Hmm. 5 Mario characters have been playable before(and you could argue that there's 1 one last one via an NPC with Metal Mario when it comes to showing off the entire series). Donkey Kong has had 3, Giant DK(as an actual programmed character, not a costume or simply increasing their size. They have unique files), Donkey Kong, and Diddy Kong. And Wario and Yoshi.
But that's about it. Giga Bowser is... an odd one. He appears as a Mario character in Brawl since his franchise symbol doesn't change. But in Melee, he's specifically a Smash Bros. character, sharing their symbol. Likewise, he has his own character file. What's worse is that in Brawl, there's exactly 5 playable Zelda characters, technically more than Mario(unless you count Giga Bowser, which would make it on par.) There's more playable Pokemon characters in Brawl than Mario. Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Lucario, Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard.
Really can't fathom how Mario is overrepped at all. Especially when it caps out at 6 playable at best. Or actually 5 per game(after 64) even.
edited 13th Nov '13 7:42:44 PM by Irene
Shadow?Officially, Sakurai does. He says there's 39 playables in Brawl. Can't really argue with Word of God on that.
Really can't see how separate playable characters don't count whatsoever. Mario itself has never been overrepresented so far. It started off with 2 guys, then went to 5, and lost one overall. Meanwhile, Pokemon started with 2, got 4 in Melee, and got 6 in Brawl total. And yes, I mean character files. I think we can say Final Smashes don't count as they're not regularly playable characters. And even then, only Giga Bowser much counts since he has a character file in Brawl, while the other ones don't. Nobody knows why, though. Could be because he was a separate character in Melee and they transferred over his data?
edited 13th Nov '13 7:53:14 PM by Irene
Shadow?Donkey Kong basically became an entirely separate series from Mario, after the original Donkey Kong.
They do appear in some of the Mario spin-offs, and technically they're in the same universe, but there's not really any intersection between them. They play very differently too, and their world and enemies are completely different, etc.
All 4 of those Franchises has viable characters. Clones or otherwise.(I miss Dr. Mario. He'd make a great alternate character with move differences. If he's a costume and doesn't have Mega Vitamins, well... why bother. He was different in gameplay, and that's all that matters in the end for games. That they aren't just a costume, but have different properties. All clones are like this. Even the NPC's)
I don't know if I want Giga Bowser back as a Final Smash either. While he was neat, he was really underpowered in Brawl. In Melee, he wasn't amazing or anything(in fact, he's a pretty easy boss to fight on his own), but he didn't suck either. I've played as him before. He seems like low Mid-Tier, perhaps. He's got powerful moves, but very eh range and is super easy to hit. He also is terrible against Pichu due to the fact almost none of his attacks can hit him.
Shadow?It's not the damage part. It's that he's slowed down by each hit. If it was phantom damage, and he was otherwise unaffected by the hits, he'd have been fine. It's also notoriously short. Compared to Super Sonic, who is stupidly long and truly invincible.
Megavitamins and Fireballs have different shapes and properties. "However, they bounce higher, fall faster, do more damage (8%), and have distinctive sound effects from the original Dr. Mario upon firing, bouncing, and hitting" They are definitely not the same move. Kirby's version when copied even has different sound effects, too.
edited 13th Nov '13 8:50:43 PM by Irene
Shadow?I don't know how easy Giga was to defeat, since it was extremely difficult to fight him at all. I still haven't reached him yet.
So... maybe Giga Bowser and Super Sonic can be balanced by switching their lengths. Hey, it's worth a shot.
edited 13th Nov '13 9:08:25 PM by doctrainAUM
"What's out there? What's waiting for me?"That could work. I think Giga Bowser's length would've been fine if attacks didn't make him slow down.
Sonic's is too long. Apparently only 15 seconds? O_o Felt longer to me... or maybe that's due to SSB-based time. (for instance, Slow-Mo Mode clearly makes each second take longer)
Giga's is for a measly 10 seconds(about).
That's kind of sad.
Shadow?Let's switch it to an Inside Story-inspired size boost.
Probably would be big enough that he'd have to be a Background Boss for the duration.
I have a message from another time...For all of the transformation FSs we got in Brawl, I was somewhat surprised that the only one that could actually be considered as a sort of Background Boss was (arguably) Pit's.
Ah, yeah, Snake too.
edited 13th Nov '13 9:49:29 PM by Demonfly
"Tell them to shut up and have some faith in me." - dead flashback guyDepends how you look at Snake's. He's the Boss(no pun intended if you know anything about Metal Gear) firing attacks off at you from the background.
Pit's is very clearly this, though. Also, King Dedede's is essentially the same thing as Pit's, just a slight subversion, as King Dedede's onscreen.
Of course, it depends if you literally mean the trope, or something similar to it. You can also apply Lucario's, as he's unhittable during it and might as well be part of the background. It does help that King Dedede is often a boss.
Is there a similar trope to this that like it, but not for bosses themselves?
edited 13th Nov '13 9:57:55 PM by Irene
Shadow?Brawl uses either:
- Wiimote
- Wiimote with Nunchuck
- Classic Controller
- Standard or Wavebird Gamecube Controller
Let's note the actual caption;
"Pic of the day. The characters' thick outlines are only available in the 3DS version. Only the external outline is thickened and won't appear in instances like when the hands or feet are overlapping. It's got a softness to it and is not just black."
He's working more on making things as easy to see as possible.
I still want a Bowser picture again, though. Doesn't get enough love.
Shadow?

I just don't know if adding another Mario character is justified (not to tread on a landmine subject). We've got 4 main characters and 4 peripheral characters (Yoshi, the Kongs, and Wario). Expansion is deserved elsewhere
Turbo hyped for Rosalina in SM 3 DW