Next, we will be exploring characters from some recently revived franchises (and some dormant), “retro” and “new wave” franchises.
I need to explain why I put all the “lone representatives” in two groups: The “Retro” characters and the “New wave” characters. The distinction between those groups is really simple: Retro characters debuted in the 2D era (Arcades, G&W, NES, GB, SNES) and New Wave characters debuted on the 3D era (N64, GBC, GBA, GCN, DS, Wii, 3DS and WiiU). This was needed to create groups that can have growth trends. But, as we know, these two groups also represent the “Surprise Characters” because it’s really hard to predict their appearances and Sakurai really like to throw us off with surprises. Another point that it’s relevant is “relevancy”, some characters have nostalgia recognition and could serve as a hook for older players, and in other hand, Super Smash bros. Has a big publicitary aspect, as some characters get in the game to promote their new or even upcoming games. So take this, like everything in this series, with a grain of salt… but please…not the wrong kind of salt.
Retro characters
There are a lot of characters that have accompanied us for a long time, but for some, getting them in smash might be even their first encounter. That’s what happened to me in Melee with the Ice Climbers and Mr. Game & Watch. Then in Brawl, R.O.B. stole the spotlight with his heart wrenching story as the Subspace Emissary. And in Smash for 3DS and WiiU we get our chance to fight as Little Mac and lastly take revenge against that infamous Dog, nothing against the duck tho.
Characters of the Retro Group that have been playable on the smash series with their first appearance and proposed Archetypes
Characters of the Retro Group that might appear in the next game.
The archive of retro characters is endless, from one hit wonders to characters that overshadowed by other franchises and didn’t get new chances. Let’s see which ones are the favorites to take a spot.
Ice Climbers, from Ice Climbers: Until now, it’s unknown if the NX might have the strength to deal with them, even more if the 8 player smash will mean 16 ice climbers at the same time. But if they come back, they need to be the same… Maybe without the wobbling.
Takamaru, from Nazo no Murasame Jō: As stated in the past chapters, there aren’t Katanas in the roster. So he could fill that role. Also, Takamaru has an arsenal of cool sub weapons: shurikens, fireballs and sickles. And maybe, with his new exposure to the occident, we could get a crazy action hack and slash game? If only someone would like to do it.
Sami and/or Andy, from the War series: Their saga started with Famicom Wars, but they from the Advance Wars sub series. Being the young commanders of the Orange star army have enough fighting experience to take over the battlefield. They complete different characters, unlike Robin or Corrin. But if they get a “Mother Style” moveset (that represent the series as a whole), they could be interchangeable. If not, Sami could rely more in guns meanwhile Andi could use his mechanical abilities to set up sentries.
Excitebiker, from ExciteBike: He could have an original moveset riding his motorbike all the time or becoming less effective without it. Implementing a “Temperature” meter shown in the original game and ExciteBike 64: the more acceleration, more temperature and fire effects, but watch out, if you overclock it, you might get overcooked.
Balloon fighter, from Balloon Fight: The one hit wonder was programed by Mr. Iwata himself, so including him could serve as homage to his memory and great work. But could his balloons take him off by his own merits? If you ask me, Yes. If Pit got off the shadows after so long, why not bring back him? As an airborne character he could maneuver easily above the battlefield, just try to don’t get caught in the ground.
Mach Rider, from Mach Rider: Another one hit wonder with a motorcycle. But unlike other characters of the list, he hasn’t had another chance. Some say that his game was the spiritual predecessor for F-Zero, but it would be rad to see another installment of this franchise, just look at Mad Max, listen to his theme song, and think about it. In Smash he could be fast and strong, and could use a faster motorcycle than Wario and set it up to self-destruct if necessary.
Lip, from Panel de Pon: Her game was heavily changed for the western audiences, but her legacy has been kept in Smash since Melee with Lip’s Stick. And since some Assist trophies have been upgraded to Playable characters, why not the owner of an item? As a fighter she could summon falling blocks for offensive and defensive tactics. And with the rage about Mobile gaming, maybe this is her time to shine again, this time, in the phones of our moms.
Prince Sable, from Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru: The young prince appeared as Assist trophy in the latest Smash game, and has the ability to transform himself into a frog to leap and into a Snake to bite his foes and transform them in stone, that might hurt. As a fighter he also has a sword and could have command grabs that lead into his famous dust cloud beat ups.
Retro Characters in order of punctuation in the poll, or “Points of popularity” and the proposed archetype that they could represent
- Smash Ultimate Development Timeline - May 16, 2020
- Straight from the Source: Koji Igarashi on Castlevania in Smash, Bloodstained - October 16, 2018
- Sakurai Discusses Isabelle, Echoes, and Newcomers - September 26, 2018
Bayonetta is 3rd party.
Honest mistake. But if she keeps being a nintendo exclusive she might work like this I guess.
One thing I don’t understand here: Why designate 8 spots for retro characters? Even if you still consider Little Mac retro (and he’s pretty ambiguous, since he was heavily based on the Wii remake of Punch-Out) and assume the Ice Climbers will come back, why would they bring in three retro newcomers when we’ve seen two at most in previous games?
I designate them by the era of their first appearance or the start of their franchise. It’s really an arbitrary designation tho, so it’s open to analysis.
Mm… that’s a good point, but as I said, they could use some of the “retro” newcomer spots to present the reboot of a franchise, like what happened to Pit in Brawl, in that game he was a Retro character, and now is a franchise with chances to keep growing. the same with Little Mac, would totally play a Nx Punch Out.
I ate the “I” in:
** I ** would totally play a Nx Punch Out.
Also, your classification of retro and modern characters is off. Custom Robo was created in the 90s and Advance Wars was released in the 2000s.
Advance Wars is the successor to Nintendo/Famicom/Super Famicom Wars, and Custom Robo is from the N64 Era.. so I stand my case =)
Were there any wrenches in Famicom Wars?
That is an interesting observation.
I don’t think so, but I put the Icons that might represent better the character… Other symbol could be the Red/Orange Star but it would look too similar to Kirby’s Star…
Another great analysis! I think theres no doubt that Inkling will be graduating from their Mii Costume status in the next Smash installment, and pained to know that Golden Sun was almost completely overlooked in Smash 4 despite the high fan regard. If Issac were to be playable I’d prefer his original appearance from the GBA as opposed to the Dark Dawn ‘reboot’.
Thanks.
Yeah, I have hopes for a Callie-Marie assist Trophy.
Dark Dawn wasn’t a reboot, but yeah, that design is more iconic.
Nintendo does not even remotely “own” Bayonetta. They just helped with Bayonetta 2 and got an exclusive release, Platinum still owns the rights
Sega (sadly) still owns the rights to the character. They even had a credit in the Wonderful 101 for her appearance in it.
honest mistake.
Don’t they own the rights to Bayonetta 2? It’s no character, but it is 1/2 of the franchise.
It’s more like 1/3… between Platinum as the developers, Nintendo as the exclusive publishers and Sega as the owners of the “name”…
But if Nintendo keep her as an exclusive character and keep making games, she could be considered a 2,5 party character =P
Around 2.7-2.8 seems to be the threshold for characters most people can get behind (not counting Ridley’s unique issues). The rest are rather iffy.
Was Elma on the Source Gaming poll? She’s certainly in high demand now.
I wanted to show that some characters that didn’t get high numbers still can become interesting newcomers, because there always might be surprises, like the Wii Fit Trainer and Duck Hunt.
Yeah, she was, but Fiora has appeared alongside Kos-Mos in Project X Zone 2, so she maybe get more backers to be in Smash alongside Shulk.
I think a lot of the “new wave” characters should be given some consideration on their own for new characters. I can easily see Animal Crossing and Xenoblade both getting an extra character, for instance, so only having 2 empty spaces for all of “new wave” is a bit strict. At the very least, they shouldn’t compete with Inkling. But I suppose it’s just me.
And yes, I get what the author meant, but I think Bayonetta should be counted as a third party like the others here say.
Agreed, but as they have just one character, they have no “trend” to follow. so grouping them works for this purpose.
And Bayonetta as Third Party… I hope nintendo buy her exclusivity?…It’s a really weird case http://www.trademarkia.com/bayonetta-77444642.html here it says that she is owned by Sega, but for the second game they were just “advisors”…
One can say that she is a 2.5 party developed by Platinum games?
Why change Ness? He’s already a well established character with a well established moveset who is not a clone.
To represent himself better. at least for me is like seeing pikachu doing flamethrower =S. I know that it’s an outlandish idea, but his special moveset could be separated for 2 characters, like Ness and Paula or Lucas and Kumatora, this way we can get characters that feel different to each other.
But to change Ness would likley cause quite a bit of backlash. Besides, Sakurai won’t revamp semi-clones, I doubt he would ever revamp an original character.
Yeah, there has been some changes to original movesets, the most “radical” was Pit from SSBB to SSB3DSWiiU…and that was just to add the orbitiars, cut the gliding mechanic and replace the “Yayayayas!”
In other games it has happened in more drastical ways, like Jill from MVC2 to MVC3…
Anyways, ideas like that are just to explore new alternatives =)
Nintendo own the rights to the story, setting, characters and music introduced in Bayonetta 2 but a joint deal between Platinum and Sega own the rights to Bayonetta the character, the first game and everything else involved.
This is how Bayonetta’s deal works. Sega permit Platinum to seek other publishers E.G: Konami, to approve Bayonetta 2 for finish. Only Nintendo step in so they offer an exclusive deal. Basically the game can go anywhere as long as there is a publisher.
This is why Nintendo no longer have Banjo or Perfect Dark because Rare own those titles but characters like General Scales and K.Rool were created under the Star Fox and Donkey Kong licenses so Nintendo own those characters.
The ONLY thing Nintendo own in Bayonetta 2 is the Star Fox and Nintendo crossover promotions. This is why people have never said for certain if Bayonetta 2 or 3 will go to other platforms. But the second one would require major changes (like a new engine EG: Sigma 2) to run on other formats.
With Devil’s Third I’m not as certain. Valhalla definitely own the rights because they are publishing it on PC but given they did it under contract using Nintendo’s approval Nintendo may well have ownership in that IP.
Nintendo does not own the Devil’s Third IP iirc. And Nintendo own more of Bayonetta 2 than that. The copyright in Smash and Bayonetta 2 claims that everything i mentioned above is owned by Nintendo. This is what confuses people.
I thought it was a deal similar to NGII. In that instance Ninja Gaiden II remains 360 exclusive because Sigma 2 is running the Sigma engine. It is not the game Microsoft paid the rights for so Tecmo being willing to fund a PS3 version made it happen. Given your revelation I’m wrong.
Here we go again!
I’ve never played an F-Zero game and know nothing about its characters, so I unfortunately don’t have any significant response to any of these. I can at least say that Nintendo is still paying attention to the series. It has two different tracks and a Kart in Mario Kart 8, so it’s still prevelant at least in that notion.
I’ve only barely played Earthbound, so I don’t have much to say about these characters either. I’m running low on things to say this time! I do like Lucas in Smash, but I also like characters who can buff themselves, so I could see a few moves like those working for him. If Ness and Lucas both stay for the next installment, I think it’d be interesting to have Ninten with them too, so you’d have one character from each of the games. Besides that, I think the Flying Men are also pretty interesting, though possibly contrary to what you’d expect from an Earthbound character.
Honestly, if anyone was going to be a clone, it’d be the only character on the roster who’s *literally a clone* (Mewtwo was created from Mew’s DNA, not cloned, it’s different). That being said, there are a lot of weapon types in Uprising that they could give to Dark Pit to make him more unique.They could make Pit be defensive with oribtars, bows, and staffs, while Pit could be offensive with arms, palms, and claws. There was a Dream Smashers article a while back for Hades, and I felt it was a bit too powerful then, but they managed to make Palutena work so it could be done. Medusa could be interesting, though I might be more interested in Viridi or Phosphora (as a Mii costume and an assist trophy respectively, they have their chances). I’d add Magnus to that list, but he might end up just being Ike with more range.
Ice Climbers do have a decent chance, since Sakurai really did want them back for Smash 4. If the NX is powerful enough for it, I don’t see why not. Takamaru’s outstanding issue was lack of notability in the west, but that issue has been steadily decreasing. Takamaru has an assist trophy, a Mii costume, and I think his game is available on the eShop now? His chances are growing quite steadily. I think Andy is more likely than Sami (not just because of the Dream Smashers article), mostly because Sami is almost always portrayed with a realistic assault rifle, and Sakurai has stated that he doesn’t want realistic weapons. Even with that said, I’m not gonna hold my breath, even if I wanted to (and I sorta do, I love Advance Wars). Excite Biker was joked about by Sakurai back during Melee, he said something along the lines of him needing ramps to jump off of. But Sakurai got Villager, Wii Fit and Duck Hunt to work, so I’m sure he could have something that’d work for him. Same goes for Ballon Fight, though maybe Villager will have to get a new recovery move.
I don’t think Alph is unique enough to be a new character. The issue is a similar case with the Pokemon series; the Captains aren’t the draw, the Pikmin are. If there are enough new Pikmin in Pikmin 4 to justify a new moveset, then I’d be cool for a new Pikmin rep, but even then, they’d be more likely to just add the newer Captain (if there is one). Though one thing I’ll bring up again; Dabuz, who’s currently a top-level Rosalina main who used to main Olimar, said in an AMA that it’d be interesting to play as a Bulbmin, so instead of commanding an army while you don’t have much input in the fight, you just rampage through the stage while the little Bulbmin sorta just do their own thing. I’d say there’s a size issue and possibly a lack of moves, but I like the idea. Inklings, Isaac, and Chibi Robo are all great choices, and if I’m not mistaken, they all have Dream Smashers articles too! I don’t know how I feel about a Rhythm Heaven character though, it’d be hard to believe them without some sort of rhythm mechanic. Dillon and Saki are both interesting characters that I would like playing, more so Dillon because I’m familiar with his games. Fiora has a lot of potential, though were it up to me, I’d choose Melia or Reyn as a spellcaster or tank respectively. I’ve said this before, but I am actually against Isabelle as a playable character. Sakurai said back in Brawl that he thought Villager was a lover, not a fighter. He remedied that in Smash 4 by making his moveset accidental (oh, were you under that tree I chopped down? My bad!), but I just don’t see that working for Isabelle. I’m not too familiar with Nintendo Badge Arcade, but I think Baito could make for an interesting character, or maybe even an assist trophy.
Hello Again =)
Yeah, F-zero is being remembered in Mario Kart, but the mustachioed guy won’t give his spot as the Nintendo Racing Game easily. Still I hope to see a new F zero game that pushes the limits of the NX speed.
If we get 3 Mother characters Ninten has the edge, but I would prefer different looking characters, better if they have different playstyles and movesets. Anyways, I’m also looking forward to a Mother Franchise Remake series.
For Kid Icarus I believe that the gods have better chances than their generals, as Palutena get in the game, but yeah Phosphora and Magnus have shown interesting moves in their Assist trophy form.
Yes, I hope that the NX will have the horse power to handle 16 Ice climbers without leaving them without any animation bones x.x
I want to see a Murasame Castle and Mach rider reboot, in the same way that Kid icarus got it.
The Advance wars series or War series needs to come back, but Intelligent Systems is putting their money in Fire Emblem, and I wonder why no one has missed any character from Project Steam =P
I like the Bulbmin idea, or maybe the Plasm Wraith to be completely different to the captains and their pikmin
I believe that all those character have their own articles, so if anyone else is reading this, go read them, they have good ideas!.
For Animal crossing is always hard to choose, for example, I don’t want to see K.K. slider as a fighter. and yeah, isabelle is too cute to fight, but if I played as her I’ll try to do my best to don’t get her down.
Baito could become a interesting assist trophy, transforming the battle field into an arcade machine and dropping the claw to catch characters. and spike-drop them to their doom
Thanks for the comment.
Uhhhhh where’s Elma?
Elma is somewhat polarizing, some people seems to find her “boring” (?) and other people love her. others prefer Cross. In the poll Fiora got 2,6 points meanwhile Elma got 2.3 and cross 2.1, so I decided to include just Fiora to give space to other “new wave” characters, but yeah, she could have a really interesting moveset, with dual blades/guns and her true form.
I think it might be wrong to call Mother a “dead franchise”, I think “finished franchise” would suit more. It’s like how Sakurai said when he quit Hal that everytime a new kirby was released people wanted to know about the next one, and not the current one, and that people always assume a game will get/need a sequel. (..something like this) It might be frustrating and disrespectful for game developers for people to call their franchise dead instead of done when they don’t release more games.
Thanks for the comment.
yeah, sound a lot nicer… but mean almost the same… Anyways, I hope that someday we might get a new installment of the Mother series…
It’s not the same, LotR is finished, but is it dead? No.. People don’t usually say books or movies are ‘dead’ like they do with games, I think it’s unfair.
F-Zero is the most difficult thing for Smash I suppose. It’s possible that characters riding on the vehicle is difficult to think what movesets they could use for Smash. I do think similar problem had happen to the Star Fox roster too as they’ve got more Fox clones there (I won’t touch on Wolf’s case because that’s a 50/50 depending). Furthermore, there may be the possibility that this roster will be Captain Falcon alone, but there’s a possibility for new entries, let me think about it.
Black Shadow may be the main villain of the series, but possibility will be that he might end up being Falcon’s clone. Whether that’ll mean Ganondorf will simply give him his movesets as changing Ganondorf entirely, or just simply Ganondorf keep his and make Black Shadow a heavier, powerful, and darker clone of Falcon. It’s really difficult. However for Blood Falcon, I think he should stay as Captain’s alternate color costume.
However, Samurai Goroh may have a possibility. If Black Shadow may not happen as there may be possibilities for him being simply a clone, then Goroh can be the heavy weight side of the F-Zero team, making him powerful and difficult to blow away, but jump lower due to his weight. Although his final smash may end up being the Fire Stingray, his movesets can differentiate with Falcon by using a katana, but probably use explosives as a cunning fighter.
Jody can be a perfect choice as she represents a main heroine of the series, and possibly become the light weighted but weak powered fighter of the team. Maybe she’ll be the first F-Zero fighter to use lasers as the projectile shooter. However, one thing to wonder is her final smash. As we can say the similar thing to Samurai Goroh or any other possible F-Zero characters, I really don’t know if using their F-Zero machines will always be their final smashes, like all Star Fox fighters ending up using the now generic Land Masters. I know their F-Zero machines are iconic, but I wonder if there would by any other way than their machines. But its just my opinion, so time will tell. We just hope that Captain won’t be all alone for the next Smash, if Sakurai have any other ideas for new characters from this franchise.
vehicle series have that problem, but with creative power Sakurai can do anything, even create the iconic Falcon Punch.
I Agree with your descriptions, Black Shadow could be a clone, but for the purposes of the article I didn’t want to write “easy clone, move on” =P, Goroh is my option, because it might be easier to upgrade him like what happened to Little Mac. But as you said, Jody could be a nice fast projectile user… and maybe the racing pods could be summoned in different ways
Cap falcon’s one comes in front of him to make an One hit KO
Goroh could call his son, to come from behind him and cover a lot of horizontal distance to deal heavy damage but not a OHKO
and Jody could make appear her racing pod appear and move as a fast landmaster armed with a machine gun.
For the MOTHERS/Earthbound series…even the franchise is already “dead”, I still think Ness will still return to Smash as being the iconic series character than the Ninten. However, although I still want Lucas to stay as he’s my favorite character, I think he might get removed once again. Not because he’s a clone or not, but as possibly Sakurai is focusing on games released on both Japan and in the West for Smash, I think that’ll make a reason for his removal since MOTHER 3 haven’t been released in the West. Of course that may not be the case, but still, as long MOTHER 3 won’t be released in the West, then I think there won’t be any chance for any MOTHER 3 character to join in. If Sakurai have a power to confront with Mr. Itoi for more inclusions, then maybe its possible. Or at least we could wait somebody to make another MOTHER series as Mr. Itoi’s replacement, which I wouldn’t think it’ll happen.
Paula and Kumatora is something I’ve wanted to see in Smash as both represents the main heroine in their series, but the problem is whether they’ll end up being clones or not. They’re both PSI users as Ness and Lucas, and actual owners of the PSI that both protagonists are using in Smash. It may work if both Ness and Lucas use different movesets while the both heroines use their original PSIs, if that wouldn’t result both heroines being the protagonist’s clone instead. But I like your moveset ideas, so if they were to join in, I hope those movesets would become their’s.
The main villains via final bosses doesn’t seem to have a chance though. Pokey (or Porky in Japan) using a giant spider machine as his main fighting mechanic isn’t similar to Bowser Jr’s Koopa Clown, which can be cheatful with using merciless weapons and tricks to easily defeat his enemies without hesitation. He might be treated in a similar level of Ridley as being huge and impossible to resize. Although Ridley can be acceptable if there is a way, Pokey should stick better being a boss character instead, which I believe everybody will enjoy overkilling him because everybody HATES this freakin’ self-minded brat. The Masked Man in other words…he’s another character as Galacta Knight, so it really depends. I wouldn’t think they’d bring somebody who’d be a spoiler…well, they already did with Shiek back in Melee but I guess that’ll be a different story.
Finally, Ninten…I don’t think he’ll join either. Not just he might become another Ness clone, which it might be true in the end, but he’s not really that familiar in the series. He is the protagonist in the very first game, but not iconic than Ness. I don’t think he’ll end up being Ness’ color palette either because Ninten’s design is slight similar to Ness’, so Ninten’s inclusion may be 100% impossible.
I really hope to get a remake of the games… it will happen sooner or later, as the first mother hasn’t aged well, and a new version of the games could work great to be the launch titles for a new handheld.
my idea was to get a couple, like Ness and and Paula or Lucas and Kumatora (they are more distinct)… but it was a outlandish idea, it would have been a good idea for Brawl…
Pokey could use the machine from Earthbound, it was smaller than the one from Mother 3… but as you said, he might work better as a Boss character. yeah, I would punch/kick/grab/counter/tilt/smash/ and taunt that brat until he wont do anything until the end of time
and yeah… Ninten would have a hard time even to become a third character.
For Kid Icarus series…I could accept 3 slots as it make sense, but rather remove Dark Pit (or Black Pit in Japan) because he’s nothing but a clone of Pit with full of ripoffs, and simply become Pit’s color palette as it was planned before. I really wasn’t satisfied with Dark Pit’s inclusion than Lucina because of what he does in Smash. If he did use other weapons than simply copying Pit’s would’ve been better, making him more powerful but slower than Pit as he’s an imperfect faker, but at this moment, I’d rather return the idea of Dark Pit being Pit’s alternate palette back to the planning board.
I wouldn’t think Hades would have a chance because he’s still new to the series. Although popularity is a thing to Smash, I wouldn’t think somebody who’s overly-popular should have a right yet. Smash needs character who’s been in the Nintendo history for a long time, and I’d rather choose Medusa as a perfect candidate. She’s been in the series from the very beginning, and earned a role as a main villain. Sure she wasn’t in the second sequel that was released in Game Boy, but I wouldn’t count that because that was never released in Japan. Plus, she can be the very first female villain if she’s been chosen to Smash, since the game needs more female and villains. However, there are negative reasons for her exclusion too…I might plan to make a “Case of” article for her, while I’ll let somebody do the “Dream Smasher” article of hers some time.
Viridi is still new too, but popular than expected. She even got her own Mii costume too, even a major role alongside with Palutena and Pit in the conversation mode. There might be a possibility that she can become a fighter for the next Smash as being Palutena’s rival, being a powerhouse by using nature but slower on speed. But that will be Sakurai’s decision since he created her.
Yeah, I prefer Medusa over this iteration of Dark Pit, but if Pitoo gets a new moveset it could work… as medusa is better suited as a Boss.
That sound interesting, I totally would read a “Case of / Dream Smasher” of her…
For me Viridi could work better as a Assist trophy, with the Reset bomb as her signature move…or calling a lot of minions to infest the battlefield.
but as you said, everything depends on Sakurai divine decisions
For the Retro rosters…this is the tricky part. There is a possibility that some of them can get removed, but Sakurai at least tries his best to keep them alive. Ice Climber is one of them. He wanted to bring them back to Smash 4 and the Wii U version did worked out well, but resulted as rejected for two reasons. One is 3DS’ lack of machine power, since 3DS couldn’t handle the Ice Climber’s unique mechanic. Second is Wii U’s 8-player Smash, which that couldn’t handle 16 Ice Climbers altogether in this ridiculous mode. Despite what kind of problem this duo had, even having this cheat move thingy which I don’t even understand what everybody’s talking about, Ice Climbers have been everybody’s (including myself) favorite fighter, and there is a possibility that the duo may return in some form. I could imagine there won’t be another handheld version since handhelds will always have their limited machine power than the home console, but that depends what the NX’s gonna be like. However, I just strongly hope that the 8-player Smash won’t come back, because there are pros and cons with this mode. In my case, it easily loses my character’s trace as its easily to commit self-destruction, and it actually hurt my eyes painfully. Its more peaceful to stick with 4-player mode.
Takamaru and Prince Sable might have a strong possibility. Sakurai seem to have a strong interest with these two as their games have been quite a fan favorite. Takamaru has been in many crossovers not just only Nintendo Land, but in the Japan exclusive Captain Rainbow and Koei-Tecmo’s Samurai Warriors 3. His movesets are even perfect enough for Smash, making him a first katana fighter with using shurikens and fire spells, and a high-jumper as he’s a ninja but slow due to his outfit. He’s getting slight of an attention in the West too, so there may be a possibility that he can join Smash. For Prince Sable’s case…I don’t know if the transformation mechanic will return as it causes the machine to heat up too much, but the other problem he have is that his game was never released in the West. But I believe Sakurai will do something for the poor prince boy, if his next project he was referring about have to do with this or not.
I was hoping for Lip’s inclusion as she can represent being a fighter from a puzzle game other than Dr. Mario, who might be removed once again. She does have an interesting record that she has been in a crossover game in the Japan exclusive Captain Rainbow, alongside with Takamaru and Little Mac. But as I mentioned with Prince Sable above, although Puzzle de Pon was released in the West but arranged too differently, Lip is really not that recognizable by Western players, which is sad even we get the item of her’s. I really do want her back to Nintendo and be in Smash for the first time, but I think it might be difficult due to her lack of popularity.
I really don’t know about Excite Bike nor Mach Rider. Excite Bike was mentioned in the Japanese Melee site as his movesets were too difficult as he needs a jump ramp to attack. Mach Rider was hugely rumored but turned out to be fake. Even unlike Star Fox and F-Zero characters, I think these guys are difficult to join Smash as they refuse to get off their bikes. The controlling may be difficult since the must do hard curves and such. But I think Sakurai will do something with them since he brought those other non-fightable characters to Smash.
Yeah, 8 character smash is a war zone of self destructions… and without it, Popo and Nana could easily come back.
Takamaru for me is almost a given for the next game, I hope that he get a new game in time for the next Smash.
the Prince could have his transformations as his specials or smashes without making them “Sheik-like transformations”
Lip could come back as a Mobile game, if nintendo put some SWEET rewards, she could CRUSH the fakers. and if she get famous she could get into smash.
The Excite biker and Mach Rider could have some fast moves but being landlocked, with slow but powerful air moves… or get off the bike, but that might work better for Mach, that also has projectiles in his game.
Finally for the New Wave rosters…I don’t know about this, but I guess separating the Pikmin, Animal Crossing, and Xenoblade into their own series may work well, while I think its best to treat Bayonetta as third party even she’s in the second party catalog and partially Nintendo family.
Pikmin series might be quite difficult. Bring Alph might end up being Olimar’s clone or simply keeping him as an character palette. But Sakurai did mentioned that he wanted to bring the Rock Pikmin to Smash, so maybe we can use the Rock Pikmin for Alph as being a replacement for the Purple Pikmin. I don’t know about the returning of the whip,
Animal Crossing series has became a popular game as a best communication game in a real-time system. Although the game hasn’t been doing well recently as the games were going off the track (but at least I’m enjoying Happy Home Designer), its still popular as many people are seeking for the next game, probably going back to form as well. Isabelle (or Shizue in Japan) has became popular and more iconic since her first debut in New Leaf, making her the main heroine of the series than the female villager. Although this might think she’ll become a clone of the villager, but using different moves as you provided can be possible, and a bit weaker than the villager if possible too.
Xenoblade may be still new to the West than in Japan, but it is true that the game is popular in the West. Bringing Fiora as being the main heroine of the first Xenoblade can be possible, using similar movesets as she did in her first crossover game Project X Zone 2, but I guess choosing Xenoblade X’s Elma might work well as being another protagonist, and being another popular and requested character for the next Smash. Sure she wasn’t doing well in the poll, but things have changed since then…
Splatoon’s Inkling is a definite! The game has already been extremely popular since its first debut in last year May, and its so odd why they weren’t eligible enough to be in Smash DLC. It is understandable if their ink mechanics didn’t work well for Smash 4, but with the powerful NX, I think that won’t be the problem anymore. The female Inkling would be its default style, while the Inkling boy and Octaling can be her character palette.
Making Isaac into his older version may make sense, since some characters like Ike is getting older as Smash is trying to follow their timeline. I really don’t know much about Golden Sun series, but I think it’ll be interesting to bring a character who mostly focus on a different specials than his sword, like Corrin.
Chibi-Robo might work well as his recent action game does made a perfect sense that his movesets from that game would work well in Smash. Even using some cleaning items that he used in his previous games would work as part of his attacks, which can make the ground slippery due to soap and others.
Rhythm Heaven may have been a planned series for Smash, but only point is that who might had an opportunity to join in. I wouldn’t think it was the chorus kids, because I wouldn’t think they were even that iconic to the series. I could agree Marsh since he’s the main mascot of the series, and he may use those mini games references as part of his attacks.
I really don’t know about Wonder Red, Ray, and Dillon at this point, but Saki was actually the most requested character since Brawl, but ended up being an Assist Trophy. It may be a good timing for him to shine in Smash as a playable character, but I think he’d be replaced with his son Isa Jo instead.
Finally the Arcade Bunny…he did commented that he wanna be in Smash too, so I guess Sakurai would grant his wish to become playable. (lol) Turning opponents into badges and using the claw to drop them as his final smash may work well. Seriously, I’d be laughing hard if he did join the next Smash. 😀
those franchise would easily get one more character, but I grouped them in order to gain some trend traction.
Spiral give the idea to maybe get the Bulbmin as another character for pikmin, and the wraith plasm could be also another option, as poor Alph might get the color alt treatment once again.
I believe that is most possible to get Isabelle than KK slider or Tom nook because she could work as a cute character, with funny moves
Xenoblade came to never leave, Shulk is a really interesting character, and Fiora could work as his couple. but yeah, Elma might work as well, but some people don’t like her that much… it’s weird.
The inklings, yes, I bet you that they will be the first newcomers to be revealed for the next Smash.
Ike got older, so why not Isaac? =) and clearly, he isn’t just a sword user.
there are a lot of RH characters, but the chorus got “famous” because of some fake leaks, but yeah, that series needs some representation, it would be a lot of fun.
Saki could have Isa Jo as his alt, or the other way around… this is another franchise that needs more games.
Agreed, if the bunny gets in smash I hope that Isabelle gets in too, to play as them in doubles with m GF… that would be cute =P
No Fatal Frame
it’s in the 3rd party section
I’m sorry, but I refuse to believe someone who didn’t start out on a Nintendo system is a Nintendo character.
And now we begin Part 3 of this series of articles. Like Part 2, this will be quicker to get through than the first.
F-ZERO series:
– Black Shadow I kinda have a low opinion on in terms of Smash because the only demand I see for him is to be the dumping ground for Falcondorf’s moveset. Not only does this sound like people aren’t asking for him on his own merits, but if there’s anything worse then a clone it’s a character who was only added to use an already existing moveset (a clone one at that). While he is a major F-Zero villain (although he was usurped by Deathborn), I don’t really know what he could add without coming off as generic.
– Samurai Goroh is probably the most important F-Zero character after Captain Falcon himself and has been around since the original game. While he would be another swordsman, there isn’t any katana wielders in Smash so his samurai fighting style would make him different from the others. The judo moves are a good suggestion.
– Blood Falcon I can’t see as being anything other than a clone (no joke intended), and I think it’d be really insulting if a series that hasn’t had a character added since the first game got a clone for its second rep.
– Jody Summer is probably one of the most well-known F-Zero characters that didn’t debut in the SNES game, but I can’t really see her doing much besides being a bit similar to Zero Suit Samus for her standard attacks.
Overall, I’d want them in this order: Samurai Goroh > Jody Summer > Black Shadow > Blood Falcon
So what would I make the F-Zero roster be? Captain Falcon and Samurai Goroh. Goroh is the most iconic character in the series after the Captain, and he’s the only one here that has something to work with already instead of having to resort to making up a bunch of new abilities, which was okay for Captain Falcon since he was the main character and you’ve gotta have the main character of a series in Smash, but when you do it for others it feels like it would just be reaching to fit more characters in for the sake of it. Anyway, I think he should have some fire attacks with his sword (like Roy but it won’t be redundant if he’s cut) as a reference to his vehicle, the Fire Stingray. Maybe he could swipe his sword against the ground which would leave a little bit of fire there temporarily which would damage opponents that walk in it, or another sword attack that sets opponents on fire for a few seconds dealing constant damage? Or what if he could use other Samurai techniques and weapons for other specials? There’s plenty of ideas to work with for him.
I will point out though that there’s one major character missing from this list and that is Pico. He was one of the original F-Zero racers from the first game and he stands out from the others since he’s an alien instead of being human. He has potential to work with too, as he’s a war veteran, hit-man and says in F-Zero GX that he has a large knife collection that he is fond of…
And next up we have Mother/Earthbound. I really, really don’t buy the idea that they’d cut both Ness and Lucas. Just because Ness was almost cut in Melee and Lucas only made it into Smash 4 as DLC doesn’t mean they’d ditch both at the same time.
MOTHER/EARTHBOUND series:
– I don’t really see why we need to change Ness for the sake of it. Smash takes liberties all the time and most of Ness’ attacks in Earthbound aren’t really for fighting. I agree that his Final Smash should be changed to PSI Rockin’ though.
– Lucas is so close to being a fully-unique character with only having three cloned normal moves, and his specials/Final Smash, so I’m up for new Specials for him. Since Smash has already given him and Ness moves they didn’t use in the original game it’d be cool to see stuff like PK Beam and PK Earth.
– Pokey is one of the main villains of the series (besides Giygas) and appeared in two out of three of the games, so he’s definitely one of the most important characters in the series. The Spider Tank is pretty big though (even the Earthbound one), so I’m sure how you’d make that work. I see people depict him out of the mech with the spider mech limbs on his back but Pokey is a coward (even his gameplay in Earthbound involved this) so him fighting outside of his mech would be very out-of-character for him.
– Kumatora is very popular and is the offensive powerhouse of Mother 3. She’d be pretty cool but I think you couldn’t really have her without taking Ness/Lucas’ current specials away (except PK Flash).
– The Masked Man is the more popular villain of Mother 3 compared to Pokey and he already has the tools to work with, so I think he’d be a pretty good choice.
– Paula… I dunno, seems a bit more of a blander choice compared to some of the others here and seems like she’s only on here because Ness has her abilities. I think is one of the weaker options here.
– Ninten, I feel, people only want since he completes the trio of protagonists of the series. Ness is basically Ninten 2.0 and had a lot of his abilities, and don’t think he’d really add that much. You could give him the moves you suggested for Ness, but he’d still feel like one of the weaker choices on this list.
I haven’t played any of the games, but based on what I do know about it and your suggested versions I’d prefer: Kumatora > Masked Man > Lucas > Ness > Pokey > Ninten > Paula
As for my Mother/Earthbound roster, I’m just gonna stick with Ness and Lucas. I feel like both represent the series fine as they are the main characters of the two most popular games in the series. I’d keep Ness as is except for a new Final Smash (PSI Rockin’) and for Lucas, only change his Down Tilt, Up Aerial, Forward Smash, Specials and Final Smash, as everything else is different from Ness. I’d make his Final Smash the Brawl version of Pk Starstorm since it was more unique than the Smash 4 version (which was a rip-off of Aura Storm). The unfortunate thing about Mother is that while there are other characters that could do something unique, it wouldn’t be right to replace either of the protagonists with them, and a series with only three games isn’t big enough to deserve three playable characters.
One little thing though, I really don’t think it’s right to call the series “dead” rather than finished. The creator had a story to tell and he concluded it. It’s not like it didn’t get any new games out of bad sales or disinterest from Nintendo. In a world where most creators don’t have a say and have their series cut short or dragged out due to the higher-ups, Mr Itoi had control over his series enough to end it on his own terms. F-Zero is a way more fitting series to describe as dead.
Off-topic, but here’s a little typo though; you said “SSBM” instead of “SSBB” the second time you showed Lucas.