Game-Breaking Character: SUPER SMASH BROS. (N64)

We've talked about clothes, we've talked about items, what if we just talk about a character? What if we just talk about one particular character in a fighting game that, frankly, is too powerful.

WHOOPS!
I forgot about the introduction! Sorry! I'm a little short this week, one behind on My Arcade and two behind on My Cinema, but I'll get it fixed, hopefully tonight and tomorrow morning.

Anyway, like I said above, we've covered two more common issues with games where items in the game were broken, but what about the characters? A common complaint in multiplayer games is that one particular character will simply be too strong, in MOBAs and MMOs, this is generally fixed on the next patch, and patches happen pretty often, but with console games, particularly older console games, there probably won't be a patch. Enter our topic.

TITLE: Super Smash Bros.


Wow! Just wow, look at that box-art. I miss this game so much! Super Smash Bros. was the first fighting game I REALLY enjoyed, and even today it dominates my opinion of fighting games. I like Dead or Alive, and I'll play Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, but Super Smash Bros. is where it's at!

And why shouldn't it be? The original game featured an all-star cast, with only two characters I had never heard of, Captain Falcon (because I didn't play a lot of racing games) and Ness (because I had never heard of Earthbound!). But that's not a negative, interesting new characters just makes the game better! I mean, we had: Mario, Luigi, Kirby, Samus, Fox McCloud, Donkey Kong, Jigglypuff, Link, Yoshi...and Pikachu. The mascot amongst mascots. Sure, Mario is Nintendo's mascot, and he's a pretty well known face, but a fat italian guy with a mustache isn't going to stand out quite as much as a yellow rat with lightning coming out of it!

All the more reason to fundamentally break, Pikachu. Pikachu has always stood out in the Smash Bros. lineup as a strong character, he's got one of the best return moves in the games, and it remains that way even in the fourth iteration. He's got a huge hit box on his (down) (B) attack, and it hits everything above him too. But, in the first game, it was a little too much. While everyone else has gotten a bit better since the first release, Pikachu has stayed basically the same, probably because he didn't need to change with the times.

This isn't exactly a story based game, but there is an arcade mode, and Pikachu does wreck it. It's not an entirely fair pick, but he is my pick, always. Actually, you can't play Pikachu with friends, they get mad about it, he's just got too good of a set of moves not to spam them, because of that, I actually stick to Wario and Ness a lot, but don't misunderstand, Pikachu will always be the best in the original.

Disagree? Think Samus could whip Pikachu any day of the week? Let me know, leave a comment on the blog or:
Tweet: @JWVincent11
Email: CWSherman93@gmail.com