Talk:Alph

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I think this page should be merged with Olimar. While Alph is indeed a separate character from Olimar in the Olimar series, he is treated as an alternate "costume" here; despite the separate announcer calls and even separate mesh, Alph shares the moveset, and the game's records classify Alph as the same as Olimar; getting KOs with Alph equates to getting KOs with Olimar. The reason Koopalings, another model swap with separate announcer names, is that they're separate characters in the Mario series. I highly doubt that the Koopalings will get their own articles in other wiki series' articles due to similar logical reasons, not because we should follow exactly what every other wiki does. If Alph makes additional appearances as a separate entity, like a Smash Bros. anime where he plays a major role and sticks his Beam Sword to where the sun don't shine on Wario, then we can make this article. But, removing assumptions, this should be merged with Olimar. Any other thoughts? It's me, Mario! (Talk / Stalk) 17:21, 3 January 2015 (EST)

The MarioWiki is, I believe, the only wiki to actually create individual articles for SSB elements besides the actual SSB Wiki, so we can't exactly compare ourselves to anyone else. In any case, Alph may share the same moves (Dark Pit, Roy, and others have some sort of relevance here, I think) and stats, but he's still rather individual, since he does have his own announced name when he's fighting with his unique mesh. I'd vote for keeping the article. Hello, I'm Time Turner.

Dark Pit and Roy share similar animations and even hitbox properties, but some, if not all their attacks have different properties, especially how and what damage is done. Roy hits harder at the base of the sword, Roy is harder to KO and falls faster than Marth, and Dark Pit has Electroshock, which the trajectory is different (Pit's sends people up, Dark Pit is diagonal, more horizontal). Alph has wholly no gameplay differences. Not to mention, Roy and Dark Pit have their own set of trophies, whereas Alph has only one trophy which does acknowledge that Olimar has a playable alt, but it doesn't necessarily mean he should be treated as an individual character. He does have different announcer calls and a different crowd cheer, but Smash 4 is the first game where we even had full separate characters and drastically different meshes as alts (Daisy Peach has slightly different gloves, but it's still considered a recolor and not actually Daisy anyway). Appropriate announcer calls and crowd cheers would make sense for these drastic model swaps, but in the end, the game treats Olimar and Alph, and Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings as one entity due to these reasons:

1. The records keep track of Olimar rather than Olimar AND Alph. One KO for Alph is a KO for Olimar.
2. Completing Single Player mode as Alph gives you an Olimar trophy.
3. Completing a challenge with Alph, but it requires Olimar is counted.
4. Olimar gets his own set of trophies: Regular, Final Smash (in Wii U), and an alt. Alph is an independent trophy you find via normal means, via RNG.

By keeping the Alph article, I think we may mislead our readers in that Alph is a clone rather than an alternate costume. Characters like Dark Pit and Lucina are right at the boundary of extremely similar, but separate clonedom, and Alph is sadly not within this boundary. Finally, whatever the Alph article may offer is already covered by Olimar, making it redundant at best anyway. It's me, Mario! (Talk / Stalk) 18:04, 3 January 2015 (EST)

Merge Alph with Captain Olimar

This article should not be a standalone article as discussed above. Time Turner hasn't responded at all after my last comment, so I decided on my smelly bacteria-ridden guts that it's a sign to start proposing.

It can be argued that Alph gets his own announcer calls and name change, but that's really the extent of the pro-split side. While that may give Alph an identity, Alph is still treated as a mere extension of Olimar, sharing his records, trophies, and other data with him. He's treated as an alternate costume, a very convincing one who has his own set of recolors, but an alt in the end. Think of him as an official Brawl mod rather than his own character. You know, Project M in SmashWiki doesn't separate their Mario and Dr. Mario counterparts even though Dr. Mario throws pills instead of fireballs, which is still more of a difference between Alph and Olimar (since Dr. Mario can't set off blast boxes as easily). We're not SmashWiki, but consider the logic between this and there.

Clones are not a good counter argument. Not only do clones have their own slots, they have a different playstyle than the original, have their own records, and have their own trophy set. Alph, other than that alt trophy, has none of the above.

Finally, by giving Alph his own article, we may be misleading our readers (especially those not well-versed in Super Smash Bros. or reading) into thinking Alph is indeed one more character in the Smash 4 roster. No, as of this writing, we have 49 different movesets, equating to 49 characters, not 57 characters.

Proposer: Bazooka Mario (talk)
Deadline: June 24, 2015

Merge

1. Bazooka Mario (talk) See comments above as well if you need to, as well as viewing a bit of the opposing side.