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Ganondorf - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Had a Hell of a time deciding between Ultimate and Melee for Ganon. As a kid, Melee Ganondorf was unquestionably the strongest character in all of Smash Bros. I mean, he can do 50% damage in a single Up Smash! Thats just pure numbers! The lack of effects and hitstun in general for Melee also really sells his power - one moment youre there, on-stage, and the instant a Warlock Punch so much as grazes your body, youre in another zip code. And dead. But the dunks he gets with Flame Choke, how good his redone Ocarina look is, all of the moves he stole from Ike and Cloud - I mean, if youre gonna steal someones sword, might as well take from the best! Ganondorf is just pure unga bunga, throw out the strong hitbox and watch things die, and everything about him sans his throws screams that from the heavens. Who needs basic strategy and fundamentals when you have power?

Which leads to the eternal problem of Ganondorf mostly being based off of a race car driver. This moveset would be killer on Black Shadow or someone, but considering the amount of options that Ganondorf has? The fact that he takes most inspiration from a Space World 2000 tech demo than ANY of his actual appearances is kind of pitiful. Now, truth be told, I actually prefer this version of Ganondorf to anything you could give him properly - if you give this moveset to Black Shadow and make a real Ganondorf, theres no chance in Hell I stick with the Gerudo King, Im in love with hitting things hard with zero brain cells - but the only thing that this moveset really accomplishes for Ganon is establishing he really strong. If he wasnt so ridiculously tuned to that degree, hed be awful at actually representing himself but damn it, they made the guy just too damn fun to use for me to hate him. Could he use some reflavoring? Sure, give him his big touchdown punch, let him use his lethal tummyache magic he uses on the Deku Tree and Jabu Jabu or whatever so he can do chip damage in between the big hits hes only gonna land once in a blue moon, change the general look of things a lot. But damn it, he nails his feel so good. C+

Best Non-Smash Appearance: Hyrule Warriors - I mean, its this or what, Diablo 3? With that said, I do really like Mufasa Ganondorf - its a cool, bold design that we havent seen before and accentuates the beastly, and Musou is a great environment for him to go ham in. I really appreciate giving the man his trident, too - like, thats the Ganon weapon, he SHOULD have it! Not really all that much to elaborate on, he does the power aspect of his character real good in the power fantasy game. Big shock.

Sonic - Sonic Robo Blast 2

As usual, the best Sonic games are fangames.

https://www.srb2.org/

Sonics speed has been a hard thing to properly capture in games, as the character has to manage two very specific feelings at the same time: mastery and BRRRR VROOM VROOM GO FAST. The latter of those is easy to capture, and it feels good and Sonic does it very nice and cinematically. I think Generations handles it the best, where no matter which route you go on, the natural automation of the stage gives you the illusion that youre always doing something and getting easy S-Ranks just by going fast; your speed feels good for little effort. Mastery, always going for that high path to maintain your speed, is something that Sonic struggles with constantly. None of the Genesis games get him to fully maintain his sense of speed through their entire runs (hi Metropolis, Marble Garden, Sandopolis even though I secretly like it), but those few stages that really GET what Sonic is all about makes the whole process feel like its worth it. Sonic Mania then comes the closest with this, adding the drop dash for great bursts of speed, levels designed to keep Sonic running, very few pits to stop him, that really neatly designed final act with the four branching paths that challenge an aspect of Sonics momentum in a different way is super rad. Its really good!

But Sonic Robo Blast 2 is something special. For the uninitiated, this is a Sonic 3D platformer created in the Doom II engine thats been worked on since 1998. And tying Sonic to a linear z-axis, controlling what direction he moves in with the mouse? Actually brilliant. It gives Sonic the kind of lead-with-your-nose control of a vehicle, letting him still turn and handle very well, but not on a dime with a really floaty jump like the adventure games. This makes the act of just running forward with Sonic feel really, really good, and leads to a LOT less situations where Sonic ends up dangling at the edge of a cliff because hes run around like a headless chicken trying to find his footing. This is amplified by the speed thok - the games answer to the homing attack, where Sonic will burst forward in the air in whatever direction the camera is facing. This gives the player an instant change in momentum to Sonics speed whenever they want, perfectly controlled in whatever direction they want, but with far less of a margin for error than the homing attack would allow for. It makes all stages feel a lot more freeform and purposeful, Sonic in full control and ready to absolutely shred stages - if youre good enough to keep up, that is. Thats the key to Sonic for me - being able to make him feel rewarding to play, instantly bringing him up to max speed, but being hard enough that you WILL be punished if you cant handle the threats ahead. Its an incredibly elegant solution on how to bring the 2D gameplay feel into the third dimension, and I absolutely love it. Plus, if you have Tails with you, damn is that gay INVALUABLE in a 3D space. And its, by far, the best Metal Sonic race Ive ever had, so it gets tons of extra points for that.

do love Adventure 2, though. Bounce Bracelet is a stupid fun item, and I find a surprising amount of Sonics speed stages to be really, really good with no caveats. Thats a good run from him!

Best Smash Appearance: Brawl - The one where he says youre too slow was the best one because he said youre too slow! Like, do I have to tell you Sonic is bad in Smash? Because hes bad in Smash. Hes a ball, he does the ball things, some of the ball moves are fun but others are not, he has the spring, thats a legitimately nice move I really like that one, and he has a really bad Final Smash. Outside of going fast and being Sonic-flavored, theres not a single thing that Sonic does as a fighting game character that Captain Falcon doesnt do better. Like, both are capable of running away and being a coward, but Falcon players are encouraged to go for the knee and stuff and Sonic players seem to be allergic to following up and fighting unless theyre REALLY in the mood. Im sure its not hard at all to imagine a ton of other things Sonic could be doing, or SHOULD be doing, or what references he could pull out or how to change his momentum to be more in line with his games or what quips he could constantly be spouting out. But hes not, hes flavorless, and I really think hes only picked because hes Sonic, of course people are going to choose to play as him, Sonic fans have the guy in their hearts forever. I picked DK in multiple games where he sucked just because hes my guy, Im SURE Sonic fans have it worse! Its insanely cool that hes here. Please, let him do something more than being here. F