Today, we are publishing not one but TWO rumors.
As the title suggests, we heard that two versions of Smash are coming to the Nintendo Switch. We are still investigating these rumors, and these are NOT confirmed. However, in order to be transparent with these rumors, I (PushDustIn) am providing as much information as I can without jeopardizing the source. Here are the rumors:
Rumor 1:
We’ve heard Melee is coming to the Switch, via Virtual Console. The service is apparently being organized by NERD, who impressed Nintendo with their work on the Famicom/NES Mini. The VC release would be ‘aimed at the competitive market’.
Good Points: We have good reason to believe NERD is in fact working on the Virtual Console for the Switch (multiple, independent sources). Melee is something the community has been requesting for many years.
Bad Points: GC VC requires analog triggers. We’ve heard from some developers that the Switch HAS analog triggers. However, some have told us that there ISN’T. Since we feel this is a major part of the rumor, we are not comfortable saying that Melee VC is coming 100%. One possible way around this is by enabling the GameCube adapter port with the Switch.
Rumor 2:
We’ve heard that “Smash for Switch” (name not final) is a combination of 3DS and Wii U content, a ‘director’s cut’. The game will feature some new content including 2 new characters. We haven’t been able to confirm WHAT characters. We’ve heard that this version will include all the DLC.
Good Points: The source behind this information is incredibly solid, and has broken a lot of rumors in the past to us. Unfortunately, you will have to take our word for it, as we haven’t been publishing them (sorry, we don’t usually post rumors). However, sometimes just having a solid source isn’t enough.
Bad Points: Two characters is pretty low. Personally, we think more characters are coming…at least 5. Also some of the content for the 3DS was made using borrowed assets, and remaking it for the Switch would require additional effort by the team. We also think the porting process has been going on for awhile now, which makes 2 characters seem very low. As we saw in 1.1.6, there is some evidence that could suggest the porting process has started a long time ago.
I will not be answering additional questions about this rumor. This is as much information as I can provide on them. Please do not PM me with questions.
For more information about rumor reporting, check out our SourceCast on the topic.
Check out our playlist on a theoretical “Smash for Switch” to get caught up. In particular, the podcast is very relevant.
As always, make sure to follow us on Twitter to stay up to date with our stuff.
- 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
I love this kind of stuff. There may or may not be anything to this, but it’s a lot of fun speculating, thanks for sharing.
Absolutely agree with this
Will mene have online tho?
*ATTENTION ALL TRAVELERS. THE SMASH BROS. HYPE TRAIN IS NOW BOARDING. DEPARTURE WILL BE IN ONE MONTH AND FIVE DAYS. I REPEAT, HYPE TRAIN IS NOW BOARDING.*
I know you said you wouldn’t answer questions, but I’m still wondering:
Did the source personally contact or directly tell you this, or are you just reporting on a credible rumor that is going around?
Personally contact. I heard it over a week and a half ago. I wanted to verify information before proceeding to post it despite them leaking things to me privately in the past.
Two characters sounds exactly right. I think you are looking at the port the wrong way if you’re expecting 5 characters and tons of new content. It’s like a Pokémon Emerald, not BW2. They don’t want new characters and content separating it hugely from the Wii U version, but I think they’ll take the opportunity to bring back Ice Climbers as “always meant to be there,” and one more character that either fit with the Switch brand or was long requested by fans for Smash 4.
Honestly a GameCube VC on the Switch would be a game changer, so many great titles that could make an appearance, I just hope their priced reasonably.
As for the second part, two additional characters would put the total roster at 60 characters; I think everyone here would agree that we’d want just a few more (64 being the ‘golden number’), but on the other hand that development time could be going to other features (new game modes, remastered stages, ect.) and effectively porting two games into a single game might be a development challenge in itself. As I’m 100% confident that one of the two character will be the Ice Climbers, I’m intrigued to see if an additional newcomer will make the Switch roster, or perhaps a returning veteran?
At least two characters?
I would think the characters selected will be Ice Climbers and another character that had to face the Bowser Jr’s original destiny to avoid possible delays (Ironically and likely, product of the failed intents to re-create IC).
But the second character probably will lose his/her oportunity because there is a bigger deal in the horizon thatn needs urgent Smash Representation (Splatoon).
If there would be more characters… I guess some of them will be easy creations and/or Smash Ballot Choices.
Bowser Jr.’s original destiny?
Sakurai mentioned that Bowser Jr almost didn’t make the cut as he was made last minute as they were closing in on the end of development. There could be another character that was intended to be made after Bowser Jr.
I’m willing to bet that was Mewtwo, to be honest.
Ahh… I can’t escape rumors even here… xD
But I trust you, so hope it is credible!
It may be worth doing an article on “why do people leak?” I recall the discussion on the podcasts were how people do it, but perhaps why may be a nice one, too. I understand some guise themselves as investigative journalism, but what harm is there in letting them keep a few secrets so long as nobody is being abused/tortured/other controversy? xD So I’ve been curious about that myself. Is it really just for breaking the news first? Popularity? Views? Hype? Intrinsic feeling of accomplishment? It’s a mystery to me, but perhaps it is just my mindset. Still, curious!
So many rumors that at this point all we can do is be patient, rumors can change at any point, two new characters aren’t enough, that’s why I’ll keep my hype level at a minimum until all these rumors are finally confirmed.
Having Melee as Switch’s Gamecube Virtual Console is an interesting rumor to hear. Nintendo have provided VCs from the classic NES to SNES on entire consoles, while Wii provided N64/Genesis/PC Engine/Arcades, Wii U had GBAs and Wii, and 3DS had Gameboy and Game Gear, and we still hadn’t got a GC VC yet. Switch having a GC VC does make sense, and having Melee part of it does make perfect sense too. But yeah, the controllers are the mysterious part. We don’t even know if that console is the actual form yet, as we still don’t know how it works either. We can’t determine how Switch will look like in the end yet, but the GC VC is something we can look forward on.
For the Smash for Switch rumor, I do agree 2 characters isn’t enough, eventually it doesn’t make any sense for a port. Many ported games had broken limits by adding new characters as much as they could. For example, Hyrule Warriors added 5 more characters (10 for adding 5 more DLC characters) to Hyrule Warriors Legend, Marvel VS Capcom 3 added 12 more characters to Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3. Having only 2 for Smash Switch doesn’t sound meaningful, but only at this moment and planning to add more later on, then its understandable as they’re still discussing. It can be understandable to make the whole roster perfectly up to 60 fighters, but we know that wouldn’t be the case since there were times it ended up in odd numbers. There’s still the Smash Ballot they still haven’t officially revealed yet, and this can be the best chance to add in more if possible.
However, if the “only 2 new characters” is true in the end, then I could understand who they’ll bring. One is definitely the Ice Climbers, because this is the only returning veteran that Sakurai wanted to bring back, if it wasn’t for 3DS’s lack of power and Wii U’s 8 Player Smash. He did say they worked perfectly in the Wii U’s testing, so it’s not odd that Sakurai may still have the data in his hands. Second, I think Wolf’s return won’t be possible at this rate since bringing only 2 returning veterans won’t make any sense, since they need a definite new character; and that character we could think of is Splatoon’s Inklings. Splatoon has been Nintendo’s most popular new IP since their first debut in 2015, and everybody have requested their entry to Smash. They’re mechanics possibly didn’t work well in 3DS/Wii U, but for Switch which have more power, I think its possible now. If not, then Tekken’s Heihachi, because Sakurai did considered his entry once, but declined due to his movement difficulties. Sakurai have a lot of time for his movements, so his entry could be possible.
But eventually, as this is simply a rumor which I don’t know where it came from, I cannot buy it as I don’t wanna expect anything in order to not get disappointed in the end. This is why Source Gaming always say to hype responsibly, and I’m taking that advice for safety reasons. But even then, I’m looking forward for this game with new things to add on.
Wii U also provides N64 VC. It also provides DS VC, but neither library is really big at the moment.