Here, I am going to be analyzing the best competitive scenes and overall competetive potential for Nintendo games, the games that will be analyzed here are Pokemon, Splatoon, ARMS, Smash 4/melee, and Pokken tournament DX. I will be assessing the pros and cons of each game competitively.
Pokken tournament dx is the switch version of the original Pokken tournament on the WII U. It's basically tekken but everyone has a projectile and it's pokemon..... that's not verbatim what it is but it's a crude explanation. It's community is relatively dead compared to the other games here, let's dive in to the pros and cons.
Branding
"IT HAS POKEMON ON IT LET ME HAVE IT!" Yes, branding is one of the things driving sales for this game. Be honest, when you first saw this game (assuming you play/like Pokemon) you thought it was cool, and/or wanted to have it. This is especially true for younger gamers who like fighting games and like pokemon.
Characters
Each character (yes, to a certain extent even Braixen) is likeable in this game, not only that but every character has potential. Unlike other fighting games that have at least one character that is bottom line terrible, there is no one in this game, meaning there is a certain air of balance in the game..... Too an extent. It can increase play of the game and enjoyment.
Fun
This game is really fun, especially for a Pokemon player and simply playing it once can get you hooked. Honestly didn't play my switch much until I got this game. Stages are basically the same with better music (I get hype every time I get magikarp festival).
The Switch
And here I'm gonna make a brief intermission and talk about what I am going to call the the Switch effect. Basically games that have been made on switch that are aimed to be competitive are kind-of having their hands held by Nintendo to get competetive, look back at Smash Bros melee. Nintendo wanted little to nothing to do with this competitive scene due to the release of brawl and how unbalanced it was, there was no connection with it and Nintendo. However Nintendo has learned, they are openly showing their support for certain switch games to be competitive. This is a "priveleage" that not every game gets the luxury of having
Dead
Yes, this community is very dead compared to the other games. It wasn't as popular on Wii u and the recent port to the switch may help but hasn't yet. Though I will take into account that it is new. Which in itself is a con as the meta will take time to develop and time to get more popular but again, it had a version on Wii u that was somewhat overshadowed by games like Smash Bros and Splatoon.
Balance
I may have said that it has an air of balance... But by "balanced" I mean that every character is broken. Some more than others, and this can create stagnancy in the meta since characters like Braixen and Sceptile are the most broken in the game, which hopefully will be patched as splatoon 2 gets many of those.
Overall these cons, while only two, hurt the scene SEVERELY.
Well first off I love pokemon, it is my second favorite game franchise and BW2 is my third favorite game of all time. Unfortunately I will not deny the truth... Anyway let's get into it.
Support
The Pokemon company itself hosts tournaments for it and hypes it up a bunch with world championships and stuff, this is rare for 3ds games as even with Smash the community kind-of takes charge of the competetive scene and tournaments.
Nostalgia
People love the game and many grew up with it and represents a symbol of their childhood, so they like to play it. This also led to poketubers, which even further increases the popularity of the games.
Stagnant
VGC is the format for local tournaments hosted by the company (aka almost every single Pokemon tournament) and if you take a look at the most used pokemon over time for VGC 2017 you'll notice something.... Nearly the exact same Pokemon were being used (Tapu koko, garchomp, arcanine, Tapu lele...) leaving little to no diversity. Even on showdown, almost every Pokemon is nearly never used (ou, since it's most used) leaving it severely unbalanced and stagnant.
Lack of Locals
How many locals (tournaments made by anyone) do you know for pokemon? A few might be able to name a few.... maybe but compare that to literally every other game on this list. Competetive Pokemon is dying, especially outside of VGC and for a game receiving support for the company itself to have little to no locals be compared to a game like Smash Bros, with little to no support competetively from the community, it's kind-of sad.
Lack of Communication
The company has little connection with its fan base for competition and the like, whereas games like ARMS, smash, and splatoon don't have this problem at all.
I'm sorry but I won't deny the obvious flaws that competitive Pokemon has and I hope with all my heart it gets better but it is very unlikely.
Arms is a relatively new game with an extremely new style of play, it has recently been beloved by fans and has sparked interest by others to get into it.
Fun
The game is simply fun, the other games on this list have that too but this game has an advantage in this aspect, it's unique. It gives players nearly equal ground on learning the game, a player new to competetive can get into it at a normal and similar pace and gives players a new experience for the game.
Characters
This may not win out on the other games but most of the characters are well liked in the community...... Yeah!
The Switch Effect
This, along with Pokken and another game was spotlighted for E3 2017 by Nintendo and gave it a surge in popularity.
New
Being unique is more of a con than a pro as people have nothing to relate the game to in terms of playing it. They have to start with a completely blank slate.
Poor Wireless Play
Being a game where a key to win is being patient doesn't work well with a timer, which ARMS has. Almost all matches ends with a timeout which is not balanced and there is no way to disable this online. Also all rounds are one match locally, meaning it's harder to do a bo3 and in order to have one easier is by playing split screen (which sucks).
Slow
This is a very vague way to explain this but unlike every other "fighting game" (because I guess this is a fighting game?) ARMS doesn't have combos, it isn't fast paced (which contrasts poorly with a time limit) so people won't typically tune in to an arms tournament or an arms YouTube channel for long, especially over any other competitive game here. Meaning it doesn't get the support from fans and YouTubers to the extent that say, smash or Pokemon does.
Arms is overall a really cool game and the competetive scene and community looks very promising.
Splatoon was the first game I got on switch and it is AMAZING. I never had a Wii u but even so I loved the game from the start.
Fun
Yes, I realize that I have used this a lot already but it is still true. Splatoon is a fun and quirky game that people of all ages can learn to enjoy. It's attempt to seem cool to younger audiences doesn't destroy it's appeal, heck it makes it even more likeable. It has amazing design and music, and people who want to buy all the items and clothes must play online to get them (didn't like that at first TBH) which forces exposure into online play for every player (with internet).
Communication
Patches are made so freaking often, it even makes it easier to access such changes by explaining what they are (in a website) leaving it easy to change and balance, it has things like splatfest to increase activity and hype for the game and in turn also increases online play.
The Switch Effect
This game was the last of the three to be spotlighted (spotlit?) by Nintendo for E3 and the vice president for marketing even said, "Splatoon 2 and ARMS are games that lend themselves perfectly to tournaments, and E3 is an ideal venue to bring people together to compete," which shows how much they are willing to contribute to competitive play.
Pre-Existing Fan Base
Unlike Pokken tournament dx, splatoon's fan base before it's sequel was already massive, meaning it's fan base and competitive scene has grown even more with its new release.
Balance
Unfortunately, splatoon also suffers from Nintendo's constant struggle to make a balanced competetive game (save for a few exceptions like arms), weapons like the dualies and *shudders* the tri-slosher make the meta somewhat very stagnant, however constant additions to the game can help this.
Stages
Stages like sturgeon's shipyard and *another shudder* moray towers are SEVERELY unbalanced, though this is mainly a problem online, it's still a con.
Splatoon's pros heavily outweigh it's cons, which is why it's number 2. And if you've read this far (and hopefully didn't skip here or just read the placings) you know what's number one.
Smash Bros arguably had the best competitive scene of these, heck I'm willing to say it has the BEST SCENE OF ANY NINTENDO GAME.
Brand Recognition
Many people likely bought the game because a few characters they recognized were in it, heck that's why some top players started playing. This in turn leads to activity for the game.
Navigation
It's very easy to navigate to places here, and it's online organization is superb (though it could very much be better).
Community
Didn't know if I should put this last but I decided to leave the longest one last. The dedicated community is astonishing. What do you think would happen if the next Pokemon game was more unbalanced as brawl? Competetive would more than likely die for the games. (it would die bc the company would only host tournaments for that game) however when brawl came around people didn't outright abandon competetive smash, they resorted to melee, a game for the gamecube and continued to play smash, even when they were completely neglected by Nintendo (in terms of melee) Also it's community is almost soley competitive, since it is a fighting game after all... there isn't much else to do but fight.
Hype
Hype leads to activity, as hype like getting amazing reads, a falcon punch, or a WOMBO COMBO stimulates fire and passion in players. It also gives smash YouTubers something to work with and in turn increases the activity of the community.
Tournaments
Locals are hosted weekly at minimum across the globe, hosted by anyone who has a game and a room to play in (and money and ppl to join). The game is also tournament friendly, stages are simple to ban and choose, character switches, replays, an adjustable and understandable timer, and is easy to set up matches between people. Tournaments for smash typically raise thousands of dollars if they're big enough, and for E3 (2015/16) a company invested a million dollars to it since it was so big. The game spans across different iterations and even spin off games such as project M and super smash flash 2. There are also (were) patches being made to help balance the game.
Balance
Again, Nintendo sometimes has trouble making a balanced game. Smash is not different, characters such as Ganondorf and Jigglypuff are fundamentally unusable in tournaments against a skilled player, characters like bayonetta can kill you with good enough reads at almost any percent, a grab from a good Zero suit samus at 15% on a stage with a platform means guaranteed death, I can go on and on...
There are a few smaller cons for the game but that one is basically the core of it. Smash Bros has by far the best competitive scene for a Nintendo game, may not be the most balanced, but it has the best competitive scene of one.
Article written by Ashkid848
