Semi Finals: Mario vs. Samus

[The Doctor]

Round Four

Let's-a-go! After one of the hardest-fought rounds of the tournament, Samus Aran emerged victorious over one of Marvel's greatest heroes, Iron Man. Mario didn't have an easy time in the last round himself, barely edging out the kung fu stylings of the badass brother Black Dynamite. It's a clash between two of Nintendo's most iconic characters as the elder Mario Brother takes on the heroine of the Metroid series. Who will walk out of this one the winner in our semifinal round? It's Firepower vs. Fire Flower! Powerups against Power Suit! Hero against hero! Come Heaven or Hell, let's rock!

FIGHT!​

 

[Mr. Truth]

Well, both characters appear in Super Smash Brothers. That seems to make an easy comparison. I used my experience with both characters over 3 games and I'm going to have to go with Mario. I win more with Mario then I do with Samus. I figure that's the most fair way to vote in this one, otherwise I'll just hear the "Mario is a person, Samus has nuclear weapons. No way Mario wins," which would take any fun out of this.

 

[Pepe Silvia]

Well, both characters appear in Super Smash Brothers. That seems to make an easy comparison. I used my experience with both characters over 3 games and I'm going to have to go with Mario. I win more with Mario then I do with Samus. I figure that's the most fair way to vote in this one, otherwise I'll just hear the "Mario is a person, Samus has nuclear weapons. No way Mario wins," which would take any fun out of this.

That's kind of like saying "I win with Ryu more than I win with Rufus." Mario, in all 3 games, has one of the easiest learning curves and a very balanced moveset, and is really the easiest character to pick up and play with if you're competent at fighters. Samus can be pretty weird, and take a while to get used to, but a good Samus is absolutely lethal. Not to sell Mario short, but how many top-tier smash players main him?

But this isn't about smash, is it?

 

[Sheamus' Suntan]

Okay...

I went for Samus here and here is why:

It comes down to range. Mario has a wide assortment of powerups but we're not sure if he's of the Super Mario 3 variety where he has a box and can use them at any point, whether he's Super Mario World variety, where he has a box and can STORE one powerup and use one at the same time, or whether he's Mario 64 variety and must use caps etc to give him power and can't store anything.

But mario's base powers are;
Growing HUGE
Shrinking tiny
shooting fireballs
kicking
punching
turning metal
turning invisible
flying with the aid of a cap/tail

Righty so let's look at what Samus has accomplished;
Beating space pirates.
Space pirates can come initially in form of being invisible, so no worries there.
Growing huge is a detrement to Mario because Samus WILL just hurt him by shooting charged shots.
Growing tiny isn't useful neither - Samus can ball roll and make herself pretty small. 1m wide isn't it? That's not big.
Shooting fireballs - Samus has dealt with gunfire and fire itself (Ridley), so she knows how to withstand HIGH amounts of heat.
Kicking + Punching will have no effect on the exoskeleton.
Turning metal - makes Mario uber strong and invincible for 60 secs. Here is where Mario can break through but assuming he has only 1 cap, it will wear out in 60 secs. Samus rolls into a ball to get away and drops a few bombs to slow him down.
Flight - well Samus's space pirates enemies AND Ridley both fly. Didn't stop her.

Samus is WELL prepared for anything Mario can throw at him.
Mario gets a superstar, Samus runs, rolls into a ball, gets away. It's a VERY close battle but Samus has this just based on ability.

 

[Uncle Phatso]

Basically Samus can do what Mario does. There are some exceptions like she can't turn huge. But really she's fought monsters 10 times her size. Mario dosen't get that big even if he does, she can just morph into a ball and roll under him.

She can't turn invisible, but to my info Mario can't go into star mode while being invisible. So she just fucking chills while he fucks around.

Fireballs? She has a suit that can withstand heat equal to that of lava. Please..

Turning metal? She has a suit, organic, metal, chozo, zero. Covered. He can turn invincible for 60 seconds as said before. But as it was stated before, samus has her screw attack. Anything he throws at her while she is in that is destroyed at no damage to her. She also had Hyper mode, that's a pretty much copy of this outside of the 60 seconds of invunerability.

But he has one, just one. Samus has powers all over her suit. Whatever Mario throws at her. She just tosses right back. I highly doubt even if Mario's stomps can kill metal monsters that Samus would just let him run up and Boink her.

Samus

 

[DirtyJosé]

Well, both characters appear in Super Smash Brothers. That seems to make an easy comparison. I used my experience with both characters over 3 games and I'm going to have to go with Mario. I win more with Mario then I do with Samus. I figure that's the most fair way to vote in this one, otherwise I'll just hear the "Mario is a person, Samus has nuclear weapons. No way Mario wins," which would take any fun out of this.

No way. I am able to keep chumps like Mario at bay with a mixture of missiles and blaster shots. He tries to come in too close from below and he eats bomb. Try to attack from above and he eats Spin Attack. Some folk may give my Samus some problems but Mario is not one of them.

Furthermore, to take things out of the ridiculous little setting you have place simply out of spite and jealousy, Samus really does have the long range advantage here. Mario has some fire or ice balls he can bounce at her, but these attacks have a very limited range and also have an odd trajectory which keeps them rather predictable and easy to play around. Samus, on the other hand, has a variety of long range blasts and missiles which can do neat tricks like go through walls, pull useful items closer to her, freeze things, and give Mario's chest a brand new air conditioning shaft.

Samus here. No brainer.

 

[BK Styles]

Samus. She has far too many tricks up her skirt. If she can beat Iron Man, no disrespect to Mario, but she's got this.

100% Samus.

 

[Lee]

Have you seen the fantastic four movie? Course you have. Lets go with the same premise they used on Doctor doom to freeze him in his spot.

Mario Uses Fire Flower to increase the heat on Samus.
Mario then uses FLUDD to douse her with Cold water causing her to go into Thermal Shock and be frozen on the spot.
Mario then uses Starman and BAMF Mario defeats Samus.

 

[Sheamus' Suntan]

Issues are Lee...

Have you seen the fantastic four movie? Course you have. Lets go with the same premise they used on Doctor doom to freeze him in his spot.

Mario Uses Fire Flower to increase the heat on Samus.

Yeah but Samus has withstood standing in LAVA. A bit of fire here and there won't increase the heat of the SUIT. If this was Samus Aran, the babe away from the suit, yeah...but the exoskeleton is too strong to be heated like that.

Mario then uses FLUDD to douse her with Cold water causing her to go into Thermal Shock and be frozen on the spot.

But she hasn't been heated enough. He would need to flick...I dunno, several thousand fireballs at her to make her take damage, and don't forget, by Mario rules, if Samus so much as hits Mario ONCE, Mario LOSES his fireflower.

Mario then uses Starman and BAMF Mario defeats Samus.

Starman is his only saving grace and it lasts for 60 seconds, which Samus can roll away from. She rolls pretty damned quick as ball.

Mario is NOTHING Samus hasn't already faced.

 

[Remix]

Sadly for Mario this is a fight he simply doesn't stack up well against his opponent. Allow me to run through the Doc approved list of powerups.

One Feather

The feather allows Mario to fly, destroy enemies with a spin attack and also provides some protection as well as it can be used to reflect projectiles. However, ice missiles kind of screw that up, as they'll explode on contact rather tha be reflected and move faster than Mario in the air. leaving Mario encaced in a block of ice and prone for a finishing blow, however he uses it. Additionally a screw attack would punch straight through the cape and to the chewy plumber centre it was protecting.

One fire flower

Samus can walk through lava with the Gravity suit. Fireballs aren't doing shit. She's also got a flamethrower and plasma beam just as a "anything you can do I can do better"are included a la Super Smash Bros.

One wing cap

Much like the feather, this one allows him to take flight, but in a far more controlable fashion, but provides no defensive enhancements. Samus, who's faced many different types of flying enemies from swarmbots to space dragons would have no problems shooting down Mario.

One metal cap

As the name suggests, it turns him into an invincible metal man for a period of one minute. Samus, no stranger to fighting forms she cannot hurt would figure out that she needs to dodge until the time limit expires, aided by Ice projectiles, Metal Mario's speed reduction and her morph ball, it would be no challenge to her to wait it out until he's mortal once again.

one vanish cap

This turns him invisible and gives him the ability to walk through some walls. However, Samus has been dealing with enemies who can turn invisible for quite some time. With her Thermal or X-Ray visor she will be able to see where he is and just keep on shooting until it wears off or Mario dies.

one mega mushroom,

Turns him giant and indestructable. Samus would once again have to keep dodging, and with her superior agility she could.

one Kuriboh's Shoe,

This one gives Mario extra ability to stop the shit out of things and also gives him some degree of protection but is lost if Mario takes a hit. Samus is used to aboiding enemies which try to crush her, with the added danger of shockwaves that also do damage (that the shoe doesn't produce). It's a good powerup, but not one useful against Samus.

one P-Balloon

Causes Mario to swell up and float slowly. Of all the powerups Mario's got, this one is the least helpful. All it does for him is make him a big slow moving target, exactly what you don't want to be when you're fighting an experienced bounty hunter armed with lethal weapons.

one starman.

We all know what the starman does, Samus may not but she knows enough about fighting to never allow her opponent to touch her. Once Mario stops sparkling she can finish him off with extreme prejudice.

I like Mario and I've played quite a few of his games, but this isn't a fight he can win.

Samus goes to the finals.

 

[Mr. Truth]

That's kind of like saying "I win with Ryu more than I win with Rufus." Mario, in all 3 games, has one of the easiest learning curves and a very balanced moveset, and is really the easiest character to pick up and play with if you're competent at fighters. Samus can be pretty weird, and take a while to get used to, but a good Samus is absolutely lethal. Not to sell Mario short, but how many top-tier smash players main him?

But this isn't about smash, is it?

It isn't about top-tier players. It's about more victories. Due to Mario's easier curve (and the fact that he's easier to use when playing Super Smashed Brothers) more people win with him, which translates to more total victories. More victories = higher win percentage = better chance of winning.

Of course I'm already reading the Samus wins because she has an ultra-powered suit argument which kind of defeats the purpose of this tournament. You need to pretend these guys are in the same universe. You can literally use the fact that both of these people can fight in the same game. Adjust the damage output accordingly. Samus isn't heat resistant there. She falls into the lava, she gets hurt. Her missiles are avoidable. Her beam is reflectable. Mario has moves in SSB that work best against someone like Samus. He can dodge duck dip dive and dodge Samus' moves and counter. That and this will probably end when Samus makes the mistake of firing a fully-charged beam cannon only to have it reflected right back.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

Turns him giant and indestructable. Samus would once again have to keep dodging, and with her superior agility she could.

Causes Mario to swell up and float slowly. Of all the powerups Mario's got, this one is the least helpful. All it does for him is make him a big slow moving target, exactly what you don't want to be when you're fighting an experienced bounty hunter armed with lethal weapons.

I'll not tread on Kotre's toes here but just wanted to added my 2 cents. From what I can ascertain, Mega Mushroom is removed after one hit. Samus is allowed to use her Gunship and it is just the tool to hit large targets from a distance whilst Miss Aran can just stay out of the road until he returns back to normal size when she can resume her attack. I don't feel either of these power ups are of real benefit to Mario, in fact quite the opposite.

On the argument of using Super Smash as a basis for choosing, asides from the arguments that the experienced game players are putting forward for Samus being the better competitor, this is being unfair to her as this is far from her strongest incarnation. As Mario is 'gifted' several power ups for the various rounds, then I think it is only fair to battle him with her strongest from which from my reading on the topic would be the Metroid 3: Corruption Samus. From what I've read, this version has Mario outgunned on every front.

 

[The Doctor]

Sadly for Mario this is a fight he simply doesn't stack up well against his opponent. Allow me to run through the Doc approved list of powerups.

I just wanted to clarify one thing, and that is that he always has the Fire Flower and Feather powerups equipped and cannot lose them, similar to Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The other powerups however are one-time-use only.

As for who wins, I have to give it to my girl Samus. While Mario really could put up a fight with his stomps and the Mega Mushroom in particular, Samus could counter that with Morph Ball mode and her gunship. it wouldn't be as much of a blowout as it would seem at first, but in the end Samus would prevail. Her weapons and armor can counter Mario's weapons and attack skills.

I will say that the feather would be invaluable in a fight like this though. As stated before it can reflect projectiles, including fully charged power shots, and it would allow Mario to fly which Samus can't do. I'm sure a victory strategy for the plumber could be worked out with these things in mind, but I still want to give Samus the edge.