Well, the final Super Smash Bros. Ultimate-focused Nintendo Direct before the game’s launch has come and gone. And, well…that was it? I mean, really? That’s it? To use an old (and pretty disgusting) phrase, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was about to win the race, and then crapped its pants right at the finish line.
Look, I have no doubts that – mechanically speaking – Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will still be a very fun game. It has a solid foundation to work from, and it really can’t be too bad in terms of gameplay if it sticks to what the series does best (Brawl was also a very fun game, even with the tripping). But the forty or so minutes it took for the Direct to begin and end made Ultimate go from my most anticipated game of the year, to one I’m simply going to play and review. And that’s kind of sad when I think about it.
Let’s get the big bad out of the way first: Geno is not in the game. Despite being arguably the single most requested character to join the series for well over a decade, he’s still MIA. And I know people will say I’m just being sour over the character I wanted not making it, but here’s two things: 1) This is a series built on fan-service, so being bummed out about your favorite character not making it is actually a reasonable disappointment (provided that the character in question was a likely possibility, which Geno very much was at this point). And more importantly 2) It’s not like I’m the only one who wanted Geno. Like I said, he’s been possibly the most requested character for years, rivaled only by Ridley and King K. Rool, who collectively became known as the “Big Three.”
Look, I think it would be awesome if Muddy Mole were added to Super Smash Bros., but I also know I’m just about the only person who thinks that. So no harm no foul with that
omission. But Geno? Pretty much everyone and their grandmother wanted him at this point, and after giving fans what they wanted with Ridley and King K. Rool, people actually expected Geno to make it in. So now it all feels like a cruel tease, especially after that Mii Fighter costume debacle last time around…
“But Geno’s too obscure! He was in one game! He hasn’t been seen in years!” is what the detractors (AKA people who apologize for everything Sakurai does) would say. But none of those arguments hold a bit of weight by this point, considering K. Rool and several other characters hadn’t been seen in years, obscure characters have been part of the series since day one (EarthBound, Ice Climbers), and the fact that a character like Dark Pit is in the game at all means relevance clearly isn’t an issue. Hell, if anything, the demand for Geno over the years has actually made him more relevant than ever. Besides, Ultimate is the fifth (technically sixth) installment in the Super Smash Bros. series. We got all the most recognizable characters out of the way long ago, now was the time to get crazy with the fan-service. Instead Ultimate only went halfway.
Again, if we were talking about a character I wanted, but I know I was alone in wanting, I would give it a pass. But when a character has actually grown more iconic because people want him in Smash Bros., wouldn’t you think they’d prioritize such a character? As stated, if we weren’t teased with a Mii Fighter costume in the last game in might not sting as much, but after that mess, it feels like the fans were practically owed the character.
It’s not just Geno’s exclusion, but other characters that people have wanted for years also got left in the cold. Isaac from Golden Sun is still an Assist Trophy. Again, people would say I just regret the omissions of my favorite characters, but I’ve never actually played Golden Sun (it’s on my to do list), so I’m not talking about personal history or want here. But I sure as hell know he’s been one of the more requested characters over the years, certainly more so than many characters who are already there (did anyone really want three different Marth clones?), so the fact that the Direct just casually showed Isaac still stuck in his Assist Trophy position and just expected people to be cool with it is kind of insulting. I mean, could they have at least made a bigger deal about him somehow? It basically just screamed “you want this character? Yeah, we don’t care.”
Yet even more notable omissions include Skull Kid and Dixie Kong (the latter of which having no excuse for not having been in the series for some time already). Two prominent, highly requested characters from two of Nintendo’s biggest series. But, y’know, screw them. And yes, I know, from the beginning, Sakurai said there wouldn’t be too many newcomers this time around. But you would think, with fewer newcomers, they’d actually put the most requested characters front and center. At the very least, had Geno made it, I’m guessing the other exclusions would have been a little easier to swallow, considering it would mean we’d finally be getting the “Big Three.”
What makes the omissions sting all the more is the final lineup of newcomers in the Direct. Ken from Street Fighter makes sense, but it’s kind of hard to get too excited over a clone of an existing character. What makes less sense, however, is that the final ‘new’ character was revealed as Incineroar from Pokemon Sun/Moon.
Look, I get that Pokemon is Nintendo’s big money maker, and I’ve said in the past that Pokemon (along with Mario and Zelda) is one of the few series that could have as many characters as it wants and it would be hard to argue against it. But THAT’S the final character you decide to reveal? Incineroar isn’t even as popular as fellow Sun/Moon starter Dicidueye, who would have been a more unique character anyway. I mean, I’m not totally opposed to Incineroar, but to be the final character in the starting roster? Talk about a popcorn fart of a reveal… Would have been better off revealing Incineroar months ago and ending with the Belmonts and K. Rool.
Since I mentioned the starting roster, it is important to note that Sakurai has promised that, through the first year or so after Ultimate’s release, a quintet of DLC characters will be released, each coming with their own stage and selections of music. So there is hope yet for Geno, Skull Kid, and Dixie (not sure on Isaac though, given that they kept him as an Assist Trophy). But still, wouldn’t revealing someone like Geno (after already having Ridley and K. Rool) been the perfect final character? Incineroar just seems so…unceremonious.
There is a downside to the DLC, however, in that the five characters are still a mystery. So while we can all be hopeful that those aforementioned fan favorites will make the cut, after having the rug pulled from under us time and again from the Smash Bros. series’ character choices, it’s kind of hard to get too excited. I mean, if Geno couldn’t make it even after teasing everyone with the Mii costume, it’s more than a little bit of a kick to the crotch of the fans.
Speaking of the DLC, however, there is one inclusion that might be even more questionable than Incineroar’s baffling presence as the final reveal… Piranha Plant is going to be a DLC fighter shortly after the game’s launch. Thankfully, it’s separate from the other five mentioned mystery DLC characters, but yes, a standard enemy from the Mario series gets in before the handfuls of characters fans have been requesting for years. That’s… that’s just insulting. I mean, I think Waluigi is a pretty lame character, and I think his requests for inclusion is little more than a joke taken too far. But at least Waluigi is a character! I think he’s earned a spot before a basic enemy like a Piranha Plant, no matter how much of a staple they are to their series. And if we’re throwing in standard enemies now, why not add the Waddle Dee with the bandana, since people at least wanted him? It is the most baffling inclusion, and not in a good “I wasn’t expecting that!” kind of way, but in a “wow, no one asked for that…” kind of way.
Sure, the Direct also revealed things like the new Story Mode, titled ‘Spirits.’ And I know some people are excited for a story mode. But in a game like Super Smash Bros., a story mode isn’t exactly the selling point. I’m sure more people would have preferred to see more of their requested characters make it into a series all about providing fan-service than they would like a story mode out of a fighting game. I mean, Brawl’s story mode – Subspace Emmisary – became pretty infamous for being a means to unlock the characters, and then completely forgotten about afterwards. And while the Spirits mechanic has some appeal, I again state that people would have probably preferred more newcomers over it.
Yeah yeah, Sakurai apologists would just write me off as being salty about the exclusions, but again, I’m talking about characters fans have wanted for years (some for over a decade). And they get bumped (yet again) for uneventful inclusions like Ken and Incineroar, and a Piranha Plant, something no one wanted. How exactly were they expecting people to react to these final announcements?
Sure, I’ll repeat myself and say I’m sure the game will be good fun in terms of gameplay and mechanics. But whatever steam Super Smash Bros. Ultimate picked up in the past few months through the likes of the Inklings, Ridley, Simon Belmont and King K. Rool came to a screeching halt in the span of forty minutes. Sure, Ultimate has already added some good new characters, but if you’re playing the lottery it doesn’t matter how many numbers you have, if you’re missing out on the last number, you still lose the jackpot.
Well, here’s hoping those five mystery DLC characters end up being worth the hype. In the meantime… Meh.
Wizard Dojo 
I’ll say I’m still super excited over Ultimates previous announcements. Everyone making it back (good and bad)? Nice. Ridley, K. Rool and the Belmonts? Great. All these nices quality of life additions, stages and music? Fantastic. But this final direct was underwhelming to say the least and gave a lot to criticize about. As you said, Incineroar should have been among the first newcomers announced, not the last, because he has no hype factor whatsoever compared to the (admitedly very high) bar set by the previous directs. I even prefer all the echoes and Isabelle over him. To give even MORE resources on yet another Pokemon character is beyond lame, I don’t care how big the series is, there’s not even a clear cut popular character like in most other Nintendo series given none of the creatures have any character or serve as protagonists outside of spinoffs, and with all previous veterans coming back they already had 9 characters, isn’t that enough? Easily my least favorite announcement of Ultimate and my least favorite newcomer alongside Corrin.
As for Piranha Plant, I get there’s some appeal to gag characters, but I think these are better with obscure franchises like they did before with Game & Watch, ROB, Wii Fit Trainer and Duck Hunt, where at least they cover a part of Nintendo not many people expect and maybe didn’t even know existed before Smash Bros. This is just…a Mario baddie, not even one of the most visually distinctive ones? And Mario has its bases very well covered with what they got in 4. I can’t say I was mad or anything during the trailer, but it left me with a “are you serious?” expression for sure. I already preloaded the game on my switch, but I have no interest to get my preorder bonus from that thing as I’ll never play as it nor I have friends that come by to even consider if they care.
I got nothing on Ken, he’s an echo, he was probably easy to make and I guess he’s making justice to his legacy as the original clone or shoto or whatever his arquetype is called, I’m more surprised we didn’t get anymore announced after him (while not particularly desired I was very surprised they didn’t make Shadow a Sonic echo).
But lets put aside these character choices, can we really say the rest of the direct was any good? It was bloated with boring explanations that made the online look like they made very questionable decisions and spirits mode at a glance looks very uninteresting.
One can only hope the DLC is worth it, from what I’ve seen all DLC characters with stages in 4 where 3rd parties, but there’s nothing indicating that’ll be the same pattern for Ultimate, and with Piranha Plant it’s hard to get too excited when even generic mooks can become playable over the actual characters from many other series (and admitedly I can’t think of many 1st parties they’d try to sell as DLC with everyone confirmed and deconfirmed so far, but that might speak of my ignorance more than anything else). I’ll certainly not order the Smash pass as I’m not risking spending anymore money over stuff I don’t want. I’ll be surprised if Geno is nowhere to be seen among those, especially if his demand is as big as it looks online, as it’d be easy money for Nintendo/Square, and that’s better than not being in the game at all, but eh… I feel he should have been in the base roster over that dumb cat.
I do feel bad for Isaac and Skull Kid (yes, he’s been confirmed as one on the site today) fans as being an AT currently means no hope of becoming playable in the current entry, I didn’t actively want them myself, but I felt their fans didn’t deserve to have them hidden for so long after announcement only to anticlimatically show them reprising their old role.
I guess a lesser but still prevalent thing I’ll complain about is that the single player looks as lacking as 4 in the variety department, arguably more so as there’s no proper events mode this time around. No target test, no board the platforms, not even sure if there’s junk like multi man melee? A lot of people probably won’t care, but I always like those minigames as distractions from the usual fighting. And the lack of trophies does hurt me a bit as they were fun to collect, not a deal breaker, but it still sucks to see them gone with their small bios and whatnot.
I reiterate that there’s still a lot to like about the game, my hype for it isn’t suddenly gone, and anyone that’s seriously attacking Sakurai or the dev team is out of their mind, but anyone disappointed over todays announcements is perfectly justifiable.
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Well said. I’m sure the game will still be good, but like you said, the teasing of keeping wanted characters like Isaac and Skull Kid hidden, only to unceremoniously reveal they’re stuck in the same spots they always were is almost trolling. And Geno not being in after the Mii Fighter costume seems even more like trolling.
I will admit, I find a large part of the appeal of Smash Bros. to be the fan-service, so the fact that so much of what fans wanted seemed to have been entirely dismissed in this last Direct kind of sapped my enthusiasm. Again, I’m sure the game will be good on a technical standpoint, but I’m hugely disappointed.
Here’s at least hoping Geno can make it in DLC. By this point he’s basically become the Smash Bros. character that wasn’t. He’s become part of Smash by not being a part of it (if that makes any sense). So just pull the trigger and get him in there. I know people would say I’m being biased because I love SMRPG, and while I’m not about to argue that there isn’t personal want in there, the fact is Geno has now become the “THAT character” of Super Smash Bros. now that Ridley and K. Rool are in. It’s been like, at least twelve years since murmurs of Geno started up, and even after the Mii costume and Sakurai claiming he wanted the character in and “maybe he will be one day” only do not have him… it’s a huge bummer.
Also, as soon as Sakurai confirmed that Incineroar was the last newcomer, I immediately thought of you lol. I knew you’d be as bummed as I was (if not more so). It wouldn’t have been too bad had they waited on Simon Belmont or K. Rool for the final reveal. And yeah, Piranha Plant being a playable character while Isaac, Skull Kid, etc. is like a sick joke. Again, we have Geno, a Mario character who’s different enough he wouldn’t feel like ‘another’ Mario character, whom everyone wanted, but we get a generic enemy instead. Ouch. Really, Sakurai? Were we really expecting that to go well?
With that said, I’m still happy K. Rool is in it, and I’m happy for all the Ridley people and Castlevania fans that they finally got what they wanted. But Incineroar…really?
Happy to hear we more or less agree on this. The other Directs set the bar so high, that admittedly it would have been hard to live up to. But between the questionable online, unenthusiastic story mode, and Incineroar, this Direct fizzled out sooner than it began.
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Haha, this is the second time someone thinks of me specifically after a Smash announcement, the first being a personal happier one after Chrom was deconfirmed for Robin instead in 4, that was a better day than todays.
And anyone saying fanservice isn’t a big part of Smash is lying to themselves, if it went with generic characters as it was originally planned I doubt it’d be even a 1/4 as popular, we love it because we see all these different character cross over to duke it out in a fairly accesible playstyle.
Did you by any chance happen to see the grinch leak before this? I agree anyone who bought it was setting themselves up for disappointment (as much as I wanted it to be real and had some stuff going for), but I hate that people think that alone is the reason why many are bummed out over today, a lot would still be because their favorite was deconfirmed or the previous directs were just soooo much better.
I’ll guess your DLC hopes are more or less the same as your last wishlist blog? I fully expect none of my desires, but with no obvious 1st party that I want, all I can think of are still Banjo, Crono and Joker, with Geno being something I hope for the bigger fans as I think they earned it after all these years besides representing an actually ignored aspect of the series with the RPGs, but I doubt any of them besides Geno has a real chance unfortunately.
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Yeah, the more defiant fans are accusing anyone who’s disappointed as “buying into the Grinch leak.” which simply isn’t true (why the hell would KOS-MOS be in? No offense, but would one of the main characters from Xenoblade 2 make way more sense than a character who had a cameo in it and was originally from something else?). But Geno was the one consistent – repeat, the one consistent – in every single leak. So that was the one everyone was expecting to be true. But… Incineroar…
I would say it’s safe to assume my wanted DLC characters are in fact the same as the ones I listed in the past. Having Crono and Banjo in the game would be amazing, but I’m not holding my breath. I do agree Geno actually has a fair shot at the DLC thanks to his demand, but it’s getting hard to get too excited when the requests keep getting ignored. Fingers crossed. And hopefully he gets a cool trailer if he makes it in. Wouldn’t that suck if he just got a basic gameplay montage just because he’s DLC? And yeah, Mario is my favorite series, but I fully agree there’s not much else they can do to represent the main series (well, apparently there is, but no one wanted it). Geno is different because A) he represents the RPGs, B) he is completely unique from other Mario characters, and C) his presence as a Square creation kind of puts him in a category of his own. He’s a Mario character, but kind of his own Mario character…if that makes sense. I’ll keep hoping, I guess.
By the way, always happy to hear your feedback. Me and you seem to agree a lot when it comes to Smash Bros. inclusions.
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Agh, the reply button ain’t appearing on the chain! But no problem over the discussion, I love talk about Smash with more civil minded people, I think the fanbase can often be too black and white with cherrypicking every little detail and always being disappointed and unfair with Sakurai vs those who will witch-hunt anyone with the slightest criticisms with his choices, I love the guy and a lot of what he did with Smash, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t make a misstep every now and then (subjective as that might be).
I wanna say don’t lose hope over Geno, but at the same time, I think it’s better to expect nothing and be pleasantly surprised than uh…what we got today pretty much. At the very least I’d hope it’s not a lame way to promote upcoming games like a Gen 8 Poke or whatever protagonist the next FE has, now that might actually get me mad.
I think the KOS-MOS part of the leak was made up, well, made up by someone who confused her with some clouds or something and not fully intended by the faker, but we probably won’t that for sure unless the jerk who made it up comes up front to reveal the making process of the thing.
Now that I think about it the scrapping of trophies means one of my more humble hopes with smaller 3rd parties getting trophies wont happen, maybe they’ll get a spirit or something, but that just ain’t the same without the small bio and all.
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Yeah, WordPress gets really weird and finicky sometimes. On more than one occasion, my notifications haven’t shown up, and I’ve gone a while without noticing comments because of it. Other times, the notification button won’t show up when I’m on my site, but if I’m still logged on to WordPress, it will show up on other WordPress sites…I don’t even get that one…
Yeah, Sakurai has proven to be a great game designer, and I respect him for the hard work he puts into it. At the same time, it’s annoying when people will defend his every last decision (sorry people, no one wanted a Piranha Plant!). Just because you like his games doesn’t mean you can’t admit to his mistakes. I mean, even Shigeru Miyamoto – the creator of Mario and Zelda – designed Wii Music, one of the most infamous first-party Nintendo games ever. No matter how good the creator, not everything they touch can be gold (unless I suppose if a creator makes one thing that is gold, and then just stops. But why would they do that?).
Yeah, if Geno could be a DLC character, get his own SMRPG stage and selection of SMRPG music, that would be the greatest. I’ll try not to lose hope, as I am actually a pretty positive person. I usually like to say it’s better to hope and end up disappointed than to never hope at all, but even I have my limits. But here’s hoping for Geno. Like I said, Mario has a lot of rep, but Geno is on a different boat than the rest of them. I wouldn’t even be surprised if he were to get his own series’ symbol (like how Wario has a ‘W’ instead of the Mushroom).
Yeah, KOS-MOS wasn’t mentioned in every Grinch Leak, so it did seem iffy (even by bogus leak standards). I mean, again, I have nothing against Xenosaga, but that would be such a random character given her loose connection to Nintendo. But then again, we ended up with Piranha Plant, so…
Yeah, the more I think about it, the more the lack of trophies royally bums me out. I remember how excited I was way back in the day when I finally got the Paper Mario trophy in Melee. And that box breaking mini-game in Smash 4 (can’t remember what it was called) was insanely fun.
And thanks, it is great to talk about Smash with more civil people. In typical gamer fashion, the Smash community seems to be made up of extreme mindsets of “it didn’t do that one thing so it’s awful” or “everything Sakurai does is perfect and you can’t question his choices.” Again, I expect Ultimate will be a really fun game, and I’m still stoked that they actually resurrected K. Rool for it, but this lackluster Direct really sapped my enthusiasm. You can only be dragged along so much, you know?
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I think this small gag I did encompasses well how I feel more or less over the direct as a slightly more humorous way to close my thoughts on the matter, here’s hoping I can sing a different tune with the DLC after the plant: https://imgur.com/a/0RVxKfg
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Hahaha brilliant!
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Well, maybe some of those characters will come as DLC, like you said. So there’s still hope. It would actually be quite a good money-making strategy on Nintendo’s part to put some of those highly requested figures as DLC.
I agree that Incineroar is a lame inclusion, but I do love the randomness of Piranha Plant.
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Here’s hoping Geno and Dixie can make it among the DLC characters (Skull Kid has since been confirmed as an Assist Trophy…). True, maybe they are aiming to make some good money by making these requested characters DLC. Seriously, fingers crossed, because after teasing everyone with a Mii Fighter costume, the fans are really owed Geno by this point. And well, there’s absolutely no reason why Dixie should still be absent.
Piranha Plant would probably be easier to swallow if it weren’t for the exclusions of characters people have been begging for for years. Yes, we got Ridley and K. Rool, and that’s amazing. But by showing them off early and then ending with the uneventful Incineroar, Ken and Piranha Plant reveals, Sakurai set himself up for backlash. Personally, I always thought if any Mario enemy were making it, it would have been the Hammer Bros.
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The Hammer Bros. would be pretty cool indeed. And it does seem Sakurai sort of gets a kick out of making people be disappointed. Because the natural progression in the presentation of newcomers would be to end it all with the most requested ones; K. Rool and Ridley in this case. He would go out with a bang and leave everyone pretty excited leading to the game’s release.
But then, I wonder how much control he has over the order in which characters are shown. Given the way the corporate world works, I would not be surprised if some bigwig that only looks at sales and stock prices had a saying – or maybe even the strongest voice – regarding those matters.
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Yeah, I don’t get Sakurai. He makes a series built around fan service, and then ASKS FANS TO REQUEST CHARACTERS, and then pulls stunts like Piranha Plant instead of giving people what they want.
Another boneheaded move was not showing the Assist Trophies for Isaac and Skull Kid sooner. With the demand those characters have, holding back from revealing them for so long got people’s hopes up. I can’t imagine there’s any way Sakurai or anyone else could have thought that was a good idea. It’s just trolling.
Perhaps it was a corporate higher-up who makes the decisions of who to showoff and when. But either way, it’s incredibly short sighted. We all pretty much assume a new Pokemon is joining every installment, to the point that even Pokemon fans tend to not really have any particular standout picks, since they know one is coming no matter what. People wanted Ridley and King K. Rool, but never expected them. That’s why they felt special. Surely even a corporate higher-up could understand that after about a minute of research into things.
Fingers crossed that Geno at least makes it into the DLC. We’ve been teased enough.
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How do you feel about the recent statement that Nintendo choose all DLC characters this time around? I honestly don’t know what it implies because outside of Cloud and maybe Bayonetta it never felt like there was an awful lot fan input last time around (stuff up until Ryu were chosen before the ballot was closed and there’s not a chance in hell Corrin really was anywhere near the top voted characters in that thing), but my gut at least tells me 3rd parties are less likely that way, at the very least I have very high doubts we’ll get all 3rd parties which I certainly considered a possibility prior to these news. At the very least it definitely puts the final nail on my wishlist characters outside of Banjo if they decided to make some complicated agreement with MS or something haha.
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Well, my reaction could pretty much be summed up as “Ah crap, we’re getting more Pokemon and Fire Emblem, aren’t we?”
Hopefully, Nintendo’s options were open to third-parties. Because, seriously, aside from Dixie Kong, what other prominent Nintendo characters aren’t accounted for? At the very least (and I know I keep saying it), but let’s get Geno in there if possible. Everyone wants him, he’s in a unique “Mario character, but also third-party” situation, and he has a moves that writes itself. If Piranha Plant can make it, why not at least give people the one Mario character left they actually want?
I would also love to see Banjo-Kazooie make it. It’d be a dream, but sadly, that’s exactly why I think Nintendo wouldn’t do it. I expect another Pokemon *Sigh* and another Fire Emblem character *Groan* at least.
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I think what’ll determine if Banjo really has a chance is if the N64 mini happens and that has Rare games that aren’t DK64, but yeah, it never was very likely unfortunately no matter how much people dig into that Spencer tweet and the MC collaborations Nintendo has been doing, which might open the gates for Steve or whatever the avatar of MC is which would be very boring but also sell obscenely well with the kiddies.
I’ll guess Nintendo at the very least saw some of the ballot characters still left to consider possibilities from there and not blatantly release all promotion characters for upcoming games (more on that in a second), so I’d say at least another Square and/or Namco rep is still on the cards, but the former might end up being a Dragon Quest character, which lets be fair, is a fairly important series and really big in Japan, so I wouldn’t say it’s undeserved despite really not caring for the series myself.
Another rumor going on is a potential Granblue Fantasy character after Nintendo worked with Cygames (I think they own some of their shares?) on that new mobile game they did, and that’d suck….unless it’s Forte which I love after playing Shadowverse, but that’s my own bias and I realize getting a mobile game character of all things in Smash would be super lame, but I personally don’t think that’s likely.
As for Nintendo first parties, since I doubt they’d bother with lesser series after the base roster and especially with Isaac being deconfirmed (until proven otherwise I see AT as your chances being dead cold to make it in the current game), asides from Dixie, I’d say another Kirby rep isn’t all that unlikely. Given Smash could be considered a somewhat evolved version of Super Star combat and the series is pretty big, I could see something like Bandana Dee (we got nothing on this guy after PP) or an old villain from a game Sakurai worked on like Marx, but I doubt newer faces like Magolor as Sakurai seems hesitant to reference those much outside of music tracks and trophies/spirits. It’s weird, Kirby is perfectly represented as is, but I also don’t think another fighter would be out of place. I’d say dormant series like F-Zero are no-hopers on this though, Metroid got plenty of love as is in this game (besides the fact Japan didn’t care for the added characters and who else do you even add after Dark Samus anyhow? Sylux? Rundas?) and Zelda looks to be as desolate as ever unless they decide to pull a troll and add Tingle after his AT was seemingly cut. I guess Mario is an endless source of possibilities after PP, but surely Sakurai wouldn’t pull the same trick twice given it has no shock factor now, right? ….Right?
Unfortunately with both series getting a new game next year, a new Pokemon or FE character are very likely. Pokemon I have said enough, but I LOVE Fire Emblem and I’ll defend the addition of Ike and Robin to bits, but I’m so sick of the preferential treatment the series gets with Smash. Why is this the only series to get promotional characters for upcoming games? I don’t care if the next character doesn’t have a sword, we wouldn’t even get a fan favorite but a nobody that might end up being a cancer cell that urgently needs to be extracted like Corrin was in Fates. Can’t we leave the spotlight on someone else? Zelda is a much more popular and well loved series than FE will ever be yet all it can boast is that half of its playable roster are clones, and I’m sure we could expand that sentiment onto DK and Kirby, maybe Metroid but east hates it for some reason so I’m not sure on that one. If at least it one a fan favorite from an older game that had potential to be different like Hector I could try to be more accepting, but no, it’d be Edelgard or whatever the dumb girl is called from the less than stellar looking new game.
It’s sad to say, but even not being a fan of the series, I’ll rather get yet another Pokemon if that means at least FE doesn’t get something from Three Houses. At the very least being DLC I can just ignore it and act as if it was never released by not buying it or something, a part of me hopes playing normal matches no longer serves as a stipulation to unlock fighters as I’d rather not see Corrin or Incineroar in my CSS haha.
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Not seeing Incineroar in my save file wouldn’t hurt me none. 😛
It is weird how FE is the only series to get promotional characters. To me, I think the only time a promotional character would have made sense would have been the Inklings. I feel like their absence as DLC characters or something in Smash 4 was a missed opportunity.
I wouldn’t hate a Dragon Quest rep, though I would actually hope it would be Slime for a very simple reason: a blob-like character would be something different that opens up all kinds of possibilities. Though of course, when it comes to Square reps, we all know who I’m backing (it seems less likely for him now that Nintendo chose the DLC picks, but if they paid any kind of attention to the ballot – or anything fan-related in regards to Smash – I think there’s still some hope for Geno).
Yeah, I think Assist Trophies pretty much guarantee a character isn’t making the playable roster…unless of course they decide to change that. But there’s no reason to assume something like that unless it happens. Thankfully, it seems the spirits don’t reconfirm characters, since I hear K. Rool has a spirit. At the very least, I was relieved the Geno icon was revealed to just be a player icon. Oh my God! Nintendo remembers he exists!
The thing is, I don’t outright have a problem with Pokemon or Fire Emblem getting a lot of reps. It’s just that there’s still a small handful of characters fans have been begging for for years that keep getting shunned, while Pokemon and FE are pretty much granted new characters by default. I know I keep saying it, but there’s really no reason for Dixie Kong to not be in this series by this point. It’s an outright glaring omission.
I also wouldn’t argue with another Kirby character. Even though the three reps it has are basically the only series mainstays, I kind of feel Kirby gets the short end of the stick in regards to Nintendo franchises. I get why Mario, Zelda, DK, Metroid and Pokemon are like the “big 5,” but I don’t see why Kirby shouldn’t be seen on a similar pedestal. It may not have an Ocarina of Time or Super Mario World to its name, but its been around long enough and proven itself enough times to be considered one of the bigger Nintendo series in my book. Lol I know it wouldn’t happen, but I would love Nightmare (from Kirby) as a fighter. Gotta love a butt-chinned, cosmic vampire thing!
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Whoops, I realized my inconsistency saying newer faces like Magolor are unlikely while Bandana Dee is despite being post Sakurai Kirby as well, lets jut say I consider the latter likely due to having at least minor roles in post RtDL games and being playable in Star Allies before Magolor and co were, besides being more popular last time I checked online polls.
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I’ll respond to your longer comment later (long day), but I will say I don’t think that’s not an inconsistency you made. Although the “Bandana Waddle Dee” first appeared in 2011, he is essentially still a Waddle Dee, which have been in the series since the beginning. So really, the ‘bandana’ character is still part of that.
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I’ve played Super Mario RPG, but not quite to Geno. So I’m neutral to Geno making it in.
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