Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[Wonder Smash]

Yeah, I’d love to see other companies try their hand at their own Smash style game. Unfortunately, most haven’t had a ton of success other than Smash itself. Microsoft owns a lot of IP I like so they could be a fun option too. I think Square-Enix has enough to work with to fill out a whole game’s roster pretty easily too. And that’s before going into non game IP and companies for other Smash style games.

The thing that frustrates me is that I feel that a big company like SEGA can pull it off but they just...don't, for some reason. They own so many great IPs and have done a lot of crossovers that were just as crazy as Smash in some ways. Maybe crazier. And it's not like they haven't done a crossover fighting game before, so why not give it another go? Instead, they just keep adding their characters to Smash, a crossover that's obviously not theirs. I just don't get it.

 

[Louie G.]

No personal disrespect to Toad intended but, at least trying to crack Sakurai’s perspective, he feels like a “take it or leave it” character. He’s one of the most prominent faces across Mario games, but he’s also part of a greater species and rarely plays a central force. He’s just around or often works to supplement the player count. Nobody would argue against his inclusion but he also lingers somewhere below the core four in absolute necessity.

This isn’t me saying Toad is just a filler character or disregarding that he is an important part of the series, though. He was one of the main characters in the Mario movie and recently is one of a few characters to get those Universal arm bands. He’s also got a mascot suit in the park. He’s clearly a central part of the Mario brand, but it’s possible that his more passive / less impactful roles just don’t inspire creativity the same way Bowser Jr or Rosalina did in Smash 4. And as far as Ultimate goes he just wouldn’t have been as shocking as Plant, which was the goal with that character. The slate is clean now, so we’ll see.

I think it’s still possible that we can see Toad make the jump over, I’ve reassessed it some and I abide a bit less by the “it would have happened already” mentality when you track back on every entry. Up to Brawl it’s understandable and Smash 4 was fixated more on expanding unique moveset potential. But I fear there might continue to be more compelling / “active” options orbiting within the competition if that kind of inspiration remains the priority. Personally I think Captain Toad should have reasonably been the one to finally make it happen but I wonder if his ship has kind of sailed. Timing did him dirty if he wasn’t able to get in during Smash 4 DLC or Ultimate.

 

[MBRedboy31]

I personally see Captain Toad’s moveset potential much more strongly than regular Toad’s. He has a lot more stuff that’s exclusively his (instead of picking up the scraps that other Mario movesets do not use.)

I was thinking that, like Steve, he has very bad aerial mobility (he can jump here, but his jumps are bad. He has good aerials, it’s just that his actual jump and double jump are bad.) And, like Steve, he has options to manipulate the terrain to give him very unique mobility that’s distinct from any other character including Steve. In his game, for example, there’s platforms that move when you blow into the Wii U Gamepad’s micrphone, and platforms that pop out of the ground when he pulls a lever. I think the propeller platform could be aimed in any direction and would allow him to still do any grounded normal from it, which would be a very powerful option for both recovery and for lunging toward enemies while doing an attack of his choice. For the lever, he could pick multiple types of temporary platforms to summon depending on which way you hold the stick; for example, you could summon a sloped soft platform that’s an upward ramp, or you can summon a flat platform above Captain Toad with a ladder attached to the underside of it. (A ladder! Competitive players are gonna have to learn how ladders work!)

I’d probably just give him the Super Pickaxe for most of his normals, which isn’t exactly how it’s used in his own game, but it would alleviate one of the other issues plaguing both him and regular Toad, which is them having puny limbs that are hard to read in gameplay. In Captain Toad he also throws turnips like Peach does, so I’m not sure what would be best to make that unique from Peach. Maybe they’d be larger turnips that are “heavy” objects (like crates or the Wario Bike) so the way you use them are different?

 

[Ivander]

The thing that frustrates me is that I feel that a big company like SEGA can pull it off but they just...don't, for some reason. They own so many great IPs and have done a lot of crossovers that were just as crazy as Smash in some ways. Maybe crazier. And it's not like they haven't done a crossover fighting game before, so why not give it another go? Instead, they just keep adding their characters to Smash, a crossover that's obviously not theirs. I just don't get it.

Probably the biggest issue is that permission from all the IP holders involved is needed. Like how Sakurai needs to communicate with the developers in regards to characters and whatnot, even Nintendo developers like the ARMS director and Intelligent Systems. This isn't a Smash exclusive thing. Developers depending on the series need to get permission and whatnot from the developers of those series.
Similarly, Sumo Digital needed to see all the IP holders, including most notably one of the main Skies of Arcadia makers, in regards to Sega characters they wanted to put in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and one character they couldn't get in, a Virtual-On character, was due to "ownership issues", despite the fact that Sega does own Virtual-On and was fully responsible for developing all of the Virtual-On games aside from the crossover A Certain Magical Virtual-On by Access Games.

 

[Speed Weed]

Back on the topic of Sonic and Sega, I would really like Sonic to get a second character in Smash but it is sort of a shame that it tends to cannibalize discussion of other Sega characters. It comes around every so often but I think say, in contrast to Capcom, you don’t hear much resistance toward a second Sonic character over prospecting new series the way you do concern about Chun-Li over Monster Hunter, DMC etc.

Personally I’d be hella game to see Sega and Capcom get two new characters next game, one from a currently represented series and one from a new one. Whatever those may be. I don’t really care much about trying to do a company balancing act when you have some partners like Sega and Capcom that just have a wealth of valuable, individually merited choices.

…I have my preferences, if it isn’t obvious, but anything from Puyo to Yakuza to SMT, classical picks like Axel Stone or more specific, overlooked pulls like Sakura Wars are cool in my book.

I think I've more or less made my peace with it at this point, but it used to be such a huge pain point for me, lol. I think in the end it really just comes down to Smash fans generally caring a lot about Sonic and not caring as much for most other SEGA stuff, at least the ones that tend to be considered viable candidates - if they do pay attention to other SEGA IPs, it's usually the more mascot-y, more dormant, already Sonic-associated properties that are already understood to not have many credentials for inclusion anyway. But yeah there's a lot of really neat stuff in there. I think at this point what would make me happiest would be Puyo, Sakura Wars, Phantasy Star or any of their classic arcade characters

 

[Wonder Smash]

Probably the biggest issue is that permission from all the IP holders involved is needed. Like how Sakurai needs to communicate with the developers in regards to characters and whatnot, even Nintendo developers like the ARMS director and Intelligent Systems. This isn't a Smash exclusive thing. Developers depending on the series need to get permission and whatnot from the developers of those series.
Similarly, Sumo Digital needed to see all the IP holders, including most notably one of the main Skies of Arcadia makers, in regards to Sega characters they wanted to put in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and one character they couldn't get in, a Virtual-On character, was due to "ownership issues", despite the fact that Sega does own Virtual-On and was fully responsible for developing all of the Virtual-On games aside from the crossover A Certain Magical Virtual-On by Access Games.

Yet, they still managed to make crossovers with these different SEGA characters in them. So ownership issues might not be that big of a problem. Or at least, not bad enough to prevent another crossover fighting game. Though, that does make me wonder if that's why Phantasy Star characters weren't in the Project X Zone games...or even in SEGA's own games (except for SEGA Heroes).

 

[ninjahmos]

On the topic of other SEGA IPs in Smash…

I'd still love to see Arle, Kiryu and a Phantasy Star character (among many other legacy SEGA IPs) get in. And Sakura (both Shinguji and Amamiya) with a new remix of this:

 

[SPEN18]

Nabbit always seemed like a New Super Luigi U character, but with his appearance in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, perhaps he might become a staple character. It would be interesting to see what they would do with his moveset.

Nabbit is a "character to watch" for me. Right now it feels like there are bigger fish to fry when it comes to potential Mario reps, but if Nabbit continues getting playable roles in big Mario games, and/or some of the competition ends up getting in to thin the pool a bit, he could start looking like a pretty good candidate.

 

[Speed Weed]

Yet, they still managed to make crossovers with these different SEGA characters in them. So ownership issues might not be that big of a problem. Or at least, not bad enough to prevent another crossover fighting game. Though, that does make me wonder if that's why Phantasy Star characters weren't in the Project X Zone games...or even in SEGA's own games (except for SEGA Heroes).

For the Sumo Digital games at least, a lot of this info is now obscure or buried in archived forums but if I had to take a guess, it was the fact that Phantasy Star games weren't being localized at the time. We do know from a recent interview that they wanted to do a PSO track for Transformed, but for whatever reason weren't able to do it. As for PxZ, I'd assume that was just up to the devs and they didn't feel like including it.

 

[Laniv]

And I'm gonna say: a composite Toad, using traits of both Toad and Captain Toad, could work. Not saying I'd necessarily like it, but it can work.

 

[DarthEnderX]

Goomba and Koopa if you want more generic enemies

We don't.

And I'm gonna say: a composite Toad, using traits of both Toad and Captain Toad, could work.

100% the route they should take.

 

[Gengar84]

We don't.

100% the route they should take.

Speak for yourself. Goomba is my favorite and most wanted Mario character.

 

[Borskaboska]

Yet, they still managed to make crossovers with these different SEGA characters in them. So ownership issues might not be that big of a problem. Or at least, not bad enough to prevent another crossover fighting game. Though, that does make me wonder if that's why Phantasy Star characters weren't in the Project X Zone games...or even in SEGA's own games (except for SEGA Heroes).

I've been wondering about stuff like this recently, mostly because I played Nick Allstars 2 recently and wasnt too impressed. I'm trying to think of what the difference is between Smash and other platform fighters, and trying to figure out how Nintendo can get away with such an impressive crossover every single console gen and meanwhile Sony cant even get Spyro the Dragon.

The only thing I can think of is that smash is made in japan by developers either close-to or owned by Nintendo (Sora, HAL, IntSys), while every other platform fighter is developed by some small studio that has no history with the publisher OR is outside the country (NASB with Fair Play, PSASBR with Superbot, Sega stuff with Sumo)

I imagine if you are trying to negotiate licenses, Sakurai probably has a lot more sway than some no-name like Superbot. And being in the same country probably helps too, like Sumo (a british company) trying to negotiate with Japanese rights holders. Everything I've heard about japanese companies make them seem very insular and hierarchical, so I'd think developers like these would be working at a disadvantage.

So I think if sega wants a crossover game that has all the characters that fans want and doesn't have to cut corners... it'd probably need to be made in house. Or at least by a japanese studio, headed by some sega alumni. At least in collaberation with Sumo.

This is just a guess I could be wrong of course.

 

[OliviaWildson]

And I'm gonna say: a composite Toad, using traits of both Toad and Captain Toad, could work. Not saying I'd necessarily like it, but it can work.

Great idea my little boy Toad

 

[BuckleyTim]

Nabbit feels like assist trophy material to me, mostly because his gimmick of "he's invincible but he steals stuff with the bag" feels like an easy thing to translate to an assist.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

Nabbit feels like assist trophy material to me, mostly because his gimmick of "he's invincible but he steals stuff with the bag" feels like an easy thing to translate to an assist.

Honestly that's basically what he does on Mushroom Kingdom U, so I wouldn't be surprised if he just kinda did that as an Assist Trophy since I don't feel like that stage would return lol

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

Honestly that's basically what he does on Mushroom Kingdom U, so I wouldn't be surprised if he just kinda did that as an Assist Trophy since I don't feel like that stage would return lol

And even if it does, just make him unable to be summoned on it like Palkia with Spear Pillar.

 

[BuckleyTim]

This goes to show how many times I've played on mushroom kingdom U. I had no idea nabbit even appeared there.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

This goes to show how many times I've played on mushroom kingdom U. I had no idea nabbit even appeared there.

Yeah, he appears during transitions between layouts and runs around trying to catch a fighter in his bag, then once he does, he'll run for a bit before slowly rocketing into the sky/upper blast zone, assuming the fighter doesn't break out of the bag in the meantime.

 

[Super Devon]

So, stages, I’m thinking about new stages right now.
I can see us definitely getting a stage from Super Mario Bros Wonder, a stage from either Kirby and the Forgotten Land or Return to Dreamland Deluxe, and possibly a stage from Metroid Dread.
And maybe something from Zelda Tears of the Kingdom and Sonic Frontiers?

Okay but actually, when’s Pokémon Stadium 3?

 

[Guynamednelson]

Okay but actually, when’s Pokémon Stadium 3?

The people who made the old Stadium games think it's pointless because the new Pokemon games already have 3D battles

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

Okay but actually, when’s Pokémon Stadium 3?

See, we can't get that because they'd probably have to call it Pokemon Colosseum at that point and we know Pokemon isn't going to acknowledge those games beyond a single tweet

 

[Among Waddle Dees]

See, we can't get that because they'd probably have to call it Pokemon Colosseum at that point and we know Pokemon isn't going to acknowledge those games beyond a single tweet

Oh? Was there actually a tweet about Colosseum at some point recently? That would be an extremely substantial improvement.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

Oh? Was there actually a tweet about Colosseum at some point recently? That would be an extremely substantial improvement.

They did actually, in mid-September for a tweet related to National Video Game Day lol

I do still hope we can eventually get those games on the music app, but we're yet to see anything Pokemon related aside from Scarlet and Violet that came with the service lol

 

[Opossum]

See, we can't get that because they'd probably have to call it Pokemon Colosseum at that point and we know Pokemon isn't going to acknowledge those games beyond a single tweet

I get the joke, but I do want to point out that Pokémon Stadium is a three game series...in Japan exclusively. The game we in the west know as Pokémon Stadium is known in Japan as Pokémon Stadium 2. Their version of Pokémon Stadium 1 was far more primitive, only having some of the Kanto dex included instead of all of it. Meanwhile, the one we call Pokémon Stadium 2 was called Pokémon Stadium: Gold and Silver in Japanese (and colloquially referred to as Stadium 3).

 

[RealLuigisWearPink]

I get the joke, but I do want to point out that Pokémon Stadium is a three game series...in Japan exclusively. The game we in the west know as Pokémon Stadium is known in Japan as Pokémon Stadium 2. Their version of Pokémon Stadium 1 was far more primitive, only having some of the Kanto dex included instead of all of it. Meanwhile, the one we call Pokémon Stadium 2 was called Pokémon Stadium: Gold and Silver in Japanese (and colloquially referred to as Stadium 3).

next you’re gonna tell me Mario 2 is actually a reskin of a different game

 

[NintenRob]

No personal disrespect to Toad intended but, at least trying to crack Sakurai’s perspective, he feels like a “take it or leave it” character. He’s one of the most prominent faces across Mario games, but he’s also part of a greater species and rarely plays a central force. He’s just around or often works to supplement the player count. Nobody would argue against his inclusion but he also lingers somewhere below the core four in absolute necessity.

This isn’t me saying Toad is just a filler character or disregarding that he is an important part of the series, though. He was one of the main characters in the Mario movie and recently is one of a few characters to get those Universal arm bands. He’s also got a mascot suit in the park. He’s clearly a central part of the Mario brand, but it’s possible that his more passive / less impactful roles just don’t inspire creativity the same way Bowser Jr or Rosalina did in Smash 4. And as far as Ultimate goes he just wouldn’t have been as shocking as Plant, which was the goal with that character. The slate is clean now, so we’ll see.

I think it’s still possible that we can see Toad make the jump over, I’ve reassessed it some and I abide a bit less by the “it would have happened already” mentality when you track back on every entry. Up to Brawl it’s understandable and Smash 4 was fixated more on expanding unique moveset potential. But I fear there might continue to be more compelling / “active” options orbiting within the competition if that kind of inspiration remains the priority. Personally I think Captain Toad should have reasonably been the one to finally make it happen but I wonder if his ship has kind of sailed. Timing did him dirty if he wasn’t able to get in during Smash 4 DLC or Ultimate.

Sometimes it feels like Toad is moving in an opposite direction to Kamek. They're moving away from a having a THE Toad and instead keeping Toad as more of a species character. Even the Mario movie which had a central Toad character was simply referred to as a Toad.

 

[CommanderZaktan]

Found this about the Chorus Kids almost getting into Smash 4 https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2024/dec/03/unrepresented-character-ssbu-scrapped-never/

Also, their latest appearance that isn't Rhythm Heaven is from Warioware Move It. They appear in the intro cutscene on tv.

 

[superprincess]

No personal disrespect to Toad intended but, at least trying to crack Sakurai’s perspective, he feels like a “take it or leave it” character. He’s one of the most prominent faces across Mario games, but he’s also part of a greater species and rarely plays a central force. He’s just around or often works to supplement the player count. Nobody would argue against his inclusion but he also lingers somewhere below the core four in absolute necessity.

This isn’t me saying Toad is just a filler character or disregarding that he is an important part of the series, though. He was one of the main characters in the Mario movie and recently is one of a few characters to get those Universal arm bands. He’s also got a mascot suit in the park. He’s clearly a central part of the Mario brand, but it’s possible that his more passive / less impactful roles just don’t inspire creativity the same way Bowser Jr or Rosalina did in Smash 4. And as far as Ultimate goes he just wouldn’t have been as shocking as Plant, which was the goal with that character. The slate is clean now, so we’ll see.

I think it’s still possible that we can see Toad make the jump over, I’ve reassessed it some and I abide a bit less by the “it would have happened already” mentality when you track back on every entry. Up to Brawl it’s understandable and Smash 4 was fixated more on expanding unique moveset potential. But I fear there might continue to be more compelling / “active” options orbiting within the competition if that kind of inspiration remains the priority. Personally I think Captain Toad should have reasonably been the one to finally make it happen but I wonder if his ship has kind of sailed. Timing did him dirty if he wasn’t able to get in during Smash 4 DLC or Ultimate.

Toad is honestly just a nothing character. He has no notable skills or abilities that could make for a compelling moveset. I could see him happening in Melee or Brawl, but with the standards of newcomers nowadays, there's just no way. He missed his chance and is relegated to a special move for life. Toad fans' best shot is an expanded role in the princesses' moveset—which I, as a Peach fan, would hate. All in all, he just has no main draw, he's just kinda there whenever they need him to be. And remember, it's important for Smash characters to "have only something they can do". (This isn't taking into account Captain Toad or Toadette).

Toad/ette is one of my most wanted picks but realistically, it's just not happening.

 

[fogbadge]

Toad is honestly just a nothing character. He has no notable skills or abilities that could make for a compelling moveset. I could see him happening in Melee or Brawl, but with the standards of newcomers nowadays, there's just no way. He missed his chance and is relegated to a special move for life. Toad fans' best shot is an expanded role in the princesses' moveset—which I, as a Peach fan, would hate. All in all, he just has no main draw, he's just kinda there whenever they need him to be. And remember, it's important for Smash characters to "have only something they can do". (This isn't taking into account Captain Toad or Toadette).

Toad/ette is one of my most wanted picks but realistically, it's just not happening.

well pardon me while I die on the hill that claims to be hogwash

 

[RodNutTakin]

Back on the topic of Sonic and Sega, I would really like Sonic to get a second character in Smash but it is sort of a shame that it tends to cannibalize discussion of other Sega characters. It comes around every so often but I think say, in contrast to Capcom, you don’t hear much resistance toward a second Sonic character over prospecting new series the way you do concern about Chun-Li over Monster Hunter, DMC etc.

Personally I’d be hella game to see Sega and Capcom get two new characters next game, one from a currently represented series and one from a new one. Whatever those may be. I don’t really care much about trying to do a company balancing act when you have some partners like Sega and Capcom that just have a wealth of valuable, individually merited choices.

…I have my preferences, if it isn’t obvious, but anything from Puyo to Yakuza to SMT, classical picks like Axel Stone or more specific, overlooked pulls like Sakura Wars are cool in my book.

I think it is mainly to do with a fact that every non-Eggman choice for Sonic would inherently be a lot less work to do compared to adding another World Warrior, considering only Akuma is really left in terms of characters that follow the Ryu model really closely.
Also because the predecent so far is that every new SEGA series after Sonic has been introduced as DLC, while everyone is expecting a new Sonic guy to be a base game addition (and considering the circumstances around Sonic in Brawl...if DLC existed in 2007, I would bet that Sonic would've been introduced as such, too). If people were raising up the possibility of Shadow DLC like they were for Ultimate...you'd definitely be getting more pushback from me, to say the least.
Doesn't help that Ken was the only new Capcom guy we got for Ultimate. I shudder at the thought of only getting yet another Street Fighter and nothing else like last time.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Toad is honestly just a nothing character. He has no notable skills or abilities that could make for a compelling moveset. I could see him happening in Melee or Brawl, but with the standards of newcomers nowadays, there's just no way. He missed his chance and is relegated to a special move for life. Toad fans' best shot is an expanded role in the princesses' moveset—which I, as a Peach fan, would hate. All in all, he just has no main draw, he's just kinda there whenever they need him to be. And remember, it's important for Smash characters to "have only something they can do". (This isn't taking into account Captain Toad or Toadette).

Toad/ette is one of my most wanted picks but realistically, it's just not happening.

Toad isn't particularly flashy but this isn't a good summary of his abilities. He has a unique body shape. That alone gives him potential for unique normals right there.

I'm sure you heard the ideas for his specials, and they didn't seem to convince you. But I don't think you're coming at this with an open mind.

 

[Wonder Smash]

I'm going to pretend a certain poster didn't just reply to me.

I've been wondering about stuff like this recently, mostly because I played Nick Allstars 2 recently and wasnt too impressed. I'm trying to think of what the difference is between Smash and other platform fighters, and trying to figure out how Nintendo can get away with such an impressive crossover every single console gen and meanwhile Sony cant even get Spyro the Dragon.

The only thing I can think of is that smash is made in japan by developers either close-to or owned by Nintendo (Sora, HAL, IntSys), while every other platform fighter is developed by some small studio that has no history with the publisher OR is outside the country (NASB with Fair Play, PSASBR with Superbot, Sega stuff with Sumo)

I imagine if you are trying to negotiate licenses, Sakurai probably has a lot more sway than some no-name like Superbot. And being in the same country probably helps too, like Sumo (a british company) trying to negotiate with Japanese rights holders. Everything I've heard about japanese companies make them seem very insular and hierarchical, so I'd think developers like these would be working at a disadvantage.

So I think if sega wants a crossover game that has all the characters that fans want and doesn't have to cut corners... it'd probably need to be made in house. Or at least by a japanese studio, headed by some sega alumni. At least in collaberation with Sumo.

This is just a guess I could be wrong of course.

Their collaboration with Sumo didn't seem to be bad when it came to collaborations and crossovers, so it probably would have worked better than what happened with Superbot and PlayStation All-Stars.

Though at the same time, I think SEGA can still do it in-house. They have companies either dedicated to fighting games (like AM2) or some kind of combat-based games (like RGG). Of course, they can also collaborate other Japanese companies like Capcom.

Just imagine, Nintendo teams up with Namco and SEGA teams up with Capcom.

 

[chocolatejr9]

Found this about the Chorus Kids almost getting into Smash 4 https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2024/dec/03/unrepresented-character-ssbu-scrapped-never/

Also, their latest appearance that isn't Rhythm Heaven is from Warioware Move It. They appear in the intro cutscene on tv.

Completely random, but I like to headcanon Rhythm Heaven as taking place in the Mario universe. The amount of cameos it makes throughout WarioWare is too much for me to ignore.

I'm going to pretend a certain poster didn't just reply to me.



Their collaboration with Sumo didn't seem to be bad when it came to collaborations and crossovers, so it probably would have worked better than what happened with Superbot and PlayStation All-Stars.

Though at the same time, I think SEGA can still do it in-house. They have companies either dedicated to fighting games (like AM2) or some kind of combat-based games (like RGG). Of course, they can also collaborate other Japanese companies like Capcom.

Just imagine, Nintendo teams up with Namco and SEGA teams up with Capcom.

Then they team up together and we get Sega, Capcom and Namco characters in Smash!

Wait a minute...

(Originally this was gonna be a joke about PXZ3, but I thought this might be funnier. It probably isn't though...)

 

[Laniv]

Toad is honestly just a nothing character. He has no notable skills or abilities that could make for a compelling moveset. I could see him happening in Melee or Brawl, but with the standards of newcomers nowadays, there's just no way. He missed his chance and is relegated to a special move for life. Toad fans' best shot is an expanded role in the princesses' moveset—which I, as a Peach fan, would hate. All in all, he just has no main draw, he's just kinda there whenever they need him to be. And remember, it's important for Smash characters to "have only something they can do". (This isn't taking into account Captain Toad or Toadette).

Toad/ette is one of my most wanted picks but realistically, it's just not happening.

Ah, yes, the old "(Character) can't get in because they can't fight" argument, rephrased and repackaged. How I've missed it (not).

I will say, again: power-up themed moveset. Or if that doesn't strike your fancy for whatever reason, composite Toad with Captain Toad. It's not like the series hasn't done it before.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

With Toad I'm curious if its opportunity cost element at work. Really with time, resources, & careful testing a team very much could make Toad into a distinct and fairly faithful character, but it could be that internally its seen that such effort is best spent on characters with more marketable popularity and/or exciting (from a gameplay standpoint) to the developers.

 

[Ivander]

Their collaboration with Sumo didn't seem to be bad when it came to collaborations and crossovers, so it probably would have worked better than what happened with Superbot and PlayStation All-Stars.

This is very debatable because Sega was responsible for alot of the more "questionable" choices, especially the focus on cross-promotion. When Sumo finished their DLC poll for All-Stars Racing Transformed, Sumo wanted to add the highest poll choices which had Ryo Hazuki(who did become DLC), but would've also potentially included Hatsune Miku(who Sega had a video game license to), Segata Sanshiro, Vectorman, Bayonetta and Ristar, but Sega wanted to focus on cross promotions(which bizarrely enough, they were doing alot of cross-promotions with Hatsune Miku at the time making their choice to not include her weird) which we got a ton of between Danica Patrick, Wreck-It Ralph, Pyro, Heavy and Spy from Team Fortress 2 as a 3-in-1 character, characters from companies they had recently gotten like Football Manager, a Shogun from the Total War series and a character from Company of Heroes 2, and a charity cross-promotion with Yogscast with Yogscast's Simon Lane as a character.
Granted, Wreck-It Ralph and Team Fortress 2 were seen favourably, but the others, not so much, especially when all of the DLC was only brought to the Steam version of the game, and none of the extra characters from the Steam version were added as DLC to the others, with the console versions missing out on 5 characters not counting Team Fortress 2 being exclusive. Not to mention the very odd decision to not include Classic Sonic from Generations when Sumo asked because Sega outright wanted a time-travel explanation on how Sonic and Classic Sonic were racing each other. You know, compared to Mario Kart where we have 5 baby versions of 5 notable characters racing against their older selves just because.

 

[Wonder Smash]

On the topic of other SEGA IPs in Smash…

I'd still love to see Arle, Kiryu and a Phantasy Star character (among many other legacy SEGA IPs) get in. And Sakura (both Shinguji and Amamiya) with a new remix of this:

I had actually just watched a whole playthrough of the first Sakura Wars game. That's one game I don't think needs an anime adaptation. It felt just like I was watching one. lol

This is very debatable because Sega was responsible for alot of the more "questionable" choices, especially the focus on cross-promotion. When Sumo finished their DLC poll for All-Stars Racing Transformed, Sumo wanted to add the highest poll choices which had Ryo Hazuki(who did become DLC), but would've also potentially included Hatsune Miku(who Sega had a video game license to), Segata Sanshiro, Vectorman, Bayonetta and Ristar, but Sega wanted to focus on cross promotions(which bizarrely enough, they were doing alot of cross-promotions with Hatsune Miku at the time making their choice to not include her weird) which we got a ton of between Danica Patrick, Wreck-It Ralph, Pyro, Heavy and Spy from Team Fortress 2 as a 3-in-1 character, characters from companies they had recently gotten like Football Manager, a Shogun from the Total War series and a character from Company of Heroes 2, and a charity cross-promotion with Yogscast with Yogscast's Simon Lane as a character.
Granted, Wreck-It Ralph and Team Fortress 2 were seen favourably, but the others, not so much, especially when all of the DLC was only brought to the Steam version of the game, and none of the extra characters from the Steam version were added as DLC to the others, with the console versions missing out on 5 characters not counting Team Fortress 2 being exclusive. Not to mention the very odd decision to not include Classic Sonic from Generations when Sumo asked because Sega outright wanted a time-travel explanation on how Sonic and Classic Sonic were racing each other. You know, compared to Mario Kart where we have 5 baby versions of 5 notable characters racing against their older selves just because.

That just seems to be a case of SEGA making awkward decisions (an unfortunate habit) rather than lack of trust or efforts, which seemingly played a part in PlayStation All-Stars. However, this does go back to what I said earlier about SEGA being capable of doing things but they just don't. To this day, I don't think there's ever been a reason why the SEGA All-Stars Brawl game never happened. Just the concept art and that's it.

 

[Guynamednelson]

Danica Patrick

She also was added because a lot of the funding for the game came from her.

 

[Ivander]

She also was added because a lot of the funding for the game came from her.

Source? I know she helped advertise the game, but I've been looking for info of her funding the game and I'm not finding anything direct.