Smashing at Sonic Speed

KEN MASTERS, RYU’S ECHO FIGHTER

Ken has practically been confirmed since September with the birth of the box theory. Regardless on what the fate was of many of the rumors/leaks it just looked like Ken was really the only true lock for the game. He looks neat, I won’t use him more then Ryu personally if I had to choose between the two to play as, But I get why he’s here, he’s pretty much the original echo fighter when it comes to fighting games. Sakurai even points this out later. Perfectly ok with Ken’s inclusion, but it is admittedly hard to get excited over someone you’ve practically known was already in the game since September. He does seem to at least to be the most different out of all the Echo fighters.

INCINEROAR, OUR FINAL BASE GAME UNIQUE CHARACTER

The other character nearly as expected as Ken though not quite as long. And not exactly as hinted since in terms of the unique fighter on the Box theory there’s no pattern hinting at who it could be. It could technically have been anyone. The character also got people to doubt it’s appearance after the “Grinch leak”, some people even saying Incineroar may have been Leaker bait sent by Nintendo. But nope, Incineroar was the real deal. And he looks fun! A pro wrestler type character I feel will endear him to fans who aren’t as into Pokemon anymore but can enjoy his personality in Smash. It’s also awesome to finally have a feline character in Smash.

BOX THEORY WAS CORRECT, GRINCH LEAK FOOLED A LOT OF PEOPLE

With Ken and Incineroar in we do need to mention how that it is confirmed in fact that Box theory was correct. The pattern was suspiciously there for Ken, and the Gen 7 Pokemon had not been known yet and while the Grinch leak may have put some doubt. It’s hard to see why the Pokemon Company would miss the chance to add a character. But yes, let’s just say everyone who had their hopes high after believing the Grinch leak just got their hopes crushed when the stuff being speculated about the box theory from September to early October came true. Heck, even though I was one who lowered expectations because of the Box theory, I admit at the very least the Grinch Leak fooled me in believing that some of the characters would become playable. I never believed the leak fully since my brain felt it was illogical for 7 characters to be announced with nearly only a month to go. But stuff like insider talk and that mysterious plant item shown at Wendy’s Tailgate had me thinking that at least say… Isaac made it or something. Props on a well done fake by the leaker, it’s not easy to make a leak that would cause the debates of the century in Smash discussions happen. Of course I do got to stop short of thanking the leaker because if it weren’t for the Grinch leak there were actually people who were bringing their expectations low and might of not taken this direct as bad as a result. There would of still been a meltdown sure, but the meltdown would of simmered over weeks of box discussion. it was only made worse with the Grinch leak.

SPIRITS

Spirits is kind of interesting. It’s kind of another sort of event mode kind of thing with images of characters that you’re able to level up like in gacha games (Just without needing to pay money like the ones on Mobile phones)

ONLINE MODE

I often only use online to play with friends. But some of the changes to Online are neat. Preferred rules letting you more likely find someone who likes the same sort of competition you do. But might not exactly be perfect. Feels like the friend lobbies will be most preferable for many.

ASSIST TROPHIES

And here comes the final painful deconfirmations. Even the first one came to a shock to many since it happened to be Shadow the Hedgehog. Who of course was seen ever since Richter’s inclusion as a lock as a new echo fighter. And then there was Isaac, who looked like he was doing so well in the Ballot back in the polling days since he was missing completely from Smash 4. But he’s back… once again as an Assist Trophy. Spring Man who was thought to be certain for DLC is just an assist as well. (Rex might have been deconfirmed as well with that Mii costume during the DLC section)

But it wasn’t all sad deconfirmations. There was also fun new additions that probably are just happy to be there. You have a Fatal Frame protagonist, the Black Knight from Fire Emblem (Can’t wait to get screenshots of him and Sonic just for the Sonic and the Black Knight jokes), a Thwomp, Dr. Wily, Guile, and Akira. All awesome additions to the assist trophy line-up.

DLC CONFIRMED

As expected, DLC will be happening. The question is if this Fighter pass will be the only season of it or not. Also interesting to note that each fighter+stage pack is the same price as Ryu, Cloud, and Bayonetta. Possibly meaning that all DLC characters in the pass will be 3rd parties. Might not be the case completely but until we get a Nintendo owned character from the pass itself I’ll speculate that.

Though uh… I gotta talk about the one Nintendo character they’re offering as a free bonus until the end of January…

PIRANHA PLANT IS THE FIRST DLC CHARACTER

This was basically the point the Smash Speculator has either been broken or completely left my brain. Because under no circumstances of any speculation question about characters getting into Smash does the Plant meet any standards. For the first time ever, this truly is a joke/WTF character given to us by Sakurai. Even the earlier characters that were seen as joke or WTF characters had reasons to say they deserved to be there. But this plant isn’t even the most iconic enemy. It’s very much like Sakurai chose a character that goes against all preconceptions of Smash inclusion. I can’t even be mad, I’m too broken to be mad. I was just confused and laughing when it happened. I just hope the rest of the DLC doesn’t fall-in-line with this. That this is just the one troll move Sakurai pulls on us and doesn’t try again.

One things for sure though, I will never complain about Dark Pit again after this.

WORLD OF LIGHT

And while it’s certainly not quite as robust as we’ve been told it’s mainly an overworld and more fights. But we have our closest thing to Subspace in a long while. That intro cutscene we got might very well end up being the only real cutscene (Though I wouldn’t put it past there at least being a final cutscene at the end after beating the final boss) but was still great to see. And man it was like they Thanos snapped nearly the entire Smash roster except for Kirby. Perhaps my favorite part is Sonic slowed down to try to save Pikachu before both were blasted. My current main since Brawl, and my former #1 Main in 64 and Melee are a canon Smash friendship! ^^

But anyway, yeah it looks plenty interesting. I wonder if this will be the “streamlined” way of unlocking characters that Sakurai mentioned? Which speaking of which I was kind of surprised that wasn’t really mentioned in terms of unlocking characters which is weird since you’d think that is important in a game where you start with only the original 8 and work your way to unlock the rest. There are still kind of some unanswered questions despite this being the final direct. But I guess that will have to be saved for news publishers to talk about as we get closer to release and the NDAs start disappearing. And then of course the launch of the game itself

FINAL THOUGHTS

Those 4 characters are:

Isaac

Mach Rider

Chorus Kids

Banjo-Kazooie

First take a look at this box

The characters seem to be in a strange order. For some reason Corrin is next to the Mii Fighters. Sheik is on this side and not next to Zelda. Some strange placement it looks like at first glance. But there is an actual design choice being in mind. The characters are put into groups of 9. To show this here’s what those groups of 9 are

LEFT SIDE (Not shown in the image)

| 1 2 3 4 4e 5

6 7 8 |

|17 18 19

20 21 21e 22 23 24 |

| 32 33-35 36 37 38 39

40 41 42 |

|54 55 56

57 58 59 60 60e? 61 |

RIGHT SIDE (The one actually showing in the image)

9 10 11 12 13 13e

14 15 16 |

|25 25e 26

27 28 28e 29 30 31|

|43 44 45 46 47 48

49 50 51-53 |

|62 63 64

65 66 66e 67 68 69? |

Basically each row either starts with 6 or 3 and followed by 3 or 6 in the row below. And it goes like that for nearly all the groups. The image was of course released prior to Isabelle’s reveal. So eventually she’ll be on the box too. But accounting for all these groups of 9 there’s one spot on each side that would be missing. So allow me to tell you straight on what the Box theory implies is left. With 36 characters on each side there’s only 2 spots left out of 72 (Mii Fighters and Pokemon Trainer are merged)

1. There’s only one echo to go. Any additional characters on the left side of the box can only be an echo because none of the Ultimate newcomers are on that side of the box except for echoes. And it’s highly expected to be Ken from Street Fighter. And even if somehow it’s not Ken. It can only be from the group of 54-61 (AKA Palutena to Cloud). Though there’s more evidence for Ken aside from this. In that Vergeben, perhaps the only somewhat legit leaker we have for this game has said and even doubled down on Ken in this game. He’s gotten Ridley, Snake, Simon, and now Isabelle all right. So there hasn’t been much reason to doubt him so far other then maybe he hasn’t told us of the echoes aside from Ken or K. Rool. BTW it is Ken who is the banned character in my contest. No one picked him beforehand anyway but just wanted to state if someone sends Ken as their choice they will be told it’s invalid because it’s too easy of a guess. When most people signed up there wasn’t a sure thing for anybody getting it right. If circumstances change I’ll keep you guys posted. But for now, Ken is ineligible.

2. The last unique newcomer is heavily rumored to be a Gen 7 Pokemon and most in particular Incineroar. Rounding out our base game non-echo list to 69 (Inb4 the internet jokes). While you could argue they could just put whatever is left after Incineroar on the bottom or even the back of the box. The groups of 9 still seems like such a purposefully made design choice with all the symmetry of 36 characters on each side. The only way if this theory is correct there can still be more echoes or newcomers without having to move some characters elsewhere on the box is if there is 2 Smash directs coming. One in October where all the Smash reveals up to then will be on the Special edition box that comes out November 2nd and then another in November where more reveals are done as a final surprise and newcomers are left out purposefully because of it.

(On a side note, I know someone picked Incineroar on my contest. But their choice is not invalid because they picked Incineroar long before all this. And they don’t officially win until Incineroar is actually officially announced. But for now if they’ve been paying attention. They may very well know they will be a winner if this is all true)

I’ll also cover some of the common arguments against it. (I may be slightly making this similar to PushDustIn’s thread about it on Twitter but thought I’d put it in my own words anyway)

“It’s a placeholder/edited”

Why leave the characters like that then? They could of left it all blank and kept the characters off until after we knew everybody prior to the release of the box. It’s quite suspicious to leave those last two blank and not think they’re room for newcomers and combined with the order design choice you could put two and two together and figure out what would be missing in this case

“This would *insert highly expected character of your choice* that totally was a lock for the game isn’t in!”

Never, ever, ever, EVER consider any character a lock. We should have learned this lesson after Wolf in Smash 4

“Why would Nintendo marketing mess this up?”

Nintendo isn’t perfect, they’ve made mistakes before even in Marketing. And it isn’t even the only case where a game box leaked that only a certain amount of characters were playable with Fire Emblem Warriors the base game was restricted to just the ones who got sprites on a certain case. Not to mention a Smash 4 3DS character showed an offscreen Ganondorf prior to his official reveal.

“Didn’t Vergeben mention a 2nd Square Enix character?”

He has sometimes not been too sure about and he is now currently investigating it. It could mean that whomever is the 2nd Square Enix character, it may be our first DLC fighter ala Mewtwo in Smash 4 (Which I’d say is probably Geno)

“Only 2 characters left is such a lackluster ending!”

Reminder we got Olimar and Shulk as our final newcomer reveals before release in Brawl and Smash 4. They aren’t heavy hitters like some of the reveals before them, that’s for certain (I don’t hate Olimar or Shulk BTW. But comparing Olimar to Sonic, or Shulk to Pac-Man or Mega Man it’s just no comparison)

“Why are you defending this?! Don’t you want more then two characters?”

Yes I’d love more then two more. The more the merrier. But as it stands, nothing is wrong with lowering expectations. Again, if I’m wrong in believing the theory I’ll be as ecstatic as some of the doubters will be. But if it’s the truth, then I will have made my peace weeks prior to the confirmation of it all. Thus I won’t be upset either way.

MARIO

As it stands Mario has 8 characters. Albeit only 6 are all that unique from each other. As Dr. Mario is still another Mario even if he’s not really classified as an Echo, and Daisy is there as a Peach echo. With the unfortunate likely deconfirmation of Captain Toad due to a cameo on New Donk City. I think it’s likely there is no Mario newcomer barring a certain special case. That special case being Geno, but I’m not sure he’ll even be classified amongst the Mario characters if he is in. And while the potential excitement is there, the biggest thing in Geno’s way might be Square’s stinginess. We STILL only have two songs from Final Fantasy in Smash Ultimate. And even if there is another Square Enix character, they may prefer someone they can actually promote rather then Geno who just simply does not have a future outside of Smash.

DONKEY KONG

Donkey Kong fans finally got their big fish this month with K. Rool’s inclusion. So even if we’re done with Donkey Kong for the base game I think they’d make do though some would certainly like Dixie Kong to find her way in. Though with Echo Fighters there’s now some debate on whether Dixie if she’s playable will be a Diddy echo or semi-cloned off enough to count as her own thing. The concern about her being an echo is she may lose her signature tail flight ability. Though Chrom’s inclusion has shown Echoes can have more differences then we thought so maybe? Otherwise though DK fans already had their big day thanks to K. Rool. So it should be fine however it goes.

ZELDA

Zelda’s place hasn’t changed much from E3 still being mainly different versions of the Triforce 3. Though there’s been some rumors and possibly hints in that last direct that Skull Kid would be coming. I do remember Skull Kid being one of those hugely supported character in the Brawl days. If him and Geno are playable in this game, it’d be like everybody on Smashboards back in the Brawl Speculation days finally got their wish. Just slightly more then a decade later and two games later. I wouldn’t mind Skull Kid if it finally breaks the curse of the Triforce 3 for this franchise. Other then Skull Kid there is the possibility of Skyward Sword or Ocarina of Time Impa being a Sheik Echo. But just don’t know how likely that actually is. The echoes thus far are still fairly popular characters and I’m not so sure Impa is quite in that league.

METROID

I think Metroid Fans are already more then satisfied with what they have now. Not only did they finally get Ridley, they even got a pretty cool looking Dark Samus as an echo. I think the only thing Metroid fans may potentially want later is possibly Sylux as DLC if he indeed gets a big role in the upcoming Metroid Prime 4. But otherwise Metroid is perfect as is. Certainly a breath of fresh air for the fans here.

YOSHI

I doubt Yoshi gets anything new. Kamek is once again a background changer on one of the Mario stages, Poochy is unlikely. Though I guess maybe Baby Mario & Luigi could be Ice Climbers echoes if they bring along Partners In Time hammers. But I don’t think cross-series echoes are happening.

KIRBY

I’m still of the stance that Kirby is fine as is with the 3 it’s had with Brawl but then again I’m not that big of a Kirby fan. If there’s a fourth character it’s most certainly Bandana Dee. I don’t think anybody else has a shot.

STAR FOX

No real change from E3. Still have Wolf back and Krystal as an AT. Only potential newcomers would be like… Slippy or Peppy. Though I don’t think there’s a need to complete the original Star Fox crew

POKEMON

Counting Pokemon Trainer as 3 characters, Pokemon already has the most of any franchise with 9. And there’s still a strong possibility of a Gen 7 Pokemon still coming to make that 10. Though there’s a rumor of Gardevoir possibly being the next one in (And strangely enough Gothitelle as an Echo of Gardevoir). I don’t think it’s real but I do admit I think it’s possible Gardevoir is a popular enough Pokemon to do well with the ballot. If Gamefreak actually decides against included a Gen 7 Pokemon and instead include a character with both longstanding popularity and marketing power, Gardevoir is certainly one of those that would work.

EARTHBOUND

Only thing I can think of for Earthbound is the possibility of Ninten as an Echo of Ness. But I’m not sure that’s a popular enough choice to pursue doing it. But having all 3 protagonists would be kind of neat.

F-ZERO

Don’t think we’ll ever expand beyond clones of Captain Falcon in the F-Zero roster. Though the one character that would make too much sense as an Echo is already deconfirmed as just an alt with Captain Falcon’s red colored skin. Some have suggested Black Shadow being an echo though I believe he’s a bit bigger then Captain Falcon would funnily enough probably make more sense as a Ganondorf echo and remove the sword just to go full-circle. But again, I don’t feel cross-series echoes are likely.

RETRO FRANCHISES

I’m actually not sure we’ll get any retro character this time. This game’s roster seems focused on the fans and Sakurai making another random pick actually kind of feels like it won’t happen this time unless there was a retro (That isn’t part of another character’s franchise I mean, so stuff like Geno doesn’t count) that did really well in the ballot. Could be wrong, but who knows.

FIRE EMBLEM

To the disdain of many who already dislike it’s rep numbers after Smash 4 they added yet another swordsman to Fire Emblem with Chrom. Though being an echo fighter and a character many felt bad for kinda softened the blow. But I think that’s all Fire Emblem is getting character wise for the Base game. They may get a Three Houses rep in DLC to make it 8 so you can have that 8-player Fire Emblem match that I’m sure EVERYBODY would like to see be possible :P

KID ICARUS

Most I hear that might be possible is Medusa getting in as a Palutena Echo. Sounds plausible just don’t know if Medusa is really much requested, if anything Hades’s personality probably immediately made him more popular among Kid Icarus villains. Just doubt he gets in either. Otherwise I think Kid Icarus is fine as is. I do kinda want Palutena’s guidances to return if only to see Chrom get a little revenge on Viridi.

WARIO

The only potential 2nd Wario rep was unceremoniously deconfirmed with Ashley, So Wario’s probably not getting anywhere else. Though Jimmy T or 9-Volt would be fun.

METAL GEAR

Besides maybe a Big Boss echo for Snake. Don’t think Metal Gear is getting much else. I do hope codecs return somehow but not sure if they will. If I could only choose between codecs and the guidances, I’d choose codecs because I think they were overall better done for the majority of the characters. There’s just however a lot more then 35 characters to cover this time though.

SONIC

As much as I kind of hate to admit it, Shadow’s probably the most likely next Sonic rep due to Echo Fighters. I could definitely grow to accept Shadow being an echo, but I admit if it happens I won’t be among the Sonic fans too happy about it despite Sonic Adventure 2 being my favorite game in the series. I’d just vastly prefer Tails in one way or another. Though even if Shadow is an echo, what with this game’s humongous growth in 3rd party content. I may have some hope Tails can still be DLC. I also think there’s potential room for Tails being the echo instead but probably not quite as easy to do as with Shadow due to different shape. For now though with Shadow still not yet announced as a returning Assist and the inclusion of Richter it’s looking Shadow’s likely. I don’t think he’s quite a guarantee yet, but we’ll see what happens.

PIKMIN

Alph is once again simply an Alt of Olimar. Though I suppose Louie from Pikmin 2 could be an actual echo or even another alt potentially. Don’t think Pikmin is in a position to gain an echo though

ANIMAL CROSSING

Animal Crossing is basically fixated on one character: Isabelle. Much like Dixie Kong there’s a debate on if she’s in will she be an echo or more unique? I’m leaning towards an echo of Villager. But it’ll be interesting for sure. Though I still could see Isabelle returning as an assist as well.

MEGA MAN

The most obvious potential echoes for Mega Man kind of already got their chances dashed when they showed up in his Final Smash. Proto Man and Bass would of worked pretty fine. The only potential one left is probably Roll but I doubt she’s up there as a popular choice for an echo.

WII FRANCHISES (Miis and Wii Fit)

Don’t think we’re getting another Mii type and of course Wii Fit probably isn’t getting anything else. But it’ll still be interesting to see how custom moves are done for them since it seems pretty certain it’s at least back for them.

PUNCH-OUT!!

The only potential Little Mac echo I could see happening is a potential cross-series rep with the Urban Champion but kind of doubt that heavily. I guess you could also maybe have King Hippo as a King K. Rool echo. But I’m not sure he has something like the blunderbuss to make it work. Though they could change the move I guess.

PAC-MAN

Maybe Ms. Pac-Man gets in as an alt or even an Echo (There is a sprite cameo in the Pac-Land stage). But otherwise nothing else really here. Though I still wish Pac-Maze could come back as a stage.

XENOBLADE

The focus on popularly requested fighters actually has kinda left me a little unsure on Elma at the moment. She could still be in, but she probably isn’t much of a ballot pick. She’s still more likely then Rex as a base game inclusion. But if she’s not in the base game, It may be Rex & Pyra all we’re getting other then Shulk after all.

STREET FIGHTER

There’s rumors of a Ken echo coming. Would kinda make sense given they did include his theme along with Ryu even back in Smash 4. And heck Ken’s basically the original echo fighter. So it’d be a bit of a historical inclusion

FINAL FANTASY

Well uh… with no more content then it got in Smash 4 I kind of doubt it gets much more. The site even specifically has the FF7 logo so if there are more characters they may have to only come from FF7. So the only potential FF character could be Zack Fair. Though Tifa and Sephiroth could be possible unique reps if they go that far. But I doubt it.

BAYONETTA

Bayonetta still has her Jeanne alt. Kind of significant because they’ve removed alt colors suspiciously of possible inclusions for Ike and Samus for Chrom and Dark Samus and lo and behold they were echoes. So kind of obvious now that probably to the relief of the competitive community there won’t be 2 Bayonettas in the roster

SPLATOON

The Octolings might be a good potential echo for the Inklings. Maybe they even announce them in “Octo”ber! Haha! Don’t know if it’ll be too late to do it or not but it’s certainly a possibility

CASTLEVANIA

SIMON & RICHTER BELMONT

Simon was technically leaked twice. He was among a seemingly credible leak that mentioned Ridley, Snake, Ice Climbers, and no cuts. And then Simon apparently was accidentally leaked through some goof up by Nintendo. (Though I dodged it since I know it was only one night before the reveal so I still didn’t know for sure if Simon was in until the reveal). But either way this ia amazing, Castlevania is certainly a worthy inclusion in Smash on the likes of all the other NES franchises represented. But what wasn’t leaked was Richter as an echo. Richter was the protagonist of Rondo of Blood. Which wasn’t exactly on a Nintendo console unless you count Dracula X in the 90s. Richter was also in Symphony of the Night which has never been on a Nintendo console. But he’s famous even in the meme-wise cause he’s the one who’s there for when Dracula yells “WHAT IS A MAN?!” in the hammy voice acting that was normal for this era of gaming. He was also an unlockable character on a DS game but otherwise Richter isn’t too Nintendo famous. But he is the most popular Belmont in Japan. They just needed to still feature the most iconic Belmont as the main inclusion still. I’m fine with Richter though. Though when I play as either of them, I’m playing Simon more for sure.

P.S. The trailer was great, not just for the super cool footage of Simon. But it was hilarious seeing Luigi running scared. Luigi getting killed by Death has quickly even become the latest Smash Bros. meme

DRACULA’S CASTLE STAGE & BOSS

The stage itself looks fittingly creepy and will have some pretty amazing music I imagine too. And Dracula being a boss is great as well. I kinda wish they’d have him yell “WHAT IS A MAN?!” when he came in. But I imagine that would be a bit much and ruin the moment. But it’d be hilarious to me.

NEW ECHO FIGHTERS: CHROM AND DARK SAMUS

When Chrom showed up I actually smiled. Now I’m no Fire Emblem fan. And yes it’s another sword user, and a fourth Marth-like character. But given how humiliated Chrom was in Smash 4. Not just in the Robin/Lucina trailer but the memes it caused in the Smash fandom that made a once proud and potential newcomer into a butt monkey on nearly the same level as Ridley with the TOO BIG memes. Even for characters I don’t necessarily want to see I would not want that fate to happen to their fans. It’s just brutal. Though at the very least Chrom seems to borrow a few moves from Ike as well. I even thought at first he was an echo of Ike before I checked later that it was actually for Roy. So I’m pretty happy Chrom actually got to have his chance. I am also certainly using Chrom more then I ever will for Roy.

It’s no doubt though that Dark Samus stole the show for echoes. She’s already my favorite echo so far and she has some slick-looking animations that may make her more worth playing then regular power-suit Samus. Metroid fans can be happy that they’ve doubled up the reps. And both of them are well-deserved additions.

ECHOES CAN EITHER BE STACKED OR SEPARATED ON THE CSS

This also may lessen the disgust that people had with Dark Pit’s inclusion back in Smash 4. Just put the echoes in the corner of the character they’re echoing. I’m certainly going to keep them stacked myself. I think the CSS will also look cleaner that way

ALL CHARACTERS WILL BE REVEALED BEFORE LAUNCH

In other words, Sakurai has had it with those final roster leaks only weeks/days before release. Base Game speculation’s days are numbered until the final Smash Direct before release (Which would be likely in October or November). DLC speculation will immediately start after it. But we’re going to have our explosion of reactions to the final base roster done soon enough. Going to be some tense times until then

RETURNING STAGES

There’s so many returning stages! I’ll just say that Brinstar Depths, Magicant, and Fountain of Dreams are particularly ones I’m excited are back. Yoshi 64, Venom, Fourside, New Pork City, and Windy Hill are also nice to see.

CAPTAIN TOAD ON NEW DONK CITY

Welp, Captain Toad is looking very unlikely now. He could be DLC potentially since he isn’t a major stage hazard nor an Assist Trophy. But with a focus on longtime fan favorites and bringing every veteran back. Captain Toad just fell to the way side. It’s a shame, if the newcomers have been chosen in the same fashion Smash 4’s was. I think Captain Toad would of been a near certainty. This also unfortunately means that the last chance for a playable Toad has left us. Smash can’t include everyone, even with some characters like Ridley finally getting their chance, there are still some characters that would certainly count for Nintendo All-Stars that just couldn’t quite make it. This is probably one of the few disappointments I had with the direct. But I’ve dealt without a playable Toad for 4 games already, I can deal with another.

103 STAGES

Man that’s a lot of stages. Not to mention we won’t have to unlock any, they’ll be there from the start. Though Sakurai mentioning this does have me suspicious that this means there’s no more base game stages to add unless they are really trying to hide any newcomers that may come with stages. But it seems odd to point this out exactly if there were even just a few more stages in reality

STAGE HAZARD SWITCH

If you’re a competitive player or even just dislike stages where you’re fighting the stage more then your opponent then you absolutely should love this option. More viable stages and everything

STAGE MORPH

Now this is cool. And could definitely add to the Chaos of a match especially if you randomize both stages. Imagine you get a nice stage that would be competitively legal but then BAM you get something like Great Cave Offensive or Big Blue as the stage morph stage. Plenty of opportunity for hilarity there. Should be fun.

800+ TRACKS + 20 SONIC SONGS + STILL ONLY 2 FINAL FANTASY SONGS

Man this game’s soundtrack is going to be crazy! I am interested in what they have new for Sonic. There’s apparently only 20. If every Sonic song returned that was in either of the last two games. There’d be room for only 2. But if none of the Brawl ones return that leaves room for 6. And that’s not counting the possibility they cut some songs. Though perhaps another bummer from this is apparently Final Fantasy is still only getting 2 songs. So now we know it wasn’t just DLC budget getting in the way. Square is still being stingy.

STAMINA NOW A STANDARD MODE THAT CAN HAVE STOCKS

I’ve always kind of liked Stamina mode as something to be a change of pace of the regular gameplay. So it having it able to have stocks is quite cool

FINAL SMASH METER

Now this is really cool and may even open the possibility of some tournaments allowing Final Smashes in tourneys. I doubt it will be in really serious tournaments anyway, but could certainly allow for some hype in tourneys that do allow it.

SQUAD STRIKE

It’s a little vague at the moment. But Squad Strike might be the closest to something like the match in Smash Tour with a different character per stock? Though it could also just be a 1v1 match for each character. Also opens up for battles between teams.

OFFLINE TOURNEY RETURNS

You can have offline tournaments again like in Brawl and Melee! I sometimes just did CPU only tournaments with those which was kinda fun to watch. Just overall neat to have that back

SMASHDOWN

A cool option to have people not just use the same main they’re great with and also encourages people to diversify the characters they use.

TRAINING MODE UPGRADES

Training now has essentially a ruler to know your character’s launching power! Very cool and Competitive players will love it since it’s much easier to measure things.

CLASSIC MODE BACK TO MORE STANDARD

This is definitely a return to form for Classic mode. It’s kinda like SSB64’s but it’s a different set for each character that’s predetermined. No matter how many times you go through with one particular character it will be the same. While that may arguably sound like a step backward from the complete randomness of Melee’s classic mode. I actually love this a lot, the team can choose a particular set of opponents that make sense for that character to fight. Or even if it makes absolutely no sense, then it’s up to the fanbase to think of a reason for why they fight. Also what seems to be a thing is each character has a name for their run. Kirby had Gourmet Clash and Roy had A Journey of Swords. Bringing the same kind of intrigue that the Punch-Out Stage titles bring. I am excited to go through with every character like I always do.

NEW POKEMON

Alolan Exeggutor is hilarious, Abra will certainly provide some salt on some people, Mimikyu was a character often seen as possible to be the Gen 7 rep so might of been the first major reconfirmation not counting the Captain Toad one found later. Vulpix is a cute addition to the pokeball lineup. And Ditto is amazing. I almost kinda want the enemy team of this game to now be Ditto fighters.

NEW ASSISTS

Only 2 possibly major reconfirmations in the form of Zero and Shovel Knight. Zero was often seen as a possible 2nd Mega Man rep and Shovel Knight was considered the most likely if an Indie were to ever make it. It’s a miracle Shovel Knight even got this far though. Yacht Club games should be proud. Other then those though, Klaptrap looks annoying to deal with, Kapp’n seems funny just for the characters in the bus’ faces, Chef Kawasaki is the return of Kirby’s old Brawl final smash repurposed, Nikki’s a cute character to include, and the Majora’s Mask Moon is amazing as an assist trophy idea. It doesn’t even discriminate, even KOing the one it summoned. There was also the Rathalos assist trophy that turns out to also be a boss

ASHLEY DECONFIRMED

At the tail end of the Assist Trophy section was the sudden appearance of Ashley and not even with the name tag. Though they made her eyes red again. Ashley was considered one of the possible likely newcomers revealed this direct mainly because last week WarioWare Gold released. So it would be great timing.But it wasn’t to be. Sorry Ashley fans

MAIN MENU AND A MYSTERIOUS SPIRITS MODE

The menu looks more refined then Smash 4’s though I didn’t mind the Smash 4 menu as much as most people did. However most of the buzz is of course around the mode Sakurai had blurred out. Through some deblurring people found the mode will be called “Spirits” but that’s still too vague to know what it’ll be exactly. Based on any hints though from the bosses, it seems it will be some kind of Adventure mode. My guess is something in between Melee’s Adventure Mode and Subspace. Not as extensive as Subspace but more content then Melee’s adventure mode for sure. Perhaps you find the spirits of the characters to unlock them. But anything else is definitely all speculation at this point. It’ll be interesting to find out what this mode will be all about when we get to it.

KING K. ROOL

You know they just had to leave us with one more thing. And it certainly was a big one. K. Rool was only 2nd to Ridley in being one of the most wanted characters in Smash. And was often seen on the top of the list on the ballot. Also gotta say the trailer is amazing to show all those heroes and the villain and then it cutting to Donkey Kong, cause that’s when exactly you know who’s coming. The Dedede fakeout was also hilarious, though I doubt it really fooled anyone. K. Rool was in Smash and Donkey Kong finally gets a much needed increase of representation. Perhaps we’ll see Dixie soon come up as a Diddy echo. But until then K. Rool is what Donkey Kong fans as well as a good majority of Smash fans wanted. And he’s here cementing this Smash as certainly even more fan service focused then previous games.

EVERYONE IS HERE

Holy crap is that amazing. Arguably more hype then any one newcomer would be. Everyone no matter who they are if they had anybody they were worried about or thought would never return when they were cut from a previous game got a huge sigh of relief and/or jumped in celebration. That really is a bombshell to start off with cause you appease so many this way. I don’t quite think this is going to be sustainable for the next Smash game down the line. But nonetheless this is great. And I do really think there is a huge reason for why they did this… And that is…

THE TITLE - SUPER SMASH BROS. ULTIMATE

It’s practically in the name, the Ultimate Smash Bros. Next year by the way is the 20th anniversary of the franchise. And what better way to celebrate that milestone then bringing everybody back no matter who they were playable. Normally people would be kinda upset they brought back understandable cuts such as Pichu and Young Link. But if the goal was to celebrate everyone along with the franchise, why not give what fans they have a bone at least one last time. Plus we do have to remember many of the newcomers on Smash 4 never reached quite as much of an audience due to the Wii U not doing so hot, so the newcomers from Smash 4 will feel like newcomers to many. Sure there was the 3DS version but that’s not quite the experience known for Smash when you have a full fledged game you can play on a TV with controller options and everything. So while there may not be much new for those who got Smash 4 on Wii U we should keep in mind this game will so much better on the Switch and there will certainly be more exposure to every one of the new characters which is always good. So despite obviously this meaning not a lot of base game newcomers as Sakurai warns us later about, this is really good. Just keep in mind that not everybody fully experienced all of the newcomers in Smash 4 and as well the amazingness that every single veteran ever is back for the 20th anniversary. It’s all good

STARTING ROSTER IS THE ORIGINAL 8

While more competitive people will not exactly be too happy about this as they may prefer all if not most of the characters ready for them at the start. This is something I’ve kinda always wanted to see. Have the roster start off with the original 8, but then really expand to large size so you really feel like you’ve collected them all. Just great incentive to play, and a big nod to the franchise’s history

8-PLAYER SMASH IS BACK

This is great as well! Going to be interesting to see 16 Ice Climber matches for sure.

VETERAN CHANGES/SPECIFIC RETURN NOTES

Mario - Awesome to see Cappy at least somewhat there for Mario

Link - Remote bombs will certainly be handy in Link’s arsenal. Looks like they moved Zelda’s final Smash to Link’s oddly enough.

Pikachu - Cute to have female Pikachu alts!

Fox and Falco - Nice to see the arwings be the final smash instead, the landmaster was always kind of bulky to control

Marth - Also good to see Marth finally get an english voice for himself

Snake - I am so pleasantly surprised to see Snake back. I do wonder if the codecs will return. David Hayter actually confirmed he was back. So maybe? We’ll have to see

King Dedede - His new Final Smash is sweeeeeet.

Pokemon Trainer - Holy crap did I not expect him to come back in full! I thought they were going to just keep Charizard for good. But this was a pleasant surprise. Pokemon Trainer represents the Pokemon series better then any other character in Smash. And his one big weakness that made others hesitant about using them (The stamina mechanic) is gone so you’re free to choose your favorite if you really want to.

Ganondorf - He’s back in his classic OOT form! And he also uses his sword at least for Smash attacks. Very cool!

Mii Fighters - I am actually soooooo thankful they didn’t take out the Miis. While it’s still a mystery what’s going on with customs exactly. Glad to have the Miis back either way, they really do help in having people have close enough stuff. Also sounds like they’re trying to prepare them for online play, which is good.

DAISY IS AN ECHO FIGHTER

…Well I do gotta admit I got to eat a little crow here. But I think I can grow to tolerate it. I actually don’t hate Daisy personally. I’ve just had run ins with a certain infamous Daisy fan that has soured me nearly completely. The funny thing is for that person, they got a bit of a monkey’s paw moment. They get their dream character, but they have always vehemently disagreed with the notion she’d just be a Peach clone. And lo and behold, she’s a Peach clone. So while the person I mentioned got what they wanted, it wasn’t completely what they wanted so in a way nobody really won except for the many normal Daisy fans that are fine with Daisy being based off of Peach. Still, I gotta admit I’m probably going to give Daisy the same treatment I gave Dark Pit, Dr. Mario, and Roy. Play as them to get their trophies and whatever else requires them to unlock stuff I want, but barely touch them ever again afterward.

INKLINGS

The Inklings seem very cool, I don’t think they’re a character I plan on maining but I definitely want to give them a shot to learn how they play a bit for sure.

ASSIST TROPHIES

RIP to all the characters revealed as Assist Trophies. Including Waluigi who will no doubt cause even more salt in regards to Daisy in the Mario fanbase. I’m admittedly a little disheartened about it too, but ah well. Just remember that Daisy is extra and the effort they put into Daisy wouldn’t of gone much into Waluigi. It just looks like Waluigi’s uniqueness actually was detrimental to which came first. And then of course there was Bomberman. My assessment earlier on Bomberman being the most likely Konami character got totally blown up (No pun intended) but he is a pretty cool assist trophy I have to admit (Speaking of stuff I got wrong, I’m making a post on updates in regards to my character thoughts later on that will include everything I was wrong as well as maybe a few things where I may have even called some of it)

FAKE SMASH BALL

The fake Smash Ball is kinda funny, kinda like the fake item box that was in some Mario Kart games

STAGES

The Stage list is looking to be huge as well. From how many we know so far, it may very well be possible just about every stage in the past will be back as well! Also neat to see Battlefield forms of stages along with FD ones. Invitational players have mentioned that there is also a stage hazard toggle. Very cool, a lot more variety in the stages in both casual and competitive play will be there.

RIDLEY

And at last perhaps the most wanted 1st party character since Brawl speculation is finally here! So happy for all of the Ridley fans who went through so much to get to this day. It really is great to see him here and I can’t wait to get the chance to play as him in Smash later on. Seriously, congrats to all the hard work many fans did in shouting out their support for Ridley. It took longer then it probably needed to, but it’s finally happened. We have an end to the Too Big memes at last.

Solid Snake

My Level of Want

Oh Snake, snake, snaaaaaaakkkkkkeeeeeee... It's a shame everything conspired against him to keep him out of Smash. Not only did Konami become one of the most stingiest companies in the gaming industry. But his creator Kojima was completely alienated. Meaning even if Sakurai contacted Konami about returning Snake he wouldn't have a friendly face meeting with him about it, and Konami may even outright just reject Sakurai's proposal. Snake really didn't deserve this fate, he's the one that opened up Smash to 3rd Parties in the first place. Without him, it's hard to see the 3rd Parties being as big as they are now. Maybe Sonic and Megaman would of still made that universe's Smash 4, but they might been the only 3rd parties and certainly not the whopping 6 3rd Parties we got in all of Smash 4. I'd love Snake to be back so that all these characters can honorably fight him while thanking them for the opportunity. But them's the breaks

Estimated Chance

Just not happening, unfortunately. Konami has become a detested company in the industry. And the Metal Gear series looks to be heading to a close with the lackluster reception for Metal Gear Survive. Even if Konami does get a character, it's no guarantee that it's Snake. They could very well give Bomberman instead. Which I'm not saying would be a bad thing necessarily, but nonetheless very disappointing to Metal Gear fans who loved Snake's surprising appearance in Smash and those who became Metal Gear fans because of Snake's appearance. Just know that I'll forever miss him too. Snake deserved much better then this fate.

Main Game or DLC

DLC. If by some miracle Snake did return, I feel DLC would be alot more likely. There's no way Nintendo negotiates anything from Konami before Smash Switch is out. A combination of both a veteran character that missed the previous game AND a 3rd party inclusion makes him prime DLC material. This would likely mean no Snake codecs though even if they bring back Shadow Moses along with him. No way they put that much effort into one DLC character. Though that could also be because there will be so many more characters then there were in Brawl anyway.

Simon Belmont

My Level of Want

I haven’t played much of the Castlevania series. But no doubt it’s one of the classic titles on the NES. Though more people are willing to admit that they want Simon purely for the hilarity that the entire cast of video game heroes from Captain N all made it into Smash together.

Estimated Chance

Again, Konami’s going to be hard to deal with. And Castlevania’s been relegated to pachinko more recently then any new games. The last new game on a Nintendo platform was 4-5 years ago. Alot has gone on at Konami since then and most of it not good.

Main Game or DLC?

I see Simon being a surprise DLC choice. Have to deal with Konami first and get him in at a later time

Rayman

My Level of Want

I would absolutely be cool with him getting in. It's still so weird that he got a trophy in Smash 4 but didn't get the chance to be playable. But perhaps it's time that's rectified.

Estimated Chance

I actually think Rayman's chances have at least slightly increased. I was dead wrong about Rayman being the most likely 3rd Party inclusion for DLC last time. But it's a strong possibility he was being saved for this game instead. Also Ubisoft and Nintendo seems to have really patched things up over the whole Wii U situation. Rayman Legends got the definitive version on Switch. And let's not forget the surprise hit that was Mario and Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. While the latter didn't really include Rayman. The rabbids were once Rayman franchise characters, so I still say it helps. As it's probably the game to determine Ubisoft's current relationship with Nintendo. I was wrong last time, but I'll continue to think he's probably the most likely 3rd Party newcomer as of right now.

Main Game or DLC?

Either/or. I could easily see Rayman being the first new 3rd Party we get in the game simply because Ubisoft turned around and been very into the Switch in contrast to when they stabbed the Wii U in the back once it proved it wasn’t doing as well as they hoped. Still, the fact that they did do that once could of led them to be cautious until they truly knew the Switch is a success. Thus, Rayman is saved for a little later

Crash Bandicoot

My Level of Want

Oh man, you have no idea how much I'd love it if it were to happen. I do really like the Crash franchise. Hell, I do have the N. Sane Trilogy on my PS4. And I'm considering getting it again on the Switch just because of the portability aspect. Also back when Playstation All-Stars was new, I said that the only way I was getting that game is if Crash made it in. And unfortunately he didn't, and to this day I still have not played Playstation All-Stars. So Crash was a pretty big deal for me. It would be super hilarious to see all the characters that Playstation looked over and know that Nintendo got to use them at least once like Snake, Ryu, and Cloud. And now Crash be added to all that. Mario, Sonic, and Crash have been on the same console before with the Gamecube, DS, and Wii games. But to have all three of them in one game will make all those who grew up and/or their childhood was in the late 90's squee in delight. I don't think it'd be on the level of what's already been achieved with Megaman and Pac-Man. But nonetheless very cool.

Estimated Chance

The N. Sane Trilogy being ported to the Switch certainly makes the chances higher then they were before. As last time we didn't even know if Crash was ever going to return at all. By default his chances are so much better as a result. He's certainly a dark horse candidate for a 3rd party newcomer spot. He just might be beaten ahead by other characters like say... Rayman. But he probably has a better chance now then Banjo-Kazooie at least. Hey, the way 3rd parties went even back in Smash 4 means just about anything's possible now. 3rd Parties can't get 2 characters? Ryu. Must have history on Nintendo consoles? Cloud. Must be a longtime well-known icon of gaming? Bayonetta. I think Crash is more then a possibility then he ever was. It probably won't be enough, but if it's going to happen. It can now.

Main Game or DLC?

DLC. His game is coming to the Switch a little too late for consideration for the main game. The only way Crash is in the main game is if Nintendo and/or Sakurai contacted them during the exclusivity period. Which is possible but if we get the crazy bandicoot I think we may have to wait a bit.

Spyro

My Level of Want

I've never played any Spyro games. Though that could be changed with the remastered trilogy coming. Spyro is tied often with Crash as the developers of both were close back in the early days and they even had a crossover game series on the GBA as well as some cameos occasionally in eachother's games (Or at least I only know of the Spyro in Twinsanity one). Even down to both frachises hitting a bit of a down period in the mid-2000's. Technically Spyro is the more overall recently successful one but that comes with the caveat of Spyro being tied to Skylanders, which let's just say it's not what classic Spyro fans wanted Spyro to be these days or look like for that matter. But even more recently it looks like Crash is the one on top after the success of the trilogy and Spyro still stuck in Skylanders. At least until said Spyro trilogy comes out. Crash and Spyro have been almost nearly tied to the hip with alot of things in their history. But if Crash made it into Smash Switch would that mean Spyro's for sure coming too? Well....

Estimated Chance

I'm afraid Crash would probably enter solo. I think if Spyro is to make it into Smash, Crash will have to do it first. But I doubt both come into Smash Switch. I think Crash would have to come in as Smash Switch DLC and then return for the next game. And with the possibility of more recognition after a revival of the franchise then we may see Spyro in Smash 6 (Or 7 if you view the series like Sakurai). I just can't see Spyro being in this game though. The news of a Spyro trilogy just came way too late. And even besides that, Crash has an actual following in Japan whilst Spyro’s first two games were somehow botched in the japanese versions. Thus Spyro isn’t any more significant to most Japanese gamers then your average 3D platfomer at the time. 

Main Game or DLC

Again, definitely DLC. But it'd definitely have to be preceded by an announcement of Crash. Or imagine if we got Crash and Spyro in the same announcement. The internet would be in utter madness.

Banjo & Kazooie

My Level of Want

We all know about the reasons there is hype behind Banjo possibly being in Smash some day. Phil Spencer, a higher-up at Microsoft in a tweet during the Smash 4 DLC period said that if Nintendo contacted them about Banjo they'd absolutely do it. And to be fair, it might be more possible now then ever. As Minecraft is currently owned by Microsoft company yet it did just fine being on the Wii U and the Switch. The Switch version will even eventually have cross-play though not until later in the year. As an interesting note. Wii U and Switch minecraft versions also have access to some Microsoft character skins such as Master Chief, and yes, Banjo as well. So the closest we have on Banjo being back on Nintendo is through Minecraft. Though Minecraft skins is one thing, putting Banjo in Smash would be another story altogether. Especially interesting is that Banjo was a strong consideration back in Melee's development. But Rare being bought out likely prevented any chance of it happening. Could the stars align for it to finally happen this time though?

Estimated Chance

Despite Phil Spencer's thoughts on the matter it still might be a bit of a complicated affair. Sure Nintendo got some characters that would of fit just right with the Playstation All-Stars cast like Snake and Cloud. But both weren't technically Sony property. Rare is however now a part of Microsoft, so it's indeed that much more complicated for things to happen for Banjo to be cleared for Smash. It's not going to be an easy road. But no doubt there will be an internet explosion, perhaps the biggest since Sonic's reveal in Brawl. And under the circumstances might just be THE most break the internet style inclusion in Smash Bros. history. It would mean Smash Bros. has transcended past consoles wars of not just the past as Sonic and Cloud does, but also the present, and maybe could even be the ticket to video game companies being less black and white when it comes to special crossover projects. Obviously the urge for buisness will still to try to outsell the other companies but for even just a fleeting moment. One game where reps that are famous on all the major console makers can all be included can lead to some lines being blurred between fans of gaming. It'd be a glorious day for sure, but that's because it still feels like a bit of a pipe dream. But hey, at one point Sonic being in Smash must of felt like a pipe dream. And so did having Mario, Sonic, Megaman, Pac-Man, Ryu, and Cloud all in one official game. If Smash Switch is going to have that internet breaking moment that leaves everyone in awe of "How did this happen?! And why is it so awesome?!" once again, Banjo would be the character to do it.

Main Game or DLC

Absolutely DLC. I'm willing to be it's kinda too late for Banjo to get in immediately. The negotiations for Banjo may take a while. So DLC would definitely be the route taken. Especially since that's where the most out there characters came in for Smash 4 3rd Party wise. Ryu, Cloud, and Bayonetta all broke pre-established "rules" and if Banjo came in. "Owned by a competing console maker" will be just another on the list.

Wonder Red

My Level of Want

Never played Wonderful 101 but from I heard it’s quirky game that could prove to have some good moveset potential. I also can’t tell if Wonder Red would count as 3rd Party or not, since Nintendo actually published the game with Platinum games (It’s kinda the same situation with trying to say Bayonetta is a Sega character, Sega simply publishes it. Is that enough to consider Bayonetta as a Sega character? I’m not sure)

Estimated Chance

Honestly, I think Platinum Games is happy enough with Bayonetta. I don’t think it’s necessary to have anyone else. I’m sure Wonderful 101 is a good game from what I hear. I don’t know if good enough to catapult another Platinum Games rep into Smash though. I do hear they plan on porting the game to Switch eventually. But I don’t know if that will be enough. So basically I think Bayonetta has already taken any chance of Wonder Red making it in as playable. So chances are pretty low.

Main Game or DLC?

Either/or. The possible closer to 2nd party status might make this a bit easier to negotiate for so maybe they find a way to sneak them in for the Main Game. But with Bayonetta probably packed in the main game,

Sora

My Level of Want

Never played the Kingdom Hearts series. But Sora is kinda the only character at least semi-owned by Disney to have any shot in Smash. Though because he's kind of part Disney, that kind of makes it more difficult to include him because could they get away with making 4th Party trophies or even background appearences for Mickey, Donald, and/or Goofy? If they didn't include anything Disney and just do the Square/Final Fantasy stuff that kinda nerfs representing the series for what it is. So it's kinda complicated.

Estimated Chance

Even beyond the complications of Disney. And while there have been Kingdom Hearts games on Nintendo systems before (GBA and DS games if I recall correctly). None of the main series Kingdom Hearts games have made it onto a Nintendo console. And I don't think KH3 is going to arrive on Switch any time soon. So Sora's in quite the pickle. You have the strange part Disney ownership, Square already got Cloud in and he'd likely come back if Square were to include a character, Kingdom Hearts doesn't even have the advantage Final Fantasy has that it once was an exclusive franchise in the old days, and Square does have other franchises that could prove to be stiff competition even beyond that. So I think Sora's not any more likely then he was last time. Cloud, who is even a character who appears in Kingdom Hearts sometimes pretty much sunk his chances.

Main Game or DLC? Definitely, definitely, DLC. Negotiations with Disney are going to be complicated as heck and may not be worth the trouble.

Shovel Knight

My Level of Want

If he made it in, I wouldn't be quite as upset as if he did so as DLC in Smash 4. As now it has been a decent amount of time. Plus Shovel Knight may as well be a franchise now that the game has had some expansions since then. I can't say I'd be thrilled with him as like I said the last time talking about Shovel Knight. That Shantae would be a better indie choice should there be one. But who knows.

Estimated Chance

Shovel Knight was the #1 choice among Reddit fans of Smash. Was Reddit's support enough to launch Shovel Knight into this Smash through the ballot? I do think Shovel Knight's chances are higher then last time no matter what, but I can't tell yet if it's only by a little bit or even largely increased. I do feel Bayonetta's inclusion might of finally been the one to break open the space for 3rd Parties beyond just legendary status. I mean no offense to Bayonetta of course, but I'm not sure I can call her quite as legendary as most of the other 3rd parties. And that may all that fans hoping for indie characters need for backing.

Main Game or DLC?

Either/or. If Shovel Knight really did well on the ballot that could be an indication of a surprise main game addition. But I do think Indies will generally have to be DLC. And even then, competition from bigger studio 3rd parties is going to be difficult to overcome

Shantae

My Level of Want

I'm only a bit of a casual fan of the Shantae series. I did get both Pirate's Curse and Half-Genie Hero on Wii U. But haven't finished them. And despite both being now on the Switch I feel no need to buy them again if I'm not going to finish the Wii U version anyway. But if there are any indie characters to get in Smash. I would pick Shantae. She's had the longest history with Nintendo, having been around since the days of the Game Boy Color and her animal transformations would make for an interesting moveset for sure. I mean no disrespect to Shovel Knight, but Shantae just has much more history.

Estimated Chance

However, she isn't any more likely then Shovel Knight getting in still. Even if Bayonetta has broken the bonds of how legendary you have to be in order to get in Smash as a non-Nintendo character, indies are still going to have to work harder then most to get a character in Smash. Because there are still many Triple-A companies with characters that would likely rake in more sales and/or hype for the game. If Bayonetta has released more chains on 3rd party inclusions at all that doesn't just help indies after all. Characters that aren't quite super legendary on the level of Mario, Sonic, Megaman, and Pac-Man but still relatively well-known to longtime games like Bomberman, Crash, Spyro, etc. would also be helped. So the competition remains the same. Just that every character just had their chances for smash upticked just a little bit. And even then, Bayonetta could of been a special case since if it weren't for Sega and Nintendo's efforts there wouldn't have been more games after the first one. Bayonetta is arguably an adopted franchise for Nintendo at this point. And it did take being a strong candidate in the ballot to do it. Which an indie character (by virtue of being an indie game in the first place) will have difficulty doing.

Main Game or DLC?

Dr. Eggman

My Level of Want

If Tails can't make it, then Eggman would probably be the next best thing. And probably more neutrally accepted even amongst those that aren't big fans of the Sonic franchise if it were to happen since Eggman isn't one of Sonic's "annoying friends". I think the only problem might be a bit more difficulty on deciding how he'd fight. Best I could think of is something akin to Bowser Jr. only bigger, heavier. And in the Egg Mobile with obviously a different toolset. It'd be absolutely fun though to have Mike Pollock record lines for Smash as he's an absolute blast as Eggman. I do think it'd be more fitting if say they ever included a Sonic related Boss rather then as the 2nd Sonic character. But I certainly wouldn't complain.

Estimated Chance

3rd Party franchises getting 2nd reps are going to be quite low in chance. Once we hit the DLC period though anything goes. So who really knows. As for Eggman himself's chances of being the character to break that rule. Not to sound biased but I think Tails out prioritizes him for a few reasons. Maybe even Knuckles before Eggman too. Not that I think Tails is that much more likely (I'll be covering that next actually) But we did get Luigi in Smash before Bowser. You could say that was because Luigi was easier to make because he was more of a clone of Mario back in Smash 64. But you have to think that when it comes to 2nd reps, the iconic 2nd player and/or sidekick tends to get in over the main villain. Even if the Mario example isn't enough. Reminder that we still don't have K. Rool but we've had Diddy since Brawl. As I said earlier I'd rather Eggman represented as a boss should the Sonic series ever include one for any reason. It'd be fun to fight him with all the different characters that way.

Main Game or DLC?

DLC, per everyone in this post

Knuckles

My Level of Want

I do like Knuckles a lot and if there was room for 3 Sonic characters I might get behind him more. But as is when it’s doubtful if we even get more then just Sonic, Knuckles isn’t a priority to me personally like Tails is. Sonic & Tails is a really iconic duo of gaming. Knuckles is less so. Mainly people want Knuckles because they view him as a more “cooler” or more viable as a fighter despite Tails having been in Sonic fighting games before too. Still, I would feel it’d be like getting Wario before we got Luigi. Wario is more fit for fighting then the “coward” Luigi and is an iconic character of the Mario franchise in his own right. But he isn’t famous Player 2/Sidekick status like Tails is

Estimated Chance

Knuckles only gets chosen if Sakurai feels a character more well known for seeming like someone to fight over should be prioritized over someone that’s been in there longer whether it’s Tails or Eggman he would be picked over. And I don’t think Sakurai has ever gone that way with anyone. In my dreams, Sonic would get 5 reps to make all the Sonic fans happy. Get Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Eggman, and Shadow in there to appease all the Sonic fan wishes. But I know that only happens if Sega was bought out by Nintendo. And understand that’d be incredibly greedy in a game that’s supposed to be mostly Nintendo

Main Game or DLC?

DLC, per everyone in this post

Shadow

My Level of Want

First I want to say, that Sonic Adventure 2 is still my favorite Sonic game in the franchise. It’s what introduced me to Sonic, I have a lot of fun whenever I go back to play the game and one of my biggest wants for Sonic is a game going back to the Adventure formula that is streamlined for modern audiences. I understand the big complaint with the Adventure games is they haven’t aged that well, but that’s why a modern game with the adventure-style that’s cleaned up to the expectations of modern game could be a good idea for the Sonic franchise to take. My biggest hope is a kind of Sonic Odyssey where like what that game did rediscovered the gameplay of Super Mario 64 and cleaned it up for a new game that most people enjoy a lot. However, despite my love for SA2 there’s one character that made his big debut that’s been a pretty controversial subject. I do first want to say that I did like Shadow a lot… but pretty much only in SA2. He was a perfectly fine character in that game and a good foil for Sonic with an interesting past. And it quickly made him one of the most popular Sonic characters. Unfortunately, Sega took that popularity the wrong way and they forced him back into as many games as possible. At first Shadow returning wasn’t so bad, Heroes implied the Shadow in that game wasn’t even the same Shadow from SA2. Simply a clone that Engman created. But the Shadow the Hedgehog game retcons that. The Shadow in games past SA2 is indeed the same Shadow who somehow got rescued by Engman’s robots on his plunge down to Earth. For the exception of Sonic Battle, every game that’s not Sonic Adventure 2 has him just as one of the most polarizing characters in all of gaming. He has diehard fans that have supported him since SA2 and won’t ever shake off their love for him. But he’s also somewhat become a bit of a scapegoat for hate on why the 3D Sonic games fell as hard as they did. His story bringing too much of the franchise trying to take itself seriously as well as basically the poster child for the edgy meme when it comes to video game characters. He has reasons why he’s very popular, but he also has just as many reasons if not more on why people would utterly despise his inclusion from both the Sonic fanbase and outside of it. Combine that with the fact there’d probably be similar disdain on the level Dark Pit got, and Shadow’s inclusion would be one day where every single Smash Bros. discussion is simply filled with anger.

Estimated Chance

Shadow’s popularity probably at least had him score among the highest out of Sonic characters in the ballot if not the highest. But I still think Sakurai would choose a more classic character anyway. Shadow’s done fine enough in the Assist Trophy role. Let him stay there.

Main Game or DLC?