The viability of fighting game characters is often a central topic in a given game’s community, andSmash Ultimateis no different. For instance, recently making the rounds has been a discussion about which modified character would be better: Mr. Game & Watch who only rolls 9 on his Judge; or Hero with a perfect Command Selection list of Kaboom, Oomph, Zoom and Magic Burst.
This debate has one problem with it however: it really shouldn’tbeone, because the answer is clear as day: an “All 9” Mr. Game & Watch is a much better character than Hero with those spells for a number of reasons.
Mr. Game & Watch is already a far better character than Hero is. Thanks to Mr. Game & Watch’s versatility and seemingly never-ending advantage state, he’s ranked in the S-tier in theofficial tier list. This iswiththe RNG of his Judge move in play, rolling between a weak and self-damaging “1” to a devastating “9” that can one-shot most opponents in the right circumstances. Imagine how much stronger he’d be if one of the game’s most powerful attacks were at his disposal 100% of the time. And that’s not even mentioning that he can combo into the move at low percents with grabs.
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Hero, on the other hand, sits in the B+ tier as the 44th best character, three tiers below Mr. Game & Watch. This is mostly due to the RNG surrounding his moves, namely his Command Selection. While Mr. Game & Watch’s Judge also has RNG, the move is a negligible part of his playstyle; changing up the RNG either makes him better or does nothing for his overall character. Hero’s Command Selection is very important for him though, containing some of his most powerful abilities like Bounce, Psyche Up, and Thwack. Changing it can greatly affect his viability, for better or worse.
That leads us into the next problem with this question: Hero’s list of spells here aren’t exactly the best. The problem lies in Zoom and Magic Burst being on it. Zoom is a move that allows Hero to recover onto the stage from anywhere (as long as he doesn’t hit a ceiling while rising up). But if he’s already on stage, it doesn’t exactly do much for him. This means he only has three Command Selection moves at his disposal in neutral.
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Magic Burst is a move that creates an expanding wave of energy around Hero. The issue with this is that not only does the size and power of it depend on how much MP Hero has left (meaning that if he’s short on MP, the move is small and weak), but the move also uses all of his remaining MP in the process. These attributes hardly make Magic Burst worthwhile outside of specific situations, like the opponent recovering from offstage. And considering that the Kaboom spell drains Hero of 37 MP, a move like Magic Burst isn’t the best thing to have on a constant unchanging list.
An argument can also be made that this modification would make Hero weaker than he normally is. Hero suffers from poor frame data and an awful disadvantage state, but his randomness is as much of a blessing as it is a curse. Thanks to the wide range of spells that can come up with Command Selection, Hero can always keep his opponents on his toes and leave them guessing about when he uses it. Limiting his Command Selection to only four spells, no matter how good they are, hurts his unpredictability and versatility.
To put Hero on the same playing field as an “All 9” Mr. Game & Watch would require a lot more work to his character, especially if we want to stay in line with what seems to be the intended design philosophy behind the question.
But I do have a solid idea. Instead of limiting Hero to four moves, how about allowing him to select any spell he wants? This modification would also let him choose between each individual effect of Hocus Pocus, a move with various effects like making Hero bigger, invincible, or invisible.
Allowing Hero to choose any spell he wants removes the RNG factor of the Command Selection while maintaining one of the things that makes him good—his versatility. Considering the power behind a lot of these attacks and buffs as well, it’s fair to say that he’s more evenly matched with Mr. Game & Watch than he was with the previous list of spells.So now the question is ‘who’s the better character?’ An “All 9” Mr. Game & Watch, or a Hero that can choose any spell?
While the answer may still be Mr. Game & Watch, it’s a lot harder to definitively say without much thought. Mr. Game & Watch can potentially delete stocks, but Hero could very well invalidate entire characters with some of his effects. They’re both broken for different reasons in this instance.
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