
Back at E3 2013, it was revealed that the female Wii Fit Trainer would be a playable character in the upcoming Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. It looks like she'll be in good company; series producer Masahiro Sakurai sent a post to Miiverse earlier today, indicating that her male counterpart would indeed be joining the chaotic mishmash of styles and franchises that is Super Smash Bros.
The capacity in which the male trainer will feature isn't yet known, but we're going to stick our neck on the line and say he's almost certainly going to act as a 'costume swap' for the female Wii Fit Trainer. In the screenshot, we can see that both characters are performing the exact same jump, which seems to suggest an identical moveset for both characters.
Hopefully, this isn't another case of two very similar characters taking up slots on the roster. Super Smash Bros. Brawl featured three Star Fox characters who were essentially just model swaps - Fox, Falco and Wolf. Of course, it's possible that the male trainer could be nothing more than an assist trophy, but this seems unlikely.
What do you think of this latest reveal? Can you see yourself playing as the male Wii Fit Trainer? Do you like gender equality? If you answered yes, you are an awesome person.
[source miiverse.nintendo.net, via gonintendo.com]
Comments 95
If its anything more than a costume swap that'll be stupid
Ya. Definitely a costume swap. Don't see why they'd waste their time adding hm as a completely different character.
I could see them doing this with the Villager as well, as it's name is non-gender-specific and could easily be made a girl.
WAT
I don't mind model swaps like C. Falcon and Ganondorf, the Fire Emblem characters on Melee or even the Star Fox characters in Brawl, they have very different looks, personalities and background, but this is not the case for the Wii trainers and Id be very upset if they left out another character because of him. However if this is another skin of the same character it'd be a great idea if implemented on more characters, Id love the return of Dr. Mario.
Its not an actual separate character. This picture is up on the website, but he wasn't added to the character roster like the other reveals.
It makes total sense, and just like what ninjapenguin1 said, this could happen with the Villager too. I'm actually thinking it might happen for the pokemon trainer as well, since they're all games that feature non-gender specific roles that can be given any name by the player.
I definitely believe it's a costume swap where he has the exact same moveset as the female trainer, similar to Wario in Brawl where you can change from his WarioWare outfit to his regular dungarees outfit.
If not, it'd be a waste of space to make room for more potential characters that I hope make it in such as Ghirahim, Shulk or maybe Little Mac.
Awesome! I always thought the alternate Wario/WarioWare costumes was a great idea in SSBB. I love that they're taking it a step further this time around!
Fox, Falco, and Wolf are very different on a competitive level.
This is an alternate costume, Rory, not another character. Although Sakurai's post did catch me off guard initially.
All the characters so far:

@tripunktoj Totally agreed, many of the previous swaps had interestingly different enough backgrounds to justify other people playing as them. But hopefully this is just a costume change, because otherwise it would just be like having the male and female Pokemon Trainer as separate characters (w/ same Pokemon).
"we're going to stick our neck on the line and say he's almost certainly going to act as a 'costume swap' for the female Wii Fit Trainer."
!!!
A little off-topic, that same Miiverse post says Wii Fit U is available now... maybe he means in Japan, I checked and its still dated for 11/1 on the American eShop.
Actually he's talking about the Trial version of Wii Fit U, but yeah normally he's referring to the Japanese release dates.
Finally!
Has to be an alternative costume, if not, then there's some really botch-up prioritys at the devs HQ.
Hmm, interesting.
So anyway, anybody else think we are well overdue a Nintendo Direct?
Like the comments above, I hope this is merely a costume swap and not a character on its own. It's bad enough that uninteresting characters like the Villager and the Wii Fit Trainer were added to the game, but now Wii Fit occupies two slots? NO PLS.
@readyletsgo I was just thinking that!
"Do you like gender equality? If you answered yes, you are an awesome person."
I guess I'm a terrible person then, because I would hate for him to take up an entire slot (I don't think he will) and as a woman I get tired of the under representation of women in games, and the fact that the "default" gamer (and thus character option, when offered) is still assumed to be male when women make up 45% up gamers these days. I mean come on.
So in this case I am a terrible person because "gender equality" would mean adding yet another dude. I thought it was super cool Nintendo added the female trainer over the male one to start with. I think it's cool that she still appears to be the default option. Finally!
OK, I'm not actually going to discuss this further, like that's all I have to say on this topic and I won't be checking the comments on this article further. Sorry if people felt this was a derail, I was just responding to two sentences that really stood out to me.
@Shadowflash
I was just going to post that. The rage I felt!
@ferthepoet Agreed.
@Lobster Hey guess what. Life isn't fair.... deal with it.
@WrappedInBlack Don't be an donkey, she raises a valid point and you know it.
Anyways this has made me extremely happy since it pretty much confirms costume swapping! I'm now hoping for a Lucina costume for Marth
@Fazermint @readyletsgo Likely to happen next week
@AJWolfTill http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/mens-rights-movement
@Lobster I understand your problem here. When there are playable female characters they are often half naked and not very respectable.
Cool, but why haven't they announced a new Pokémon fighter? At least announce Jigglypuff.
This is just a color-swap for Wii Fit Trainer, as @Tsuchionko said, as he got no new page on their site.
It's also been a month since the last new character announcement. Mark my words, they'll have a nintendo direct soon, with a new character at the end of tons of SM3DW, Mario Party 3DS and M&S Olympics footage.
I guess this works in a similar way to Wario's different costumes in Brawl. Both trainers get four colours each.
@MixMasterMudkip A side from the fact that it seems to be one character a month again... How would any of us know?
So here's my opinion, costume changes should be more then just a "costume".
Remember in Melee how Mario and Dr. Mario had the same animation but the properties of attacks differed slightly? (trajectories of the hit opponent were different between the two Marios)
I think a costume change should also change a characters properties in that respect, maybe Female Trainer has a meteor hit on a particular move, but Male Trainer has it on a different move (Such as a downstrike meteor for one, and a upwards/sideways meteor for the other). Adding to the strats on how to play a particular character. I think that'd be awesome..
And no one will ever play as him, I'm gonna go ahead and guess.
Am I the only one who doesn't think that the wii fit trainer was a good character choice? It just doesn't seem to fit the style of the rest of the characters and seeing her/him next to other characters it just seems so out of place.
@Pinkman Yes, I think it looks completely out of place.
I just hope palutena is playable this time.
@Pinkman The only thing that constitutes a "good character choice" in Smash Bros is a character's relevance to Nintendo. Let's not forget the underlying theme of Smash Bros: a Nintendo-themed fighting game. In that sense, the Wii Fit trainer is a natural fit (no pun intended) since Wii Fit was a massive success for Nintendo. Heck, she's technically a better choice than Snake, Sonic or Megaman...
smh........terrible. All will be forgiven with the inclusion of Zero though! I can dream right? haha
@thesilverbrick You make a good point on that basis she/he is an excellent choice, but imo it still looks out of place where sonic and megaman have a similar artistic style the trainer just looks too serious and mature. I don't mean that the game is immature but its like putting ocarinas link in the wind waker it just doesn't fit.
Since the site is not updated past this pic it is probably a costume swap. The name of the character is called wii fit trainer. So costume swap sounds right.
I doubt he's going to be an 'Assist Trophy'. That's a very long reach but I certainly hope he's not taking up a character slot that would be better suited to someone else. If his 'identical moveset' means he's not taking up space that would stop another character entering the roster then great, if he is though I'd just prefer him to be an alternative 'costume' (used loosely of course).
Would be really funny if the keep the girly voice for the male costume.
@Genesaur
I'm gona play as him at least once online (if available to me) just to prove you wrong
Gotta be a costume swap. Otherwise it'd be the least desired clone of all time.
@marnelljm That would be so great if Zero were in it!!!
Thank lord it's just a costume.
Hopefully as a skin, and not taking up an additional spot....
@WrappedInBlack
I've sure you mean well but you don't have to be so blunt with people. Also I really don't feel that video games are an area where that applies XD
THANKFULLY IT'S JUST ANOTHER COSTUME
I wonder if they'll have a female Animal Crossing Villager as well.
I hope the Male Trainer it's it own character, and more over powered then Metaknight.
They can just give the Male Wii Fit Trainer CaptainFalcon's move set, no body likes him anyway.
@LordJumpMad
Good trolling attempt, @Pachterkid would be proud of you.
Fox, Falco, and Wolf are all very different characters. They were definitely not just model swaps.
@Lobster the reason there is less females in games is because men are the massive majority of gender responsible for their creation, as well as audience.
Do you see tons of men in an oprah audience? No. Therefore she will cater to women, as she obviously does.
When games are not scoffed at by the media as a "little boy" hobby, or a hobby for losers in their basements, maybe there will be a larger change. But a change is NOT needed. Games reflect who is playing them and who is making them quite fairly.
When I first saw this I thought Sakurai had finally lost it. But a quick visit to the main website thankfully revealed that he isn't a separate character. If anything it's just a gender swap.
As long as it's just a costume change, I'm fine (like Wario in Brawl). Anything more than that just feels like they are bloating the roster!
Who didn't see this coming? Expect the same for Villager.
And sorry Rory, but Fox, Falco and Wolf are not just model swaps. They share 4 similar special moves and a Final Smash, but that's it. Pichu, Young Link, Dr Mario and Roy were model swaps, because bar a slight change in aesthetics, every move they had was the same as another character's. I'm not saying I like the fact that Fox, Falco and Wolf have similar special moves, in fact, I'd like that to change in SSB4, but if you're going to write something, get your facts straight.
Who is that
@UgliestSoup Male Trainer... alt costume... it obvious cause for one he's not on the site as a separate character.
Goodness Nintendolife. Stop scaring me like that.
@LeVideoGamer
Except Young Link and Pichu played very differently from their counterparts. They had the same base moves but very different properties.
...... Better be a costume swap.
Though, if this can count as a costume swap, I hope that they can put in Lucina as a costume swap for Marth.
What the F***!?
Seriously what a waste of 2 characters!
Such a diverse character roster Nintendo has to choose from.... And they choose this garbage.....
I'll stick up for Wolf here. He was way more than a clone of Fox. A moves are completely different. Slower, heavier, shorter jump. The only real similarities were in his B moves, and many of those similarities were only cosmetic. OK, he also had the same Final Smash, for what that's worth.
Brawl did suffer from a bit of Star Fox bloat, but that was more Falco's fault; he shared way more similarities with Fox than Wolf did, plus as a character he's a less interesting inclusion.
Awesome!
Does this mean they will doing actual costume swaps this time around?
A few different recolors is not enough, nintendo!
I want to play as Princess Daisy, not Peach with another dress!
@SetupDisk IKR? I main Falco and I can't play Fox or Wolf for the life of me. Especially Wolf.
Any word on downloadable characters?
Happy Halloween from Nintendo, everyone! You've been played!
Anyway, if he possessed a different moveset from Wii Fit Trainer, I kinda wouldn't mind him being a separate character. I imagine, though, reading these comments, that current evidence of nothing more than this screenshot on the Smash site, reveals it is probably a model swap.
@marnelljm: X, & Zero would be awesome!
If this is a costume swap it's actually really good news. If it's not, ugh.
Did you just say Falco and Wolf were essentially model swaps? Did the person writing this post ever happen to play a game called Super Smash Brothers Brawl by any chance?
If I ever play as Wii Fit Trainer--which I definitely have to try at least once-- I'm still going to play as the girl.
@allav866 whut? Don't you wanna play as the man in tights doing sexy moves?
I think a male version of the Wii Fit trainer is a bit insulting to the female gamers who wanted a unique female character, they could associate with. Hopefully, they add a new TRUE unique female character to the roster, with no male counterpart.
My God, nobody ever though it might be an ASSIST TROPHY!!??
Maybe it's a clue about Assistant Trophies returning.
And no. It's a terrible idea of having Fox, Falco, and Wolf as swap costumes. Falco is actually stronger than Fox, but Wolf is weaker than Fox.
He's clearly an alternate costume.
Like...I don't know how anyone can think he's a different character or an Assist Trophy. They're the same character, just a different gender, and they're quite obviously doing the same move here.
This does give me hope for a female Villager and Pokémon Trainer though, as well as alternate costumes such as Outset Link or Doctor Mario.
What is this fashion abomination?
THE STAR FOX CHARACTERS ARE NOT CLONES! THAT'S LIKE SAYING MARIO AND LUIGI ARE!!
Hopefully he won't have the same moveset/animations.

Also take into account the Hula-hoop recovery and other poses. It would almost make this a reality.
[youtube:jD8e3xexHOE]
If I play as Wii Fit Trainer and this is a costume swap, i can guarantee i'll be using it. Sorry if i sound a bit sexist.
I guess this means that The Villager should have this option as well. And hopefully it will shut people up who complain about that type of stuff.
Thanks god they added him, I don't like the female caracter at all, even to do my Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus and now Wii Fit U routine with the male caracter all the time!!
Is obviously a costume.
They should do costume swaps like this more frequently in characters. Then we could have even more options, like Dark Pit and Dr. Mario.
Here's hoping this is just a costume swap, no way in hell will I accept two characters from a franchise that isn't even a game. The Smash Bros. franchise is going to get stained by adding characters just to hype the new IP's Nintendo's getting out of their donkey instead of giving tribute to those who have been there for ever.
Watch the profanity please — TBD
@HawkeyeWii He's just a costume swap for Wii Fit Trainer...
Just to address the comments - OK, maybe calling the Star Fox characters simple model swaps was exaggerating a tad. But you must admit, they were all extremely similar, and, in my opinion, not justified in taking up three slots on the roster.
Assuming this is a costume swap, it's nice to see one that actually affects the size of the character for once. While we've had minor costume-swaps before (Daisy, Dark Samus, Shadow Link, Wario's two seperate outfits), they've always been completely aestetic changes up until now.
Other costume swaps I'd like to see: female Viilager, female Pokémon Trainer (preferably Serena from X/Y), female Pikachu (with the heart-shaped tail), Battle Network / X / Legends style Mega Man, Dark Pit, classic Sonic and Shadow, multiple versions of Zelda (Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, etc.), Samus X, and Marth's Awakening design (from the card, not Lucina's alias unless she was included as a separate character).
magnus from Kid Icarus Uprising needs to be a playable character.
Just because they have the same jump doesn't mean they have the same moveset. Just look at Mario and Luigi in the previous entries. Their jumps are the same but Luigi jumps higher.
Also, instead of being a character of his own, he could just be an alt just like Sheik is to Zelda.
Look at those pecs! ...Er, good 'alt costume' idea. Here's to a female villager and female & male pokemon trainers!
Nintendo really needs to find a difference between "alt costumes" and different characters. For instance, Lucas and Ness should each get an original move set!
Sure.
VAT?
"but we're going to stick our neck on the line and say he's almost certainly going to act as a 'costume swap' for the female"
Hopefully! I don't want to see the "Fit" franchise filling up another character slot! What about King Rool, Rayman, Bomberman?!
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