Note: This is an opinion article. Feel free to(respectfully) disagree, as this is merely a hypothesis.
Cuts. Nobody likes it when those happen, except when it’s a sword slicing through a foe. Every character, no matter how hated, has a fanbase. But we lose characters every time a new Smash game rolls around. Between Brawl and Smash 3DS/Wii U, we lost 4 characters(5 counting the Pokemon Trainer’s mons as individuals, since Charizard was made a solo character), and DLC only brought back one of these in Lucas. What will become of the rest of the cuts is unknown.
At least he’s in a recent game. An extremely divisive game with very questionable aspects. So there’s that, maybe. Yay?
It’s been several months since DLC ended with the final announcements of Bayonetta and Corrin in December, and their proper release in early February. With that in mind, I’m going to offer a perspective on who might be at risk for the next proper game.
Several of these points will be shared with the previous SG article on cuts from October 2015 with a new point of view due to what we got with DLC.
The Clones
Clones and clone-like characters, historically, have been frequent choices for cuts. From all Smash games prior to 3DS/U, three clones are currently gone: Young Link, Wolf and Pichu. This was previously six with Dr. Mario, Lucas and Roy, the latter two added to Smash 3DS/U as DLC and the former to the same game on the base roster.
You could technically engage in clone wars by putting all of these plus Roy and Lucas in an 8-Player Smash.
Currently, we have Dark Pit, Lucina, Dr. Mario, Lucas and Roy as the present moveset clones in Smash 3DS/U(though Lucas differs enough from Ness to be his own separate character and not a full clone). The former three, as is common knowledge, were included as a result of free development time, allowing them to be implemented without obstructing the rest of development. Roy was brought back out of desire to bring back a popular Melee character(albeit tweaked from his Melee self), and Lucas(whom ironically almost cut Ness in Melee) for similar reasons, albeit for Brawl instead.
Which ones could be axed?
As a theory, to make space, the former three clones would be brought down to character swaps similarly to how Alph is currently implemented for Olimar. This carries the distinct advantage of technically not removing them, thus not generating(massive) ire across their fans. However, in the case of Dark Pit and Dr. Mario, they were separated partly due to their unique attributes, and in the former’s case, to avoid conflicts in canon. Thus, whether they would be removed entirely or not remains to be seen.
As for Lucas and Roy, they are both loved clone characters from their respective games. Given that Sakurai takes series balance into account when selecting characters(plus the controversy over Corrin’s inclusion), there exists the chance Roy (and/or Lucina) could be removed/downgraded to make space for a fresh new character. Lucas’ safety is rather debatable; not only is the “original twelve” rule false in the case of Ness himself, Earthbound as a franchise is finished, and series without a future are not usually prioritized. Although, in Ness’ defense, he was going to be replaced with a character from the same series.
Third Parties
A general statement about third party characters: they can be cut if circumstances change. None of them are completely safe, but they all have reasons to stay. From Brawl to Smash 3DS/U we saw the cut of the first third party introduced to Smash Bros., Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid. In his case, however, it was likely the public image of his parent company Konami preventing him from returning, but there are no concrete answers regarding his absence at present.
Though in his defense, would YOU remember having to sign up for Smash again if a piece of shrapnel was embedded into and damaging your brain?
At present, we have 6 third party characters in Smash 3DS/U: Sonic, Mega Man, Pac-Man, Ryu, Cloud Strife and Bayonetta. However, as third parties are in a different league compared to first party characters, attempting to predict who will be cut is tough due to the unseen difficulties of rights negotiations. The ‘safest’ character is Sonic, having made it from one game to the next unlike his sneaky counterpart. After that, however, it gets harder.
Mega Man and Pac-Man were the on-disc newcomer third parties added out of certain circumstances; both have a long-lasting impact on the gaming industry and are cultural icons, particularly the latter. They made it in despite their series not doing much at the time Smash 3DS/U was being made, with the former being particularly infamous for it. Due to their high prestige, it’s hard to imagine them being cut, but still remaining a possibility.
Cloud Strife and Ryu were the non-ballot third party DLC characters from Square-Enix and Capcom, respectively. Cloud’s inclusion stemmed from long-running fan requests for Final Fantasy characters in Smash, a significant portion of those requesting Cloud, and Final Fantasy director Tetsuya Nomura’s agreement to negotiate after being contacted. This would put Cloud’s inclusion in a similar boat to Solid Snake’s, except that Sakurai asked first and not the other way around(note that this scenario was in Brawl; Kojima had originally asked during Melee’s production first). The question now is whether Cloud would be kept. I personally believe he would. Unlike Snake and Konami, Square-Enix really doesn’t have any public image problems to the degree Konami does, and thus would likely be more willing to arrange for a second appearance.
In spite of reactions like this.
As for Ryu, he really doesn’t have that much of an explanation for his inclusion, though the argument can be made that the father of modern fighting games would be highly welcomed to Smash precisely for his iconic value. The ambiguity regarding his inclusion would make it so his chances of staying are an arguable 50/50.
And finally, Bayonetta was the final character added to Smash 3DS/U as a result of the Fighter Ballot, where she was the top voted in Europe, amongst the Top 5 in North America, and overall #1 worldwide amongst negotiable and realizable choices. Unlike what some would claim, Bayonetta has a a couple of critical points in her favor:
- Being the Smash Ballot winner, Bayonetta automatically has reason to be prioritized. Regardless of who it would have been, cutting the winner of a global poll to determine a character’s inclusion would cause a high amount of displeasure among fans, as with any cut, really.
- On top of this, PlatinumGames have a solid relationship with Nintendo, with content of theirs appearing in Smash Bros. for Wii U on top of making several games for their systems since the Nintendo DS and Wii.
- Hideki Kamiya himself is likewise on very good terms with the company and Sakurai himself(who was a guest at Platinum’s anniversary party in early 2016). Evidence of Kamiya’s potential future willingness to allow Bayonetta’s usage (apart from Smash) comes from a statement by Kamiya in early February where he regretted his initial decision to not allow Bayonetta to be used in the company crossover game Project X Zone 2(which happens to include every third party company currently in Smash except for Square-Enix), and is fully open to her appearing in a potential sequel.
- Another detail worth noting is that due to Bayonetta 2’s exclusive Wii U release, Nintendo partially owns the character nowadays, having both funded and published the game.
With these facts in mind, it’s easy to see why Bayonetta could avoid getting cut; that does not make her a lock, mind you, but feasible to see her reappear in the world of Smash after her shocking inclusion.
Owner of the infinite salt machine.
First Party Characters
The clones have already been covered above, so they won’t be mentioned again. Surprisingly, with the roster at the moment, only a few series could objectively be seeing cuts outside of unexpected circumstances.
Fire Emblem is easily the most divisive series in the fanbase with the amount of characters it has at the moment. Lucina and Roy have been discussed above. With Ike making it through one game untouched apart from design, it seems as though he is a mainstay. Robin is hard to see cut due to the passion Sakurai put into the character, as is Corrin. The only way either could be seen as potential cuts were if another Fire Emblem title came around in the time the roster were decided based on higher relevance and Lucina and/or Roy were not cut; in which case Robin would likely be at greater risk than Corrin due to the latter being more recent. Remember this as well; Sakurai agrees that six is too many Fire Emblem characters, so space would have to be made. As with all of Sakurai’s statements, however, this is subject to change, and also depends on what happens with Fire Emblem in the following years, seeing as it received a massive boost in popularity and is now considered a major IP for Nintendo.
To the unimaginable, nightmarish horror of those who despise sword users.
Pokemon is a constantly changing series in Smash Bros(having seen the most amount of cuts between games). Pichu, Squirtle and Ivysaur are no more. What does that mean for the current characters? Pikachu is obviously staying. Mewtwo has a wealth of points in his favor, being an insanely requested veteran, so it’s likely he’ll stay as well.
Charizard and Lucario remain consistently popular in the franchise, so that’s points in their favor as well. Greninja is the outlier; as a character included before it actually became popular, it was a lucky addition. But whether it would be cut for a more recent Pokemon is up for debate, especially with Sun & Moon approaching in late 2016. On that note, Pokemon could be a relatively safe series in regards to avoiding cuts; as a massive Nintendo franchise, there would likely not be much complaint if a seventh character were added to the current six.
You may have realized I didn’t mention Jigglypuff, a mainstay since Smash 64. It’s a rather unique case, given Jigglypuff’s almost cut in both Melee and Brawl, being a low priority character for the latter. While it’s unknown if it was close to being cut in Smash 3DS/U as well, it’s near omission in two games makes it stand to reason Jigglypuff could be at risk of being cut by the next game.
And put into a deep sleep, if you will.
And that’s it. The way the roster is right now, I think this is a very reasonable hypothesis as to who stays and goes. I fully expect to be proven wrong on some of these guesses, but that won’t happen for a couple more years. So enjoy your characters, everyone, since you never know if they’re on the chopping block!
Wolf is not a clone. He’s completely different than Fox, All he does is borrow a couple aspects from him. That’s it.
Wooh! Now I don’t have to say it!
But he does steal moves from everyone else.
Only to stand out as his own character.
Honestly I think Roy is here to stay, he’s basically become a veteran now due to his popularity, and would be hard to see him getting the axe.
I’m glad Roy is back too. He was one of my favorites in Melee. And same could be said for Wolf. He was popular in Brawl and the fact that he got cut in Smash 4 due to the delay of Star Fox Zero was unfair.
There hasn’t been a single comment regarding Wolf’s absence in Smash 4, be it for the base game or DLC. Where do you get the idea that Wolf’s absence was due to Star Fox Zero’s delay, especially considering we got no more veterans after Roy and Lucas?
When I heard Star Fox Zero was delayed for launch in April, I thought Sakurai was gonna delay Wolf to coincide with the release…..But instead, He decided to leave him out. I just knew about it. At least there’s still a rumor that the NX version of Smash 4 can give him a chance. But we’ll see what happens at some point soon.
There’s just one issue with that theory of yours. After Mewtwo’s announcement, DLC was planned out over several months, and from what we can gather, Wolf was never a part of it.
We know for a fact that Ryu, Lucas and Roy were in development even before the Ballot was created*, so they were probably being made around January-February. Roy and Lucas were specifically chosen as Melee and Brawl characters to bring back, respectively, based on popularity, and I quote: “If we were to bring back a total of three fighters, I knew we couldn’t go wrong with these three”**. This means that Wolf was probably looked at and rejected in favor of Lucas specifically as a Brawl character. Star Fox Zero was likewise never a factor in all of this, and the delay wouldn’t have made a difference considering that veterans were basically done for after Lucas and Roy. But to your credit, that’s not something we knew at the time. Now, however, the facts are laid out clearly. Wolf was possibly considered at the beginning, but in the end was ultimately left out.
I wish you luck with the NX rumor, though.
*https://sourcegaming.info/2015/06/25/ryu-roy-and-lucas-join-the-battle-sakurai-famitsu-column-vol-481/
**https://sourcegaming.info/2016/02/23/nintendo-dream-interview-with-sakurai-part-2/
I hope he stays.
For the clones, the only likely cuts would be Lucina and Dr. Mario. I could only see Pittoo being demoted if he somehow uses the Sacred Treasures in the next KI game (Do it Sakurai, he became a hero at the end of Uprising). Lucina literally has one unique feature which could be made dependent on which Custom moves are chosen (Like Falco’s lasers effecting grab damage). Dr. Mario has two somewhat unique features, which I would prefer as customs. Dr. Tornado, which is a much better move than FLUDD, and the Megavitamins, which could be a custom move (Bricks instead if regular Mario is using them).
Now onto the semis. Marth and Roy are technically semi-clones, even if they are close to full-on clone, so Luigification should do its job there. Lucas is barely a semi-clone of Ness, sharing a bit less than half of their moves.
Snake was cut, mostly because Konami has been in a lot of hot water recently (and ratings (maybe)). Sonic and Bayonetta are virtually guaranteed, since 1. Sega (and Platinum Games as well) have a really close relationship with Nintendo, and 2. Popularity. So long as Bandai Namco works on the next Smash game, Pac-Man is guaranteed, but even without that he is unlkely to be cut. For Mega Man and Ryu, the character’s relationship with Nintendo should keep them in. And as for Cloud… Square Enix’s games aren’t bad enough to land them in a similar situation as Konami, and Tetsuya Nomura is likely to agree to Cloud coming back, so there shouldn’t be too much resistance. Maybe now we can actually have a decent set of content for Square Enix universes. *cough* More than two songs on Midgar *cough*
Source for clone info:
http://www.ssbwiki.com/User:Toomai/Cloneosity
Also the fact that I read Square is pleased due to all the praise about Cloud being an really good character in Smash Brothers.
DekZek hit the nail on the head with his link. I cringed when I read “Currently, we have […]Lucas[…] as the present moveset clones in Smash 3DS/U” because holy cow that could not be more inaccurate. Not to say Lucas has no chance of being cut, but please don’t mismatch Lucas as being anywhere near the same boat as Lucina or Dark Pit, Liquid. You’re better than that.
Thanks, but there is a perfectly good explanation as to why Liquid messed up. He messed up because he correlated fighting style with clone-iness. In Melee, Marth and Roy were clones in EVERY SINGLE ATTACK, yet they have very different playstyles. Marth is good at spacing their opponents, but Roy needs to rush in close to be effective. Lucas and Ness, despite barely qualifying as semi-clones, have very similar playstyles. Could you get away with playing Roy the same way you do Marth? No. Could you get away with playing Lucas the same way as Ness? Yes. And that’s the difference. More often than not, they go hand in hand, but they aren’t the same thing.
Lucas and Ness have two completely different styles its not even funny. The only thing similar between the two are the recoveries. Lucas is a zoner that benefits from playing at a distance, while Ness needs to play at boxing range and apply pressure to be played effectively.
We all make mistakes, son. I’ve rectified that slightly.
Yes, I do know Lucas is not comparable to Dark Pit or Lucina; that’s why I also mentioned ‘clone-like characters’ at the beginning of said segment.
To be fair though everyone expected for Toon Link to be cut in Brawl. I would rather the clones return to get tweaked some more.
These are some good points especially on having cuts on the third-party characters for the next game. If I were to make a guess on any cuts, it would be the ones that are over-represented or at least some characters that debut as fighters in Smash 4. The original 8 characters are likely to stay, followed by characters who have debut in Melee and carried over to Brawl and Smash 4. Even with the Mario series in Smash with so many characters, there is a good chance they can stay due to their unique move set. With uniqueness in mind, I can also see the potential of the single character in the series (e.g. Little Mac, Wii Fit Trainer, etc) not getting cut. Saying that the Smash 4 newcomers not getting cut would contradict what I said earlier, but I’m mainly focusing on characters like Corrin, Greninja etc, but also have unique move sets. This does sound confusing but I also hate to be the one who should go or stay…
Careful. It’s an easy trap to fall in, assuming the older characters or the ones who’ve been around longer are locks, and the newer characters are more likely to be cut. Sakurai has shown he thinks the newer characters matter too. Look for the less unique or thematically redundant characters to be lower priority.
Exactly this ^ That’s why the fan rule that ‘characters who have made it into two games can’t be cut’ is nonsense. All you will see from smash at that point is the same 40 characters with 10 being brought in and swapped out basically every game.
If you want to think about who will be cut then relevancy and especially uniqueness will be important to figure it out. Roy and Dr. Mario were likely cut from Melee to Brawl because they were similar to Marth & Mario. Lucas (initially) & Wolf saw the same thing this time from Brawl to For.
Next I feel like Dark Pit is a definite for being cut along with Lucas and Roy again. Toon Link may also see the axe next time around because of this reason although this really falls down to if Linkle gets added as a Link clone imo (which needs a lot of factors to happen). Lastly I would say its finally Jigglypuff’s turn to say good bye and Ike may also join her. Both aren’t as relevant as they used to be. Plus Cloud fits Ike’s niche very nicely.
But these are my thoughts, feel free to disagree.
“Plus Cloud fits Ike’s niche very nicely.”
Third parties should not replace first parties. Especially someone as irrelevant to Nintendo as Cloud.
All we can hope is every single character returns. I can’t imagine any one of them getting cut. Dr. Mario, Lucina and Dark Pit could even get Luigified a bit.
As far as Fire Emblem goes, the Robins are the most Fire Emblemy characters there so they should certainly stay. As much as I’d rather see the Corrins gone, Lucina is the most likely cut, though Luigification would be nice too. Fire Emblem really just should not have so many characters.
Mario really deserves to have the most characters since Mario is not only the king of Nintendo, but the king of video games.
As long as Jigglypuff and Pikachu stay to keep the original 12 intact the other pokemon (Mewtwo excepted) I don’t too much care about.
Sonic is probably the safest third party bet too, not much to argue there. Cloud might see some trouble if Square just decides to be total jerks between now and then. I personally want to see Bayonetta gone, but that will probably not be.
I actually like Doc to the point that I prefer him to regular Mario and he is certainly the most different of the clones (ironic considering that he actually is Mario). Dark Pit has potential to have a revamped moveset if Sakurai wasn’t so determined to keep their movesets so similar (Gannondorf).
Don’t be complaining about Dark Pit when he was added last second in development .-. Fire Emblem also has so much because it made it’s comeback. FE is a thing now.
In my personal opinion, I believe that the biggest characters at risk of being cut is Corrin, Wii Fit Trainer, Lucina, Roy, Megaman, Ryu, and Cloud.
As for Cloud, Megaman, and Ryu, they are in a safe spot, but ever since the N64 Square has been very wary of Nintendo, with Cloud from a game to never appear on a Nintendo console as of yet.
As for Megaman and Ryu, the same, Capcom hasn’t shown enough of that much support for Nintendo. They’re strong, but the cut could easily be there.
Now for the FE bunch, Lucina, Roy, and my personal hope 😉 Corrin.
Lucina and Roy obviously suffer from clone status, and also appearances from slowly aging games. Corrin also falls into this boat since his inclusion was only due to advertising for Fates, like Roy, could be dropped for a slim entry.
Not to forget that FE is already in an overrep spot, in tie with Pokemon in Smash 4 for list of characters, that is not counting alternate characters, only beaten by Mario for obvious reasons.
With Wii Fit Trainer, it’s just low popularity and being a joke character, Pichu semi had this problem, and Jigglypuff as well. The character isn’t really a selling point, and could be scrapped.
Although characters with unique movepools have a distinct immunity, Pokemon Trainer and Ice Climbers were with held, albeit for technical difficulties.
For characters I must say will stay, Jiggles is a fan favorite, and being cut would cause huge uproar. Dr.Mario will likely stay due to popularity and him being brought from a costume to please melee fans. Ike surprisingly still finds a spot, and will likely keep that roster. As for Dark Pit, Kid Icarus doesn’t have that large a character pool, yet he’s neutral than positive for his spot.
However, I think we should be reminded that clones find they’re arrival due to being easy to code and taking little time off staff and zero from fans, like a free desert with your dinner, as Sakurai said.
Clones don’t take up time poured into new characters, and especially nowadays could even have chances of replacing new characters running late in development.
This is something I find odd, seeing as character like Wolf (not really a clone) and Pichu seems to be keep from removal for being clones, yet they could easy be that new free entree, with models and even in Wolf’s case movesets already made.
I honestly hope every character returns (except Corrin of course ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) to the next brawl. It seems likely considering the expansion in amount of characters added, and the ease of development that future consoles could give.
I hate seeing character get cut and have fans sad, with little to no reference or answer from Sakurai and the dev team. In every Smash game except 64, for obvious reasons, at least one of my favorite characters get cut in the process, like my Brawl main Pokemon Trainer :(. I don’t mean to get pathetic, but the feeling of having your favorite character disappear and never return frightens me. I guess I’m a fan of mirages, they appear one second and leave the next.
It’s pathetic how salty you are over Corrin. A good character.
You must be desperate for attention if you’re still trying to bother me. Corrin is an original unique character. Not Marth #3. Leave him alone and while you’re at it. Leave me alone. I’m not bothering with a pathetic waste of my time anymore. Step off and pester someone else.
I’m pretty that Jigglypuff will return one way or another. As cutting it will cause a MASSIVE uproar from fans like myself. I don’t think that the characters that were already cut (Dr. Mario, Mewtwo, Lucas and Roy) will be cut again simply because of the fact that they were all brought back for the same reason. To please their fans.
For my money, I genuinely don’t believe Bayonetta has the star-power for a repeat showing. Granted if the inclusion of her, Cloud and Ryu are any indication there really isn’t much in the way of “rules” for a 3rd party character (they don’t need to necessarily be iconic, important to Nintendo specifically or be the only character from a certain company, all things we’ve believed in the past), but I do believe some level of star-power is necessary for a 3rd party character to make it into something like Smash.
Bayonetta’s star-power is small compared to the likes of Pac-Man or Cloud or Sonic, and it’s very recent; she’s been in two games (one of which almost didn’t come out) with moderate success and might not have made it in without the ballot (we don’t know how much of an impact it had on Sakurai’s final decision). if Bayonetta 2 hadn’t come out when it had, Bayonetta might not have had the momentum going into the ballot that she needed to make it into the game. She’s hardly iconic; she’s recent and not even particularly popular, especially compared to the other members of the 3rd party crew. If she’s even relevant by the time Smash 5 rolls around then maybe I can see Sakurai working something out, but I honestly doubt she’ll even BE relevant by then.
Oh the joys of cuts. Nobody likes em’, everybody wants em’.
Good article. Well thought out and organized.
I guess no FE rep is going to be cut. FE is Nintendos new Animal Crossing. They want to make it as big as Pokémon. There is no reason to keep it small.
Also Sakurai already said that it doesn’t take much more effort to create a another “clone”. So I see no reason to cut them.
I say there won’t be much cuts. Thirds only.
Yet clones have been cut before.
And most brought back. 😉
Dark Pit and Lucina are too popular and important to be cut. Dr. Mario… a difficult thing.
(Sakurai seperated these because he wanted a Dark Pit and Dr. Mario amiibo! :P)
As far as I know, Wolf was one of the most unpopular Smash Charas at Brawl times. Now were he was cut, everyone wants him back. (I always liked him)
I liked him too near the end of Brawl (not a clone though), but anyways, you have a point that most were brought back, but they were cut in the first place, so it could go either way. It may also be worth noting that as clones come back, they tend to undergo Luigification into semi-clones like Gannondorf and Falco thus causing them to take up more resources with Lucas being a possible exception, but he was already a semi-clone and wasn’t much of a semi-clone either.
Pretty sure the most unpopular character in Brawl was R.O.B.
Oh boy, cuts discussion! Please note that I don’t think these characters are all “likely” cuts; I only believe them to be “possible” cuts.
– Dr. Mario: Was cut, then brought back due to popularity. A clone from a highly represented series.
– Bowser Jr.: From a highly represented series, not as popular as the others.
– Jigglypuff: A “joke” character from a highly represented series, was almost cut twice due to low priority.
– Mewtwo: See Dr. Mario, minus the “clone” part.
– Greninja: See Bowser Jr.
– Lucas: See Dr. Mario, but replace “clone” with “semi-clone”. Also from a dead series.
– Lucina: A clone from a highly represented series.
– Roy: See Dr. Mario, although he’s a semi-clone in Smash 4.
– Robin: See Bowser Jr., although I’m not sure on their relative popularity.
– Corrin: See Robin.
– Dark Pit: A clone from a once-again dormant series.
– Wii Fit Trainer: A “joke” character that’s not particularly popular.
– Duck Hunt: A “retro” character, may be cut if they set a limit on the number of retro characters.
– Third Parties: Pac-Man could be out-prioritized by other third parties if Namco doesn’t make the game. Mega Man or Ryu could be cut if they want to make room for more third parties. I consider the others to be “safe”. Any third party character could be cut if relations with Nintendo become bad.
Liquid, It seem that you haven’t entertaining yourself with the possibilities that no one might get cut from Smash 4 to Smash NX. I’m saying that it’s possibility that we wouldn’t lose any characters that are in Smash for 3DS and Wii U because they already have assets ready for port, and I’m pretty sure that they already made the deal with the third-party companies for future iteration.
What if the next game isn’t just a port though? In that case there could be time constraints. There still might be for a port.
I seriously doubt that we are going to have time constraints on any characters from Smash 4. I meant they already have their models, animations, etc ready for upcoming game. I’m fine with either way if they are going with Smash for NX as superior version with new contents or Smash 5 (Smash 6 if you want to be picky about it).
If anything, it would be new characters that might be at risk for cut due to time constraints.
This is all but a theory for the next proper Smash, friend.
If the next Smash game(perhaps the rumored NX Smash) is akin to UMVC3 in execution, then the chances are quite good that nobody gets cut. It’s a straight port.
Of the three returning DLC characters, Roy is arguably the most redundant (due to how overrepresented Fire Emblem is in addition to being a semi-clone). Unless Binding Blade gets a remake, he’s a prime choice to get the axe in favor of new blood. Any DLC character was, by definition, was likely to have been a lower priority than those in the original game, which basically puts then in the same situation as Wolf in Brawl (though Bayonetta’s case is a bit different).
True, but he is more unique than Lucina so he still has a chance. See GoldGeno for a good case against Bayonetta.
This is a great article, very organized and very straightforward with it’s presentation.
Personally I don’t think we’ll see Roy leaving anytime soon, it’s been shown that he’s a fan favorite so it really doesn’t make sense for them to cut him after they just brought him back, as it’d anger a lot of fans and alienate some who may’ve wanted him back since Melee.
Other than that it’s pretty solid, though realistically I wouldn’t say any of the third-parties are safe on the grounds that licensing issues could arise.
Clones: Dr. Mario may have a highest possibility to be rejected once again since he’s just Mario in a doctor costume. Dark Pit is another disappointment I had when I first saw him in the game, that even he’s simply powerful than Pit, he’s perfectly no different from his original, especially when it comes with his Final Smash which is the Zelda/Shiek ripoff. But I wouldn’t say he should be cut, but become Pit’s alternate costume like how it was planned from the beginning. Lucina might stay as she’s still popular, but as she’s no different from Marth, I think she might return as Marth’s alternate gender like how it was planned from the beginning too. I don’t know whether to call Lucas a clone because his entire movement is different from Ness, but there may be a possibility that he’ll get rejected again since MOTHER/Earthbound series is a dead franchise. Roy might possibly be rejected again too as his movesets are still similar to Marth, but as everybody says he is still a fan favorite character for many reasons (and I mean MANY reasons), there is a possibility that he might stay. Others may still have a chance to stay as they’re still important as a character of that game, but I could expect more of a change to them like remaking their movesets to make them more different from their originals.
Third Parties: Sonic is still popular as everybody still wanna see the Mario and Sonic crossovers, and since both Nintendo and Sega have a great relationship together as best friend and rival companies, I think Sonic may stay longer in Smash. For Pac-Man, if Bandai Namco still gets involved with the next Smash, then I guess he might return as well. For Mega Man, we know that Capcom still cares for the Blue Bomber even his series is discontinued for a while, and as he’s still beloved by the world as how Mario and Sonic is, I think he might stay too. But we still don’t know if Mega Man could stay either since his situation is kinda eerie at this moment. The only problem is the DLC third parties. I don’t know about Ryu’s case, but Cloud is more “special” than other characters, since he’s the only character that’s from the game which never released in a Nintendo platform. Although his entry has given proof that Nintendo and Square Enix’s relationship has been fully recovered, I think Cloud might have a higher possibility to be removed at some point. Bayonetta can be said the same thing too as she’s been chosen as a “Smash Ballot Winner”, and this can be a temporary inclusion for that time only.
FE: I think Robin and Corrin would stay since they’re more unique than any other FE members. Although they’re both sword fighters like other FE members are, Robin is more focused on magic while Corrin focuses on his shape shifting abilities. This uniqueness may possibly make both of them stay, but still as they were an unexpected entries, then they might get rejected too. I’ve already explained Lucina and Roy’s part above so I won’t repeat again. But Sakurai was concerned that there’s too many FE characters, so it wouldn’t be odd that he may reject one of them out for the next Smash.
Pokemon: Jigglypuff’s return is 100% since she’s part of the 12 veterans, and Mewtwo might stay too since he’s a fan favorite too. Charizard and Lucario has a 50/50 possibility, but I don’t know about Greninja’s case. He was an unexpected entry as nobody requested him in the beginning, and it wouldn’t be odd that he’ll be rejected due to that point. But since some Pokemon’s entry were effected by the anime’s popularity, and since he’s so popular today too as he won the first place on the Pokemon election in Japan, I think he might stay as well. If we could just figure out what this “Ashgreninja” is, then that can be his new Final Smash for the next Smash.
ETC.: There were so many unexpected entries for Smash 4, I think those characters might get rejected, and that character is Rosalina & Luma, Wii Fit Trainer, and the Duck Hunt Duo. While others were requested by fans, I think these characters were requested by the staff members. Greninja, Robin, and Corrin is part of this group too, but I’ve already explained them from above. So, maybe these guys will be rejected in the next Smash.
Personally I’m not sure about Sonic, as his company has been going through problems with reformation, and a bigger focus on mobile games, which may ultimately have him ending up on the chopping block. I mean I’d hate to see the guy go (Just look at my Gravi) but I need to consider the possibilities.
Yeah, I can agree with you. Sonic Boom isn’t even making any sense as that made the Sonic series a huge failure because of multiple glitches and terrible storyline and character descriptions. We haven’t heard any new Sonic games either, even his 25th anniversary is upcoming next month. I’d hate to see my favorite True Blue leave too (not to mention my HN is actually based from Sonic’s name), but possibilities may happen sadly.
Mother/Earthbound isn’t dead; it’s finished. There’s a big difference. It was ended on the creator’s own terms, because he told the story he wanted to tell. Now a dead series would be something like F-Zero, which hasn’t got new games due to Nintendo just not caring.
“Capcom still cares for the Blue Bomber”
They do? After canning several projects and not putting him in Marvel Vs Capcom 3?
This may be a contrary opinion to the whole point of this article, but I don’t find it necessary to speculate on which characters might be cut. Besides the fact that expecting less content from a game that may or may not even be in the works just sounds weird to me, I don’t think there’s enough reason to think about this. Each character that has been cut has usually been cut for different reasons, be it hardware limitations (Ice Climbers, Pokemon Trainer), company issues (Snake), or otherwise, so I don’t think there’s really a solid measure of what character could end up in or out of the next game. I’m pretty sure if Sakurai had his way, he wouldn’t cut any characters, but obviously there’s only so much time to develop the games themselves.
Unlike previous Smash games there’s plenty of characters I’d like to see get the boot (before anyone says how would I like it if my favourites got cut, they already have; Pokemon Trainer, Ice Climbers and Snake were characters I played regularly in Brawl. So if I had to deal with it so can others).
Cut the trash trio of Dr Mario, Dark Pit and Lucina. Dr Mario should have never been brought back and was easily the most warranted cut in Brawl; just make him Mario’s alt costume and make one his custom specials the Megavitamins. Dark Pit can be Pit’s palette swap again (but maybe with his own name/voice clips), and Lucina should either be Marth’s alt (I kinda find it dubious though, since Lucina’s fighting style in Awakening isn’t like Marth’s at all) or just cut. Also while were at it cut Roy and Corrin too. Fire Emblem needs some trimming after the massive favouritism it got this time around.
Jigglypuff is irrelevant dead-weight that gets in over more popular and relevant Pokemon (not to mention she gets priority over Mewtwo of all Pokemon), her cut is long overdue (no hard feelings, Hungrybox). Also now that Sheik isn’t tied to Zelda she really doesn’t make sense any more either, especially when there’s a Sheika character who has appeared in multiple Zelda titles (Impa). Always thought R.O.B. was a very bland character so I don’t really want to see him come back either. Wolf should have gotten in over Falco since Wolf is more different from Fox than Falco is, so I’d happily trade Falco for Wolf.
I don’t have anything against Ryu or Bayonetta but I feel that third parties should only have one just character in so I’d drop both of them. Cloud however I do have something against and would cut him too.
By trimming the fat and dropping some of these characters there’ll be more more room for new ones. The majority of the cuts I’d chose are either clones, second third-parties reps or irrelevant characters to their overall series, so I think most of the ones I chose make sense to drop.