Well in case you're not aware, one of the recent rumors for the upcoming Nintendo switch console is that it's going to be getting a port of Smash brothers 4. Basically
the idea is that said switch version will combine the content of the 3DS and
Wii-U games, while adding in a few new features and characters.
….well seeing as I love smash and have made speculations blogs on the series before, I thought given my thoughts on what i would like to see in Smash switch port would be a cool idea.
I don’t expect everyone to agree with ALL my thoughts, but
hopefully you'll enjoy reading about my speculations and possible chime in with your own in the comments.
General hopes for
additions and modifications in Smash Switch
All 3DS and Wii-U exclusive Stages on one system
This is a pretty obvious desire, but I going to state it
anyway. I want to have all the stages
that were originally 3DS exclusive, available alongside the Wii-U ones on the
switch version of the game. It’s a great way to artificially bolster content, and all you would need to do is give those stages a graphical facelift, so it
would probably be fairly easy to do as well. Additionally I prefer to play smash
bros on a large TV with a more traditional controller, which I think is a common
sentiment that tends to make players drop the 3DS version
for the Wii-U version if they have both games. Considering that keeping
those stages exclusive to the 3DS, seems like a bit of a waste in my opinion.
All previous character, stage, and costume DLC available on disk
Another obvious desire. Smash 4 had A LOT of DLC and while
I’m sure many of the more dedicated fans probably decided to pay for at least
the extra characters, I guarantee almost nobody shilled out for every stage and
costume that was made available by Nintendo. I mean really the bundles for just
all the characters DLC was already around 40$ for a cross 3DS/Wii-U system buy.
When you add in all the costume bundles and stage bundles that’s easily another
40-50$. That’s about 100$ total and most people aren’t going to pay for all of
that given it’s a higher price tag than the game itself. Considering that
having all the DLC from the get go on the switch would be considered a steal to
a lot of people. Additionally much of said content will probably be a fresh
experience for a lot of fans, just because most wouldn’t have been exposed to
it yet.
Consolidate all gameplay modes and revamp their features
Yet another obvious choice. Bring modes that where exclusive
to the 3DS and Wii-U versions of the game together on the switch version. This
includes 8 player smash, special smash, smash run, smash tour, tournament mode,
the sub-game modes, ect.
Additionally for the most part I think most of these modes can probably
stand on their own, though I think at least a few could be modified, which I’ll
elaborate on below.
Smash run
Smash run is basically the smash brother’s version of
something called the “city trial” from an older Nintendo game called Kirby’s
air ride. In both of these modes you basically run out onto a field map and
have to collect various power-ups to prepare your character for some sort of end
game competition, all while dealing with various random events throughout said collecting
phase. It’s a decent premises for a game mode and one that worked well in city
trial. However smash run sorta misses the mark, and lacks some of the nuance
that caused people to remember the original city trial fondly.
Firstly city trial had all the participating players
exploring the same map, while smash run does not. This is a problem because
part of the fun of city trial was being able to interfere with other players or
just screw around with friends in the field map. Next city run had a lot more customization
options, with people being able to change a matches time limit, CPU difficulty,
how likely certain random events were to occur and what end game competitions could
potentially happen.Smash run doesn’t really have any of this and instead runs
off pre-set parameters the player can’t control. This is frankly an
annoyance, as many players like being able to choose settings they prefer for
multiplayer games, rather than being rail roaded by the system.
Of course both of these problems have simple solution. Just
let people share a single field map and let people customize matches more.
Additionally outside those small fixes there's are also a few other additional features I think could make the mode more fun.for example smash run on 3DS didn’t
have an online mode, which I think was a missed opportunity. Having an online mode for a sub game like this would add a
lot replayablity to it, as you could constantly fight against random strangers online
or play against friends who can’t gather locally. I also
think having multiple maps for smash run, rather than just one, would be cool way
to increase the replay value as well. Finally the 3DS version of smash
run had a cap of 4 players at once, but something like that could easily be raised to 8 in a more powerful switch version.
Smash tour
I’m going to be honest I have barely any experience with
smash tour. That being said even from just a few minutes playing it and some online
commentary I can see the whole mode is pretty badly designed. You see smash
tour is basically supposed to be a miniature version of Mario party. The basic premise is you travel around a game board with mii avatars, and
you collect smash bros characters (instead of stars like Mario party) that you
can use in various sub-events. You also need to gather various power-ups
scattered across the board to power up said characters and can collect items to
cause various supportive effects(giving your characters an added ability in a
sub-event or altering aspects of the game board itself usually). At the end of a match you take the characters you’ve collected and you use them in a final fight
against the other players with the power-ups you’ve acquired.
It all sounds like a decent idea on paper, but it doesn’t
work all that well in practice. Smash tour takes a lot of the more negative
qualities of Mario party up to 11 and quite frankly becomes too chaotic to understand
most of the time. For example unlike old school Mario party games each player
rolls, moves and uses items all at the same time. The player can also go in any
direction on the board, including backwards. The boards have tight web like designs,
which typically encourage players to double back on each other. The spots on
the board and the power-ups are constantly changing and there’s random events
sprinkled throughout a session that effect gameplay as well. Individually most of this stuff wouldn’t be
overwhelming, but add it all together and you get a chaotic system where so much is happening at once, that most people
can’t manage or adapt to it.
Another complaint besides the chaotic nature of the mode, is
how the winner the final match is determined. After you’ve collected your
fighters, and all the turns have run down, you have a final smash battle using
the characters you have collected as lives. You would EXPECT the final fight to
be a stock battle, thereby giving the advantage to the players who collected
the most characters. However instead it’s a time battle, which throws a wrench
into the whole point of collecting characters in the mode in the first place.
In a time match characters get points based on who actually causes a KO, so
it’s possible for a person with one stock to win against a person who has 10
just because they happened to steal a kill at the right moment. Likewise the
match ends if everyone but one player losses their stocks, so one person can be
in a situation where they have multiple more stocks than the opponent, but
can’t win the match because the fight will end before they can get the Ko’s
they need to turn the tide.
It’s all a really weird mish mash of mechanics and it
doesn’t really work. Luckily however the solutions to the problems are simple (and
to be honest most of them just amount to ripping off Mario party wholesale).
Make players roll the dice, move and use items one at a
time. This makes things less confusing as people can make calculated plans
based on the others movements without getting overwhelmed by tons of stuff
happening at once. Make game boards that are larger and frankly more linear,
giving the players more space to breath and potentially ensuring everyone has
to go around a basic loop. Make icons and items on the board less variable and
tone down random events.
FINALLY make the final fight that decides the winner a
straight stock fight with no time limits.
There’s also a few other nitpicks. Sub-events during the
collection phases are only initiated by two characters landing on the same
panel. I think having a consecutive sub-events after each rolling round (similar
to mini-games in Mario party) instead of that would suffice better. Likewise
you can’t chose which of the characters you’ve collected to control or use in
sub matches or the final match, which seems like a weird limitation. Doing away
with that would probably be a good idea.
System data transfer from 3DS and Wii-U versions
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD please let us transfer some of our
trophy and game data from the 3DS and Wii-U if the switch version is real. I’ve played and
unlocked tons of stuff on the 3DS version. Then I played an unlocked a little
less stuff on the Wii-U again from scratch. I do not want to play through what
is essentially the same game a 3rd time to unlock the same exact
stuff all over again. Trophies for the single player modes and custom moves
specifically.
Make a shorter classic mode more akin to the 3DS game and a more
reliable way to get custom moves
I’m not sure if this is just my opinion but the classic mode
in the wii-u version of the game is too long in comparison to the amount of
characters in the roster. The 3DS mode of having 5 fights and then master hand
is much more palatable, and takes less time to finish in my opinion.
Additionally I prefer how the classic mode in the 3DS version is more akin to
past versions of the mode, as the Wii-u version tends to have less variety in
the types of matches it gives you, and has too many fights with 5 or more
characters that can devolve into luck.
I also think I speak for everyone when I say custom moves
REALLY need to have a more reliable way of being found. Grinding for them in
classic mode, or various mini games drives people insane. It’s even worse given
you can get repeats. At the very least being able to buy them with in game
currency would be nice. Taking out the possibility of getting repeats would
also cut down on the frustration immensely.
On that note change how difficulty is determined in classic mode and
rebalance all-star mode
This is probably a nitpick but I don’t like how difficulty is forced to lower if you get
a game over in classic mode in addition to losing some of the loot you’ve
acquired. The latter is enough of a detriment in my opinion and frankly Smash
has enough lucked based elements that it’s too easy to see a 9.0 run ruined by
some random bullshit.
Additionally as the cast continues to grow, all-star mode
really needs to be rebalanced to accommodate for it. Specifically more healing
items should be added in accordance to number of characters, which was something Nintendo chose not to do for some reason even if you
increased the roster size by 7 through DLC in the 3DS and Wii-U versions.
Custom moves for previous DLC characters
As some of you may or may not know DLC characters did not
have any custom special attacks upon released. Given the extra time and the fact
they would probably be on disk this time, going back and adding some customs to them would be greatly appreciated.
Some sort of adventure mode (probably integrated with Amibo figures for
that matter)
A lot of people knocked melee’s adventure mode and brawl’s
subspace emissary when they originally come out, but in hindsight I think a lot
of people found themselves missing these modes when smash 4 rolled around. From
what I can see a lot of people would LOVE to see some variation of a story mode
come back in smash switch, and I think it would almost be appropriate given there
should be at least one more major new mode on top of the old ones to entice players
who already have the 3DS and Wii-U versions.
……..That being said both melees adventure mode and the
subspace emissary had their issues. I personally enjoyed the subspace
emissaries longer stages, complexity, actual story and plethora of bosses, but
I have to admit in hindsight the actual environments where pretty bland. It
also dragged on at the end due to unnecessary padding (the great maze). In
contrast Melees adventure mode stages were more true to the settings of
Nintendo franchises, but the mode overall was frankly kind of short.
Personally
I think a mix of the two for the switch would be good. Just make a story mode
similar to the subspace emissary, but make the stages based on actual video
game properties. Likewise don’t overdo it on padding. A great game mode that lasts
3-5 hours is better than a mediocre one padded to last 10-15.
On another note I think a potential story mode would work
great with amibo integration. I would love to play through stages with an amibo
partner. Not to mention raising their stats or customizing them with specific skills
for an adventure would add a lot of replay value.
….. In fact Amiibo could honestly be used in a similar way
to figurines in Skylanders. You could use and scan amiibo to unlock extra
areas in an adventure mode. Granted I know some people would dislike the idea,
but I think it would make amiibos more relevant over the long term.
Bring back character specific break the targets, board the platforms and race to
the finish
We’ve gotten a lot of decent sub-games in the last two smash
instalments, but I still yearn for some of the more personalized content from 64
and melee. Specifically the break the targets and board the platform sub-games.
For those of you who don’t remember break the targets was basically a series of
test stages for various characters where you needed to break floating targets,
often with the requirement that you master a characters moves/abilities to get
to them. Board the platforms was a similar concept, though instead of breaking targets
you needed to jump to different floating platforms scattered across an area.
Both were widely enjoyed for being fun little tutorials for a characters moves, and in some cases having some puzzle like elements. But alas as the roster
grew these modes were either scrapped or significantly watered down.
Another fan favorite mode I’d like to see come back is race to the finish. In this mode characters needed to run down a linear
obstacle course and reach its end within a time limit. It wasn’t tailored to specific
characters like the other two modes (though if it could, or if there could be
multiple maps for it that would be cool), but it’s still fondly remembered
enough that I’d like to see it return.
Misc extra content
It hasn’t been that long since smash 4 came out, so there’s
not exactly a lot of extra content I think most people would want outside the previously mentioned stuff. However I
think perhaps a few extra stages, more trophies, ect would be fairly decent expectation.
The primary character additions I want for Smash Switch
Smash has always been about the characters and I can’t see a
switch port launching without at least a few new ones under the hood. That
being said It’s sort of hard to figure out exactly how many new characters we
should expecting for a potential smash brothers switch port just because we
don’t know anything about the scope of the development team and all information
regarding it is just rumors. Of course looking at past situations we did get 7
characters worth of DLC in smash 4(3 vets and 4 newcomers) over the course of a
year with what was probably a smaller team, working with minimal planning. I can’t see what’s probably a larger porting
team working over a larger time frame managing much less than 5 or 6 newcomers and a few vets, even if some rumors claim smash switch character additions are minimal.
Anyway without further delay let’s go onto the characters I
think should be in smash switch.
Veterans
Ice climbers
Series: Ice climbers
The ice climbers are probably a given. As most smash fans
know the they where already up and running on the Wii-U version of the game,
but got cut from the final product because the 3DS couldn’t handle running
their more complex AI and both models at once. I don’t think processing power will
be an issues on a system as powerful as the switch however and given it won’t
be held back by needing to maintain the same roster as a dated handheld, I
can’t see the Ice climbers not being added back in at some point.
Wolf
Series: StarFox
To be honest I think the vast majority of people were
actually fairly surprised wolf didn’t come back as DLC for the 3DS/Wii-U. It
seemed like he would have had the perfect set-up given a new star fox game was
coming out the same year. That being said star fox zero is still a somewhat
recent game regardless and he is one of the more popular cut veterans. Given
his pseudo relevancy and fan following I can see him coming back in a potential
smash bros switch.
Snake
Series: Metal Gear
This is a bit of a long shot all things considered. Snake
was more or less only added to smash brothers to begin with because metal gear
series creator Kojima was friends with Sakurai and specifically asked if he
could be added in brawl. Likewise given the insanity Konomi has gone through in
the last few years in regards to Kojima leaving and mismanagement of many of
their franchises, I’m not sure a if they would have the
initiative to get involved with something like smash again on their own.
….That being said I feel Snake is a very important piece of
smash history given he was the first ever 3rd party character and
likewise permanently losing his unique move set would be a waste. I think he
deserves to come back and I’m hoping against all hope that Nintendo can work
out some sort of deal despite the previous company drama.
Young link
Series: Zelda
To be honest I don’t really think we need young link back
all that badly, BUTTT to be fair they’ve brought almost every other
notable cut veteran at this point, so we may as well go the whole way. For
what it’s worth though given his appearance in the ocarina/majora remakes on the 3DS and his appearance
in Hyrule warriors he is at least somewhat relevant right now. He’d also be easy to
re-implement given he’s a clone with an existing move set. His fanbase also isn't non-existent either.
Newcomers
Alph and Pikmin
Series: Pikmin
Technically Alph is already in the smash bros U as an
alternate model for Olimar, but I think upgrading him into a full character
statues would be a good idea. Changing him from an alt model to a clone would be pretty easy and similar to what happened with characters like dark pit. In fact some website like source gaming claim that having
him be a clone, rather than an alt model may have been the original plan from
the get go anyway, and that plans only changed due to system/time
restraints. Pikmin 3 is also still fairly fresh in the minds of most Nintendo
fans and given we are going to be getting a 3DS Pikmin game and probably also a Pikmin 4 somewhere
down the line, the series is definitely prominent enough to deserve two
reps at this point.
Inkling
Series: Splatoon
Assuming we get any newcomers whatsoever, there’s pretty
much no way we aren’t going to be getting inklings as at least one of them. Splatoon is
probably the biggest new franchise Nintendo has spearheaded in the last 5 years
and the series squid sisters in particular have been gaining idol fame ala Miku
hatsune in japan. Splatoon also has an enhanced port/sequel coming to the switch
already, so obviously the Inkling will have some relevancy during the year smash switch
game is rumored to come out.
King K.Rool
Series: Donkey Kong
Frankly I am amazed K.Rool didn’t become a character during
the whole smash ballot campaign. It seemed like virtually all major video games
site WANTED HIM to be in the game, and frequently had him in the top 5, if not
the winner of most user polls. I guess unfortunately he just narrowly got edged out
by Bayonetta, or perhaps Bayo was determined to be more optimal for DLC cause
she could sell more.
….well regardless there’s no doubt in my mind Nintendo at
least noticed all his support, and will probably keep him on the short list of
characters to add to a switch version. For that matter Donkey Kong series
REALLY deserves more representation given it’s notoriety and smash is lacking villain characters. Adding K.Rool in just makes sense.
Dixie Kong
Series: Donkey Kong
If it comes down to it I’d rather have K. Rool than Dixie,
but I can’t deny she’s fairly important to the Donkey Kong series as well. In
fact she probably has just as many (if not more) reasons to be added to the
roster. For one she’s actually served as the protagonist of a major Donkey Kong
game before, specifically Donkey Kong country 3. Likewise while K. Rool has
been awol for years, Dixie recently made a comeback in the semi-recent Donkey Kong
tropical freeze game. She also actually DID almost make it into brawl as part
of Diddy’s move set, so she does have a foot in the door so to speak.
Issac
Series: Golden Sun
Issac is another popular smash ballot character I’m
surprised didn’t make the cut. Granted golden sun has sort of flown under the
radar in recent years, but it did get another sequel on DS at the very least
and plans for a 4th title were apparently underway at some point.
Additionally given Issac’s bizarre absence as an assist trophy after being one
in brawl, I’m sure most everyone has made the assumption he was at least
considered for smash 4 vanilla at some point.
Decidueye
Series: Pokémon
Pokémon may have a bloated selection of characters on the roster
already, but it’s still one to the biggest franchises in Nintendo and it’s hard
to ignore the fact that the newest entry in the series just came out a month
ago or so. Likewise several rumors have claimed sun and moon are going to have
a follow up version on the switch called pokemon stars later this year, so I
can see Nintendo wanting to take advantage of the situation with a new smash
bros rep while people still have the franchise on their hype radar.
Considering that I would PROOOOBABLY say smash brothers for
switch would have some sort of 7th gen representative, most likely
the final grass starter Decidueye. I haven’t played Pokémon sun and moon
myself, but from what I understand it’s the most popular starter final
evolution of said game and has gotten a decent amount of requests for smash
brothers on various website.
It also represents a few typing we haven’t seen yet in smash
(grass and ghost) and it sort of fills that grass starter lethargy a lot of
people had previously hoped could be filled with sceptile. On another note in
terms of overall size, number of appendages and body proportions, Decidueye is
probably one of the few potentially popular 7th gen Pokémon that
fits within the parameters that would be required for a smash bros character.
Rayman
Series: Rayman
To be honest I actually don’t care much for Rayman. He’s
always struck me as more of a Sony aligned character and I’ve never really
thought of him as being on par with other 3rd party bigwigs like
Snake and cloud in terms of historical importance. THAT BEING SAID his
developer Ubisoft has gotten a much closer relationship to Nintendo as of late
given his last game was originally Wii-U exclusive. Additionally Nintendo did
acknowledge his series with some trophies in smash 4 and rumors state that the
switch is going to have a Mario/Rabbids crossover game at some point. Considering that I think Rayman probably has his
foot in the door more than most other potential 3rd party
characters, and he’s requested often enough by fans that I could certainly see
his addition happening.
Phoenix wright
Out of all the 3rd party characters, I don’t
think any besides Phoenix has had such a long term devotion to Nintendo
consoles. EVERY single ace attorney game, and spin off has always premiered as
an exclusive on a Nintendo handheld going all the way back to the GBA in the
early 2000s. That combined with the fact Capcom has already placed Phoenix in
more battle oriented settings like Marvel vs and Project X zone, makes me thing
he would work fairly well as a character in smash. Phoenix himself is also actually fairly
requested for smash as well and was probably a solid 3rd choice after Megaman and Ryu.
Hopes for possible DLC
Characters on Smash Switch
People are probably going to call me overly optimistic, but
I’m holding out hope that we’ll get more DLC characters somewhere down the line
for a switch version of smash as well. I don’t think it’s much of a stretch given
Nintendo has shown they are willing to give even enhanced ports extra DLC
content way after their release, as long as said content can be profitable. We
saw this specifically the 3DS port of Hyrule warriors for example. Assuming
a similar amount of characters could be added in comparison to last time, I
think at least 4 newcomers and potentially some vets could be expected.
Veterans
Squirtle, Ivysour
and Pichu
Art by final smash comic
Series: Pokemon
This might seem like a weird choice but hear me out. NOBODY likes
seeing characters get cut. No matter how bad or irrelevant you think a
character in smash is, every character always has fans somewhere, and it shows whenever
you have character polls. Even a memic scrappy like Pichu can make it into the
top 20 of things like that just because people didn’t like losing content from
a previous game or had a soft spot for him. Likewise people hate it even more
when original move sets are taken away, which very clearly did happen with
Squirtle and Ivysour.
It’s really not that difficult to make a case for bring all
3 back as DLC(perhaps at the same time, as it would be harder to make them
stand alone), and would most likely be incredibly easy to do given they already
have move sets or in Pichu’s case are clones with similar models to current
fighters(Pikachu).
Newcomers
Bomberman
Series: Bomberman
Bomberman is probably one of the few big old school
videogame mascots left that hasn’t been added to smash yet. He’s owned by
Konami, who Nintendo have worked with before in the past and he’s had a decent
amount of games on Nintendo systems and fits in with the smash cast. Tons of
people seem to desire his inclusion, so I could see it happening.
Simon Belmont
Series: castlavania
Simon Belmont is probably my most desired Konami rep outside
Snake himself. I think he makes a lot sense given he’s one of the more famous
characters in video game history and his home series is fairly well known for
having loads of exclusive games on Nintendo hardware. Simon himself is also notable
for having somewhat of an intense rivalry with Link, in a similar vain to Mario
and Sonic, giving him that angle to work from as well.
Lloyd Irving
Series: Tales of
Ah yes my husbando Lloyd Irving from the “tales of series”.
You might be wondering a bit about this choice, but allow me to explain. The tales series is a pretty long running
franchise and while not as popular in the west, it is actually A VERY big deal in
territories like japan. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say it’s probably Namco's 2nd
or 3rd best-selling property there and the games have even been
known to push console sales in the region. Additionally the series as a whole
has quite a lot of history with Nintendo. The first game tales of phantasia debuted on a Nintendo system and to this day Nintendo still gets ports
and exclusive versions of their titles, including tales of the abyss for 3DS
and tales of graces for Wii.
Considering those facts and the fact series bigwig Yoshizumi
was one of the people that helped develop smash bros 4, I don’t think having a
rep from the series is a huge stretch. Likewise Lloyd strikes me as one of the
best tales protags to use if that idea came to fruition. For one his home game Tales of smyphonia AND
its sequel Dawn of the new world were also both Nintendo exclusive games when
they came out (in the west for over a decade even). Lloyd has also made cameos
in Nintendo exclusive games like soul caliber legends for the Wii.
Symphonia is also probably the best selling, widely
recognized and important entry of the series on a world wide scale. Before
tales of symphonia, the series more or less didn’t get translations in the
west. Likewise the few that did flew under the radar pretty easily. However
Tales of smyphonia made such a big splash and sold so well that it single
handedly created the entire western fandom, and is the main reason why we’ve
gotten consistent translations of the series ever since.
Finally Sakurai did give us a Lloyd Irving mii costume of
all things, which at the very least means he does have him on his radar.
Sora
There are a couple of square Enix characters I could see
coming to smash at some point but I personally think Sora would probably make the most sense.
He wouldn’t be redundant alongside cloud, as he’s technically from a series
separate from final fantasy (though KH does have some cameos from it). Kingdom
hearts has also had multiple Nintendo centric releases, including chain of
memories for the GBA, 358/2 for the DS and Dream drop distance for the 3DS.
Additionally while many gamers may correlate Sora a bit more with Sony, Sakurai
already showed that general popularity and fan appeal can also factor into
these kinds of decisions, as cloud got added in despite having far less
significant ties to Nintendo than Sora does.
The only hiccup I can see is the fact Disney actually owns the
rights to Sora. Not to mention KH is a very Disney heavy franchise. Though I don’t think it would be impossible
for Nintendo to work out some sort of deal on the matter and you could always
place more focus on the KH original content if worse comes to worse.
Additional characters I
want for Smash Switch(assuming we get a full size roster increase)
So I went into this blog being conservative and assumed
we’ll only get maybe 5 or 6 new characters and perhaps some more DLC if the
whole Smash switch thing is real.
….but part of me kind of wants to hope everyone is being way
to conservative, and that we’ll probably see a normal character increase of
around 10-15 newcomers total(not including clones).
Below are some periphery character
choices I have if that ends up being the case.
Wonder red
Series: Wonderful 101
Good old Wonder Red. Contrary to popular belief while the
wonderful 101 series was made by platinum games, it’s actually a property owned by
Nintendo. This actually makes wonder Red a 1st party character, so
having him in doesn’t actually take up a 3rd party slot. Anyway given
he hails from what’s probably one of Nintendo’s more creative IPs in recent
years I feel as if he would make a good addition to the roster.
Elma
Series: Xenoblade
I have not actually played Xenoblade chronicles X, nor do I
actually know much about Elma. However I do know they were one of the major
protagonists of said game, and Xenoblade is a series Nintendo seems to want to
push. Additionally several rumors claim Xenoblade chronicles X may get ported
to the switch, so I can see a representative from it being added to smash for
promotional reasons.
Impa
Series: Zelda
Zelda really needs some more representation. Frankly the
last time we had any real newcomers for the series was way back in melee with Zelda
and Sheik (I don’t really count Ganondorf or Toon Link since both of them are
technically clones). Given the potential choices, I think Impa is probably the best
choice to fill that gap. In a series that’s a revolving door of heroes and
villains, Impa is the only Zelda character to continually get a major role in
almost every major game besides Link, Zelda and Ganodorf. Likewise she’s readily
been established to have incredible fighting ability and if inspiration was taken from her incarnation in hyrule warriors, would almost certainly not
become another clone.
Finally Breath of the wild does hit this year and shiekien technology
(the race Impa is a part of) does seem to be playing a large role. No
confirmation on her being in the game yet of course, but I could see it
happening, boosting her relevance even further.
Paper Mario
Series: Paper Mario
I know there are a lot of requests for Mario characters, but
in my opinion paper Mario probably makes the most sense out of the options we
still have left. He represents a facet of the Mario series not yet represented,
IE the rpgs. He stars in a series that’s been around for over a decade. He’s
had multiple recent appearances including a crossover with the Mario & Luigi series and a recent game on the Wii-U. Finally the very nature of him being made out of
paper and the abilities he uses in his games, make his move set potential much
higher than most of the other potential characters from the Mario series.
Bandana dee
Series: Kirby
Bandana Dee has been steadily been gaining notoriety over the
last couple years in the Kirby series. He started off as a side character in
Kirby super star, but slowly upgraded
himself to being a central supporting character in following games, and finally to being a playable character in games like Return to dreamland. It’s gotten to the point
where he’s pretty much the only notable character from Kirby who hasn’t been
added to smash yet. He also does well enough in character polls, so I say
adding him in would probably be a good idea.
Krystal
Series: Star fox
I pretty much just want to add Krystal for the sake of
fanservice…..no not that kind of fansevice.
She’s been a fairly popular
suggestion for several years now, and has probably only been slightly beat out
by fan favorite characters like K.Rool at some points. Additionally for what it’s worth while
she herself did not appear in Star fox zero, said game did still come out
recently, giving the franchise as a whole relevance.
Sylux
Series: Metroid
So hear me out on this. Most people want Metroid to have
another rep and as most people know the ever popular Ridley has been shot down
multiple times at this point. However Sylux while not CURRENTLY as popular as
Ridley, at least has somewhat of a fanbase and is probably poised to take on a
bigger role in the Metroid universe as a whole. Specifically at the end of
Metroid prime 3 his ship is shown following Samus’s and at the end of the
recent spin off federation force he’s shown in a secrete ending apprehending a
Metroid. Considering these facts I think preemptively adding him to smash
before whatever announced Metroid game Nintendo is obviously making, would make
a lot of sense. It’s only a matter of time before his requests skyrocket anyway, so
why fight it?
Professor Layton
Similar to Phoenix Wright, Layton has pretty much stayed
exclusively on Nintendo handhelds ever since his series was first incepted. He’s
also been subject talk smash rumors before in the past, and seems
to be pretty popular 3rd party character choice all things considered. Additionally Nintendo has had a fairly big
hand in bringing the Layton series worldwide, publishing every single main
series game outside of japan. With most of the 3rd party slot competition gone, I could see him
having a legitimate chance now.
And also a new Layton game happens to be coming out in 2017.
Not saying it means anything, but it does help.
Honorable mentions and wildcard Character I want for Smash Switch, but don’t think have good chances
Geno
Series: Mario
Geno is a wild card in my opinion. I’m aware he’s pretty
popular with smash fans, but let’s be honest,…………..this is a character who
hasn’t appeared in a game in over 20 years. His exposer is INCREDIBLY limited
because of that, and while he may be an ensemble dark horse even Sakurai has
said he wanted to add at some point, from a business standpoint I can see him
being sort of a hard sell. Likewise given he’s owned by square enix, adding him
would require working out some sort of deal with them. Now to be fair I think a
negotiation like that would be pretty easy, but at the same time I can’t see
Nintendo going for a character like Geno, before trying to get someone bigger
like Sora.
The chances of him being DLC doesn’t seem high to me either.
Looking at past character DLC it seems like most of the content Nintendo put
out was either easy to make returning vets, characters with promotional tie
ins, or big name 3rd party characters that were guaranteed to sell.
Geno doesn’t really fall into those categories.
I think his best chances are if he could be framed as the
“retro” character including from the initial release, or if a more prominent
character like Sora is off the table due to issues with Disney. The latter case in particular is most plausible as his only
other competition from square would be Black mage, which would be redundant
given final fantasy is already represented by Cloud anyway.
Daisy
Gamefaqs memes aside, I actually don’t think Daisy’s chances
of getting in smash brothers are all that terrible. The problem is I see to many
obstacles stacked against her for it to happen. For one even assuming we
were to get another Mario character (which is already a controversial decision
given the roster is packed with them), Daisy already has some major competition
within Said franchise. You have Waluigi, various incarnations of toads, King
boo and heck if you want to count them, Wario centric characters like Captain Syrup
and Ashley. A lot of these characters have around the same amount of fans as
Daisy, and all that inter-series competition sort of makes her being the one
chosen kind of a toss up.
Additionally you also have paper Mario who’s popularity is probably
slightly higher than the previously mentioned characters (if not more), and who
would make WAAAAAY more sense given the details I already outline in his
section(headlining an entire series for over a decade, better moveset potential
,ect).
All of this doesn’t even take into account Daisy would have
to compete with other Nintendo characters and 3rd parties, which is
even stiffer competition comparatively.
The best way to get Daisy in the game would probably be……to make her an alt model for peach or a semi-clone. Though to be honest I don’t think most Daisy fans would want that.
Takumaru
Sakurai has gone on record saying that he thought about
adding Takumaru in smash 4, but unfortunately his obscurity and lack of a US release for
his home game held him back. Personally I think i don't agree. In my opinion Takumaru has actually been gaining some
traction lately with smash fans, and is probably primed to become the front runner for the “retro” character of the next full fledged smash game. However that being said can’t see Sakurai flipping
his opinion on him quickly enough for him to be in a smash bros switch,
especially when he’s already been implemented as an assist trophy.
Banjo kazooie
Series: Banjo and Kazooie
If Nintendo could work out a deal with Microsoft Banjo
kazooie would probably be a shoe in…. but I really don’t think that’s going to
happen. It's one thing to promote a character found primarily on other systems
or who’s having a game coming out on another system soon. It’s something else
entirely to promote a character actually owned by the maker of a rival console
manufacturer. Even if Microsoft themselves are up for the idea (why wouldn’t
they be, it’s free publicity) I don’t think Nintendo would and that obliterates
Banjo's chances of appearing.
Shantae or shovel
knight
Series: Shantae and shovel knight
To be blunt I don’t think it’s likely we’ll ever get full representation from small indie game companies in smash(or at least not anytime soon).
Even discounting the fact there’s a very obvious difference in weight class in
regards to the legacy of these types of characters and the rest of 3rd
party smash roster, a lot of franchise like Shantae and Shovel knight just aren’t widely
known on a global scale. I think fans are probably better off hoping for a
costume or perhaps trophy at most.
Though that being said if you want to know my thoughts on
the whole Shantae vs Shovel knight debate….well Shantae definitely deserves to
be in smash more, but Shovel knight better represents “indies” as a whole. By this I Mean Shantae
has been around a lot longer and has had way more exclusive games and history
with Nintendo overall. However the fact Shovel knight eclipses her in
popularity and the fact he has numerous connections/cross overs with other
indie projects, make him more integrated in the culture as a whole and a better
representative of an “indie” rep should really be. Shovel knight also did manage
to get an amiibo and Nintendo did publish his game in japan, so he probably has
more of a foot in the door comparatively.
Ridley
He’s too big. Get over it.
…..I’m kidding please don’t hurt me.
Misc thoughts
Just a nitpick but really hate how people make up imaginary
rules in regards to how characters in smash are disconfirmed. Particularly I
don’t think a character having a costume means they’re bared from becoming a
fighter. Heck if anything it’s probably the opposite, as it means the character
was popular enough to get noticed by Sakurai or was possibly even considered
but couldn’t be added for some reason.
Likewise this is just a little hope of mine, but kind of
wish Red could be added to show up in the results screen of Pokémon like
charizard. Little mac already has something similar to that with doc Luis showing up
in his and Red is probably the only character that can’t really return under
normal circumstances.
Summary
- Have all 3DS and Wii-U stages on one system for a total of
84 stages(including DLC)
- All previous DLC characters, stages and costumes
- All modes from both version. Additionally re-balanced and
altered versions of smash run and smash tour.
- Allow system data transfer from 3DS and Wii-U versions
- A shorter classic mode and an easier way to get custom moves
- Allow users to maintain difficulty levels after a game over and
re-balance all star mode in accordance to the number of characters being added
- New custom moves for previous DLC characters or returning
vets who were originally cut
- Story or Adventure mode
- Bring back break the targets, board the platforms and race
to the finish sub-games
- Add more misc new content like more trophies, stages, equipment,
ect
- Bring back 4 vets. Ice Climbers, Wolf, Snake and Young Link
- Add 7 newcomers. Inklings, K.Rool, Dixie Kong, Issac,
Decidueye, Rayman and Pheonix wright. Also de-alt Alph and make him a clone.
- Add additional DLC characters. Returning vets Squirtle,
Ivysour and Pichu. Newcomers Bomberman, Simon Belmont, Lloyde Irving and Sora.
- If time allows and the scope of the port is large enough,
add 8 more newcomers. Wonder Red, Elma, Impa, Paper Mario, Bandana Dee,Krystal,
Sylux, and Professor Layton.
- Final character count 77-85(This number sounds high, but keep in mind the character count already increased by about 20 between Brawl and smash 4. Likewise a port ensures we wouldn't get the normal 4-5 cuts that would keep the character count lower)
- Realize Ultraguy's hopes and dreams are unrealistic and he should settle for half this shit at best
Phew that blog ended up being longer than I anticipated.
.Anyway hopes you guys enjoyed it! What are your thoughts on a smash switch port?
