Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 162 ft Mario and Luigi, Arthur, Dr. Strange

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This is a topic to rate the contest strength of potential newcomers in the current contest environment.

I will pick the characters to rate and discuss for each day from user nominations - whoever the 3 most nominated characters are at that time. If there are more than 3 I will pick randomly. You can nominate any number of characters at any time, but you cannot nominate the same character twice.

All characters who were present in the 2018 Character Battle will NOT be eligible. Otherwise you can nominate any character that has appeared in video games; even comic book characters. This will exclude real-life athletes who have only appeared in long running sports series, however I will accept those who have their own games such as Shaq. I will accept nominations for iconic gaming duos too, if there is a compelling reason for both characters to be linked (either co-starring in a game ala Banjo & Kazooie, or always appearing together like Callie & Marie from Splatoon).

Each day will have a separate topic, and nominations will carry over. As far as actually rating the character's contest strength; I ask that users rank a characters potential strength with one of the following qualifiers - LAW Fodder, Low Fodder, Mid Fodder, High Fodder, Fodder Line, Low Midcarder, Midcarder, High Midcarder, Near Elite, Elite, LAW Tier (capable of beating Link). I will average all the ratings given to a character to come up with their final ranking. I have included a highlighted entrant from Character Battle X on each tier of the strength rankings below, to provide a baseline for each.

Note that LAW Fodder is meant to be a tier reserved for the weakest possible characters to put into a contest. A character will only be placed there if at least 3/4ths of the voters for that day agree on the LAW Fodder rating, and no ratings above Low Fodder are given. If either of those conditions are not met, the character will not be eligible for the LAW Fodder tier.

Current Character Strength Rankings: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P1AIhHywBiLd6VAMZMNEGX-HW2td8u1D0Iw_tzHsORw/edit?usp=sharing

Nomination List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-KnSBDzppzPK5Ug1zmx8_x0bG4tqFDMPPH2k8J3s8sk/edit?usp=sharing

Results from Day 161:

Two-Face/Harvey Dent (DC Comics) is Mid Fodder
Mystique (X-Men) is High Fodder
Blanka (Street Fighter) is Mid Fodder

Here is today's trio to rank:

Arthur (Ghosts 'n Goblins)
Mario & Luigi (Mario & Luigi series)
Doctor Strange (Marvel)
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Arthur: Mid Fodder. Some people may remember him fondly, others may use him in Marvel vs. Capcom. He's barely Mid Fodder, though, given how ancient his game is and how he hasn't had a game of his own in nearly a decade.

Mario & Luigi: Elite Tier. When their powers combine, I fully expect them to get 45% on Link in a 2-on-1. Maybe more. Potential LAW Tier here, honestly.

Dr. Strange: High Fodder. This has become one of the more overlooked MCU films, hasn't it? It's not one I hear anybody talking about. Still, he's in the MCU, and having a focal point movie makes him stronger than someone who doesn't - maybe? IDK.
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Agree with Mid Fodder for Arthur.

Mario & Luigi is tough. I don't think they are a potential Link breaker, nor am I convinced that they could beat elite-tier characters, so I will put them at Near Elite. I think voters will associate this pair much more strongly with the Mario & Luigi series as opposed to the vast influence of the core Mario games. I can't find much on how the last 2 Mario & Luigi games were received on the site, but overall reaction seems to be lukewarm. Bowser's Inside Story was 10 years ago, so I think the strength of the series has likely waned on Gfaqs.

Agree with High Fodder for Dr. Strange. His movie may be a bit forgotten, but it was well-liked, and has a sequel in the works.
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Arthur: Low Fodder - If Contra characters aren't going to be worth much of anything, neither will he.

Mario & Luigi: Near Elite - I tend to agree that including Luigi dilutes their potential by layers of association, especially since Mario's votes seem to come mostly by default due to his icon status these days.

Doctor Strange: High Fodder - I would say he pulls above the weight of his movie's reception in terms of MCU popularity.
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Mara(SMT series)

Day 163 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78150739
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