Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 550 ft Virus, Slowbro, Harry Osborn

(+) Yeah! (+)

This is a topic to rate the contest strength of potential newcomers in the current contest environment.

I will pick the characters to rate and discuss for each day from user nominations - whoever the 3 most nominated characters are at that time. If there are more than 3 I will pick randomly. You can nominate any number of characters at any time, but you cannot nominate the same character twice.

All characters who were present in the 2018 Character Battle will NOT be eligible. Otherwise you can nominate any character that has appeared in video games; even comic book characters. This will exclude real-life athletes who have only appeared in long running sports series, however I will accept those who have their own games such as Shaq. I will accept nominations for iconic gaming duos too, if there is a compelling reason for both characters to be linked (either co-starring in a game ala Banjo & Kazooie, or always appearing together like Callie & Marie from Splatoon).

Each day will have a separate topic, and nominations will carry over. As far as actually rating the character's contest strength; I ask that users rank a characters potential strength with one of the following qualifiers - LAW Fodder, Low Fodder, Mid Fodder, High Fodder, Fodder Line, Low Midcarder, Midcarder, High Midcarder, Near Elite, Elite, LAW Tier (capable of beating Link). I will average all the ratings given to a character to come up with their final ranking. I have included a highlighted entrant from Character Battle X on each tier of the strength rankings below, to provide a baseline for each.

Note that LAW Fodder is meant to be a tier reserved for the weakest possible characters to put into a contest. A character will only be placed there if at least 3/4ths of the voters for that day agree on the LAW Fodder rating, and no ratings above Low Fodder are given. If either of those conditions are not met, the character will not be eligible for the LAW Fodder tier.

Current Character Strength Rankings: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P1AIhHywBiLd6VAMZMNEGX-HW2td8u1D0Iw_tzHsORw/edit?usp=sharing

Nomination List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-KnSBDzppzPK5Ug1zmx8_x0bG4tqFDMPPH2k8J3s8sk/edit?usp=sharing

If you feel that a character has been over or under-ranked, or if a new development has come up that would affect their contest strength, you may nominate them for a re-ranking. You may nominate one character per day for this, and 3 votes are needed to get them on the slate. One character with 3 votes will come up for re-ranking today.

Re-ranking Nomination List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V6dx-tu-FD1rCxbX69eQwEzE7x1F6nNRNFochYHu1dc/edit?usp=sharing

Results from Day 549:

Sakura Kasugano (Street Fighter) is Low Fodder
Darkwing Duck (Darkwing Duck) is Low Fodder
Axl (Mega Man X series) is Low Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Virus (Dr. Mario)
Slowbro (Pokemon)
Harry Osborn/New Goblin (Marvel)

Today's Re-Ranking is:

Banjo (Banjo-Kazooie)

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Low Fodder for Virus and Harry. Virus is decently recognizable but I don't think many people will care to non-apathy vote it. Harry hasn't really been in anything relevant since Spider-Man 3, but he has so many meme-able scenes from the Raimi trilogy that put him comfortably above law range to me. He might lose some of that if he gets a New Goblin pic but that he would also stand to gain from association with Green Goblin.

Mid Fodder for Slowbro. It's funny-looking and was very usable in Gen 1 (psychics were busted). Plus it can benefit from Slow memes like its pre-evo.

Fodder Line for Banjo. The shock factor of B&K being in Smash is no longer there, plus I think the specific combination of Banjo & Kazooie will benefit more from being in Smash than Banjo alone. And I believe the duo would be stronger regardless.

Nominate Sakura Kasugano for re-ranking. I'm quite confident that Sakura is the strongest Street Fighter character who didn't appear in SF2, for what its worth. She debuted in Street Fighter Alpha 2, and has been a consistent top 5 character in popularity polls (including western ones), and is always among the first fans want for new SF games.

Plus she's a Shoto, so she is also a very popular choice for players. And gamers in the mid to late 90s could not miss her, considering how many different games she was in (I count 9 between SF, Rival Schools and Marvel vs Capcom during that period).

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nominate Dusty (Gravity Rush)

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Agree with halfsilver I suppose. I see no good reason why a normal Kanto evolution would be worse off than a trade-only Johto evolution in these contests.

As for Banjo, I still hold that it wouldn't make sense for him to be the only platformer main protagonist (unless you count Cuphead as a platformer I guess) to be distinctly weaker than their strongest game, and also that he's never had a fair draw to test that. However, I'll concede that the Smash vote I was partly banking on last time is probably greatly diluted (even more for Banjo alone) now that the hype and surprise factor are gone and B-K have become just another Smash character.

Re-rank Birdo on similar merits to Piranha Plant yesterday, only she trades a total lack of a playable Smash appearance for explicit characterization and staple status in Mario spinoffs.

Also, nominate Jak and Daxter (Jak and Daxter series) and Ratchet & Clank (Ratchet & Clank series).

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Agreed with halfsilver.

re-rank Pirahna Plant.

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Day 551 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79196899

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