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Max Kalsner Kershen

Smash Bros. enthusiast Coby Noll celebrates his victory as his favorite character, Greninja.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if Mario turned on Luigi? Or if Bowser wanted to kick his minions in the face? The multiplayer phenomenon Super Smash Bros. has been a staple of Nintendo’s for years, featuring many characters from different games produced by Nintendo and other major companies. The newest edition to the franchise, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, has an ever growing list of fighters as many are added through new DLC packages. While all this sounds magical, which it is, how does the general community feel about this extensive list of characters?

When questioned on the subject of his favorite characters, science teacher and coral enthusiast Mr. Wasley (who also runs Hall’s Smash Bros. tournaments) took a glance at the history of the game while making his picks, “For the first one, and melee, and even the third one it was Luigi… He’s still fun to play as, he’s just progressed in a lot of ways. But in the newest one, which I actually think is the best one in terms of everything, Luigi, Pokemon Trainer and Ice Climbers.” While Mr. Wasley has a large selection of preferred characters and years of experience to back them, he is not the only Hall teacher to play the franchise from its initial release in 1999.

Ms. Frakl, an english teacher at Hall who played competitively in college, is also a long term player and has a more shocking character selection than most, “This is probably an unpopular opinion, but my favorite character is Sheik… I love that she’s super fast, she’s particularly adept at grabbing, which is one of my favorite moves.” While widely regarded as a weaker character, Ms. Frakl believes that if Sheik (or any other character for that matter) fits one’s play style, than that character’s true strengths can be brought to light. 

Playing since Smash Bros. was only available on the Nintendo 64 console,  robotics and engineering teacher Mr. Wilkosz varied his main brawler from game to game, exploring how each character performed in the newest edition, “[Nintendo] 64 Ness, because it took so long to unlock and I was confused as to why PK-Thunder went up right away and didn’t help recover.” For those who may be concerned, PK-Thunder is a specific move that allows the player to control the direction of a ball of lightning. It’s pretty dope. “For Melee, Falco, for Brawl, Snake, for Four, Mega Man… and for Ultimate I would say I’m still fond of Mega Man.” While Mr. Wilkosz boasts a diversified lineup, there are still some characters that he believes he would like to try out and explore in the game. 

“Waluigi is the first one that comes to mind, everyone is going to say Waluigi,” explained Mr. Wilkosz on who he thinks was deserving of a roster spot, “It’s sad when you see them become assist trophies because then it’s less likely that they are going to become actual characters.” Of course it would be amazing if the game could include everything and everyone possible. But for now players are stuck with what is at hand, even if that does mean Pikachu and Pichu, Pikachu being the evolution of Pichu in the Pokemon universe, are both included in the game even though Pichu is a useless rat that deserves nothing but darkness.

You may be thinking something along the lines of “I didn’t realize that Smash Bros. was mainly played by adults,” or “Why do they hate Pichu so much? He sounds like a good guy.” Well both of those statements are false. Many students also share a love of the game, and a love for certain characters. 

Seniors Angel Rivera and Matt Goldfarb both share a passion for Lucas, a character from the popular game Mother 3. While junior Sophie Tulchinsky and sophomore Sean Zeman share an enjoyment for Kirby, senior Edward Coursey and junior Mohamed Ahmed both believe in the Captain Falcon power, “It’s [The Falcon Punch]  pretty rad my guy,” stated Ahmed. 

While these are all commonly used characters, some picks came straight out of left field, like senior Noah Hurt’s selection of Little Mac, commonly regarded as one of the worst and most undesirable characters in the game. “I like the way he punches people,” stated Hurt. While Little Mac does in fact punch people, he cannot jump to save his life, as he dies almost every time from failure to recover from falling off the stage.

Overall, of the 10 interviewed Smash Bros. players at Hall, there was more uniformity in the picks than anticipated. 

While the Hall community has its own wide variety of character selections, many professional players spend time creating tier lists, rankings of the current characters, to spread the word on who to Smash and who to pass. One of the most notable players is Gonzalo “ZeRo” Barrios. He recently selected many sword fighting characters, such as Chrom and Lucina, at the top of his list, while characters such as Little Mac and Kirby are regarded as nothing more than street garbage.

Tier lists and professional performance aside, Super Smash Bros. is a game. It’s all about having fun, and you don’t need to play the best characters to have fun. Unless you want to win of course. In that case, don’t use Little Mac.