What a surprise victory! What a shocker! Mega Man has taken the crown of the Best Super Smash Bros. Character Ever! Perhaps it was his iconic charms… or his varied moveset… whatever it was, it won Mega Man the top spot in this bracket! Let’s see how we got here…
Mega Man first hit the scene with Nintendo’s most recent Super Smash Bros. games for the Wii U and the 3DS. He had been a long-awaited 3rd Party Character pick ever since Solid Snake had entered the fray with Super Smash Bros. Brawl. When Snake arrived, it was clear that 3rd Party representation was certainly possible. In June of 2013 a video released showcasing Mega Man and his franchise-inspired move set. It was 100-seconds of bliss for Nintendo and video-game fans alike. You can, and should, re-watch that video. It’s charming all over again.
In the Super Smash Bros. Bracket this year, we were looking for who the Best Character overall was. The criteria was different for everyone and everyone had differing opinions. Mega Man started off in the Smash Ball Bracket, which was the fourth and final starting sixteen. He was up against Shulk, another surprise and delightful addition to the Super Smash Bros. franchise. It was presumed that there would be some real stiff competition for Mega Man but in the end that turned out not to be true. While some characters barely hung on, like Toon Link and Samus Aran, Mega Man garnered a commanding win over Shulk with a 15 to 4 voting record. In Round 2 Megan Man found himself up against a Nintendo veteran from the Star Fox series, of which that franchise is named… Fox McCloud. Fox and the Star Fox series is a favorite around these parts but Mega Man managed an even more distinctive blow with a 15 to 2 voting record. Interesting enough, the two folks who voted against him in Round 2, also voted against Mega Man in Round 1. With the foxy-man out of the picture, Round 3 turned robot against robot. Going even farther back into Nintendo’s history was R.O.B., designed after the Nintendo-peripheral of the same name. Once more, Mega Man fought with ease. He beat R.O.B. with a 13 to 3 ratio. I wasn’t noticing this at the time but Mega Man was having as easy of a time progressing as Link did; that is… until Round 4.
In Round 4 we found that the match-ups had narrowed down considerably. Whereas 63 characters had first entered the fray (along with a Sandbag), now there were eight. It was Link who defeated Peach with ease but everyone else had a tough go of it. All had won or lost by a mere two points. Mega Man was up against Samus Aran. She had a harder-fought battle through the ranks… barely beating Duck Hunt and Wii Fit Trainer. When she was up against Mega Man, I suspected that NegativeWorld.org’s love of the Metroid franchise would drive Mega Man into the dirt. Instead, Mega Man persevered. Funny enough, looking at the voting record now… those same two souls who had been voting against Mega Man almost this whole time, had done so again in an attempt to stop the Blue Bomber. Alas, it didn’t happen that way and so we found Mega Man in the final round fighting against Villager, another surprise guest of the Final Four. On the left side of the bracket was Link vs. Mr. Game & Watch. There it was a decided victory for Link and it was presumed that Link would just take it all. He had won all of his matches with ease and it seemed to be a ‘Squirtle’ moment where the obvious choice was obvious. Mega Man, had his work cut out for him. Mega Man and Villager ended up nabbing the same amount of votes...almost. While I feel I should thank folks like Ponderus, Cubed777, ploot, etc for voting for my man Villager, Mega Man snuck by with one single vote. GameDadGrant placed that vote, the vote which solidfied his win against the Animal Crossing resident.
With Mega Man finally up against Link. It was time to battle. Both of them were classic and beloved characters from franchises people adore. Link is about to star in yet another ‘presumed fantastic’ game and Mega Man hasn’t seen much action in some time… but this wasn’t about their franchises or what game was up next… this was about everything and with an 8 to 5 point victory split, Mega Man took the throne from Link… who was just about to cozy up to it after an easy journey. Mega Man’s wasn’t the most dire but he showed strength in his commanding power and endurance as he stuck through a couple of close rounds. Thus, we hail our final choice… Mega Man is the Best Super Smash Bros. Character according to NegativeWorld.Org (or at least according to the bracket method).
Sidebar: In a funny mistake that I’m glad wasn’t too big of a deal, it turns out that I thought Villager and Mega Man tied initially. They had seven votes each, but only because I accidentally counted Ponderus’ vote twice. So I did what I had done with Ike and King Dedede before, and had Villager and Mega Man battle it out for the tie-breaker. As I wrote this up I realized the error and now that video isn’t needed. Mega Man won and the tie-breaker didn’t matter. However you can see below how that turned out. If these two had tied we would have had a different outcome to this race depending on the results. If Villager beat Mega Man, then Villager would have gone up against Link and lost. If Mega Man had won, he would have gone up against Link and won, as we know he already did. See below yourself for how that Tie-Breaker Battle went down.
So as you can see, Mega Man still would have made it through. I’m glad that my mistake really wasn’t a mistake more than it was just some unnecessary work. In fact, Mega Man won every one of his matchups for the Final Four. He beat Villager, he beat Link, and he would have beaten Mr. Game & Watch. Mega Man is the definitive, undeniable, victor! Hail Mega Man!
The 'Surprise DLC' Vote Bayonetta and Cloud were two of the most surprising reveals this franchise has ever seen. Sure, Ryu probably counts too but he’s got his own fighting game. Bayonetta’s signature move set beat out Cloud’s classic moves in this fun bonus poll. She took double the votes of Cloud. I’ve played with both and I find both fun but i think I gotta give it to Bayonetta too.
The ‘Third Party’ Vote In this political season I thought that we too would have our ‘Third Parties’ come into the fray. Sonic and Snake were both in past Smash games but Snake never made it into the Wii U or 3DS version. Having said that, he still is a very missed character and the voting showed it. He took a handful of additional votes to beat out Sonic.
The ‘Ice Climber’ Vs. ‘Mario Bros.’ Vote I find both of the games these characters starred in to be pretty horrid. Ice Climber is a slog and the original Mario Bros. (not the Super one) is something I find incredibly un-fun to play. Ploot challenged me to rounds of both on his arcade cabinet when I visited him last week and that challenge was because he knew how I felt about these games. In the end, Mario took an extra vote against the Ice Climbers. While I may not like it, there’s a reason the Ice Climbers are so well liked. I just don’t happen to see what that is.
The ‘Fink’s Favorites’ Vote Pac-Man is the man and Villager was my most wanted. While Pac-Man is probably my all-time favorite, Villager took this vote by a singular vote. Glad to see the love for them both.
The 'Big Bad' Vote Bowser and Ganondorf were neck and neck, with Bowser winning by one point. I find it fitting that these two evil powerhouses were so equally beloved.
The 'Cotton Candy' Vote Kirby knocked out Jigglypuff but not with a huge margin. I guess there’s a place for both of these pink puffs in our hearts.
Well, that’s it! Thank you all for participating. It was a delight. I want to thank all you that voted. We had 25 different unique voters throughout the brackets and (including myself) 11 of you voted consistently in every round, never wavering or forgetting to participate. You know who you are!
I also need to give some props to a few folks who managed to nab Perfect Picks in any given rounds. Here’s how that shook out…
Round 1: Lip’s Stick Bracket Zero and TheOldManFromZelda
Round 2: Lip’s Stick and Smash Ball Bracket TriforceBun and TheOldManFromZelda
Round 4: All Brackets DrFinkelstein
Lastly, the top three individuals who managed the most picks which matched the majority for the whole entire bracket were these…
3rd Place - TriforceBun w/ 72.06% 2nd Place - Zero w/ 75.00% 1st Place - TheOldManFromZelda AND DrFinkelstein w/ 76.47%
That’s all I can muster up for now. It’s been fun everyone! Thanks for everything. I know this isn’t scientific for anything but it sure is fun to put on and process and follow through. Thanks to nate38 for suggesting we do this. I hope you liked how things turned out. Take a look at the overall bracket results below.
So how do you feel about Mega Man’s win? Who should have won instead of him? Let us know in the comments below, and now back to the show!
I'm a little surprised to see Mega Man win it all, especially over Link who I was confident would be the last man standing. It's a good surprise. Mega Man is awesome and is cool in Smash, even if I can't quite wrap my head around how to play him...
I'm a bit surprised by this result to be honest, expected Link to win it.
I still don't think voting with the mainstream is necessarily worthy of praise, but at least Mustache can't call me a hipster for this one. He was more esoteric in his choices than I was! Almost everyone was!
I've been saying this whole series, as far as Smash Bros. representation goes, Mega Man is about as close to perfection as they come. He's wholly unique, very creative, and every move in his arsenal is directly from one of his games! There are very few characters you can say that about. It also helps that I think he's visually the best in-game incarnation of the character ever, IMO. After all the Battle Network and ZX and Star Force versions, it's nice to see a classic character get such a polished update.
Thanks for doing this poll series, Fink! It was a lot of fun and even got me playing Smash again.
I missed the voting for the last few rounds (sorry Fink!) depressing to see Link pipped at the post. Still second isn't bad. And Mega Man isn't a real Smasher anyway, he's from one of those obnoxious Third Party companies
Bayonetta was never up against Ryu. Link beat him and that was the end of it. I only had two options for that bonus poll so I never included Ryu. My comment was about the fact I couldn't (or didn't want to) have more than two choices in that bonus poll. But, you can't complain about these things too much when you didn't vote against them yourself…
I was seriously surprised Link didn't make it. If it's any consolation, I decided to do a match with Level 9 CPUs for all four of the Final Four. I was going to upload it for fun but damn Smash Bros. won't let me upload it for some reason. Maybe because I used the Miiverse stage on Omega? Anyway, Link won that. Just barely smoked Mega Man out in the last second too. So close. Wish I could share it.
Yeah…. you and Ponderus were the two who were fighting against Mega Man from the beginning, except in that one round. Who would you have wanted to win it all?
I have no idea how I missed the final round. Bummer. :(
It certainly could have ended up a lot worse! They did a good job adopting Mega Man weapons for Smash Bros., however I find I don't do too well with him, probably due to all the projectiles. It makes me wonder if being so game-faithful is actually a detriment...
Hmm I'm not sure who I would've liked to win. I think either Kirby or Link kinda deserve it for both their history and overall quality. Mario lost it with FLUDD. Maybe the nerfing of Kirby brings him down a bit. It's tough because Nintendo (and guests) has just a jaw-dropping level of character quality showcased throughout the series. I mean, none of my mains would ever win, but I'm not worried about that, really.
On the note of mains winning it, I was really surprised that Villager made it as far as it did. I never expected it to win but Final Four was impressive. I am a little bummed that Pac-Man didn't get farther. I should have done a Pac-Man vs. Link Bonus to see how that would have fared.