This is an opinion piece. My opinion does not reflect PushDustin’s opinion or Source Gaming as a whole. I fully expect some of you will disagree. Feel free to leave your feedback in the comments.
Since Snake’s unveiling in Super Smash Bros. Brawl at E3 2006, third party characters have become somewhat a norm in the series. Super Smash Bros. Brawl had two guest characters, and Super Smash Brothers for Wii U and 3DS had four guest characters (including DLC). However, has the series going a bit too far with third party characters? You might think “Smashchu, you’re mad!” So, dear reader, allow me to explain my stance, and why I believe the next Super Smash Brothers should return to form and only include Nintendo characters.
Third Party Characters in Smash
Fans have some misconceptions about third party characters in Smash. Sakurai has stated that not just any character can be added and one of the things a third party characters must bring some history with them. It is for this reason that third party characters have worked so well in Super Smash Bros. Sonic, Megaman, Pac-Man and Ryu have all been in numerous million-sellers. These characters are well known within the gaming pantheon, and even players who don’t have a wealth of video game knowledge will be able to recognize these characters. Essentially, these characters have worked because they are so well known and liked.
However, fans have taken the idea that any characters can, and should, be in Smash Brothers. But as Sakurai has said, that is not the case. He stated in an IGN interview during GDC 2008 that, “ It’s not a simple matter of adding as many worlds and characters from other games as possible — you can’t be careless in doing that sort of thing, you have to be careful. Internally and externally, there have been people who have raised objections to it.” Sakurai stresses some caution on adding a plethora of third party characters and is conservative on the matter. Thus, there is a disjoint between what fans want and what Sakurai is willing to do.
So why is there a disconnect between what fans want and what Sakurai will add? The reasons is that Super Smash Brothers is, to some, a dream game. Super Smash Brothers is a game that bring multiple different characters from multiple different worlds, so fans have their own idea of who should be in the game and who shouldn’t. Before the announcement of Snake in Super Smash Brothers Brawl, the number of characters who could be included was limited to only Nintendo characters. Now, any characters could theoretically be in Smash. As such, fans ask for a plethora of third party characters, even if their inclusion wouldn’t be worthwhile. As Sakurai has stated in the GDC 2008 interview, “Adding characters from other series and from other worlds, really, outside the Nintendo universe, is an incredibly difficult process.”
Who’s Left?
Rayman is a popular choice for Smash, but is he the best fit?
Unfortunately, when making a game like Super Smash Brothers, the number of characters people know and adore will continue to decline. A characters like Bowser Jr. won’t be as well received as someone like Wario. At the same time, Wario wont be received as well as Mario. The point is that characters who are famous and well known have already been included in the game; thus, the amount of new characters that will make fans excited is getting smaller and smaller. So third party characters seem to be a solution to this as there is essentially an infinite number of them. But is this really the case?
First, consider that most of the third party characters include were included because they were highly requested or there was some other circumstance that allowed them to be in. During the development of Super Smash Brothers Brawl, a poll was taken for which characters fans would like to see in the game. Shigeru Miyamoto stated that Sonic the Hedgehog was the most popular characters from that poll. Sakurai later stated that after Sonic, Megaman was the most popular character in the same poll. Sakurai has specifically stated that Pac-Man was added because the was developed in cooperation with Namco Bandai. Nevertheless, Pac-Man was not an obscure chose. During an interview IGN had with Sakurai, the author recounts, “My inquiry about Namco Bandai characters did lead Sakurai to ask me a question in return – if I had to pick one character, which Namco Bandai character would I want in Super Smash Bros.? The answer seemed obvious to me – the original arcade version of Pac-Man.”
The common trend is that the third party characters included in the roster are popular and iconic. But there is more to it than simply being iconic. Many characters can lay claim to being “iconic” for a multitude of reasons. The characters in Smash (including Ryu) were not only successful in their time but continue to be successful all over the world. However, compare the third party characters now and there are some issues. Looking at the poll conducted on Source Gaming(with the help of BluePikmin), some of the most popular third party characters included Shovel Knight, Shantae, Rayman Snake, Bomberman, Simon Belmont and Banjo and Kazooie. These are all popular characters; however, they each come with there own issues. Characters like Shovel Knight, Rayman and Shantea have fans in the West, but are almost unheard of in Japan; as evident by Japanese players asking, ‘What’s a Shovel Knight?‘ Nintendo, in their most recent shareholder’s briefing, unveiled that Japan accounts for approximately 30 percent of download sales. As such, a character that is unknown over there would not be the best option to maximize sales. Moreover, Super Smash Brothers for 3DS is the ranked third for download sales among Nintendo titles. With about a third of the sales of the 3DS version coming from Japan, it’s clear these characters won’t work.
On the other hand, Simon and Bomberman are both classic characters, but they have faded in recent times. Even Snake, who was playable in Super Smash Brothers Brawl, has issues because his creator, Hideo Kojima, leaving Konami and the fact that Sakurai did not include him in the newest game. Of course, Banjo and Kazooie are now owned by rival console manufacture, Microsoft. The characters currently in Smash have a long history, are popular among fans, and are still relevant today. Sadly, there aren’t that many characters left that fit that role. Looking at the poll, there isn’t one character that stick out that folks want above all else. Even the third party characters folks want varies by region. The characters mentioned above, besides Snake, are not as popular in Japan. With the Super Smash Bros. series selling millions, it becomes even hard to find a third party character that almost everyone will know and enjoy in the game.
Diminishing Utility and Marginal Cost
A graphical representation of Marginal Cost and Marginal Revenue. Firms produce where these two meet.
In my article, DLC Econ 101, I presented the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility, which is the economic theory that states, simply, that the more you consume something, the less benefit you derive from it. In relation to third parties, each new addition will bring with it less excitement, and as a result, less benefit. Fans were shocked and excited when Snake was announced as it so unexpected. But the announcement of Snake can never truly be replicated. Other third party characters have been added and the allure of having a non-Nintendo character in Super Smash Brothers has been lost. Fans were excited to see Sonic and Megaman as they were very popular characters. However, based on responses from fans, Ryu didn’t have the same excitement. Looking at the poll, there was no one third party character fans agreed with. Even the popularity of third party characters in Japan is vastly different than the West. There isn’t one character that fans unanimously want.
Conversely, third party characters are costly to add. Another economic concept, Marginal Cost, is the additional cost for producing an additional good. Firms produce where marginal cost meets marginal (or additional) revenue. This concept is used mostly in manufacturing, but we can apply the concept here as well. Essentially, there must be a point where the cost of adding an additional third party would outweigh the character’s benefit. There are the obvious legal issues, and Sakurai has to jump through more hoops. In Super Smash Brothers for Wii U /3DS, Sakurai and Nintendo had to manage relationship with three third party companies. This is likely why Sakurai has only included content from these three companies in order to avoid additional legal hassle. Additionally, adding more third party characters requires a greater amount of resources. With each third party added, new stages, music, and trophies have to be made. Super Smash Bros for Wii U/3DS has four third party characters, which means each one has to have new content. Increasing the number of third party characters beyond this will only take more resources. While this is true of new Nintendo characters, many of the new series may be smaller or have less content, and many other characters will be from series already in the game.
So the issue become that adding more third party characters is more work for less reward. There aren’t many characters that can create the same excitement as Sonic or Megaman did, and adding more characters will require more legal work and take more resources to create stages, music and trophies. Essentially, adding more third party characters doesn’t improve the roster in any meaningful way; it just adds more non-Nintendo characters to the roster.
A Return to Form
Nintendo’s strength is their IPs, according to company president.
The series has reached a crossroad. The previous titles have benefited from third party characters because there were a lot of iconic and still popular characters that could be included in the roster. Arguably, now there are fewer characters that are as universally loved as the ones already in Smash. Moreover, adding more characters will take a greater amount of resources with manage the relationship with the Intellectual Property (IP) holder and develop sufficient content for the character. And at the end of the day, the series is moves farther and farther away from being a celebration of Nintendo.
And ultimately, that is what Super Smash Brothers is. It is a game that celebrates Nintendo’s characters and history. Some critics will say that the issue of fewer qualified third party characters is moot because the same is true of Nintendo characters. However, that is simply not the case because Super Smash Brothers celebrates Nintendo. For example, Rosalina is a less important characters than Mario, but Rosalina remains an important character because she is a piece of the Mario series. Adding more characters, even if they are not as well known as Nintendo’s All-Stars, only servers to expand the Nintendo universe as it is represented in Smash. Shigeru Miyamoto has stated that Nintendo plans to be more aggressive with their IPs, and Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima identified Nintendo’s wealth of IPs as a strength and the key to expanding the gaming population. Thus, it would be in Nintendo’s benefit to focus on their own characters and worlds in the next game as this aligns with their strategic directions.
The point that, in this author’s opinion, the next game should cut the guest characters and include only Nintendo characters. While this may seem like a radical idea, remember the first two games in the series did not have guest characters and both sold over 5 million units. Alternatively, there are fewer guest characters who will make a significant impact and justify the extra cost needed to adequately include them in the game. If there isn’t a new third party character, should the team developing Smash waste their resources to include veteran guest characters? I would argue no. Already, the series has 52 characters not including the Mii Fighters. There is also evidence that 3 more characters are planned for DLC which would bring the total number of characters to 55. Super Smash Brothers games typically add around 12 new characters. It’s clear that the roster for the next Super Smash Brother will be massive and that resources will be even tighter. Can the team really afford to try and include third party characters, dealing with the legality and the extra content needed for these series? In fact, the easiest way to maintain a large roster is cut third party characters from the mix.
It remains to be seen what Sakurai and Nintendo will do with the next Super Smash Brothers, and the next title is likely still far off. Third party characters have become an important part of Super Smash Brothers, and that part can not be denied. However, the goal should always be to promote Nintendo first, and that is a major reason I think the series needs to return to form.
Thank you for reading. In my next article, I will identify some new Nintendo characters that could be included in the new game. Stay tuned.
“There are few iconic 3rd party characters left, therefore the previous 3rd parties should be cut” is a rather jarring leap in logic. The perceived “purity” of the roster is a fan quibble, not a practical concern. Deporting the third parties and building a wall around the series is not going to ensure a more successful future game.
I may have been unclear. The point I was making is basically, that if no new third party characters are going to be added, then it wouldn’t be worth it to add the veterans back because of the legal work and strain on resources. Another point which I didn’t make was that with veteran third party characters, those who would most care for their inclusion would be fans of the previous entries. But the series roster is getting huge and there will have to be some cuts to add new fighters. So, if the team has to cut someone, it would make the most sense to cut those characters who would be a greater strain on limited resources, the third party characters.
Hasn’t Sakurai stated that some of the second party characters are almost the same amount of hassle as a third party (Like the Pokemon and FE characters?) Those franchises are some of the most highly represented series in Smash. Obviously they are given higher priority, though.
I dunno about that… second party is probably less hassle than third, but more than first.
Also, considering four Pokemon have been cut (with Mewtwo being the only returning cut) in the series, Jiggs has almost been cut a few times, and the FE franchise really only being represented by three characters at first in Smash 4 (Lucina was an extra, last-minute addition and Roy was DLC more as a Melee veteran than a relevant FE character), I wouldn’t say they’re given higher priority.
I agree on your points about third party DLC. With how much more difficult and costly they’d be than first party characters, and when all the popular picks either have issues holding them back or are only popular in part of the world and virtually unknown elsewhere, it seems more likely than not that we won’t see any more third party characters as DLC. Though they get a lot of media attention and bandwagoning due to how big a deal third party content is in Smash, it doesn’t circumvent how much harder it is for them, for the reasons you stated.
Although I don’t know if cutting ALL third party content from the next Smash would be the best move, especially when things are going pretty well between Nintendo and Sega, Capcom, and Namco-Bandai. I could even see them adding another at that point (Black Mage, since Square-Enix has been on better terms lately?), although we’re talking way far off, lol.
I get what you are saying and I agree that people have been requesting third party characters that don’t fit the iconicness of the current 3rd party characters in Smash Bros- Every one of those characters not only had ties to Nintendo’s history, but they each changed the video game industry as a whole and are some of the most recognizable faces in gaming even to non-gamers. I believe Sakurai won’t add a character in as a third party if they don’t deserve it and quite frankly characters like shovel knight haven’t earned that yet. Shovel knight isn’t even a series yet and might just be a one-off game title that could quickly be more forgotten as time goes on. If Sakurai truly wanted to represent the Indie scene he would probably include some one like Commander Video or Quote- two of the most recognizable and influential characters of the Indie movement, but even then they honestly don’t compare to Snake, Sonic, Pac-Man, MegaMan, or Ryu.
Similarly with DLC I doubt they will pick characters like Shovel Knight who aren’t even known worldwide (Unless each DLC character is for each major region- Japan, NA, PAL.) The DLC will obviously try and be as alluring as possible to as many fans as possible. It is easier to sell a lesser-known first/second party character on the base roster than as DLC. I also think Nintendo will have to start adding more of the “casual” games into the roster/stage list/assists/etc. that fans like to hate on because that was what Nintendo has been successful with as of late and these characters will do better on the base roster. Games like Rhythm Heaven, Style Savvy, Nintendogs, Brain Age, Big Brain Academy, Art Academy, Tomadachi Life/Tomadachi Collection, Picross, Pushmo, Cooking Guide! Can’t Decide what to eat? (Shaberu! DS Oryōri Navi,) etc. will either just be relegated to non playable roles (which makes sense for some of them) or they will have to wait to be part of the base roster as I said before. Even popular more traditional games like Advance Wars, Excitebiker, etc. suffers the same fate since they don’t have the same fan “draw” to them as your big third parties or your ridleys, K. Rools, etc.
I think the reason so many non-Nintendo characters got mentioned in the polls were because fans saw it as a opportunity to root for some of the more impossible and improbable characters that they like.
I trust Sakurai to be picky when it comes to these guest characters, but I don’t think they should be omitted from the next title in the series. These characters are a part of Nintendo’s history and are quite the fan service (and have pretty decent fan followings that might result in backlash from them being cut.)- I also don’t think Nintendo should be celebrating one of their biggest hurdles (lack of third party support.)
I personally feel like a SquareEnix character may crop up in the next title- Hopefully whatever mascot they pick will come with a couple assists of the other mascots that didn’t make the cut, but in the end I trust Sakurai’s judgement on guest characters.
Sora !!! Please Sora
Just FYI, I may not be able to get to every comment just due to real life obligations and other things I’m doing with Sourcegaming. If you REALLY want a response, please send me an e-mail or hit me up on Twitter. Also, if your comment is not up, its either because of content (language mostly) or because I haven’t gotten around to it.
I can take or leave third-party characters. The three that came with the base game were perfect IMO, since they pretty much represent the three biggest Japanese developers besides Nintendo. Ryu was an unexpected, but pleasant surprise, as I thought that Mega Man would always be picked for Smash before him. Konami, Square-Enix, and Level-5 reps would be the only ones I feel would be fitting for Smash (Level-5 doesn’t have quite the history as the others, but they’re one of the top Japanese developers.)
However, if it would mean development of more Nintendo characters if we dropped the third parties, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Third party characters are fun, but if we could get characters like Inklings and Takamaru instead, I’d prefer that.
Sorry to say this, but am I the only one who feels insulted of Sonic’s pic in the title pic?
Anyways, if this article is meant to be true, then I should be quite disappointed that Sega and Namco may not have a second character for DLC, as being pretty unfair for Capcom having 2 characters. However, it is agreeable that third parties are just simply guest characters, and they were meant to be an one time chance. I do remember Sakurai saying something that he can’t add too many third parties or else the game will lose the meaning of Nintendo All-Stars, so we know that we can’t expect anymore third parties as well to keep Nintendo’s reputation of what is Smash is made for. However, the sad part in reality is that fans doesn’t seem to understand that point, or to say it worse and harshly, fans don’t even want to understand that point, because they just simply want more third parties, whether they’re Nintendo related or (which most of them are) not. Not as a purpose of Nintendo’s support for third parties, but rather of self satisfaction, and we already know that ain’t gonna help at all.
It’s true we can’t have any characters that’s mainly popular only in that region, like Shovel Knight in the west, and Jibanyan in Japan. Popularity isn’t much of a main point of Smash, they need to have an exact historical relationship with Nintendo, and have more than one series that makes every players and viewers mentioned globally. Although they’re extremely popular as there will be worshipers out there, games that didn’t have any relationship with Nintendo in the past, and even don’t have many sequels to that game, and also wasn’t even sold globally at all which ends up making some people saying “who the hell is that?”, then they’re appearance in Smash is perfectly meaningless. Not just it’ll destroy Smash’s reputation, but the sales won’t work if they just add someone nobody even knows in the first place and ends up nobody buying it because of that reason.
Nintendo’s relationship with Sega, Capcom, and Namco has been great since then, and Project X Zone series is the evidence of their relationship. Sonic may have a possibility to return since fans still want to see Mario and Sonic battle each other, but as I can hardly admit since I’m a huge Sonic fan, his rejection may be possible due to his condition of his series. We haven’t seen the “original” Sonic ever since Sonic and the Lost World, and his series’ popularity isn’t doing good as well (and I’d blame Cartoon Network for what they’ve done to Sonic in a terrible way). But even though, he may still have a chance to return as a veteran third party character. Pac-Man might return if Sakurai still continues Namco’s support for the next Smash, but that’ll depend too. Mega Man is the most suspicious one because we do see Capcom is ultimately mistreating him after his creator Keiji Inafune left Capcom. Mega Man had no sequels since his 10th game, alongside with Mega Man X being stopped at 8, and Mega Man Legend which the third sequel has been ultimately canceled during production. Ryu might become Mega Man’s replacement for Smash 5, but DLC character may be temporary too, so Ryu and Mega Man’s fate is really depending.
Furthermore, although I’m still hoping for Sega and Namco’s second character, we know we can’t expect more as there are limitations to Smash 4. Although Smash is the game of many possibilities, we can’t be greedy on it. So it’s really all up to Sakurai at this point now, which we’re still looking forward for new Smash infos whether that’ll be the new Direct, or something that’ll pop out of no where.
Sonic represents third party characters in Smash, there’s no need to be offended by the header image.
I’m really starting to think Sakurai is starting to view Smash as a general character game. The fact that Heihachi was strongly considered for Smash for Wii U/3DS shows that Sakurai isn’t that concerned with a “historical relationship with Nintendo”. Even with the original Brawl era translations he said it ‘might’ be a requirement.
Personally I think the only veterans that could be up in the air for the next Smash game are Ryu and Megaman. However, both have been very well received and the number of Capcom content in Smash has been the most out of any third parties. Therefore, they have better chances of returning. Sonic and Pac-Man in some ways feels like they are expected. I know Pac-Man got in due to Bandai Namco co-developing the game, but I really feel that since he was also considered for Brawl, and his gaming icon overall, he will make it in again.
I’m not sure if it’s really Capcom “mistreating” the Mega Man IP… it may be that they’re not sure what direction to take it now that Inafune is gone… it’d be like what would happen to Mario if Miyamoto left. I’m bummed about Legends 3 and Universe being cancelled, but who knows? Maybe Inafune’s involvement created legal trouble for both projects after his departure.
We’ll have to see… Capcom has revived franchises before. I’m sure they won’t leave their most famous one dormant for TOO long. They could be working on something now and keeping it a secret.
That’s a really interesting article, and if I also think that many won’t “like” its content, I pretty much agree with you.
I really enjoy the way you go deeply into every aspect, like I try to do on my own when thinking/speculating about Smash.
Now, I must admit that I would be really sad if Sonic was cut, as he is one of my favorite characters, all media included.
Megaman is also a great addition to the roster imo, but on the contrary I always felt like Snake was a bit out of place in Brawl, and the same goes for Pac-Man and Ryu in Smash 4 (regardless of how I appreciate them outside of Smash).
Anyway, if cutting them all would mean better representation for not yet represented Nintendo series, I’d find it perfectly logical and most likely welcome.
You also made a great point about popular 3rd party characters in the Ballot vs. how they’re perceived in Japan.
A lot of people were pretty mad about this when I tried to explain it, thought I was wrong or that I had something against the characters themselves. Which isn’t necessarily true, but being objective sometimes mean you can’t only say nice/positive things…!
Let’s hope we’re going to actually see Nintendo using (more of) their IPs in a better way, because inside or outside of Smash, they’re all bringing interesting things to the table and they all have their devoted fans! 🙂
Regarding the Japanese audience not knowing popular game characters in the west, I’m sure there were many US gamers in 2002 asking “What’s Fire Emblem?”, or Europeans in 1999 asking “What is Earthbound?”.
Yes, Marth, Roy and Ness are indeed first-party characters, but it still indicates that Sakurai really isn’t bothered if a large chunk of the Smash Bros. audience has no idea who a new character is. Heck, I’d wager there are plenty of younger audiences that have no idea where Little Mac, Mr. Game and Watch, Ice Climbers and Duck Hunt come from. Regardless of whether players are familiar with a character or not, their curiosity about them is the key to a purchase.
Its a fair point, but it’s harder with third party characters because you have to go through more licensing, so you’ll want the best of the best to justify the cost. Moreover, because you are straying from the concept of Nintendo fighting-game, having it be a big name makes it easier to swallow. Having a lot of third party characters that are polarizing ruins the experience and makes third party characters in Smash to be a cheap marketing gimmick.
Sometimes I wonder how guest requests are so commonplace in Smash speculation, but there actually are some things that make this not so surprising – the uniqueness of the Smash gameplay as well as the fame of the series itself, arguably the most famous and beloved massive crossover in the video game industry. But when people are requesting so many third-party characters it makes me feel curious about whether those people see the Nintendo focus as an aspect that makes the game so special. I believe something that makes things special in video games in the sense of focus and coherence, and not having these qualities may harm how seriously the player can take them.For example I often roll my eyes at some fan movesets for characters which care too much about referencing source material but really don’t feel focused and actually look like bad fits for an actual Smash Bros. game. In a similar way, I think sense of focus is very important in a crossover roster. I’m not fully opposed to guests, but they shouldn’t be added at the cost of making the roster feel like it loses its focus.
The thematic coherence and feel of focus in Super Smash Bros. is based on the Nintendo brand, which includes many characters from completely different universes in both themes and aesthetics which more often than not are incompatible with each others. This great variety of characters who comes from universes with such different settings is part of the appeal of Smash, but even then such a crossover has to set its own limits in order to feel coherent and focused. For this reason, non-Nintendo character additions must be done very carefully by being few and far between and the sense of coherence shouldn’t be fully sacrificed when considering them. The reason why the third-party characters we currently have in Smash work is because they have relevant historical influence on Nintendo and their fame set the bar high in a such beloved crossover.
Even with third-party characters in Smash being a reality I still believe Nintendo is the limit Smash sets to itself for its roster, which means non-Nintendo characters are guests. Even then they must be implemented very carefully in the game and have something special about them. With the fact we got three third-party newcomers this time around in Smash 4, that one of them is the only DLC newcomer we got at this point, and that there’s no third-party potential newcomer which most people agree on about being a good fit for Smash, another third-party character for DLC would probably make me feel like “Oh great yet another guest” at best. I believe setting yourself limits on what is and isn’t part of your focus makes your choices feel more coherent and satisfying for the most part.
That said I’m not against things like the high amount of third-party characters as DLC Mii costumes, as those are a harmless fun extra for the sake of it with no gameplay influence and not a main part of the appeal of the game, so sense of focus and careful choices in those things are less of a concern.
As such when I see people requesting third-party characters in Smash I often wonder whether they see those as personal wants or as something that would legitimately strengthen the Smash roster beyond adding a new character with a « unique moveset ». But here’s a fact – unless Super Smash Bros. is somehow relabelled as “Nintendo VS the world” instead of “Nintendo all-stars” most of these requests are bad fits for Smash, no matter how much “moveset potential” they have (and btw being able to be unique and interesting is a basic requirement to be chosen for Smash, it shouldn’t be the main selling point for a character).
I also feel that we’ve reached the point where third-party characters in Smash lost their initial appeal compared to the shock of Snake’s inclusion in Brawl, so yeah I wouldn’t mind having no third-party newcomer in Smash 5. That said I doubt cutting all third-parties would be overall well received considering that guests are now an established part of Smash and also how requested Sonic and Mega Man were in the first place prior to their actual addition to the roster… maybe instead hold them back as post-release characters added through an update, so the team can still prioritize non-guest characters for the base game, and that could also make their return feel more special, like « We’ve heard your requests and decided to bring the guest characters Sonic and Mega Man back in Smash 5 ». Even though I guess Nintendo would probably get sizable backlash for cutting on purpose beloved characters to then sell them and thus get even more money out of them, unless they’re somehow free.
(Speaking about an hypothetical “Super Smash Bros.: Nintendo VS the world” game, it’d basically be a glorified MUGEN biased towards Nintendo, so yeah… I’m not sure it’s really a good idea either.)
So, Smashchu, how does Cloud’s addition affect this argument? I think it’s clear that this third-party character generated more excitement than any other so far, except for Snake. I think it’s indicative that there’s much more to offer from third parties, even if that means characters that were previously thought to be “impossible” for Smash. But I’m curious about your view on this big update.
@Smashchu
Don’t you think you’re being a bit racist towards non-Nintendo characters