LogFAQs > #967645108

Mewtwo - Pokemon Stadium

We dreamed of creating the worlds strongest Pokemon and we succeeded. There was nothing quite like Gen 1 Mewtwo when he came out. There were superbosses in games before, really strong opponents who required approaches totally different than regular fights. There were characters whose power was properly set-up by the game, whispers of their strength permeating through the adventure to build excitement and dread in finally fighting them. There were overpowered characters, like, Akuma existed by 96, an uncontested S-tier was not a new idea. But Mewtwo combined all of these - all the lore, all the stats, all the inherent advantages his game could give him, and all of the control of a player tampering with forces far beyond anything else the game could offer - and made for an unparalleled force. I cannot begin to state how cool Gen 1 Mewtwo was, a reward for becoming a Pokemon Master who wasnt just portrayed as the strongest Pokemon, he had the movepool, stats, and pedigree to make it real. This wasnt a Charizard or Dragonite whod fold easily to a random oyster, no - Mewtwo was the best, period, and youd have to throw out some rogue strategy or your own Mewtwo to even remotely get on his level. And with Pokemon being such a team-based game, but not to the point of baton chaining or otherwise superbuffing a single sweeper, this was a thrilling game of psychic cat and mouse, trying to take out your opponents MVP while preserving as many of your pieces as possible, figuring out when the best time to bring out your own would be. Stadiums changes just enhanced this, ensuring that a just put the whole team to sleep or ParaWrap strategy wouldnt totally invalidate Mewtwos presence after he secures his first kill, or fishing for Hyper Beam kills from Tauros; Mewtwo was even more powerful, even more dominant, Hell, he was a boss fight for a full team of 6 on his own in this game! Stadium was the absolute height of Mewtwos dominance, and everything about him reflected just how truly above the other 150 he was.

Best Smash Appearance: Smash 4 - So that aint Mewtwo in Smash! Mewtwo has a lot of interesting and fun tools - his back and up throws are great, and while his forward throw is underwhelming I will say its a neat concept. I love that he does not pick up items, he just has them float around as his brain does the literal heavy lifting. His neutral air, one of the coolest concepts for one in the game, fantastic. Thats, unfortunately, about where my praise for Mewtwo ends. The power that the character is known for is traded for a floaty, zigagging harassment style akin to the other psychic characters in the game, and Mewtwos actual demonstrations of psychic power outside of his up throw are less than inspiring. Its not that I necessarily think that Confusion and Disable are bad concepts for moves, but the way Mewtwo goes about executing them and the fact that they were likely taken because theyre the top two moves on Mewtwos Gen 1 learnset is less than inspiring. And on top of all of that, most of Mewtwos moves - all his normals and several of his aerials all focus around his pool noodle of a tail. Watch in awe as the most powerful Pokemon lightly bats you with his ass-arm while crossing his front-arms and pouting with the most grrr im angy expression he can muster. Mewtwos physicality takes precedent over his general abilities and characterization which is admittedly a tack taken for most Pokemon. And typically, it ends up pretty well for them! But not for Mewtwo. Smash 4 probably does the best job with him, ambiguous teleports and air dodges giving him an air of unpredictability, but man. Just comparing whats done with Sephiroth, or even Ganondorf when it comes to feeling afraid of approaching him, or leaving yourself open man, Mewtwos a whole bunch of lost potential. I do have really fond memories of going to sleepovers at different friends house to unlock Mewtwo on each of our individual memory cards, though. Real bonding experience. D


Toadsworth - Mario Superstar Baseball

I miss Toadsworth. He was just this neat presence to be in games, and was a great host for Mario Party 7. I miss having this chancellor of the kingdom role thats existed since Mario RPG and then just went away after the Mario & Luigi series died out.

Anyway, Toadsworth doesnt have a lot of advantages. His chemistry trees are irrelevant, supporting no one who can belt a homer and only Toadette out of meta characters, someone he should never be throwing to, realistically. Hes slow in the field, has a horribly slow throwing arm because he is very old, and while his pitching isnt bad, hes only ever gonna be a backup pitcher. The only thing the old man can really bring to the table is the most consistent singles bat in the entire game, and thats frankly all that he needs. Toadsworth has the same bat size as DK and the Bros, giving him the same he will get a good hit or whiff the ball usually dynamic that those two have. His strength is perfectly suited to hitting gappers, and in general, he can be seen as a very reliable body to get on base and extend plays. Toadsworth is ideal at any point in your lineup - the top to set up your power core, in the middle of the power core to better extend it, after your dead hitters so the top of your lineup has a good position. He even has the line drive star hit, one thats MUCH less prone to getting double played than the others because of Toadsworths great contact zone, letting him score runs when needed be! Toadsworth can be seen as a Hammer Bro with slightly more defensive versatility but a lot less offensive potential, but what he offers is certainly nothing to sneeze at. Hes not an absolute necessity to see every game depending on your team composition, but no team would be worse for sticking him in center. Also one of the few characters in the game who cant bobble at all, so thats nice!