LogFAQs > #910651285

Battle 137: Mega Man vs Ganondorf

Ganon can't leech this hard. Mega Man wins with 58%

Battle 138: Crono vs Bowser

Rematch. Crono wins with 55%

Battle 139: Sonic vs Squall

Sorry Leon. Sonic wins with 53%

Battle 140: Samus vs Sephiroth

I don't think there's a wide enough space between Samus and Mario indirectly. Samus wins with 51%

Battle 141: (1) Link vs (4) Cloud Strife

We've seen this match once or twice before. Link wins with 58%

Battle 142: (3) Solid Snake vs (7) Mario

Snake seems to have become the consensus #2 character in the view of this board. That's perfectly understandable, given his performance in 2013 and the apparent general trend of him growing stronger over time. I must admit to being tempted to jump ship to him myself, but I'm afraid that we may be falling into two pitfalls there, which I have discussed previously in this topic.

First, the assumed extension of old trends. It's been a long time since 2013, and some things appear to have changed. We're more obsessed with 90s nostalgia than ever, if the Games contest of 2015 is anything to go by. Metal Gear's reputation as a series has really tanked. It did poorly in both of the games contests which have taken place since Snake's 2010 run. First, the games nearly got routed by SotC. Then, they lost all over the place in 2015 - 4 to KHII, 5 to Dark Souls, and III to SMRPG. All of these matches might have been winnable once upon a time. So although this evidence is not exactly iron-clad, it's also uncertain if Snake will still be riding high.

The second pitfall is putting any stock into the 2013 contest. Mario lost in a horrible match, where he was specifically targeted, long before he met Snake. When Snake faced Samus, he was energized by being the chosen last hope to defeat Draven. So if you think Snake makes the finals based on 2013, I hope you have Mewtwo making a deep run as well. Snake had an easy path to the finals. He faced characters like GLaDOS, Kefka, and Alucard until he reached the semi-final, where he fought Pikachu and Squirtle at once, though he scored 51%, to his credit. Samus' path was very similar, by the way - only Mega Man overcame the hurdle of fighting a Pokemon while weighed down. Snake did extraordinarily well against Link in the bonus poll and he also outdid Samus' percentage on Cloud in 2010, but I suspect that he benefited from a kind of bandwagoning in both cases.

At first, I had Sephiroth beating Mario and the losing to Snake, since he lost that match in 2010. That didn't make sense to me, and I ended up switching over to Mario beating them both. Even after all that I've just written, I do think it's close and Snake pulling it out wouldn't shock me too much. But don't be surprised if he's not the #2 character you expected. Mario wins with 51%

Battles 143 & 144: Mega Man vs Crono & Sonic vs Samus

The hierarchy in both of these matches is pretty clear. Mega Man & Samus win with 55%