Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[Godzillathewonderdog]

Dixie Kong is here too.

She’s saying something about being in Smash, surely.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

Dixie Kong is here too.View attachment 396015
She’s saying something about being in Smash, surely.

The funny thing with Dixie is that the park so clearly based around Donkey Kong Country Returns (about 90% of it) that her inclusion really feels like it came from a brainstorming session to just stick her somewhere because she was just important enough to include even though she wasn't in DKCR (and likely not in the original theme park plans circa that game's prominence).

 

[Noipoi]

The DK stuff looks so cool I can’t wait for it to open up in Florida next year. The only downside is I have to go to goddamn Florida to see it.

Makes me wish there was a new game.

I want Kremling animatronics goddamnit!

 

[Gengar84]

So we're discussing our Top 10 female characters?

1. Dixie Kong
2. Chun-Li
3. Terra Branford
4. Impa
5. Krystal
6. Lyn
7. Pauline
8. Lara Croft
9. Ashley
10. Squid Sisters

Here’s mine:

1. Sarah Kerrigan
2. Jinx
3. Shionne
4. Impa
5. Dixie Kong
6. Jenna Anderson
7. Medusa
8. Nia
9. H’aanit
10. Etna

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

The weird thing about Metal Mario is... the Metal Box now works a bit differently. It's not really an interesting Echo since we already got Dr. Mario who, while not one, is close enough to giving us a fun clone to use. However, the way it works instead of having one simple color for a metallized character is that it creates a hue based upon their overall coloring. So it's not identical to Metal Mario's solid colors. So technically he wouldn't be identical(not saying he should be playable like that either) anyway.

That said, apparently Weight is the same for an Echo, and Metal Mario would weigh muuuuuuch more. It's kind of his thing. So he probably wouldn't even be treated as one in-game even then, heh.

But anyway, yeah, many do really try too hard to make it work. The more work you have to do, the less it really makes sense.

 

[Godzillathewonderdog]

The funny thing with Dixie is that the park so clearly based around Donkey Kong Country Returns (about 90% of it) that her inclusion really feels like it came from a brainstorming session to just stick her somewhere because she was just important enough to include even though she wasn't in DKCR (and likely not in the original theme park plans circa that game's prominence).

It seems like Nintendo has been trying to push their female characters into more prominent roles lately, so that may have played a role.

Speaking of female characters my top 10 most wanted are

1: Dixie Kong
2: Chun-Li
3: Jill Valentine
4: 2B
5: Midna
6: Ring Fit Trainee
7: Lara Croft
8: Impa
9: Rhythm Heaven Girl
10: Toadette (preferably as a alternate costume for Toad)

 

[Laniv]

Dixie Kong is here too.View attachment 396015
She’s saying something about being in Smash, surely.

Come on, Isabelle-style semiclone...

 

[ninjahmos]

How would you guys feel if Smash introduced not only multiple Final Smashes, but also EX Special Moves like in traditional fighting games?

 

[Perkilator]

So we're discussing our Top 10 female characters?

1. Dixie Kong
2. Chun-Li
3. Terra Branford
4. Impa
5. Krystal
6. Lyn
7. Pauline
8. Lara Croft
9. Ashley
10. Squid Sisters

My top 10 overall:

1. Pauline
2. Dixie Kong
3. Mio (preferably alongside Noah)
4. Chun-Li
5. Marina
6. Aigis
7. Estelle Bright
8. Sakura Shinguji
9. Jill Valentine
10. Ayumi Tachibana

Honorable mention goes to Alear and Ring Fit Trainee.

 

[Kirbeh]

How would you guys feel if Smash introduced not only multiple Final Smashes, but also EX Special Moves like in traditional fighting games?

If by multiple Final Smashes you mean multiple fighting game supers (and EX moves) I'd be pretty ecstatic so long as they were actually handled properly.

My ad nauseum request remains:

Make Final Smashes goofy, unbalanced nonsense again. Make them Smash Ball exclusive again too.

Give us actual supers and ex moves and tie those to a more balanced meter mechanic.

I appreciate Sakurai trying to walk back from how extremely gimped he made Brawl but so far most attempts have been pretty half baked and seemingly come from a place that still doesn't quite understand what the more dedicated crowd wants.

(I say seemingly because I honestly do think he's well aware but fears that throwing any bones to competitive players will automatically alienate casuals, despite the fact that they occupy different audiences who don't interact all that much.)

That said I don't expect Smash to ever go down that route even without Sakurai. I think Nintendo themselves are also much more in favor of keeping the focus as casual as possible.

For whatever reason there remains this perception that if one group is having fun with the game, the other isn't. And if those scales are tipped towards more options and mechanical depth this is suddenly a problem that needs to be solved as opposed to simply being more stuff for every kind player to mess around with.

Melee is oft remembered for the competitive scene it started but that evolved over time and came much later. People played and continue to play each iteration of Smash in casual settings just fine.

That got kinda rambly and ranty, so, sorry about that.

 

[Pupp135]

On the topic of girl characters, I would really love to see Pauline and Lara Croft in the next Smash Bros game, now that people are more knowledgeable in a way about the former and the latter seems to be on less legal hell nowadays.

Both really feel like no-brainers from the gaming history side of things: the first gaming girl if we don't count the stuck-in-legal hell Ms.Pac-Man, and one of the biggest Western videogame icons from the 90s.

Lara Croft's moveset is easy to imagine, as for Pauline I would really love It if she took stuff from both Odyssey and the Mario VS Donkey Kong titles. I feel there's potential as with Rosalina to make a special moveset for her.

Another girl I would like to see in Smash Bros is Brite Bomber from Fortnite, but sadly I believe she's unlikely due to the Samus in Fortnite conflict Epic and Nintendo had. But hey, the Smash team has gotten away with a lot of things already so who knows.

My most wanted girl character is Amy from the Sonic series, and I think that there are a ton of great choices for girl newcomers, and here is a list of fifteen (unordered) that I think would be cool to see in addition to Amy, Pauline, and Lara.

1. Toadette
2. Vivian
3. Dixie Kong
4. Ashley
5. Midna
6. Lyn
7. Celica
8. Tinkaton
9. Off the Hook
10. Arle
11. Chun-Li
12. Jill Valentine
13. Terra
14. Yuna
15. 2B

 

[Laniv]

How would you guys feel if Smash introduced not only multiple Final Smashes, but also EX Special Moves like in traditional fighting games?

Ehhh... I dunno, leaning on "no thanks", but it depends on how they're implemented

 

[ninjahmos]

You know who I think is a cool character that I kind of want in Smash but is probably never getting in? Revolver Ocelot.

Especially if they can use his designs from MGS1, MGS3, MGS4 (Liquid Ocelot) and MGSV.

 

[Perkilator]

Question: What do you feel like is an inevitability for the next Smash, regardless of how you feel about it?

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Question: What do you feel like is an inevitability for the next Smash, regardless of how you feel about it?

Didn't Quilt just make a threat for this?

 

[KillerCage]

I got to ask but what are the chances that none of the third-party veterans will return in the next Smash Bros game at least in the base game?

 

[Perkilator]

Didn't Quilt just make a threat for this?

Yeah but I wanted to bring this question to this thread when I saw Quillon’s.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

I got to ask but what are the chances that none of the third-party veterans will return in the next Smash Bros game at least in the base game?

Pretty low.

I think a Smash game releasing without Sonic or Mega Man would cause riots nowadays.

 

[Gorgonzales]

Question: What do you feel like is an inevitability for the next Smash, regardless of how you feel about it?

It'll be priced at 70 dollars since they know they can get away with it.

 

[NintenRob]

Echo fighters

This is how I've always viewed echo fighters and what makes them different to to previous clones in the series. To me, echo fighters are characters who make sense to be alternate costumes. That's how Lucina and Dark Pit were originally conceived. And it's what Daisy and Dark Samus sorta kinda were with Peach and Samus's skin (they were close enough in resemblance that the alt skins were removed when Daisy and Dark Samus became playable). That's the sort of quality I look for in other potential echo fighters. To look at another fighting series, the unique character skins in Injustice. Mr Freeze makes total sense as a skin for Captain Cold, but if were Smash, he'd probably be an echo fighter instead.

 

[AreJay25]

Question: What do you feel like is an inevitability for the next Smash, regardless of how you feel about it?

The netcode will probably still be complete trash.

I'd love to be wrong. I don't expect to be.

 

[DarthEnderX]

I've said this before and I'll say it again:

And you're talking to a strawman, because nobody actually thinks that.

regardless of what I think of the game, SFV has some awesome music that absolutely should be in Smash in some form.

SF5's music is hot garbo compared to SF4's!

Volcanic Rim
Crumbling Lab
Balrog's Theme
Sakura's Theme

Question: What do you feel like is an inevitability for the next Smash, regardless of how you feel about it?

Another Pokemon.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

I got to ask but what are the chances that none of the third-party veterans will return in the next Smash Bros game at least in the base game?

Pretty low, bordering on impossible, I'd say. Sonic hasn't missed a game since he's been added, and Namco will presumably be helping out again, so I feel like Pac-Man would be practically guaranteed with that condition.

Not to mention my personal thoughts/opinions on characters like Banjo and Bayonetta coming back.

 

[Pupp135]

I got to ask but what are the chances that none of the third-party veterans will return in the next Smash Bros game at least in the base game?

I find it very improbable, and I’d be very shocked if Sonic, Mega Man, Pac-Man, or Ryu misses the cut.

 

[Perkilator]

I got to ask but what are the chances that none of the third-party veterans will return in the next Smash Bros game at least in the base game?

Aside from me hoping for the return of Banjo and Sora, I don’t find it likely that we won’t have at least Sonic, Mega Man and PAC-MAN back.

 

[KillerCage]

Pretty low.

I think a Smash game releasing without Sonic or Mega Man would cause riots nowadays.

Pretty low, bordering on impossible, I'd say. Sonic hasn't missed a game since he's been added, and Namco will presumably be helping out again, so I feel like Pac-Man would be practically guaranteed with that condition.

Not to mention my personal thoughts/opinions on characters like Banjo and Bayonetta coming back.

I do believe Sonic is the most likely to return followed by Pacman.
Outside of DLC, I have a hard time seeing most of them coming back.
Even those who have a lot of content in Ultimate (Megaman, the Belmonts, and Terry) would be difficult to get back intact.

 

[AreJay25]

I do believe Sonic is the most likely to return followed by Pacman.
Outside of DLC, I have a hard time seeing most of them coming back.
Even those who have a lot of content in Ultimate (Megaman, the Belmonts, and Terry) would be difficult to get back intact.

Nah I don't see Mega Man and Terry getting axed. Capcom and SNK are very easy to work with, especially the latter.

The Belmont's are a bit more of a question, but Konami's been slowly improving their image so I wouldn't be surprised if they came back either.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

I do believe Sonic is the most likely to return followed by Pacman.
Outside of DLC, I have a hard time seeing most of them coming back.
Even those who have a lot of content in Ultimate (Megaman, the Belmonts, and Terry) would be difficult to get back intact.

I mean I don't personally think Mega Man would be too hard considering he was base game in Smash 4, and if Ryu is now owned (or whatever the term is) by Capcom's Japanese branch rather than Capcom USA, it'd be even easier for Street Fighter since you talk about them when you talk about Mega Man.

Personally though, I genuinely feel like Banjo is shockingly one of the more likely candidates to come back out of Ultimate's 3rd parties, and I don't think this is my bias talking.

Banjo is a super popular request (second highest realizable character after Sora), he was very easy to license according to Sakurai, Microsoft wants to keep a good relationship with Nintendo (they even showed up in the graphic about 3rd party relations in the recent investor's meeting), both Banjo games are on NSO which would presumably net Microsoft nothing more than the licensing costs since you don't have to buy the game separately, and Microsoft would make a bunch of Smash licensing money for a character they pretty much don't use.

It's so high a reward for practically zero risk that I would genuinely be kinda shocked if Banjo doesn't show up in base game.

 

[ninjahmos]

And you're talking to a strawman, because nobody actually thinks that.

Speak for yourself, bro.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

While there's no way we drop all of the 3rd party characters, we will definitely see some shocking cuts, in large part because as a whole, this thread kind of seems convinced that everyone that isn't owned by SquareEnix is safe, and I don't think it's realistic to expect more than a handful to return.

To be fair, Snake has been the only 3rd party cut, and we don't know why, and every 3rd party veteran not named Sonic was brought back via "Everyone is Here!" so we have basically 0 data on who stays and who goes.

 

[smashkirby]

My top 10 overall:

1. Pauline
2. Dixie Kong
3. Mio (preferably alongside Noah)
4. Chun-Li
5. Marina
6. Aigis
7. Estelle Bright
8. Sakura Shinguji
9. Jill Valentine
10. Ayumi Tachibana

Honorable mention goes to Alear and Ring Fit Trainee.

Eh, why not? I'll take a stab at this.

1. Mona (WarioWare)
2. Dixie Kong
3. Arle Nadja
4. Chun-Li
5. Ayumi Tachibana
6. Pauline
7. Krystal (Star Fox)
8. Tifa Lockhart
9. Yuka (Rhythm Heaven)
10. Cynthia and Garchomp

Special mentions to Lip (Panel de Pon), Lyn, Barbara the Bat, Shantae, Sakura Shinguji and Sakura Amemiya (as an Olimar/Alph-type deal), Ashley (WarioWare), Captain Syrup, Adeleine (Kirby), Mai Shiranui, Bonne Jenet, Nakoruru, Athena Asamiya, Sakura Kasugano, Akira Kazama, Sarah Bryant and Roll (Mega Man).

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

Nintendo Music users, they added Wii Sports to the service tonight.

Apparently might've been a different time than usual since news articles about it are from like 3 hours ago which places it way before that 10:30pm EST timeframe from the last few, so it might genuinely just be whenever they wanna do it lmao

 

[Scrimblo Bimblo]

The way people neglect this is very frustrating - there's a clear imbalance of Street Fighter representation that many Smash fans are either ambivalent toward or outright unware of. This is the same community that acknowledges there's a problem that Kirby neglects a significant chunk of its modern history, that recognizes how frustrating it is that Final Fantasy is only being carried by FF7, but kinda just shrugs and looks the other way at the fact that Street Fighter II and its variants are the only SF game treated like it's worth a damn in Smash Bros.

Well but Street Fighter is not a Nintendo series, it's not realistic that it and Kirby should be held to the same standards.
Two playable characters, an (admittedly not particularly memorable) stage, a major cameo of another character with Guile, and the entire soundtrack of the series' most popular entry is A LOT of stuff for a crossover.
Not to say that Chun Li wouldn't be a good inclusion, but Street Fighter isn't really starved for content, or at least, not more than Metal Gear Solid or Dragon Quest or really most other 3rd party IPs.

The DK theme park makes me sad.

 

[The Stoopid Unikorn]

Well but Street Fighter is not a Nintendo series, it's not realistic that it and Kirby should be held to the same standards.
Two playable characters, an (admittedly not particularly memorable) stage, a major cameo of another character with Guile, and the entire soundtrack of the series' most popular entry is A LOT of stuff for a crossover.
Not to say that Chun Li wouldn't be a good inclusion, but Street Fighter isn't really starved for content, or at least, not more than Metal Gear Solid or Dragon Quest or really most other 3rd party IPs.

The DK theme park makes me sad.

And Sakurai is not a Nintendo employee. In his perspective, even talking to Nintendo about first-party additions requires just as much stuff as with third-parties. The only major difference is that they have been partners for such a long time that there's a lot of trust but it's not as simple as Sakurai doing whatever he wants without needing approval. He still needs to ask about every single aspect.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

Another thing that everyone should probably keep in mind is that the addition of a character from a company isn't going to guarantee the rest of that company's veterans. I get the idea that negotiating for each character at once is more convenient, but that's not likely to have any bearing on roster selection, and if a character isn't selected for the roster, there's no need to negotiate for them. This will be especially true for veterans that are owned/require the involvement of different subsidiaries since that's going to require multiple negotiations anyway.

There's also nothing stopping them from negotiating for base roster and DLC appearances at the same time, but I doubt that'd end up being standard practice, or even notably often given Sakurai's current approach to DLC.

 

[ninjahmos]

Is it just me or does Nintendo not seem to care that much about Donkey Kong?

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Is it just me or does Nintendo not seem to care that much about Donkey Kong?

They care a lot. They advertise it a ton.

I think the issue is that they're having problems finding a developer for DK.

 

[Schnee117]

Is it just me or does Nintendo not seem to care that much about Donkey Kong?

If they didn't care then it wouldn't be the second major area of their theme parks

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

One funny thing I just noticed: Both reveal trailers for Fire Emblem characters are literally just edited cutscenes from the respective character's games.

 

[The Stoopid Unikorn]

One funny thing I just noticed: Both reveal trailers for Fire Emblem characters are literally just edited cutscenes from the respective character's games.

Bro, did you forget Robin's trailer?