“What the hell was 2016 for?”
You mean the announcement trailer for the Switch or the severe lack of games and lackluster games (excluding a few gems like Kirby Robobot, and Sun/Moon)
Because the Announcement trailer was simple – Hype. Hype and silencing people prodding on and on about the NX while getting the Switch ready.
2016 in Nintendo games? Obvious most of the developers within Nintendo are still working on new titles and they weren’t ready to show.
Now as for my reaction…
– Presentation: Yeah, it would be better to do a direct, but it wasn’t really aimed at fans, it was aimed at investors seemingly more so given all the businessmen in the audience. The English translators flubbed badly.
– Controller is neat. We kinda got the idea of what it’s going to do with the initial trailer, but HEY we have to add motion controls! At the very least 3rd parties can now seemingly ignore them in favor of straight porting if they’re doing a bigger game.
– Paid Online: I already have two years of Playstation Plus stacked on my PS4. It’s a pain going from not paying for Internet to having to do so on Nintendo systems, but if I can stack it like I already do for Playstation, I’ll be fine: get the Internet all paid for and done with in one fell swoop.
– 1, 2, Switch… It’s the Wii Sports and Nintendoland of this system, but since it’s not a pack-in deal, I honestly can’t see it being that big a hit. And to be frank, I’m not interested in it. A video game where you don’t have to look at the screen in order to play – kinda takes a dump on the very definition of VIDEO game, wouldn’t you say? Who’s to say, but I think it’ll fail.
– ARMS: LEGS jokes aside… Call me KL-Conspiracy, but I think this game could actually end up being an eSport title down the line, should the game mechanics end up deep enough to be more competitive. After all, Melee might be faster than other Smash titles, but the original speed the game is meant to be played was definitely not tournament level when people first started playing, only finding out ways to make the game faster to develop a whole metagame behind it. I could see ARMS possibly having the same kind of feel to it – if people can break ARMs to make higher level play a thing, I could see it become a hit in the competitive scene. It’s not a launch title though
– Super Mario Odyssey: Not a launch title… And thus sadness begins. But hey, it’s a game focused on globe-trotting, and I like how the Mushroom World is more than just the Mushroom Kingdom. Realistic proportioned humans next to Mario seems odd, honestly – it wasn’t so much with Sonic in Sonic Adventure, but Mario’s a human so it just makes it seem odd. Numerous nods to DKC in the city level which is good. And hey, it’s the 1st 3D Mario where you don’t seem to be limited to a single path since Sunshine, so that’s pretty cool.
– Splatoon 2: Not a launch title… But it’ll get her sooner than Mario Odyssey. A more traditional controlled Splatoon, Gyro control is still there. We also now have dodge rolls, which no one else seems to talk about. It was also not Splatoon remastered, it’s a legit sequel.
– Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Looking forward to it. I need to get back into the 1st game…
– Fire Emblem Warriors: I can expect plenty complaining that Fire Emblem is getting more focus, but the franchise is a hot commodity to Nintendo right now – it makes sense to tease that, especially to a Japanese audience, than say a new Metroid where the series isn’t hot there.
– Breath of the Wild: Love it. Just pure and simple. I like that Link is seemingly getting some friends – at least in cutscenes. We have the Rito AND the Zora in the game – Rito Archer looks like the best character so far. Best point – It’s a Launch Title! (I couldn’t get the Master Edition though…)
– Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: Pretty much what everyone interested in Mario Kart predicted what was going to get: Junior, Dry Bones, Inklings. No Diddy, and I’m personally sad that Kirby isn’t in (The Kirby series fits in SO well with the Mario cast) but we also finally have a proper Battle Mode. It’s also coming in April, so yay – Might not be for Launch, but not too far away. Not sure why it wasn’t given a segment, but then again investors. I am worried that there’s no Miis. Now I won’t even have a Kirby mii suit…
– Skyrim: People noted the lack of ‘Special Edition’ and are wondering if this will be the original version. I doubt it’d be the case, and the lack of ‘Special Edition’ was simply a lack of communication. Would be bad if it was though. It’s also not launch day, but instead will be a Fall release. REALLY?
– Lack of Smash, GCN VC, etc.: Probably the same reason why Mario Kart 8 wasn’t shown in the presentation itself, Smash will likely be a port, it wasn’t ready to be shown (I have a feeling showcasing Smash and how to hook the Gamecube controllers to the thing would take away from the JoyCons they spent time focusing on…), and it wasn’t shown because investors. Nintendo wanted to sell the system on how ‘revolutionary’ it is, which is likely why the focus for a good half of the thing was about the controller, battery life, price, noting Online services, and companies interested in making games for the Switch, instead of what fans exclusively want to see from Nintendo: Games. I believe we’ll see these things down the line in a more fan focused Nintendo Direct, but it was clear this wasn’t a show for the fans, but Nintendo wanted the fans to see and help gauge a reaction.
From:
“This. Pretty much when a lot of people want Impa, they just want more Zelda representation. They aren’t requesting Impa as a character for her own attributes.”
That’s a pretty bold claim. If people just wanted more Zelda representation then any old Zelda character should do, clearly there more to the reason people gravitate towards Impa for Zelda and King K Rool for Donkey Kong.
When people say they want Rool and DK needs more reps I don’t know why the assumption is that they just want more DK reps and will push whichever one has the most momentum, as opposed to them genuinely wanting Rool and citing a lack of DK reps as support for why he ought to be included. The same goes for Impa, even if people just want another Zelda rep they’re still elevating Impa above numerous other contenders so clearly she’s being pushed for her own merits over others in her series, not simply by virtue of being a Zelda character.
At the end of the day none of this should really matter. If Impa got in then the people who supported her would be happy about her inclusion, regardless of their reasons for supporting her. Even if someone just wants her for the sake of getting more Zelda why isn’t that a legitimate reason to desire a character? Is my desire to see a series I love further represented in smash though characters with tangible importance to it’s history and future, worth less than joe schmo’s request for the main character from whatever the latest indie game he played was?
I don’t like the idea of having one-off Zelda characters in Smash at this stage and it annoys me to see so much support thrown behind whatever new Zelda character is a big deal in the latest game, regardless of how unlikely it is they’ll ever appear beyond it. However, even if I disagree with the reasons for their support I would never presume to claim that the support for that character isn’t completely genuine and every bit as valid as the support I show the characters I desire.
This is rather spot on. If it was merely a matter of having more reps and not a desire for specific characters we would have seen a lot of demand for the next DK character to be Cranky Kong or Lord Fredrik due to Tropical Freeze instead of characters like Dixie and K. Rool who people have been asking for since the post-Melee days. As for Impa, I think the reason we see her requested more than others is because she is one of the few recurring Zelda characters. She was one of the first characters confirmed for Hyrule Warriors after Link for a reason. Also, people seem to forget that she was a popular character in Skyward Sword. Quite frankly she has more reason to be in Smash than Sheik, who now that she is no longer tied to Zelda has no reason to still be in Smash since she’s no less of a one-off than other flavour of the month characters like Ghirahim. Sorta changing the subject but I hate how everyone starts requesting “latest Zelda villain” for every Smash now. Remember how people used to ask for Zant for Brawl?
Plus quite a few of the people who criticise wanting more reps tend to excuse Fire Emblem having so many as “needing more characters since it’s bigger now”, which means they’re pretty much saying the same thing but for Fire Emblem.
I still don’t get why the “reps” argument gets treated as such a valid one by the fans when we don’t have any precedent for it. Can anyone bring up a single case where a character got in only because their home series “deserved more reps”?
That isn’t why it happens.
Diddy maybe? He wasn’t all that relevant at the time of Brawl despite being iconic.
A thought on Diddy; at the start of development, Diddy and Dixie were being designed as a tag-team (like in DKC 2), which would have made for a unique gameplay mechanic. However, that concept was scrapped and Diddy remained as his Brawl incarnation, fulfilling the role of a ‘trickster’ of sorts. Series representation may have been a factor, but theres no evidence that it was the deciding factor for his inclusion in Brawl.
“Can anyone bring up a single case where a character got in only because their home series “deserved more reps”?”
Sakurai set a spot aside for “New Pokemon character” in his project plan for Smash 4 before he even chose Greninja.
But Greninja wasn’t just a ‘New Pokemon rep’, he was representing Pokémon X and Y, which was still in development when the Smash 4 roster was being decided.
So he was added for representation, as I said.
That wasn’t the question; Delzethin asked if a character has ever gotten into Smash solely for the sake of a franchise needing more reps, which as I pointed out was not the case with Greninja. Please read more carefully next time.
Because, representation is (at least that’s what he said) taken into account. It is not the only factor, but it is something which should be taken into account. Honestly, it should probably be a bigger factor than it is, but that is an argument for another day.
I fully agree with this sentiment.
I hate it when people always go about how reps never matter at all when it’s blatantly untrue.
Its a perfectly valid standpoint to hold. People are well aware that its not the sole factor in how any character is chosen, nor do they want it to be. Almost no one want a character solely for the sake of having another rep for a certain series, if they did there’d be no reason for them to support said character specifically rather than stating they’d be fine with anyone from said franchise. Also we don’t know the full story behind why a lot of characters were chosen for smash, so the lacking of a precedent could easily be due to lack of information more than lack of it existing. We can theorize it probably played some part in why Metroid and Kirby got more characters in Brawl after being considered under repped in Melee. God knows why else Zero Suit Samus would be at the top of Sakurai’s list. As a whole representation obviously plays some part in the characters we get, hence why Mario consistently has the most representation with Pokemon and Zelda never far behind. Obviously its not the sole reason we get characters, but once again, no one is saying it should be.
Also regardless of how much of a role it actually plays, we are absolutely allowed to believe it should play a bigger one. There’s no reason we need to just accept the Smash roster and the means by which its selected are perfectly unequivocal and above reproach.
Glad to see AW is getting love here given the rut it’s in right now and how it’s been Catch 22’d so badly to the point where it’s own dev studio doesn’t want to look at it anymore. It’s hopes of ever being in Smash Bros is also in the gutter now. Truly the Days of Ruin for one of my favorite series ever.
As for the ARMS discussion I fully see whatever character from that game being the Wii Fit Trainer of the next Smash Bros game though all least the character would be more predictable.
You see, the thing about the K. Rool Mii costume is it doesn’t feel like a genuine consolation, but more like “There, K. Rool’s in the game, now stop asking.” When you look at stuff like Proto Man or Dunban, you can see how they’re consolation prizes since these characters will never be playable in Smash, plus they are a cool nod to them. Then there’s costumes for characters Sakurai has wanted to include but was unable to, like Heihachi and Geno. What’s notable though is that these costumes are fitting to the type of Mii Fighter they’re for (Mega Man X as Mii Gunner, Llyod Irving as Mii Brawler etc.). They feel like they were made with an appreciation for the character and they fight the Mii Fighters’ fighting styles appropriately. You can pretend you’re playing as them due to some similarities and the quality-look of the costumes.
And then you get to the K. Rool outfit, which looks pretty bad as Mii outfit (basically a fat suit), but more importantly, unlike something like the Zero costume for the Mii Swordfighter which can at least allow you to emulate the character in some ways, what in Mii Brawler’s moveset allows you replicate even one thing K. Rool does in the DKC games? Most of the Mii costumes allow you to have a bootleg version of the character in someway, but K. Rool’s is one of the few that does not. It”s clear it wasn’t a product of love like some of the other costumes. I mean, he didn’t go and make Ridley a Mii Fighter outfit, did he? Sakurai may not want Ridley to be playable, but you can see he does care about how the character is portrayed in Smash. Has Sakurai even once talked about K. Rool in interviews? I don’t think he has from what I can remember. I’d like to know if he has. But I don’t think a Mii in a fat suit even does the character anything more than a disservice to his fans. I’d argue it’s comparable to Bad Box-Art Mega Man in Street Fighter X Tekken in that people would rather nothing at all than what we got instead.
“I think 4 would be great (If 1 was a clone or a semi clone).”
Why does one need to be a clone/semi-clone? It’s had over twenty games.
“I think Spring Man could replace Corrin.”
Spring Man at least would get in on his own merits for representing a new IP. His inclusion would be more comparable to the Inklings rather than an advertisment (Arms will come out before they even announce Smash for Switch assuming they’re saving it for E3).
Crud, I meant “Llyod Irving as Mii Swordfighter”. I really wish we could edit comments here.
Brawler has a cannonball-like projectile in his Shot Put, as well as a few powerful stall-then-falls. Plus, I imagine someone as muscular as him fighting with punches and such rather than something like an arm cannon or a sword. If you’re gonna make K. Rool a Mii costume, Brawler is the way to go.
Shot Put’s rather vague in it’s similarities to the cannonball; it doesn’t really work like how the cannonball would. It’s barely on the level of something like Mega Man X as Mii Gunner. Really he’s one of those character where you can’t truly have a decent-level recreation of how the character would play. Like Toad or Ashley (not that I really care for those characters, but I was just bringing up examples).
I’d argue that aside from a few moves based on his Boxer persona from DK64 that he’d probably use more claws swipes than punches. He’d probably throw his weight around a bit and have some belly attacks too.
That at that point it sounds more like K. Rool’s costume WAS just chosen as a point of convenience than any real love for the character…
… Either that or there really isn’t enough for K. Rool to do to base an entire moveset around as a character and the Mii Costume was “the next best thing”
“… Either that or there really isn’t enough for K. Rool to do to base an entire moveset around as a character and the Mii Costume was “the next best thing””
Oh, but that’s wrong. He has plenty to work with.
As I’ve been told, but plenty of it has either always been heavy on the blunderbuss, or all of his boss fight moves stitched together like Frankenstein’s monster, complete with costume changes corresponding to each action.
So the No-Mii rumors of Mario Kart are gone – They’re back: the question mark IS the Mii Option, just not unlocked. I honestly would’ve liked Kirby added in instead of separating the Villagers but what the hey.
And yeah, just read the article on Brawl’s character choices – Relevancy being the big thing there too. To which, it makes you wonder what characters would be added to Smash – We have Splatoon, the possibility of someone from ARMs, and to a lesser extent of BoxBoy – But aside from that, I’m kinda stumped.
I don’t think Brawl’s characters were really chosen for recentness. Maybe someone, like Lucas, Ike, Lucario and (a bit less) Olimar, but that’s it.
So Diddy, Dedede, Meta Knight, Wario, Squirtle/Ivysaur/Charizard, Wolf and Samus had all had big roles recently. Well, of course they did.They were, and still are, some of the most important characters in some of the most important Nintendo series. They always get big roles. So, eh :/
Then you had Ike who was not just the last FE lord, but the first international FE lord and the main character of two episodes, and Olimar from Pikmin, which was a new series, but not THAT new already and with 2 titles and 2 ports under its belt. They were recent alright, but they already proved themselves.
You can bring out the recentness excuse for Lucas and Lucario, but it’s 2 characters. And even then, Lucario was the only non-gen 1 pokèmon so it made some sense, and Lucas was intended to be in Smash ever since Melee.
So I think back in Brawl characters were chosen for their own merits, not just for recentness like it happened for the vast majority of Sm4sh’s newcomers. Rosalina isn’t, and won’t ever be, much more than the Petey Piranha of the week (except for her 3d World role). Palutena just isn’t, and won’t ever be, in the same league as Diddy, Wario or Dedede (or even characters like Toad, Dixie or Ridley). Both Robin and Corrin will soon get lost as just another FE lord. Dark Pit and Lucina are, in the grand scheme of things, extremely minor characters (even clones and semiclones used to be selected better, like Toon Link who appears in a ton of games or Lucas who at least is the main character of his game).
The only good choices were the Villager (AC is very big and deserves a character), Little Mac (not really a retro character anymore but with a lot of legacy) and Shulk (main character of a promising new series, a bit like Olimar was in Brawl’s time).
This so much. There’s obviously a few who were chosen for their recentness, but the majority of the newcomers in Brawl are characters that would have been added to Smash regardless of whether their series had a new game or not. Wario is an important and popular Mario character was considered for Melee, Dedede is the villain (well, was) of the Kirby series and was considered since the original, Meta Knight is Kirby’s rival and a fan-favourite in the Kirby games, Diddy Kong was the second playable character of Donkey Kong Country and is the Luigi to DK’s Mario, Wolf is Fox’s Rival, Olimar is from Pikmin which was a brand new successful IP that already had two games before the Wii, etc. Most of characters added in Brawl have reason to get in that doesn’t hinge on time. And even the ones who did get in for recency reasons like Ike still have something that makes them important on their own merits (Ike is the only lord besides Marth to star in more than one Fire Emblem game, which means he has way more merit than Roy and Corrin ever did). Lucario was marketed a lot before Gen 4 even came out and still is today; he’s basically Pokemon’s secondary mascot. Toon Link is the most recurring design of Link in the entire Zelda series and had five appearances already before Brawl. Hell, even Lucas was planned for Melee, so it’s not like Sakurai only planned on adding him after Mother 3 came out.
When we get to Smash 4, very few of the first party characters originate from games that came out before the Wii. The majority of the newcomers are new-wave characters, and a few are retro. Villager and Bowser Jr. are the only newcomers that you could consider “inbetween”, whereas Brawl had a lot of in-between era characters. Now, there’s nothing wrong with adding recent characters if they have something that would get them in on their own merits even if they weren’t new (like Wii Fit Trainer and Miis since the former is from a best-selling game with three entries in it’s series and Miis are Nintendo’s avatars that have been used across multiple consoles and are the faces of Wii Sports, a significant Wii title), and Greninja is a part of a starter line which makes him more important than a lot of Pokemon, but then we got characters like Dark Pit (who’s role in his own series is pretty small compared to other characters and just added to the Kid Icarus shilling), Lucina (who is actually the least important of the three main characters of Awakening. Also why did Awakening need two characters exactly?), Shulk (Xenoblade has already ditched him, he’s a one-off in the Xeno series that was riding on the Operation Rainfall hype), Corrin (a character who was literally added for being from an upcoming game and goes directly against what Sakurai said about the last few DLC characters being fanservice). Half these characters have already started to become irrelevant by the time Smash 4 came out. I wanted Robin since I advocated for him before he was revealed since I wanted FE rep who’d use a weapon besides a sword, but even he doesn’t really have any relevance anymore since Corrin is the new avatar character of Fire Emblem (and Corrin will more than likely be ditched in the next FE game on the Switch too). The decision to go with mostly characters whose recency was a big reason for them being chosen will horribly date the roster in a few years time.
There’s also Palutena, who’s a bit of a weird one. I mean, I think Uprising warranted a second Kid Icarus character and Palutena has been in all three games in the series, so she’s the best choice for a second KI rep, but I would barely consider her a retro character since she has nothing to do with the original KI version at all. She’s basically for all intents and purposes a modern character. Brawl may have drastically redesigned Pit, but he still had influence from the NES game in some ways like his Up Special, Down Special and Final Smash. What I’m saying is that she should be in but I still would use her as an example of Smash 4’s slant towards new-wave characters.
I don’t think it’s right to compare her to Petey Piranha, especially since she’d been playable in a platformer and was a fan-favourite since Galaxy (I never got why Nintendo ignored her popularity with fans for six years before they put her in 3D World). It doesn’t seem like they’re gonna drop her anytime soon. I like Rosalina as a Mario character and she’s pretty unique in Smash but there are characters from the Mario series that have been waiting much longer to get in Smash. I’d bring her back but if I wanted to add a Mario newcomer I’d give Rosie the least priority out of all the Mario characters (Dr. Mario would be cut if it were up to me). I think she has more genuine merit than most of the newcomers but I think she isn’t that vital in the grand scheme of things.
Brawl’s roster did things much better. It seemed less of a soulless advertising opportunity than Smash 4’s roster since it was more interesting in adding important characters rather than the flavour of the month.
I think Shulk is ok. Xenoblade is already a series and he is the hero of the first (and most popular) episode, so he makes sense. A bit like Marth, or Ness, even if he’s not really the first.
I’m more salty about Robin, Corrin and Lucina. They were all selected when their games were still in development or not released. If you have to go to this lenghts, just pick someone from another series (you know there was this Dixie Kong character who already had a large history and was even going to reappear in a new title…). And they still all look too much like one another. Corrin and Lucina will just be faces among faces in the future. They should have just stopped at Robin, if anything.
This goes for Greninja too, even if I like him more.
Rosalina is a very secondary character no matter how you spin it. Bowser Jr. was the better Mario newcomer, and we really should have gotten Toad instead of her. He was in 3d World, too, and in an endless amount of other games. Or Paper Mario. Someone with actual weight. Plus I personally loathe how she fights, but that’s another story.
Palutena… I don’t know. Let’s face it, if Uprising was made by anyone else than Sakurai she would have never been playable in Smash. She’s fine as Kid Icarus’ second rep I guess, but I don’t think Kid Icarus needed a second rep. Plus she’s pretty boring, I mean her gimmick is just that she got special treatment with the custom moves (something totally arbitrary that could have worked for every single other character). Meh.
And yes, she obviously qualifies as a recent character.
Individually they’re all more or less ok, but then you throw in the fact that the other newcomers were:
-third party
-retro
-not really that exciting, at least for most (I’m thinking about the Wii Fit Trainer and the Miis)
And you’re left with Villager, Mac and Bowser Jr. as the only characters selected a bit like Brawl did. Plus if you were not a Fire Emblem or Kid Icarus fan you either got no new characters or even lost some (Lucas and Wolf still sting, even if Lucas luckily came back) and the selection becomes very boring and unbalanced.
I didn’t like it at all, honestly. Brawl’s method was much, much better. I would have said that the guest characters save it all, but then Bayonetta came in… :/
Xenoblade isn’t exactly a new IP; it’s part of the Xeno series which also contains Xenogears and Xenosaga. Plus he’s a one-off; Xenoblade Chronicles X had a completely different cast and it looks like the same can be said for Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Even Sakurai said in the pic of the day that he isn’t the kind of character that’d usually make it into Smash.
I agree that they should have just stopped at Robin. I think the FE Roster just being Marth, Ike and Robin (with Lucina as an alt costume for Marth) would have been perfect. Such a shame they went overboard with it.
Uprising would have given KI a newcomer for Smash even if Sakurai didn’t make it. You can argue it might not have been Palutena, but they wouldn’t have ignored a big new game that revived (if only for a little while) a long-dead IP. I agree that her moveset is boring, especially because instead of using light powers they mostly just gave her moves that don’t really suit her or ones that a lot of characters have like a counter, warp and reflector.
I didn’t really care for any of the guest DLC characters to be honest.
There seems to be quite a bit of hindsight bias in your argument; not every Brawl newcomer has managed to stay in the spotlight, yet you ignore the potential of many of the Smash 4 newcomers to appear in future titles. Doesn’t that seem a bit hypocritical? Also, do you think importance determines relevancy, or relevancy determines importance? Because there are viable counterexamples for either point, and dismissing one for the other means your ignoring that they are both variables that rely on the other.
I don’t know if you were replying to me, but if so, think about it this way.
Meta Knight, Pit, Wario, Pokèmon Trainer, Diddy, Dedede, ROB, Wolf and arguably Olimar could all have easily been added in Melee. Lucas, Ike, ZSS and Lucario couldn’t, but they all had good reasons for inclusion. Characters like Wario, Diddy or Dedede wouldn’t have looked out of place even in SSB64…
Now how many of the SM4SH newcomers could have been added in Brawl? Villager, Little Mac, Bowser Jr., Duck Hunt… and that’s it. Maaaaybe Rosalina? Or the Wii Fit Trainer? But Galaxy and Wii Fit didn’t even have trophies in Brawl.
That’s what I’m talking about. Brawl characters were simply more proven. You had 2-3 exceptions but they made sense anyways.
And who are the Brawl newcomers who didn’t manage to stay in the spotlight? I can give you Lucas and maybe Ike, but that’s it, really.
“Hindsight bias” means to look at things in the past more kindly; you’re implying that the current Smash newcomers lack potential to reappear in future titles. Whether they are ‘proven’ or not is based on your perspective.
What are you talking about. Characters like Diddy, Dedede or Wario had already appeared in a TON of games when Brawl came out. The majority of Sm4sh’s characters didn’t. I mean there’s not much to debate, that’s just how it is.
So you’re saying Megaman, Pac Man, Ryu, Bowser Jr., Cloud, Little Mac, Villager, Shulk, the Miis, and Bayonetta all haven’t appeared in multiple titles? Your argument seems very focused on a handful of newcomers, several of which have since appeared in spin-offs or have potential to appear in future titles.
I always tend to exclude the guest characters from this conversation. If you remove them, you’re left with: Bowser Jr., Little Mac and the Villager. That’s pretty depressing for a Nintendo crossover.
Shulk only had one game when Smash4 released. You’re right about the Miis I guess, I always forget they exist… Blame FG.
And in Brawl every single newcomer bar Lucas had already appeared in multiple titles, anyways.
‘I always tend to exclude guest characters from this conversation.’
Sounds like a textbook case of ‘moving the goalposts’ to me…
Shulk is a one-off character. Ports don’t count as new appearances.
And the other poster isn’t moving the goalposts. Third party characters aren’t chosen for the same criteria as first parties. Geno being considered for Brawl despite being completely irrelevant is proof of this.
I agree with Mettaur’s comment earlier, so I’ll just share my sentiment as opposed to the typical “Rep Train” for Impa.
I’d love to see Impa’s characteristics and abilities referenced and refined in a Smash sense, and not just through weapon names. Take a design from a particular game, or mesh designs to create a “Smash Incarnation” and roll with it. As an example, many have avatars in Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing that look nothing like the Robin, Corrin, and Villager seen in-game, but we know who they are. We see that she has physical skill with the more popular incarnations, but she also proves to be magically talented and significant enough as a Sage. Zelda’ss using her alter-ego, Sheik, is a take on the Sheikah clan; Considering the talents displayed through that, even if Smash takes liberties, wouldn’t that imply that Impa, being a Sheikah, is extremely capable? Perhaps a variant spin on what Sheik displays, preferably not a semi-clone but her own characteristics with barriers, countering, magic, and weaponry.
Above everything else, if its a-okay for people to dream up reasonable arguments for Bandana Dee in Smash, the same can be done for Impa and other characters from various other IPs.