucina so I promoted Palu from secondary to co-main. And funny enough with Palu elevated to co-main, I'm technically still using Peach as my secondary.

 

[Diddy Kong]

- Favorite character since childhood, supported him before Brawl, am a huge fan of the franchise, and his playstyle just naturally fits. Diddy Kong is also the star of my favorite game ever; Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kongquest. Donkey Kong Land was my first owned game also, and I always would play with Diddy all the time.

Moving to secondaries:

- Always was played a lot, but Captain Jack in the Melee days (R.I.P. Smash Brother <3) had a few awesome DK combo videos, and since Diddy wasn't there, DK got most of my attention. Love his raw strenght mixed with suprising agility.
- Nostalgia from my Pokemon Training days in my teens, Mewtwo was always on my competitive teams, and played him since Melee.
- Fire Emblem Path of Radiance made me support him getting into Brawl. Radiant Dawn was also awesome. Playstyle didn't even connect with me as much, but forced myself into getting good with him and it traded off.
- I always sort of tried to have a good Marth, but was never really succesful because Marth kinda demands you to main him. And in Smash 4, I tried around with Lucina a little and found her quite fun. Later when I got a 3DS, I got into Fire Emblem Awakening. Ironically, my 3DS is now also in auto sleep mode with Fire Emblem Awakening running. Smash Ultimate buffs made me love her more in Smash.
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Also supported him getting into Brawl. And he plays much different to Link and Young Link, who I also sort of use, but prefer Toon Link by a great margin.
- Smash made me love EarthBound, and his buffs ever since Smash 4 made me love him even more.
- My favorite gaming villain ever, finally returning from a needless absence in Ultimate with a great comical moveset that hits like a truck. What's not to love?

 

[AlwaysPlayerTwo]

My brother always made me play as Luigi in Mario games and it just got ingrained into my subconscious i guess. I HAVE to play Luigi in every game that he's in. The best part is that now this annoys the hell out of my brother.

 

[ALiBi212]

Loved him in Brawl, love him in Ultimate. I am a big fan of the ability to have 65 hitboxes exploding on every corner of the screen at once. Also, I think Snake would still be high tier even if he was only as strong as Squirtle, but no. Sakurai made him a super heavy mega smash hard hitta just for the fun of it. It’s almost not fair that he’s even in the game. My GSP is 999,999,999 and all I use is grenades and up tilts.

Hate me cus you ain’t me, Snake mains are fueled by salt.

 

[Dragonhunter970]

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