Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[DemifiendEnjoyer]

A bit unrelated, but i could see Lucas staying (well unless there's massive cuts), since he's pretty popular with the Smash fanbase itself, even yeah, i guess Earthbound doesn't really need 2 reps in 2025+, but i think popularity within the smash fandom also matters for certain characters more than people think. That's one of the reasons why i think Piranha Plant is more likely to return than Corrin.

Honestly I find it just the slightest bit annoying that the Mother series has three main protagonists, And two of them are here, But Ninten isn’t. Like, I don’t necessarily think it would be a good idea to add him cause he’s nearly identical to Ness and Mother just isn’t a big enough series to justify three characters.
but there’s part of my brain that is bugged by the fact that not all three of them are there.

 

[Diddy Kong]

Honestly I find it just the slightest bit annoying that the Mother series has three main protagonists, And two of them are here, But Ninten isn’t. Like, I don’t necessarily think it would be a good idea to add him cause he’s nearly identical to Ness and Mother just isn’t a big enough series to justify three characters.
but there’s part of my brain that is bugged by the fact that not all three of them are there.

I know what you're feeling. I also would have liked to have all the Fire Emblem protagonists in Smash.

 

[Hadokeyblade]

Honestly I find it just the slightest bit annoying that the Mother series has three main protagonists, And two of them are here, But Ninten isn’t. Like, I don’t necessarily think it would be a good idea to add him cause he’s nearly identical to Ness and Mother just isn’t a big enough series to justify three characters.
but there’s part of my brain that is bugged by the fact that not all three of them are there.

Maybe make him an alt or echo?


Seems like an ok compromise

 

[Thegameandwatch]

Honestly I find it just the slightest bit annoying that the Mother series has three main protagonists, And two of them are here, But Ninten isn’t. Like, I don’t necessarily think it would be a good idea to add him cause he’s nearly identical to Ness and Mother just isn’t a big enough series to justify three characters.
but there’s part of my brain that is bugged by the fact that not all three of them are there.

Ninten could work as an echo although his PSI is more supportive unlike Ness and Lucas who at least had their signature PSI and PK Flash in their home series.

 

[DarthEnderX]

I mean, in the long run he did have staying power, so it balances out.

A. Does he? He's still the most recent Persona protagonist. Will he still be the most popular one, 5 games later? The way Cloud is.

B. I'd still prefer Smash waited for confirmation. Instead of rolling the dice on who's going to become iconic, and who's going end up a flash-in-the-pan.

I think some of the most likely 3rd party newcomers for the next game might be ones that became Mii Costumes in Ultimate.

I wouldn't complain about getting Arthur, Dante, Bomberman, Doom Slayer, Goemon, Nakoruru and Shantae in Smash 6.

 

[Ivander]

A number likely to increase depending on which companies are involved in base.

A certain half-genie and bearded knight come to mind right away as the biggest candidates.

I'd love to see Goemon become a new Konami Assist trophy. Regardless if Bomberman manages to escape being an AT or not. I could see it being possible seeing as Sakurai has a soft spot for franchises made in the 1980s, especially 1986. And Goemon can be the first Assist Trophy to throw money at the players.

 

[Diddy Kong]

Ninten could work as an echo although his PSI is more supportive unlike Ness and Lucas who at least had their signature PSI and PK Flash in their home series.

Lucas has basically nothing from his Mother 3 PSI. Ness has PK Flash yeah, and PSI Magnet. However, Lucas does none of these things. PK Freeze is also not his signature move. Not even the Rope Snake is his.

Anyways, I was sarcastic about the FE cast. But I think if we count protagonists and whoever missed out on a trilogy we shouldn't look further than Dixie.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

Ninten could work as an echo although his PSI is more supportive unlike Ness and Lucas who at least had their signature PSI and PK Flash in their home series.

Actually all three of the specialize in support PSI, and PK Flash is a support ability in EarthBound (it does random things, including rarely OHKOing targets). Legit, PK Love is the only offensive PSI that Lucas gets, and PSI Rockin is all Ness gets. To be fair though, both are extremely powerful, so they can dish out a lot of damage with them. Ninten doesn't have a PSI Rockin or PK Love equivalent, but both of the boy's signature PSI are completely ignored in Smash so...

Ness has PK Flash yeah, and PSI Magnet. However, Lucas does none of these things. PK Freeze is also not his signature move.

Amusingly, Lucas does have access to PK Flash...which was removed for PK Freeze.

 

[Hadokeyblade]

A. Does he? He's still the most recent Persona protagonist. Will he still be the most popular one, 5 games later? The way Cloud is.

B. I'd still prefer Smash waited for confirmation. Instead of rolling the dice on who's going to become iconic, and who's going end up a flash-in-the-pan.

I wouldn't complain about getting Arthur, Dante, Bomberman, Doom Slayer, Goemon, Nakoruru and Shantae in Smash 6.

As long as future protagonists are treated the same way 3, 4 and 5's are i dont see why not.

Ninten could work as an echo although his PSI is more supportive unlike Ness and Lucas who at least had their signature PSI and PK Flash in their home series.

None of the mother protags are accurate to the source material in smash, it wouldn't make a difference for Ninten

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

I'd love to see Goemon become a new Konami Assist trophy. Regardless if Bomberman manages to escape being an AT or not. I could see it being possible seeing as Sakurai has a soft spot for franchises made in the 1980s, especially 1986. And Goemon can be the first Assist Trophy to throw money at the players.

No doubt they'd showcase him and Meowth doing their attacks on opposite ends.

 

[BrawlX10]

I think some of the most likely 3rd party newcomers for the next game might be ones that became Mii Costumes in Ultimate.

Watch me be wrong on this one lol

I don't think you'll be wrong, i think at least one will be upgraded, i mean Sans, Shantae, Dante, Lloyd, Geno.....and of course Gil, who is a 100% lock.

 

[PersonAngelo53]

Last time I talked about my issues with Joker in Smash I was like 14 and I made a fool of myself cause I was like, Unreasonably angry about it.
Basically I just feel like Joker didn't deserve to be one of the handful of third party characters in Smash since when he was added his first game appearance was really recent, Persona 5 came out in September 2016 in Japan and from then to December 2018 that was only like two years.
I wouldn't really mind that if he was a first party character but I feel like third parties should always be someone who's been around for a long time.
And also he doesn't really represent Persona very well. He only uses one Persona when pretty much the whole gameplay of Persona and SMT is using multiple different ones. And also Persona 1 and 2 get zero representation, And 3 and 4 get no Spirits. Also no Personas/Demons are represented aside from Arsene which is a problem because again, They're kind of the point of the games.
And then of course the entire SMT series outside of Persona is unrepresented. It's equivalent to if the only Final Fantasy content was exclusively from Final Fantasy 7, And they would never do something like that.
Final point is that I just really, Really, Feel like it should have been Jack Frost since he's the mascot of Atlus, He's been around for a long time, And he's in Persona and SMT so you don't have to piss anyone off. Joker getting in instead just kind of reeks of recency bias and corporate meddling to me but what do I know, A lot of people liked him.

As someone who Joker was one of his most hyped announcements personally I admit this points are fair overall. I say if Joker somehow is back next smash I hope they represent a little better the other Persona games as well and Joker himself could maybe be updated a bit to use other Persona’s or get a new final smash where he uses his final Persona’s Sinfull shell attack. Tho All out attack is to iconic i think Joker should have two final smashes personally.

 

[smashkirby]

They did get some new music for Pac-Land, at least. I kinda wish we got more classic Namco characters as spirits, kinda like the Smash Run enemies.

Now that you mention it... I always found it a bit weird how Namco's arcade characters (Valkyrie, Gil, Bravoman, Wonder Momo, Taizo Hori, Mappy, Tobi Masuyo, Hiromi Tengenji, etc.) didn't get Spirits, yet when Terry Bogard was added? He got a bunch of SNK characters from outside Fatal Fury to be Spirits (Kyo, Athena, Ryo, etc.). Yeah, I know these characters have appeared in The King of Fighters alongside him, but still.

Given how Pac-Man himself is practically a walking Namco Arcade machine in Smash, this feels even more... egregious, I guess.

You can even argue that they're the only company who lost major content through the Orbital Gate Assault stage going from 4 to Ultimate, depending on how you view Star Fox Assault, a game from a Nintendo IP developed by Namco.

Sure, it's a Nintendo thing, but Namco made it.

And now, I'm bummed out again over Orbital Gate's removal...

Probably change it and maybe make Ash-Greninja an alt like Spiky-eared Pichu, another variant lost to time.

Interesting choice of words, given Spiky-eared Pichu's whole time-traveling schtick. Speaking of Spiky-eared Pichu though... does anyone have any idea as to why Smash Ultimate doesn't seem to really acknowledge her as a "separate" fighter from the default Pichu the same way the game acknowledges Pikachu Libre?

Bandai Namco has enough cool IP's they could just make their own Smash clone to fit them in.

I'd love to see Bamco make their own Platfighter that's a crossover of their own franchises.

I'd LOVE to see such a thing happen! It's been a while since Namco's had their own inter-company crossover, after all.

Bonus points if its roster consists of the Namco characters found in Namco x Capcom, and then they build from there. Maybe add some content from The Idolm@ster and Ridge Racer, among other series.

 

[BrawlX10]

Do you guys have any new stage ideas for the new major franchises added in Ultimate? (Splatoon, Castlevania, Persona, Dragon Quest, Banjo, Fatal Fury, ARMS, Minecraft, Tekken and Kingdom Hearts, just in case someone doesn't remember lol)

 

[Hypercat-Z]

How about some retro stage like NES Pinball?

 

[Potted Plant]

Honestly I find it just the slightest bit annoying that the Mother series has three main protagonists, And two of them are here, But Ninten isn’t. Like, I don’t necessarily think it would be a good idea to add him cause he’s nearly identical to Ness and Mother just isn’t a big enough series to justify three characters.
but there’s part of my brain that is bugged by the fact that not all three of them are there.

Potential hot take(?): Out of the party members from Mother 1, even though I fully recognise Ninten as the most likely candidate, he's actually the party member I'd want the least.

Which is to say, I'd be happy for those who genuinely want him, but the warped part of my brain wants Teddy in to see what they can do with an American greaser/Japanese delinquent brawler moveset.

 

[dezeray112]

Which 3rd party newcomers introduced in Ultimate do you think are most likely to return and the least likely?

I think Sonic, Megaman, Ryu, Cloud, Simon and Banjo are ones that are I think that are guaranteed to return.

Adding to that, I think possibly Terry (considering that Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is due to release soon) and Kazuya as well since the Tekken series is still going strong.

As for the others, that is going to be hard to say at this moment.

 

[The Stoopid Unikorn]

The idea of third-parties getting cut is surprisingly new ground for Smash...

But if I had to guess, I'd assume a lot of the ones people think are safe might not due to either Nintendo or the company not being interested in a base game slot for those characters. Doesn't matter how collaborative SNK was for Ultimate if Nintendo has no interest on base game Terry, for example.

Sonic is honestly the only one I can truly, without a shadow of a doubt, consider a safe one to stay. Everyone else is a 50/50 due to either having been cut before (Snake) or us having no idea about them since a scenario about them being cut never showed up (every third-party except Snake and Sonic).

 

[Shinuto]

I don't think you'll be wrong, i think at least one will be upgraded, i mean Sans, Shantae, Dante, Lloyd, Geno.....and of course Gil, who is a 100% lock.

I want Goemon too

 

[Perkilator]

As far as 3rd party Mii Costume upgrades, the big 4 to me are Shantae, Dante, Lloyd, and Dragonborn. These are specifically the Mii Costumes that Sakurai highlighted as being highly requested, so I can at least see them being DLC newcomers if they were playable for real.

 

[Megadoomer]

The idea of third-parties getting cut is surprisingly new ground for Smash...

But if I had to guess, I'd assume a lot of the ones people think are safe might not due to either Nintendo or the company not being interested in a base game slot for those characters. Doesn't matter how collaborative SNK was for Ultimate if Nintendo has no interest on base game Terry, for example.

Sonic is honestly the only one I can truly, without a shadow of a doubt, consider a safe one to stay. Everyone else is a 50/50 due to either having been cut before (Snake) or us having no idea about them since a scenario about them being cut never showed up (every third-party except Snake and Sonic).

I feel like Pac-Man is extremely likely to return; Namco-Bandai helped out with the past three Smash games, and I figure they'll keep doing that for the foreseeable future. (to make it easier on the development team, at least)

(I also feel like Bayonetta has better odds than most given that Nintendo's funded 3/4 of the series, though with the future of the Bayonetta games seeming to be in doubt given everything that's going on at Platinum, I'm not as sure about her as I am about Pac-Man and Sonic)

 

[fogbadge]

The idea of third-parties getting cut is surprisingly new ground for Smash...

snake?

 

[Noipoi]

snake?

Snake!?

SNAAAAAAAAAKE

 

[Megadoomer]

snake?

They went on to say that he's the only exception. Back in the days of Brawl, there were only two third party characters (Snake and Sonic) with one of them being cut from Smash 4 due to their company actively trying to alienate the entire gaming industry by all appearances. (Konami was at the point where it was scrubbing Hideo Kojima's name off of the cover of Metal Gear games and focusing almost exclusively on Japan-exclusive pachinko machines)

Now, there are eighteen third party characters and many more companies compared to Brawl, so it's less clear about who will return or which companies are likely to cooperate. (Disney was easier to work with than expected and Nomura's "pickiness" about Sora in Smash was resolved; does that make Sora more likely to return? Will Microsoft be fine with characters like Banjo and Steve being in the base game, or will they push for their characters to be DLC? What about Square-Enix?)

 

[Hadokeyblade]

If we dont get another Bayonetta game i can easily see her getting cut unfortunately

 

[fogbadge]

They went on to say that he's the only exception. Back in the days of Brawl, there were only two third party characters (Snake and Sonic) with one of them being cut from Smash 4 due to their company actively trying to alienate the entire gaming industry by all appearances. (Konami was at the point where it was scrubbing Hideo Kojima's name off of the cover of Metal Gear games and focusing almost exclusively on Japan-exclusive pachinko machines)

Now, there are eighteen third party characters and many more companies compared to Brawl, so it's less clear about who will return or which companies are likely to cooperate. (Disney was easier to work with than expected and Nomura's "pickiness" about Sora in Smash was resolved; does that make Sora more likely to return? Will Microsoft be fine with characters like Banjo and Steve being in the base game, or will they push for their characters to be DLC? What about Square-Enix?)

I do beg your pardon

 

[DarthEnderX]

I don't think you'll be wrong, i think at least one will be upgraded, i mean Sans, Shantae, Dante, Lloyd, Geno.....and of course Gil, who is a 100% lock.

Lloyd, Geno and Gil became Mii costumes in 4, not Ultimate.

 

[CapitaineCrash]

If we dont get another Bayonetta game i can easily see her getting cut unfortunately

I don't see why another game matter when she just got a game in 2021. With how long game development is nowadays, you can't expect every franchise to have multiple games between Smash titles (unless you're Mario or Pokémon).

 

[Perkilator]

I don't see why another game matter when she just got a game in 2021. With how long game development is nowadays, you can't expect every franchise to have multiple games between Smash titles (unless you're Mario or Pokémon).

Actually, it was 2022 when Bayonetta 3 released, and 2021 was when it was re-revealed.

 

[CapitaineCrash]

Actually, it was 2022 when Bayonetta 3 released, and 2021 was when it was re-revealed.

Ah yeah my bad, but well it makes the game even more recent so my point still stands, why does she need a new game?

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

I don't see why another game matter when she just got a game in 2021. With how long game development is nowadays, you can't expect every franchise to have multiple games between Smash titles (unless you're Mario or Pokémon).

Technically, it does have that (Cereza and the Lost Demon).

Ah yeah my bad, but well it makes the game even more recent so my point still stands, why does she need a new game?

Likely because Bayonetta 3 put the franchise in such a rough spot. Still, in terms of actually developing a new Smash game, unless the game was starting development a while after its release in 2022, the series was still in good shape while roster selection was going on.

 

[CosmicEternity44]

A Nintendo Direct is happening, guys!

https://x.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1904896350853960065

 

[Thegameandwatch]

one of them being cut from Smash 4 due to their company actively trying to alienate the entire gaming industry by all appearances. (Konami was at the point where it was scrubbing Hideo Kojima's name off of the cover of Metal Gear games and focusing almost exclusively on Japan-exclusive pachinko machines)

That isn’t exactly true since the main drama between Kojima and Konami didn’t start publicly until 2015.

Especially since MGS3 on the 3DS released around the same time as when Smash 4 was planned so internal drama wasn’t the reason.

It was probably as simple as Nintendo not negotiating with Konami.

 

[DemifiendEnjoyer]

The direct was real apparently.

 

[Thegameandwatch]

A Nintendo Direct is happening, guys!

https://x.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1904896350853960065

I think Metroid Prime 4 is almost guaranteed to have more information.

 

[waddledeeonredyoshi]

A Nintendo Direct is happening, guys!

https://x.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1904896350853960065

Well, didn't know they had it in em.

Expecting Prime 4 news and the usual RPGs/farmingsims/remasters. Maybe Robobot but nothing earthshattering beyond that

 

[NotGenerico]

I'm expecting Kirby: Planet Robobot and Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War to show up tomorrow. Metroid Prime 4 will probably get a dedicated segment to it as well as a release date.

 

[PersonAngelo53]

A Nintendo Direct is happening, guys!

https://x.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1904896350853960065

And people thought I was delusional for believing on this one happening lol.

 

[fogbadge]

A Nintendo Direct is happening, guys!

https://x.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1904896350853960065

one last hurrah

 

[PeridotGX]

A Nintendo Direct is happening, guys!

https://x.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1904896350853960065

I only have one hope and one dream for tomorrow's direct.

please free us.