Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Celebrates All Things 2000s In Its Next Event

"In case it had somehow slipped your mind, it has been revealed that the next fighter to enter the Smash scene will be from ARMS. Here's hoping we hear more about this upcoming character soon."

While nowhere near as hype-killing as Byleth was, it's still worrying that (yes, I know, Smash is supposed to be all about Nintendo, yadda yadda yadda) the first character we got is still a "safe" first-party rep. Yep, it's good to see Spring Man (or whoever it may be) make the jump to playability before a step between installments, but I'm afraid that now that FP2 has been sold, DLC won't go out with a bang, but a whimper. The fighters have been chosen by Nintendo, the same Nintendo that is knowingly going to advertise other games. Getting Crash/Sora/Scorpion/Master Chief/whatever into Smash is a really low priority right now.

And I hope I'm going to eat my words as soon as we finally get the June Smash presentation, because the words I want to eat up are also indirectly belittling Sakurai's hard work. I'm banking on the Mii costumes being one of the highlights of the stream, though.

Hard to imagine that over 11 years have passed since any of these games the fighters debuted in came out.

@AlexSora89 I would still love if this season is mostly 1st and 2nd party since the last one was mostly 3rd party. There is still a good chunk of 1st/2nd party characters that fans want actually thats still never got it.

@Ardisan I think the "2nd party" term only refers to developers. Not games or characters

@AlexSora89 Personally really wouldn't care much if all the new fighters would be 1st or 3rd party though I do have a bit of a preference towards 1st party actually, although there still are some 3rd party characters I would love to see getting in. Though those ones I want don't really have too big of a shot so if we get 1st party characters instead then that will be perfectly fine with me. 3rd parties could gather more initial hype sure but 1st party additions could be just as much fun in the end.

I just looked it up and for some reason I thought Super Mario Galaxy was more recent. 2007....wow.

I thought it would have been 2009 for some reason.

@Yosher @Ardisan
True story, both of you have showcased valid points. Mine is, the matchups we can create here will never be seen again. That's the problem - Smash Ultimate raised the bar too high for fighters to keep up. I bought both Fighter Passes, and I'm crossing all the fingers I have in hope we're not getting "Byleth'd" again. Yes, I actually am thinking of first party reps... but what's even left at this point, Golden Sun aside? Maybe a mechanically distinct Paper Mario and Paper Luigi duo to combine both RPG spinoff series into one character, I don't know. Third parties are actually what makes Smash the celebration of gaming, and there's so much that can be still brought to the table.

I also wish Sakurai could get a vacation, which is exactly why I'm hoping for Fighters Pass 2 to deliver. While I would buy a third Pass, it'd be just to repay Sakurai for all the hard work he does at this point. Not for the value on offer, because despite of the spike in value we got out of Terry's fifty tracks it all went pretty much downhill with Byleth.

ARMS, on the other hand, is a franchise that would normally "miss" its chance (as it happened with Splatoon with Smash 4), so I'm glad we won't have to wait another six years for it to happen. But if we were going to get, say, a Shy Guy, a character from Zelda or even a requested fighter like Bandanna Waddle Dee... well, I doubt I'd be among the hyped people recording their reactions.

@AlexSora89 Byleth was my favorite character in the last pass other than Banjo. The Arms character would be cool if it isn't just spring man Springtron or ribbon girl

@AlexSora89 Really, a character from Zelda is LONG overdue when you look at the facts.

• The Legend of Zelda 'only' has 6 characters.
• When you consider Zelda is one of Nintendo's absolute biggest, and their other two biggest have more than 6 even when you keep out clone characters, this is kind of surprising.
• 3 of these characters are different versions of Link, so there's not much variety there. If you don't count Young Link and Toon Link due to their clone status, or really just because they're simply another Link, then you're left with 4 Zelda characters.
• Ganondorf, the main (and only) playable villain of the series, is relegated to being based off of a character he doesn't even have any sort of connection with (although he's been decloned over the years, that Falcon influence is still very obviously there).
• The Zelda franchise has not received a new character since Brawl, and not a truly UNIQUE character since Melee (since Toon Link is cloned from Link).

Keeping all of this in mind I personally would certainly be very, VERY happy with a new Zelda character. I really feel like this series has gotten the short end of the stick on this front, and is absolutely deserving of a new fighter, and I'm surprised that it still hasn't gotten any since the first Fighter Pass. Honestly I'm hoping they'll rectify this with Fighter Pass 2 and that they'll bring in a character from Breath of the Wild 2, if not simply bringing in Impa with a unique moveset.

Sure, a character from Zelda wouldn't 'celebrate gaming' as much as an addition like Crash or Sora would do but really I'll happily take a new Zelda character over these additions; no offense to people who want these third parties of course. We all have our wishes!

@Dizzard
You might have been thinking of New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

@AlexSora89
Yeah, I thought that Terry should have been the last fighter for Fighter Pass 1. I actually became more interested in Terry after Byleth was revealed.
@Blooper987
I haven't heard almost anyone say that before, and while I think that's bold to say, you might be bombarded by other comments later.

Man, they are killing the smash hype. Drop a good character reveal asap or i feel like the second season pass will be a flop no matter who's in.

@Yosher I thought I was only with that assessment.
For Ganon I feel that he is a completely offbeat version of his character. Not only does Ganon not fight primarily with kicks and fists, he doesnt exactly use this particular sword in Oot in human form. These swords are from Beast Ganon and he dual wields them. Ganon is a Dark magic user and the weapon of his choice is primarily a trident in Oot so I dont understand why they kept him this way for so long. His choke move is the only move I can see him doing.

For the Link clones it kinda bothers me that they didnt differentiate them even more (but that really is a problem with all the returning clones and ECHOs i feel).
Instead of Ylink being oot ylink, they could have made him majora ylink with at least some different b moves related to his masks and maybe give him a mirror shield that reflect projectiles instead of just blocking like the hylian.
With Toon Link they could have gave him a something from Wind Waker and Minish Cap, like Gust Jar or Skull Hammer. Nothing in his kit is from his game only.
Honestly i dont even need them to be drastically different I just want the links to represent more of the zelda series than just the basic boomerang, arrows, and bombs...

@ACNHislit I think this youtuber named Delzethin said it perfectly in his retrospective video on FP 1; as a pure Nintendo fan Banjo was the only announcement B4 Byleth that gave me any sense of excitement. Im fine with the 3rd party reveals but having no Nintendo characters in the fighters pass left me feeling left out. Byleth was an exciting announcement for me, and while I respect everyone elses opinions, I feel like the hate that was generated around Byleth was wrong. Also I will never stop hoping Lyn joins the game.

@Ardisan While I don't necessarily feel that way exactly about Ganondorf (I feel his moveset represents him.. faaaairly well as it does excude his brute strength), you're certainly right that they could do much better for him and give him. Really, I feel like the right course of action here would be to introduce F-Zero's Black Shadow, give him most of Ganondorf's old moveset (if not all of it.. talking pre-Ultimate because swords), then bring Ganondorf up to standard with a new moveset all his own. Old moveset Ganondorf fans will be happy, and fans of Ganondorf as a character will be happy.

For the Links I've personally kind of already come to terms that the smaller Links are just what they are regardless of how much I agree with you that they should represent Majora's Mask and Wind Waker (more) respectively. If anything though I'm a little surprised they kept Young Link in his OoT appearance rather than making him his MM appearance, considering Ganondorf already represents OoT... or maybe they should've let Ganondorf stick with his TP design. Feels silly to have the Zelda characters now represent different games in the series but still have some overlap; Sheik too for OoT technically because her only (canon) appearance was OoT.

All of this though is exactly why I feel a new Zelda character is way overdue, since they really don't seem too keen on properly reworking the existing Zelda cast into something more unique, unfortunately.

Let's hope for that Zelda rep in Fighter Pass 2 to give the series some much-needed love!

@Yosher Its a shame since pretty much all the characters I wanted playable since they were created are assist trophies now (Midna, Ghirihim, and Skull Kid). A Champion seems like the most probable pick from them and thats still fine by me since they would stand out and have a interesting moveset.

Ah! My childhood! I still say the GameCube it's the best console ever!

@Ardisan There's a possibility they'll pick Impa as she's one of few reoccurring characters in the series, or maybe they'll pick a character from BotW2 as advertisement for said game. Who knows how it goes though, especially if Spring Man becomes the ARMS rep, they could upgrade a Zelda character into playable status from any of the assist trophies as well! ... not too big of a chance but I can see it happen.

I have had since launch day and due to having 14 month old daughter. Do the maths! I have not been able to play and backlog is huge. I have ti avoid botw spoilers still at the start😂but smash is a game you can pick up and have a hour of fun so may have a blast today! What is people's fave smash characters. Cloud i seem to pick! Happy gaming everyone!

@Blooper987
Okay, that's a good point. 👍
All I'm saying is to be prepared, if people start "attacking" your comment about Byleth.

@Smashfan508 What I meant, was that it's silly to diversify the Zelda cast to fit different game now, but still have Ganondorf, Young Link and arguably Sheik still represent one game rather than making Young Link from Majora's Mask, Ganondorf from Twilight Princess and keeping Sheik for Ocarina of Time.

And what I mean by reworking the Zelda cast into something more unique.. Ganondorf is still largely Falcondorf, and all Links have pretty similar movesets even if they play differently technically. There's really only three truly unique Zelda characters; Link, Zelda and Sheik. And that needs to be rectified. I don't care if they bring in a Goron for it or a Zora or what have you, Zelda just got the short end of the stick.

@Smashfan508 I know. I never said it's a bad thing to have different versions. But then they have to stay consistent and not still have half the cast still represent the same game. Hence why I suggested different looks for Ganondorf and Young Link!

And I'm personally not really upset with Falcondorf, but just that combined with how few unique movesets the Zelda cast has in general does make it all the more grating. Ganondorf doesn't even get his own victory tune despite some other villains getting one, and Ganondorf is definitely one of those that it would fit most of all for.