I need a Hero

     A couple weeks ago I mentioned I would be participating in an official online tournament for "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate." Well, now that the weekend is over, I can proudly say that I am a better than average player at the game.

     Specifically, I ended up with a rank of 405 out of a little more than 1200 participants in my region (at one point I was above 300, but a few bad rounds near the end of the tournament dropped me down). You won't be seeing me winning any grand championships, but I certainly performed better than I thought I would.

     Particularly considering I've switched my main fighter from the tried-and-true Link from the Legend of Zelda franchise to the generically named Hero, a recently introduced fighter representing the Dragon Quest franchise.

     But it remains to be seen if I'll be able to keep using my new preferred character.

     The most notable feature of Hero's arsenal is his menu ability. True to his JRPG roots, the menu pops up a list of four randomly selected spells for Hero to choose from. These spells can range from modestly powerful melee attacks to devastating projectiles, some of which can effectively be an instant kill if they land. To balance this out, there are other spells that are more of a liability than anything else, including Kamekaze, which is exactly what it sounds like.

     To further add to his unpredictable nature, one of Hero's randomly available spells, Hocus Pocus, is itself a random spell, equally capable of bestowing you with a powerful buff or a crippling disability.

     It's undeniable that Hero's menu ability can very quickly turn the tide of a game. It's a high-risk/high-reward mechanic. Getting the right ability at the right time can easily lead to an upset.

     And this has some players upset.

     In the weeks since Hero's release, the competitive Smash Bros. scene has found itself in a debate over whether or not Hero should be banned, with several tournament organizers in Australia already agreeing to put Hero on the chopping block.

     The argument against Hero is that the random nature of his abilities is too disruptive to skill-based play. While there are certainly other characters that incorporate some level of randomness to their skill set, none do so with nearly the same frequency or potential effects.

     As I mentioned in previous columns, Nintendo has traditionally designed the Smash Bros. franchise with little consideration for competitive balance. This neglect has given the competitive scene a tendency to swing equally far in the opposite direction, filtering out anything and everything that could disrupt their carefully developed metagame.

     This attitude mostly affects the stage selection process, where only a tiny fraction of the available battlegrounds in the game are considered legal for competitive play. Characters however are rarely considered for a ban.

     In "Super Smash Bros. Brawl," Meta Knight was considered so powerful a character that he eventually became banned due to his presence breaking the competitive scene.

     Bayonetta, of "Super Smash Bros. for Wii-U" likely would have faced a similar fate but for the fact that she debuted late in the game's life cycle and the community was largely looking forward to the next game.

     But unlike Meta Knight and Bayonetta, there seems to be little concern that Hero will become a dominating presence. He isn't mechanically superior to the rest of the roster. On paper he's a middling character, but a middling character with the potential to abruptly turn a match around before either player realizes it.

     In a game that largely depends on knowing what you and your opponent are capable of at any given moment, Hero disrupts the equation. Instead, playing Hero and playing against Hero requires more improvisation.

     Defenders of Hero say that a ban is too extreme a measure for a character that is unlikely to really disrupt the competitive scene at a macro level. Having been out for such a short time, it's too early to predict what kind of impact he'll have or what strategies will evolve to play around his unique traits.

     On the other hand, those in favor of a ban argue that banning him now, before competitive players dump hundreds of hours into practicing him, is the fairer option in the long run.

     I can understand both sides. Personally, I enjoy playing Hero and think that it's premature to impose a ban on him over what is largely a theoretical issue rather than a practical one. Being able to quickly assess your situation and select the best possible option from a random selection of choices is not a skill set Smash players are used to, but it's one I'd like to see develop at high levels of play.

     At the same time, it's also true that a couple of my matches this weekend ended in my favor thanks to a lucky roll of the dice from the menu ability. Whether that should be considered "unfair" or "just part of the game" I suppose depends largely on who is on the receiving end of it.

     Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and with a lot of practice may one day be in the top 20…ith percentile… of Midwestern North America.