Sega, Capcom, Bandai Namco, and Square Enix…these are the third party companies that have joined Super Smash Brothers for Wii U/3DS, bringing their company mascots and iconic characters as special guest fighters. In the beginning, fans believed that only one character from each third party company can join Smash, but they were proven wrong after Ryu joined in as a DLC character. Capcom brought Mega Man and Ryu, while Sega brought Sonic and Bayonetta so far these are the only companies that have brought two characters to Smash. As this happened, Bandai Namco and Square Enix didn’t provide their secondary character to Smash for 3DS/Wii U. If there were any chances for these companies to provide a secondary character to Smash, who can we think of?
In this topic, I’ll be mainly focusing on a potential secondary character for Bandai Namco: but which character from this company can possibly join? Sakurai had planned to bring Tekken’s Heihachi to Smash for 3DS/Wii U, but it was later debunked due to his movement difficulties. Some fans requested other Namco characters like Klonoa or someone from the Tales of series, but they all ended up being simply mentioned. Is there any other Bandai Namco character that may have a chance to join alongside with Pac-Man? How about we switch directions a little…and NOT choose someone from Namco, but from Bandai instead? Yes, Bandai can be impossible because they only focus on anime/manga like Dragonball and Sailor Moon, and Tokusatsu shows like Power Rangers and Ultra Man, and we already know that Sakurai won’t allow these types of characters to be in Smash. However, Bandai actually did create a video game that wasn’t from the anime/manga, and the title I’ll bring out is the most CRAZIEST choice ever. And that is the first key-chained virtual pet game Tamagotchi. Today, I’ll be introducing this game’s iconic character Mametchi on how he can join Smash as Bandai Namco’s ‘secondary character’.
Mametchi the “Mr. Virtual Pet”
Character Background
Mametchi was first debuted on the first generation Tamagotchi released in November 23rd, 1996 as one of the six adult Tamagotchis. He was later chosen to be the main mascot of the series due to the success of the franchise and his popularity. In the beginning, it was commonly known that he was the most difficult Tamagotchi to obtain as the player must raise the child Tamagotchi perfectly without failing to feed and sanitize, but that settings were later changed in the modern era as he can be obtained easily unless certain criteria is accomplished.
Can’t blame that he lacked his official artwork back then…but why did the US version thought that THIS was his original color?
In his first debut, it was known that he’s the most intelligent Tamagotchi in his universe with the IQ of 250. He is also a well-mannered and very clever gentleman, but just because he’s too diligent, he’s really inflexible. However, after Generation 2 was released in 2004, and the release of the anime series starting from the first movie in 2007, new descriptions were added to his profile. He lives in his hometown Mame City along with his family of four and two dogs, while attending Tamagotchi School along with his friends such as Kuchipatchi and Memetchi. He is also a scientist who invents from various machines to living creatures like his Tama Pet Hapihapitchi, but sometimes fails by exploding. Some of his friends don’t understand the purposes of his inventions either. Although he’s inflexible, he’s good at playing soccer, but terrible in singing as he’s tone-deaf.
Devil Mametchi |
Aka Mametchi |
Ura Mametchi |
KuroMametchi |
Young Mametchi |
Chantotchi |
Mametchi also have his various versions throughout the series. Generation 1 brought his devil version Devil Mametchi to Deviltchi no Tamagotchi, while they brought his smaller version Jr. Mametchi to Yasashii Tamagotchi. Generation 2 brought his red outlined Aka Mametchi to Tamagotchi + Red Series with a passionate personality, while they brought his blue outlined Ura Mametchi to Ura Tamagotchi + with a clownish personality and a long tail. There are other various forms of Mametchi or his race such as his friendly rival KuroMametchi and his little fanboy Young Mametchi, even his female counterpart Chantotchi.
Although Mametchi is a main mascot of all 47 virtual pet versions, he also appeared in many video games as well, and most of them were released for the Nintendo hardware. Most of the games were Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop series, where Mametchi takes a role to work at certain shops and facilities to make a successful business along with his friends. However, Mametchi also made crossovers with certain games and their characters. He made a crossover with the Tamagotchi version of Mario in N64’s Minna de Tamagotchi World, and even the Tamagotchi version of Sonic in Sega Saturn’s Tamagotchi Park. He even appeared in Mario Kart Arcade GP 2 as a special guest racer, and a special costume for Taiko no Tatsujin Wii.
Who’d thought a single virtual pet would join the wacky races with Nintendo’s Super Star?
Reasons of Inclusion
Ever since the Generation 1 Tamagotchi was released in November 1996 as the world’s first virtual pet game, the franchise became a worldwide social phenomenon due to its unique mechanism of raising and interacting a digitalized character as a pet. During the 1990’s, the game sold over 40 million units in worldwide, while Japan sold 20 million units. As for today, over 76 million units were sold worldwide. Due to this success, Tamagotchi series became a precursor of the Digimon series, and other virtual pet games created by other companies like Square Enix’s Dragon Quest Arukundesu and Game Freak’s Pocket Pikachu.
The series also made its success through other medias as well. Excluding Generation 1’s medias, Generation 2 released two movies from 2007 to 2008, even released a web-anime published by Bandai through Youtube. In 2009, they’ve also released a TV anime series worth of 271 episodes, where most of the newly added Tamagotchis like Lovelitchi and Melodytchi were first debuted from this series. They’ve even released a long-term manga through the Japanese young girl magazine Pucchigumi, and even opened their official Tamagotchi shop in Harajuku and Tokyo.
For 20 years of Tamagotchi, this series really did changed a lot…
Although the series also released their video games as a third party franchise, their games were mostly released on Nintendo consoles. They’ve released their ported versions for the Game Boy consoles, while they’ve released their party game Minna de Tamagotchi World for Nintendo 64. After Generation 2’s release, starting from the first Corner Shop game released for DS, the series mainly focused on Nintendo handhelds. Among all 37 titles of Tamagotchi video games, 22 titles were released for the Nintendo hardware. Furthermore, Tamagotchi has a long relationship with Nintendo for 20 years since their first Game Boy release.
As explained in the character background above, Mametchi have made a crossover with Nintendo’s mascot Mario twice. Their first crossover was N64’s Minna de Tamagotchi World, which Mario appeared as a special Tamagotchi named as “Mariotchi”. Secondly, Mametchi entered Mario Kart Arcade GP 2 as a special guest racer alongside with Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Blinky. If there would be a third crossover for both Mametchi and Mario, it’ll be an interesting thing to see both Mario and Mametchi brawl each other in Smash.
Reasons of Exclusion
Tamagotchi back in the 90’s were extremely popular as it became a worldwide social phenomenon. However in the modern era, the franchise’s popularity is no longer the same. Although it’s still popular in Japan, as the franchises were mainly focused towards younger girls, the franchise is no longer popular in the West. In evidence, among all 47 titles of Tamagotchi’s virtual pet devices, there were 22 titles that was never released in the West due to legal rights. Even among all 37 video game titles, 23 titles were never released in the West, as Tamagotchi: Party On! was their last Tamagotchi game released for the Western gaming platform. While the anime aired 271 episodes and five seasons in Japan, the West (mainly in Australia) only aired the episodes from Season 1, while Season 2 were exclusively showed as “webisodes”. Unlike in Japan, Tamagotchi is no longer strong enough to be in the west as their popularity is terribly low.
Unlike Digimon, some people disagree on Mametchi’s inclusion because Tamagotchi doesn’t fit in fighting games. Of course that won’t be necessary anymore since Smash for 3DS/Wii U brought other non-fightable characters as playables like the Villager, Wii Fit Trainer, and even the Duck Hunt Duo. Lack of movesets maybe another point of his exclusion too, but that may not be necessary either unless he can use some abilities that was used in many Tamagotchi video games as references, such as some working abilities from the Corner Shop series, or certain action abilities from Tamagotchi no Narikiri Channel series. However, if they’re treated in a similar level to Nintendogs series, which are another virtual pet game made by Nintendo and unable to be chosen as a fighter for Smash because they’re not fittable to fighting, then it may be impossible to include Mametchi to Smash due to that point. Many people may choose somebody from the Digimon series instead since they’re known as the “fighting Tamagotchi”.
Whether the lack of feeding, illness, or even the battery dying out, these guys can die easily.
Music
What is Smash Bros. without music? Here are a few tracks you can look forward to if Mametchi makes it in.
- Sakurai Discusses The Future of Smash - November 4, 2021
- The Melee Orchestra Concert Begins! - May 9, 2021
- Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX Review - September 26, 2019
smash fans will never understand this but…
“not everybody nor every single thing have to or will be playable in Smash.”
no matter how popular, obscure, unique, or historical they are; nor whatever importance they hold in the franchise they come from.
Sakurai even talked about this once when deciding what Mario characters will appear in the battlefield, rather picking all-star characters than lumping anyone as much of as a star as Birdo or Baby Mario.
“muh ___ reps” is just an excuse for wanting a character without a single valid explanation other than personal hopes.
the obsession for villains and anyone that isn’t a swordsman or human (uses a spear, cartoon-y looking) are good examples of what i’ve meant.
at the end of the day, the character you’ve wanted since Brawl to Sm4sh will either be included or back as an AT or stage element or excluded from the roster for likely permanent reasons. (or nothing at all, they’ve need had a chance at all.)
Mametchi makes a lot of sense. I remember seeing that arcade kart racing crossover game at Chucky Cheese and just thinking of his role that could happen in Smash.
Then go on later, and Pacman, another in that game, made it into Smash.
However, I do think that Digimon’s inclusion is much more likely. The rivalry between Pokemon and the amount of content (stages and items) could be quite large.
Digimon did already surpass Tamagotchi thanks to the anime and v-pet’s adventure game spiritual succesor, the digivice toy line.
I really would love to do a Case for Digimon, but I’m, what you call… lazy :T
I disagree that Digimon is likely to be in Smash at all, let alone more like than Mametchi, who already is pretty unlikely in my opinion (virtual pets aren’t that important to videogame history), mainly because Digimon is an anime franchise, so it’s on the same boat like Dragonball Z.
@aguchamp33 & TrinitroMan
Thank you for commenting this article!
I do agree that Digimon’s inclusion to Smash is more plausible than Tamagotchi due to their popularity and uniqueness. I could think of the series’ mascot Digimon Agumon to be in Smash than Mametchi, as his Digivolve ability can be his most iconic uniqueness.
However, like TrinitroMan said, I do agree that bringing Digimon and/or Tamagotchi is difficult because their franchise is mostly related to their anime version, and that is something I was wondering and worried at the same time when I was making this article. Bandai is much more of an anime-based company, and most of the games they made are mainly from the anime series. Although both Tamagotchi and Digimon are born from the LCD key-chained virtual pet game, children in the modern era believes that both franchises are from the anime, because the anime version were stronger in visual than the actual games. For Tamagotchi, most new characters were actually from the anime/movie. Characters like Lovelitchi and Melodytchi were first appeared in the anime, and later appeared in the game. Digimon’s human characters are also designed in their anime styles, and not to mention many other characters from the anime like Tai also did appeared in those games. If that’s the case, then it may possibly be difficult to bring both franchises to Smash due to their franchises being more anime related. This can also be said to Yo-kai Watch series too, as the character’s personality settings have changed to their anime version from Yo-kai Watch 2 and afterwards, while they decided to choose Nate as the series main protagonist while Katie was removed from her female protagonist role to a simple and generic sub character.
It was in Chibo-Robo, too!
Yes, I have noticed that when I was researching about Mametchi’s crossovers. However, even if the device appeared in the game, I didn’t know if Mametchi’s figure was shown there, which is why I didn’t put Chibi-Robo’s crossover in this article.
a bit on the fence here. I’m typically always for new characters, and you’ve made several good points, but the lack of popularity in the west is getting to me. I’m reminded of how Marth and Roy were almost removed from Melee because Fire Emblem hadn’t been released in the west, and if I’m not mistaken, Takamaru received a similar fate. Of course, both of those have been rectified (to varying amounts), and this series has the advantage of already being introduced in the west, but since this is the first time I’ve heard of this character, I’m probably not a good judge on his notability. Personally, I think the series could receive mention through a trophy or assist trophy, or even a stage, but I’m not sure if it works well enough as a fighter.
I understand the lack of popularity in the West isn’t always be the reasons of exclusions. Much more, popularity isn’t always what’s important to have that character to join Smash. However, Tamagotchi in the West have became a “forgotten product” as we haven’t seen any new series released in the West. I do see the Bandai keeps releasing new Tamagotchis in Japan, as they’ve announced a new one with a new Tamagotchi that haven’t appeared in the anime (http://tamagotch.channel.or.jp/tamagotchi/), but the West no longer seem to support the franchise anymore as children are more into something else, like I mostly see children playing Minecraft through their tablets. Nobody in the West seem to notice or even remember who Mametchi is and what Tamagotchi was, even to those veterans who played the game before the first generation died out in 1999 and took 5 years for the series to return. Hell, as a Hawaiian resident, I didn’t even know that the series even returned until the first anime movie was released! But I get your point; I think Mametchi can be best fitted as a mentioned trophy/assist trophy character than a fighter.