Choosing a Character

This will be written from the perspective of a Super Smash Bros. Player (since it is my area of expertise), but a lot of these ideas translate into other games.

When playing a game of Super Smash Bros. you are given a wide variety of characters to choose from and they should be able to all compete right? Wrong. Not every character is created equal (this blew my mind at first). It is ideal that each character is balanced in terms of them being able to compete, but it is nearly impossible for a game developer to be able to achieve this. So when picking a character one has to be wary about where they stand in comparison to rest of the cast.

Tier List
A tier list is a hierarchy of characters that is determined by top level players and it is based on tournament results and how they fare versus the other characters.


Super Smash Bros. Melee tier list

Super Smash Bros. Brawl tier list

From a competitive stance it is best to stick to the top 10-15 characters for brawl and top 10 for melee. Realistically they are the most viable characters that have an opportunity of winning major events and tournaments. I often get called names for using the best characters, but in the competitive scene winning is everything who cares what the loser has to say.

why or why not pick a top tier character
They are superior in term of tournament results since they have won more tournaments and have placed better than other characters. They also have more people playing those characters so it becomes a lot easier learning the character since there is many people to look up to. There are drawbacks to picking the top tier characters. Since they are so widely played people are more than likely know the weaknesses of the character and aim to exploit it. An example would be Olimar in Brawl having a terrible recovery to get back on stage and people abusing it to take stocks away from you.

why or why not pick a low tier character
Low tiers are very underplayed and people have not found every little detail about the character leaving room for innovation. They could be wrongly placed in a low tier standing because someone has not figured out how to play the character correctly. The tier list changes every 6 months or so in order to be as current as possible.  Here is the first Brawl tier list so you can see how the tier list has changed over the years. Olimar moving from the 18th spot to the third spot as one of the notable changes.

In the end of the day if your favorite character is Link and you want to play Link that is your choice but it will be an uphill battle for you because he is outclassed by a character like Fox or Meta Knight. My advice is to pick a good character in order to have a higher win ratio. My best character in brawl is Meta Knight and Wario and in Melee it is Jigglypuff and Marth (very high tier characters).

Choose wisely who you want to be good with!

Stages and Scenery in Super Smash Bros. (Kind of environment related)

The Super Smash Bros. series, one of Nintedo's most popular games, features scenery that reflects many real world places even though the game takes places in fantasy. Super Smash Bros. combines many games together and therefore has to incorporate many different levels to accommodate all the different universes that are colliding.

Fourside (from the series Earthbound)

This stage represents a very urban area similar to that of New York or even parts of Los Angeles. It is filled with lights and tall buildings and it allows the player to fight on the rooftops of the skyscrapers. Overall a very fun stage to play on and it is a different experience seeing characters such as Link from the Zelda series who comes from a word of castles and dungeons.

Donkey Kong Island Kongo Jungle (from the series Donkey Kong)

This stage features a terrace in the middle of a waterfall in the middle of the jungle. This resembles some of the less rural areas like the Amazon Rain Forrest filled with lots of green plants and clear water (Amazon River). You get to play on the terrace and falling down from it will cost you a life, so better not fall! A gorilla lives in this area and that is his home stage and many characters such as Samus, a futuristic robot, have no place being there. It is just very fun to have different scenery in games to not get bored and have different levels to play on.

 

 

 

 

 

Intro to My Blog

     When your friends are not good enough to beat you at your favorite video game it is time to consider competitive gaming. Competitive gaming, defined through a Google search, is "is a term for organized video game competitions, especially between professionals". It is a different experience from just playing Super Mario (a more fulfilling experience if you ask me). In the competitive scene winning and losing matters, sweat and tears arise, and legends are born. You get to play the best of the best at your favorite games and win tournaments to prove that you deserve to be considered the best. This blog will teach you how to get into the gaming scene, give you insight to become better, and what it takes to be a professional gamer. This will be coming from my experiences as a professional gamer ranging from Yu-Gi-Oh the card game to Super Smash Bros. Read future entries in order to learn more of the fascinating world that comes from gaming. You will be winning tournaments in no time with the right dedication.