Topic: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

At first I thought it was Marth in the trailer (haven't played 3 Houses), and when he was trapped in the darkness with the green haired girl saying something along the lines of following your heart, I thought he was going to be saved by Sora, who would be the new fighter (similar to how the DQ Hero saved Link in his trailer).

So I was definitely disappointed in the reveal itself, though I have no strong feelings on Byleth as a fighter either way.

@andrew20 People actually do like those characters, though. I legitimately like Waluigi, although I'm not too bothered by him not being in Smash. I'd rather see him finally get a role in a real Mario game. And I've never seen Geno's support as memeish at all. People were adamantly supporting Geno back long before Brawl was released, when memes weren't even a mainstream thing yet.

Honestly, Waluigi or Geno would have been so much more exciting than Byleth. But I understand someone might see Waluigi and think "Another Mario character? Come on". I just think that Mario earns character reps because it is Nintendo's mascot franchise. Fire Emblem is no where near mascot status and even though I like the characters (I especially like Lucina and was thrilled beyond belief when she made it into SSB4), the number of FE characters in SSB is outrageous at this point. It's very forced.

@Harmonie Agreed, I was genuinely excited for Lucina, Robin (solely for gameplay cause a mage was great) and Chrom joining, but Corrin and Byleth... eh. I think a lot of my problem is the fact that the MCs are so much non-characters that I utterly don't care about them. Any of the house's heads and I'd probably have been mildly excited at least.

As for Mario characters... I haven't been excited for one since Rosalina honestly. Daisy, Bowser Jr. and Pirahna Plant were all very meh. I'm pretty burnt out on that series getting reps as well.

What I'd really like to see is more from underepped IPs like DK (Dixie please), F-Zero, Pikmin, Punch-out!!, Xenoblade, Yoshi, Wario or even Wii/Switch Fit. Or more new IPs (W101, ARMs, Golden Sun, Geist etc)

Pretty excited about Byleth (and the amiibo potential). I gotta say I feel like this is the last smash though...they are really pulling out the stops.

@Harmonie With characters like Waluigi, I think the biggest problem is Nintendo doesn't really do anything with Mario Kart/Sports/Party characters like they only exist just to fill a roster slot in those games. Even Daisy has been demoted from having presence in Super Mario Land to just being another Mario Kart/Sports/Party character.

I have some pretty basic ideas for using those characters elsewhere like:

• Daisy - Another mainline Mario game in Sarasaland
• Baby Daisy and Baby Rosalina - New Mario + Rabbids game with the Rabbids having a device that can turn characters into baby form
• Pink Gold Peach - New mainline Mario game has Peach playable and the gold flower turns her into Pink Gold Peach
• Waluigi - Bring back Wario Land and have Waluigi as a playable character, if playing co-op you have 1 person as Wario and the other as Waluigi
• Birdo - Partner in a new Paper Mario game

My picks for the final 6, in no particular order. My rules: Characters must have originated in a Video game and appeared on a Nintendo console. No characters who are currently assist trophies, no characters or franchises who have been added as spirits or Mii costumes AFTER the game launched.

1. Lloyd Irving (of course)
2. Rex and Pyra
3. Ribbon Girl
4. Ryu Hayabusa
5. Crash Bandicoot
6. Pauline or Captain Toad or Rillaboom

As for my predictions for the final 6:
1. Dante
2. Sora
3. Master Chief or Doomguy
4. Ryu Hayabusa
5. Crash Bandicoot
6. Sigurd (Genealogy of the Holy War), Seliph (Genealogy of the Holy War) or Hector (Blazing Sword)

@Octoguy I saw the Prince, and I'm in with your picks, 100%. Doesn't matter what the other 5 are. Though, I'd honestly enjoy 3MS, Rayman, and Galarian Trainer too.

Anyways, guess I better post my own predictions:
1. Pauline
2. Kazuma Kiryu
3. Sub-Zero
4. Rillaboom
5. Heihachi
6. Character from FE17

In other words, no one I particularly care about. Rillaboom could be fun though, considering how Inciniroar and Greninja both grew on me after the initial disappointment. If I was slightly more optimistic...

1. Agumon - Winter/Spring
2. Rayman - Summer/E3
3. Howard (Astral Blade) or Wonder-Red - Fall
4. BotW2 Character - Winter/Spring
5. Doomslayer - Summer/E3
6. Rillaboom - Fall

But that's probably way too wishlisty to hope we'd get even one of the set of Agumon, Howard, Wonder-Red, Rayman, or Doomslayer, never mind all 5.

I really just want Crash Bandicoot now. Also, Nintendo might as well make a fire emblem fighting game with all of the characters from fe in smash now!

There was no mention of anything changing about the character selection for Fighters Pass 2, so until there are no official news about that, there still won't be any Assist Trophy, Mii Costume, and Spirit promotions. That means, Rayman, Shantae, Waluigi, Geno, Isaac, Leon S. Kennedy and Jill Valentine, Spring Man and Ribbon Girl (ARMS), Shadow the Hedgehog, Skull Kid, The Wrestler (Rhythm Paradise), Mallo (Pullblox), Tetrominos, Wonder Red (The Wonderful 101), Cuphead, Paper Mario, Astral Chain etc. are still deconfirmed for Fighters Pass 2.

And as long as Rayman (and now Rabbids too) are deconfirmed, there won't be room for Crash Bandicoot.
I argue Rayman is higher up in the hierarchy of Third Party Platformer icons. Conker, Wonder Boy, and even Bub & Bob, at least for me, too.

So, with this in mind, until proper clarification my picks are these:
1. Travis Touchdown (No More Heroes)
2. Prof. Layton
3. Phoenix Wright
4. Pete (Harvest Moon)
5. Crono (Chrono Trigger)
6. Bub & Bob (Bubble Bobble)
7. Wonder Boy
8. Ark (Terrangima)
9. Conker (Conker's Bad Fur Day)
10. Fulgore (Killer Instinct)
And if the final one of Fighters Pass 2 is a Nintendo character again, then Porky (EarthBound)

And these are my favourites if ATs, spirits, and Mii constumes are promoted:
1. Chibi-Robo
2. Saki Amamiya (Sin and Punihsment)
3. Elma (Xenoblade Chronicles X)
4. Bomberman
5. Goemon (Mystical Ninja)
6. Shadow the Hedgehog
7. Krystal (Starfox)
8. Zael (The Last Story)
9. Pauline (Super Mario)
10. Bandana Waddle Dee (Kirby)

Cloud was in one or two (3)DS games (Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy) before he was added to Smash, similar to Joker and Altaïr.

@DarthNocturnal
My take on the Spirit thing is that if they want to feature a character as a playable part of the game, they are unlikely to feature it as a spirit before that happens.

I suppose that if the new set of DLC fighters was decided after the game launched though, then some of the spirits featured between when the game launched and when the new set was decided could be eligible.

Here are my picks for characters I’d want, in no particular order. Not saying these are all possible, or even likely, these are just my wishes

1. Centiskorch - I think it’d be really cool for a more unconventional rep from Pokémon to get in, and I think the strictly not bipedal nature of Centiskorch would make him a really interesting pick for smash

2. Chell - This character doesn’t pass the ”has appeared on a Nintendo console” test, and while interesting, I think there’s a limit to what you can do with the portal gun in a fighting game, but Sakurai has done crazier things before and I love Portal, so

3. Another Mega Man rep - I probably would put Zero or X here, but they’re already in the game as an assist and mii costume so they’re unlikely. I really don’t care who they put in, there’s plenty of alternate Mega Mans such as .Exe and Volnutt, or they could even go for something a bit more crazy like Roll or Sigma

4. Steve - Microsoft and Nintendo have been getting a lot more chummy lately, and no matter your feelings on it, you have to admit that Minecraft is one of the most popular and successful games of all time. At this point, I feel it’s more than earned some representation in smash

5. Ring Fit Girl - I’ve not even played Ring Fit, but it seems to be pretty popular, and idk, I just feel like this could be fun

6. Something out of left field - I want Nintendo to pick something really crazy and dumb again, like Duck Hunt or Piranha Plant, because that’s always fun

But that's why new spirits and costumes get added, to have more popular characters in the game that are not fighters (for different reasons).

The problem is, if they promote one spirit to playable fighter, then everyone wants their picks. And there's just too many of them. I want Chibi-Robo, Saki Amamiya, Elma, Bomberman, Pauline, Shadow the Hedgehog, etc. before any other promotion, just like many want Geno, Isaac, Bandana Waddle Dee, Waluigi, Dixie Kong, Rayman, Shantae, etc. It would be a Smash war.

As long as there's no direct word from Sakurai, all of the 1379 spirits (except Rex) are only eligible for a Smash sequel, but not for Smash Ultimate or Smash Ultimate DLC. We'll have to wait and see if anything changes with the start of Fighters Pass 2.

I can see that characters made as Spirits were obviously not planned to be made playable for the base-game, but I don't understand how they it disconfirms them from being made playable for DLC. Especially because now we're talking about an unprecedented second round of DLC characters that are logically going to be more disconnected from what decisions were made for the base-game.

Spirits are such a basic thing and having the existing Spirit remain in the game while the character becomes playable would pretty much contradict nothing. And let me remind everyone that we're talking about a game series where characters appear in other roles in-game that really logically should have disconfirmed them much more than spirits. Namely Toon Link appearing in the train stage (he is swapped out when Toon Link is played) and Chrom appearing in a Final Smash.

@Harmonie

Think about it this way, they released a set of Resident Evil spirits a month ago. Why would they do that if they planned on including Leon as DLC later this year? It's fairly clear that the purpose of that spirit event was to pay homage to the RE series.

@iKhan Yeah, I'd say you have to take it on a case-by-case basis. Introducing a third party franchise by spirits post-base game is substantial and isn't the same as spirits introduced in the base-game. Certainly that means that Resident Evil's chances of a playable character don't look good at all. I can agree with that logic.

But you see the circumstances can change very easily. Like I'd say that Pokemon Sword/Shield's characters being introduced via spirits doesn't necessarily disqualify the chances of a Gen 8 playable character in DLC.

It's all on a case-by-case basis. I'd say for sure, any characters who are spirits in the base-game are fair game for becoming playable in the DLC. My point isn't that Spirits can never indicate that a character/series isn't likely to be represented otherwise, just that the status of being a Spirit alone does not disqualify a character in any meaningful way.

I think they'll find a balance between their cross-marketing reasons and pleasing fans for this pass.

So my predictions are based on that:

1. Travis Touchdown (NMH3 marketing!)
2. Sora (heavily requested worldwide, could promote KH ports)
3. Doom Slayer (promotes Doom Eternal, iconic franchise)
4. Dante (promotes DMC, fan favorite)
5. Ryu Hayabusa (promotes Koei Tecmo, has history with Nintendo)
6. Urshifu (Sword/Shield Expansion Pass promotion)

Honestly I can't see another set of 6 DLC fighters without another Bandai Namco rep. Of BN's franchises, I'd say the most likely are Digimon, Dark Souls, Tekken, Soul Calibur, and Tales. I'm sorry but Katamari and Klonoa are not significant enough to warrant a fighter. The only other BN franchises that might have a small shot at Smash are Xenosaga and Baten Kaitos just because they are Monolithsoft developed properties.

@iKhan Man I hope so. I'd be excited for Agumon (or any other Digimon but Agumon seems most likely), Lloyd, King, most of SC's cast, the Prince, Klonoa, KOS-MOS or Kalas without question!

Of course, that means inevitably we'll get Heihachi or... Whoever would rep Dark Souls.

@StephanDLW Rayman seems almost a given since we got Ubisoft mii fighter costumes and not Rayman, who's their most requested character by far. Of course, taking anything as a given is super dangerous but...

Anyways, I don't see why Rex couldn't be considered, especially since Sakurai said he wanted to include him but couldn't due to time constraints on the DLC. Or perhaps Pyra/Mythra as a character?