Topic: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

"Jesus raises the stakes!"

Nintendo to send church cease and desist letter in 3..2..1..

Well if Nintendo can trademark a cross we'll know we're in the Deus Ex future.

And this is just a thought, but it would be sick if a Metroid Prime 4 character got revealed for Smash at E3 in tandem with the game. Hopefully that game has characters to speak of...

Sylux seems like a likely candidate, with them having been hinting at him a lot as of late.

I mean maybe, but do we really expect the Nintendo Software Technology character to make it in? I feel like Metroid Prime 4 has to be an effectual reboot since they haven't made a real one in more than a decade. But in terms of Smash, a new character would be a cool choice. I mean, I don't think anyone would argue that Metroid is without its fair share of murder-delegates.

Dark Samus would also be cool, but unless you've played Prime 2 & 3 she just looks like another suit upgrade.

@Haru17 Itll be Sylux. Retro confirmed its his ship at the end of Prime 3 and the producer confirmed that yes, the ending to Federation Force was intentional.

Its Sylux.

And who cares if he's the NST character? Why does status suddenly matter? Why the hell is Cloud in when he symbolises Square jumping ship? Why is R.O.B there when he was a bloody peripheral and not even a character?

They'll probably work it that Sylux is present but Prime 4's story is such that you don't need to know anything about the previous Prime games. So kind of like Metroid's version of Halo 4 in a way.

The only things you need to know are Sylux exists, he stole babby Metroid. That's it.

He hates the feds, and wants maximum powa too.

@YummyHappyPills Because Hunters was the spinoff portable game of a larger console series which — according to every action ever taken by Nintendo — don't matter. When has the Spirit Train been in a Zelda game since Spirit Tracks? The Mini Mushroom in a 3D Mario game? Mission mode in any other Mario Kart?

Stylux was literally just a character created to justify the multiplayer mode of a DS first-person shooter better than a bunch of Samus clones running around killing each other. Ask yourself if Nintendo has ever cared about continuity beyond what suits an individual game's release, if that character design is really future-proofed for more than a decade, and if Sylux — whose name itself may or may not be a pun on the DS' stylus — is going to show up in the Metroid Prime reboot made by the 4th developer the series has had.

Also, since we're quoting Sakamoto, does he even work on mainline Metroid games anymore? Because he certainly wasn't on the Prime trilogy.

@Haru17 Sakamoto does work on Metroid.

He made Samus Returns.

As for who mentioned Sylux specifically, and who I was quoting, it was the producer of the Prime series.

Also who says it is a Metroid Prime reboot? Be pretty funny to number a reboot as the 4th entry.

Also, regarding Nintendo "not caring about handheld spinoffs" they sure care about M&L. NSMB STARTED as a handheld spinoff technically. Yoshi was a handheld spinoff for a long while before Woolly World.

Kirby as a series has had many things return from "spinoffs" such as various abilities or gameplay ideas.

There is no correlation between a series being made by one developer over another or spinoff status holding more or less merit.

Why would the spinoff series, Mario Kart, be represented in Smash?

Why would the spinoff series on handhelds, WarioWare?

There won't be another Metroid rep, sadly. Feels like that ship sailed long ago. Maybe if Prime 4 introduces someone of note we'll see that character on the next Smash, but not this time.

To be fair, there's barely a thing from the more Western side of Nintendo in Smash, and I'd say Prime (not traditional Metroid) belongs to that side of the spectrum. Not that there's much of note to add, but it's obvious some developers like HAL or Sora are favored over studios like Retro, NST or NLG.

@MarcelRguez That was back when almost every major character from Metroid was either a one-shot wonder or too... "boss-y" to be playable. Sylux is potentially the first to break from those conditions while also potentially being very distinct from Samus. It is not unheard of for developer backpedaling to occur in Smash, remember how Villager went from being dismissed due to not being "violent" enough, to a memetic psychopath? Or how Little Mac went from Assist Trophy to playable? Not to mention DLC is a thing now, so even if we don't get a new Metroid rep off the bat, it isn't the end.

Metroid is kind of in a unique position now where there's a new major title incoming that we know very little of besides maybe involving Sylux. Who knows if Prime 4 will involve other new or returning characters? My wish for a Metroid character outside Ridley is actually someone no one else talks about... U-Mos. In light of the Aeion developments from Samus Returns, I feel that Aether and it's inhabitants have more to offer us (the "planetary energy" could very easily be Aeion).

Next Level Games has Wii Punch-Out!! and Jungle Hijinx from DKC Returns, which only leaves Mario Strikers and a stage from Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon as major Nintendo properties unrepresented.

To be fair, Sylux hasn't broken those conditions yet. And hell, Dark Samus can be just as different from regular Samus, as its assist trophy shows. Besides, when has that been a problem with Smash? Semi-clones have been a thing since forever now.

IIRC, that wasn't so much backpedaling as a bad translation, if not a direct quote misattribution. Either that was Eguchi (Animal Crossing producer) talking about the topic, or Sakurai commenting on Eguchi's opinion.

I don't see how this can be considered backpedaling, unless Sakurai said at some point that Mac would stay as an assist trophy going forward, for whatever reason.

That's a fair point, although I don't think we'll get another rep anyway. I could see U-Mos working if it wasn't so alien-looking. He'd need to be redesigned for him to fit with the rest of the cast.

DKC Returns was Retro, but yeah, I had Luigi's Mansion in mind, since it's the series that's more closely associated to NLG. Trophies aside, it has a Final Smash and a stage in Brawl, which isn't a lot.

@YummyHappyPills It isn't worth replying if all you're going to do is be pedantic and willfully misread my posts. Just watch Sylux be ignored for another decade and remember my point.

Anyway, any sequel released 10 years later has to function as a reboot. Halo 4 was much sooner but worked in the same way, establishing a new story. What Metroid Prime 4 would be wise to do is not necessitate people study the series to understand the new game on a basic level. Halo 4 did that with the book canon, a 12-year-old middling DS shooter would be even more ridiculous to call upon.

@meleebrawler U-Mos would be a really cool pick. I'm sure it would give the normies whiplash, so Nintendo probably won't. They're really pander-y and conservative lately. Also, what are the Luminoth's actual powers? Probably light magic?

In terms of Mario Strikers DLC costumes could be cool, but all they really need to do is give the soccer ball item the metallic look from Charged — It already works basically the same way.

@DarthNocturnal You sure that was on a Direct? The final roster should have been locked by the time Smash Directs became a thing.

You know what would be really bizarre, yet still in the realm of possibility?

We finally get another Donkey Kong rep, and it's Donkey Kong Jr.

It wouldn't chap my hide much, since I actually love the little guy... but man, that could get "8.8" levels of rage from the Internet at large.

@Haru17 "Scans indicate numerous beneficial abilities, including heightened reflexes, durability, psionics and flight. Ability to generate and manipulate energy on par with that of the Chozo." -U-Mos Logbook entry. In game he creates an impenetrable barrier whenever shot at, like Rosalina.

There's also the myriad technology they have at their disposal, most notably the Dark/Light/Annihilator beams and even their own Screw Attack.

Nintendo was conservative and pander-y in the Wii U era. That we have Breath Of The Wild Link is proof enough that they're now willing to shake up existing characters that have gone relatively unchanged for so long.

@MarcelRguez And Mewtwo isn't alien-looking? We've also got small rodents, puffballs and one time, a quadruped. What's U-Mos's problem?

I don't see how Sylux showing up in Prime 4 requires any knowledge of Hunters for that to happen. All we need is a bit of narration to establish that Sylux and Samus know each other Sylux hates the federation and boom, all the relevant details from Hunters are there. It's not like anything about Hunter's story should be needed to understand Sylux's character. It can function as a reboot/new story while still featuring an existing character.

@meleebrawler Mewtwo is a cartoony cat-experiment with a whole three color palette. All those Pokémon are simple, easily readable, cartoonish designs.

U-Mos, on the other hand, is a hyper-detailed, baroque mothman. It's alien by design in a way nothing in Smash is, from the vaguely humanoid proportions, the extremely slender figure and the not knowing where the skin starts and where the armor ends thing. It screams "early 2000s American sci-fi game".

There's a reason why the devs went for Dark Samus' design from Corruption as an Assist: it's smoother and rounder than Echoes', so it blends more easily with the rest of the cast. So yeah, the problem isn't that he's a "too out-there concept", it's that his design is very hard to homogenize into Smash.

Edit: something simpler like this could work