Board 8 > How would they do in a contest? Day 6 ft Darth Vader, Gandhi, Paper Mario

(+) Yeah! (+)

This is a new 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 both members of said duo are named in the title of a game (Banjo-Kazooie, Sam & Max Hit the Road, etc).

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 - 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.

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 4:

Johnny Cage is High Fodder
Mai Shiranui (KoF) is High Fodder
Weighted Companion Cube (Portal) is Mid Fodder

Here is today's trio to rate:
Mohandas Gandhi (Civilization series)
Paper Mario (Paper Mario series)
Darth Vader (Star Wars)
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Gandhi - Low Fodder
I don't think this site cares much about Civ in general, and Gandhi is kind of a polarizing character in the series anyway.

Paper Mario - High Midcarder
He is comparable to Mega Man X, but I don't think he'll be as good as X. The original Paper Mario does get some respect, but the series as a whole is on the decline. He will have strength since, well, he's still freaking Mario.

Darth Vader - High Midcarder
Not quite Batman, but he definitely gets some respect as a character. The only problem is that he lacks a definitive game appearance, so he is relying mostly on the strength of his design and nostalgia for the OG movie trilogy.
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Gandhi: Mid Fodder - I don't think being polarizing truly matters when it comes to a fanbase as small as Civ's is on GameFAQs. Also, the series isn't that weak - in past contests, the games have looked roughly in between Mid Fodder and High Fodder. However, I also don't think the joke will take off in any sense, especially in this day and age, nor do I think voters are inclined to choose real-world people.

Paper Mario: Midcarder - Both the original Paper Mario and Thousand-Year Door looked right around here in 2015.

half_silver28 posted...

Darth Vader - High Midcarder
Not quite Batman, but he definitely gets some respect as a character. The only problem is that he lacks a definitive game appearance, so he is relying mostly on the strength of his design and nostalgia for the OG movie trilogy.

I agree with this. One more thing I would mention is that Star Wars is far from its peak. At a time like 2015, Vader could have been a Near Elite. Now, though, people have cooled on the direction Star Wars is heading, and Snake among others demonstrated how that matters last contest.

Nominations:

Barry Burton (Resident Evil)
Daryl Dixon (The Walking Dead)
Ellen Ripley (Alien)
Gandalf (The Lord of the Rings)
Leah (Stardew Valley)
Liquid Snake (Metal Gear Solid)
Madeline (Celeste)
Naruto (Naruto)
Psycho Mantis (Metal Gear Solid)
Vegeta (Dragon Ball)

Also, you missed these nominations of mine from yesterday:

Banjo (Banjo-Kazooie)
CATS (Zero Wing)
Darkseid (DC Comics)
Indiana Jones (Indiana Jones)
Motoko Kusanagi (Ghost in the Shell)
Piranha Plant (Mario)
Thanos (Marvel Comics)

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nominations are fixed now. And I do think Paper Mario is a bit stronger now than in 2015 (in spite of the state of the series), if only due to the general Nintendo boost.
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Bump. Also here are my nominations for this round:

Meowth (Pokmon)
B.J. Blazkowicz (Wolfenstein)
Seifer Almasy (Final Fantasy VIII)
Agent 47 (Hitman)
Ulala (Space Channel 5)
Naruto (Naruto)
Piranha Plant (Mario series)
Vegeta (DBZ)
Thanos (Marvel)
Harry Potter
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half_silver28 posted...

And I do think Paper Mario is a bit stronger now than in 2015 (in spite of the state of the series), if only due to the general Nintendo boost.

This is where my unpopular opinion comes in: I don't think there was any general Nintendo boost between 2013-15 and now. Characters like Fox, Kirby, and even Mario (presumably the posterchild of any overall Nintendo boost) looked no stronger in 2018 than in 2013. Without any new games people care about, Paper Mario should be in the same boat.
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Gandhi=Really weak character. Bottom 5 for sure. Who cares about strategy games here? Maybe Fire Emblem and even this does really bad here.
Paper Mario=Midcarder. I mean do people care for Paper Mario games? I believe the first 2 were good or something?
Darth Vader=Near Elite I believe. Yeah SW isn't as good as it was but come on, he is the most famous bad guy ever.
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MetalmindStats posted...

half_silver28 posted...

And I do think Paper Mario is a bit stronger now than in 2015 (in spite of the state of the series), if only due to the general Nintendo boost.

This is where my unpopular opinion comes in: I don't think there was any general Nintendo boost between 2013-15 and now. Characters like Fox, Kirby, and even Mario (presumably the posterchild of any overall Nintendo boost) looked no stronger in 2018 than in 2013. Without any new games people care about, Paper Mario should be in the same boat.

maybe it wasn't a general Nintendo boost, I guess a lot of Ninty characters just happened to boost due to the user vote bonus and Smash hype. And a lot of their match opponents happened to decline as well. That would explain why the characters you mentioned and a few others stayed consistent.

next Day will be up shortly
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Day 7 is up: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/77750954
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