The Last Smash Bros. Ultimate Character Reveal before launch

[smash puffle]

Maybe we should get a playable sandbag in Training mode! But only Training mode, and a stage hazard on/off toggle in training mode.

I don't know about that. It would feel like a waste to make a playable character with it's own moveset exclusive to one mode. People would want to play as him anywhere and it would make it feel like the whole "Everyone is Here!" phrase they have going on with the game wouldn't be 100% correct to some people.

 

[Crash4Smash]

I don't know about that. It would feel like a waste to make a playable character with it's own moveset exclusive to one mode. People would want to play as him anywhere and it would make it feel like the whole "Everyone is Here!" phrase they have going on with the game wouldn't be 100% correct to some people.

Dude, "Everyone is Here!" won't mean everyone is playable. I know, let's have Fire Flower, Ramblin' Evil Mushroom, Poison Mushroom, Golden Hammer, and Smash Ball as playable characters!
Ken, Crash, Banjo, Bandana Dee, Ms. Pac-Man as Pacman's echo, Isabelle, are the only characters on your listt that I think would make good characters in the game, (Even Sakurai would only make the rest of them into assist trophies) As for Wurmple, I would much rather have Scyther as a playable character.
And seriously, Boshi from Paper Mario (didn't even have to look him up) everyone knows Yarn Yoshi makes a better character. Same character model, with different yarn based attacks, for example, Yoshi's Yarn eggs also act as a tether recovery.

 

[smash puffle]

Dude, "Everyone is Here!" won't mean everyone is playable. I know, let's have Fire Flower, Ramblin' Evil Mushroom, Poison Mushroom, Golden Hammer, and Smash Ball as playable characters!
Ken, Crash, Banjo, Bandana Dee, Ms. Pac-Man as Pacman's echo, Isabelle, are the only characters that I think would make good characters in the game, As for Wurmple, I would much rather have Scyther as a playable character.

Listen, I get your joke, but the thing is that it would be such a waste of development time to make a character playable EXCLUSIVELY for one mode and not for the entirety of the game.

Also that last bit about Wurmple was unnecessary. I didn't even mentioned him in my post.

 

[WertQuadNine]

Not very original, but I'd agree with the Crash or Banjo reveal.

Ps how dope would a dual Crash and Spyro announcement be???

 

[grizby2]

maybe the announcer will be the voice of the direct, and when its over, he appears in the final cutscene.

"THE ANOUNCER ANNOUNCES HIS ARRIVAL!"

 

[Crash4Smash]

Crash Spins into Smash! Coco tags along! Spyro Reignites!

also, why can't we just have a Penguin as an assist trophy, XD
granted they could just as easily be Ice Climber penguins.

Anyways, I'm sorry, but honestly if Sandbag was playable along with a function to indefinitely assist trophy characters in training mode it could be cool.

 

[Crash4Smash]

maybe the announcer will be the voice of the direct, and when its over, he appears in the final cutscene.

"THE ANOUNCER ANNOUNCES HIS ARRIVAL!"

The Announcer Mii would have to be a Mii Fighter with unique microphone attacks.

 

[aarchak]

Obviously, this last reveal would have to be hype enough to last until the release of the game. So it has to be someone either requested enough, unexpected enough, or both to make the qualifications. Characters who fit that category are Geno, Waluigi, Isaac, Rayman, or an Indie rep. My personal lock would be Geno, because that would be the most hype.

 

[grizby2]

what if they START with the big reveal, and then toss a bunch of new characters at us instead (even ones we would assume would just be echos)?

 

[Crash4Smash]

what if they START with the big reveal, and then toss a bunch of new characters at us instead (even ones we would assume would just be echos)?

what if they START with the big reveal, and then toss a bunch of new characters at us instead (even ones we would assume would just be echos)?

nah I want them to reveal new characters at the same time they reveal the new game mode.

 

[Crash4Smash]

Geno has a chance now that Square Enix has been contracted.

 

[Aetheri]

The last reveal will be Goku, immediately followed by Sakurai saying,

"Seriously, never ask me for anything ever again!"

As he proceeds to return to his home planet.

 

[Mona Pizza]

For a true showstopper of a final reveal, I agree with the vast majority on this thread in saying it's got to be Banjo-Kazooie. The sheer weight and impact such a decision would have simply couldn't be topped in my humble opinion.

 

[Royaru]

I think, the last Smash Bros Direct have to be mindblowing, they show us a Newcomer at the beginning, the spirit mode or whatever, and a last newcomer at the end... But when everyone think is over... ¡TIME FOR A SPECIAL ANNOUNCE! Similar to Mewtwo in SSB4, a download character that will get if we sign our SSBU game in the gold coin program for a limit time.
The first newcomer will be from Rythm Paradise
The second newcomer, from Golden Sun
The download character will be... Rayman or Banjo
Internet explode.

 

[AzureFlame4]

The final character revealed for Smash 4 was Duck Hunt. So my guess for the final revealed character is Ratatta.

 

[MacDaddyNook]

With how reveals are handled, it looks like he keeps saving the big ones for last. The issue is, now that Ridley and K. Rool are out of the way, who else can make the same level of impact?

I know a lot of smaller characters/retro/wtf ideas get thrown around, but as the final character, those would be a bit anticlimactic. I guess only Geno, due to the long wait from a dedicated fanbase, or Banjo, being heavily beloved and part of a rival company, would make the most sense.

 

[Gentletime]

Paper Mario - bookending Mario as the first shown (ignoring the teaser with Inkling).

 

[Lord-Zero]

If Sakurai wants to end this with a “bang”, he’ll probably bring someone like Sephiroth.

 

[_Sheik]

It's Tabuu.

 

[Deleted member]

Geno, or Isaac, one of the two for sure, Both requested both wanted, they deserve it.

 

[aarchak]

It's Tabuu.

That would be the best unexpected character to show up, part of me wants to see that just to see people's reactions to it.

 

[Lord-Zero]

Geno, or Isaac, one of the two for sure, Both requested both wanted, they deserve it.

Those 2 would most likely be revealed in the next Smash Direct to leave people guessing for the future Directs.

 

[M00NFIRE94]

Doomguy would be awesome.

 

[ProjectDream]

If we're going by the last directs level of reveals, the beginning of the final direct reveal is Geno & the end is Banjo. The latter is just a bigger reveal in what it all means in the grand scheme of things.

Although I'd love to see a Castlevania treatment for Banjo-Kazooie with 30 sum tracks of music, a stage and a rundown of moves.

 

[Aeon Lupin]

I think it's going to be someone no knew they wanted. Something like Greninja, or Pit.

 

[AnOkayDM]

Regarding Waluigi, I feel like everyone has forgotten exactly what happened with his disconfirmation in the last game. Sakurai said, "Just because you try hard doesn't mean you'll make it into the battle." The simplest explanation is that he just doesn't see any moveset potential for Waluigi, or and value in making him playable. The thought that he would confirm somebody as an AT just to later surprise us by making them playable is grasping at straws.

Anyway, I agree that either Geno or Banjo-Kazooie will be the final announcement. I think Crash and Spyro both have a decent chance of making it in the game, but only as DLC; they're both enjoying this rush of popularity due to games that were announced after the Ultimate roster was most likely finished, so I don't see them in the base roster.

 

[BirthNote]

I don't quite see Crash as that big of a deal, at least, nothing compared to Banjo-Kazooie. Crash has a bit of rivalry with Nintendo during the early PS1 era, but it was honestly very tame compared to the rivalry with Sonic during the 16 bit era... So yeah, I don't think lesser Sonic would have as much impact. Plus it's just Activision, that's not really a big deal. Getting Microsoft on board on the other hand would be.

Sora though, that's a good point. Sora would be massive, simply for Disney being on board. It wouldn't carry as much meaning as Banjo-Kazooie, but I'd certainly rank Sora second place.

Crash was absolutely massive when he debuted. Don't get me wrong Banjo was a big deal, but Naughty Dog really made a great first impression with Crash. The guy was a straight up phenomenon in Japan, which was unheard of because western products failed hard over there, and Crash was huge in the US and Europe. He's one of the early faces of 3D Platforming, Sony's original mascot and he legitimately gave Nintendo and Sega competition. In fact, Crash's debut was so big that Nintendo was VERY impressed with the E3 build, and Miyamoto even offered to hire ND on the spot. People love and adore Miyamoto to this day, but back then he was treated like God's gift to humanity. The fact that he offered to hire them, after playing an E3 build speaks volumes. The 1st 4 Crash games are definite classics.

 

[Juliusaurus]

My point still stands though, Crash was nothing compared to Sonic. The rivalry, although existing and putting Sony on the map alongside Nintendo and Sega, was not anything compared to what Nintendo and Sega had on the previous generation, and Crash's path to irrelevance showed that he was only really a Trojan horse of sorts for Sony when it came to Nintendo and Sega's game. Picking Crash is like going down the line of "who's next", meanwhile Banjo-Kazooie represents something entirely different, and something completely more meaningful to Nintendo as well. Crash is just like Sonic Jr. in terms of importance... And to me, that's not a very big splash.

 

[Ridrool64]

We can't accurately judge this that much because we don't know what kind of hype they want to generate. There's far too many angles they could go with this, and of course a few of these have happened before but the thing is that recurring occurences =/= patterns which are not to be broken.

Do they want to appeal to the Japanese, as a sort of bone throw since Western fan favorites have been dominating the roster? We could see Jibanyan, Arle, Bandana Dee.

Another Western fan fave? Isaac, Professor Layton, Rayman.

Do they want to simply show off their impressive rights management? Sora, Banjo & Kazooie.

Do they want to break the rules? Prove the impossible is now possible? (Presumably not because of the outcry, but in the event they did...) Waluigi, Ashley, Goku, Batman.

Hell, it could be somebody lukewarm and underwhelming. Shulk was only really hype if you already wanted him. Olimar is kind of in the same boat from Brawl.

 

[BirthNote]

My point still stands though, Crash was nothing compared to Sonic. The rivalry, although existing and putting Sony on the map alongside Nintendo and Sega, was not anything compared to what Nintendo and Sega had on the previous generation, and Crash's path to irrelevance showed that he was only really a Trojan horse of sorts for Sony when it came to Nintendo and Sega's game. Picking Crash is like going down the line of "who's next", meanwhile Banjo-Kazooie represents something entirely different, and something completely more meaningful to Nintendo as well. Crash is just like Sonic Jr. in terms of importance... And to me, that's not a very big splash.

Ok, then let's look at the series impact and sales. For Banjo's sake, I'll limit Crash to the Naughty Dog games and we'll see the comparison.

Crash Bandicoot: 6.82 Million (PSX)
Crash Bandicoot 2: 5.17 Million (PSX)
Crash Bandicoot Warped: 5.7 Million (PSX)
Crash Team Racing: 2.2 Million (PSX)
Total Crash sales (Limited to Naughty Dog games on PSX): 19.89 Million
Total PSX Sales: 102.49 Million. Crash gets 19.4067713923% when factored into PSX hardware sales
N. Sane Trilogy: 4.59 Million (Total of PS4, XB1 and NS sales)

Banjo-Kazooie: 3.65 Million (N64)
Banjo-Tooie: 1.49 Million (N64)
Total Banjo sales on N64: 5.14 Million
Total N64 Sales: 32.93 Million. Banjo gets 15.6088672943% when factored into N64 hardware sales.
Rare Replay: 0.78 Million (Xbox One)

If I handicap Crash even more and only include the 1st 2 games to match Banjo's list he still gets bodied. If I take it a step further and include Diddy Kong Racing sales since it's the bear's debut he still doesn't get close. Crash made a bigger splash in a bigger pond than Banjo; while I adore the bear and bird I don't agree with brushing Crash's success and legacy aside. Even the lackluster Wrath of Cortex still walked out with over a million copies despite: 1) Not being developed by Naughty Dog. 2) Failing to breathe new life in the franchise. Banjo has the luxury of staying with his creators, and yet he still failed tragically with Nuts n' Bolts both commercially and among fans. Further, Crash's star fizzled the moment Naughty Dog had to move onto a new franchise; even with the core Banjo team still together the bear didn't do well after Tooie. We got 4 great games out of Crash before the wear and tear but 2 great games out of Banjo, who stayed in Rare's hands.

Bigger importance to Nintendo? Sure; Nintendo and Rare dominated the N64. Bigger importance to gaming? Nope; more people were playing Playstation than N64, and more people were being introduced to Crash as he had a bigger pool of gamers and was taking a larger chunk out of his system than Banjo was, relative to his. They both inspired franchises/games afterwards though. For Crash you could count his successors except The Last of Us as well as Sly Cooper and Ratchet & Clank among others. Banjo also gets a hand in 1 of Crash's successors (Jak & Daxter), Mario Sunshine and Ratchet & Clank plus Yooka-Laylee.

Crash was definitely bigger than Banjo, and while I didn't factor in his Remaster+ (that's what they branded it as), it shows that there are a lot of people interested in him, to Activision's surprise.

 

[NintenRob]

I have two guesses

Diskun or Master Hand (maybe with Crazy as an Echo)

I don't believe every single character is going to this super popular character everyone requested. I still think we'll get a few oddballs here and there

 

[Smash Lampjaw]

I think they've been setting up for Rayman, or maybe another Ubisoft property for a while and dropping hints that will seem blatantly obvious in retrospect if he makes it. Mario x Rabbids might've been our first clue they were talking about something behind the curtain, and the Fox reveal for Starlink might've been the biggest bomb of a hint we'll ever get. Nintendo doesn't like to give away their properties that easily, I think they've managed to secure a particularly heavy partnership in recent years. Rayman, in my opinion, is the best character for Ubisoft representation, and the most fitting to the Smash style. He's my prediction, he's been a popular request for years and this is the best chance he's ever had.

 

[Nonno Umby]

I don't think that the final character announced would neccessarely need to be a big fanservice character.
Brawl's last character was Olimar, and that after much requested characters such as Sonic or King Dedede
Smash For's last character was Shulk, and that after Mega Man, Little Mac, Palutena and Pac-Man.

I wouldn't necessarely expect a bug fanservice characters, especially since the two most requested have been already shown.

 

[Guybrush20X6]

The last characters announced where niche characters which made sense as the main hype build up came before hand.

That said, there's one hype character who is so niche that he can be both.

The Glass Cannon of a little SNES RPG...

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

I'm sure everyone is hoping it's their favorite character that hasn't been revealed up until that point

 

[Curious Villager]

Sakurai usually reveals the more highly requested characters first () in the past whereas the last few have usually been more niche picks, clones or surprise characters ()

Sure there may have been some outliers here and there such as Ice Climbers and Wii Fit Trainer being revealed early and Lucario and Bowser jr being revealed last (although he did say that he had troubles in including those two which may explain why they where late reveals)

And from the looks of it, he's more or less doing the same thing this time with the reveals of Inkling, Ridley and K.Rool, Sakurai doesn't really "save the best for last" he seems to prefer to reveal most of the big guns first in order to drive as much hype and interest as possible until the release of the game. Which is a pretty smart idea to drive up interest although at the same time that does also usually leaves people incredibly burned out when their biggest hopes don't end being in and are greeted with the likes of Dark Pit and ROB instead...

If he'll do the same again, who knows, but probably, best to keep your expectations in check though imo.

 

[Klimax]

My pick is Geno, i don't know why, i just feel it.

 

[Arcadenblog]

If we're talking 3rd parties, then I would say either Banjo-Kazooie, Reimu or Geno.

However, since we're getting every fighter before launch, maybe Napoleon will be last, since we know there will not be any "hidden characters that Sakurai didn't show" this time.

 

[nuclearneo577]

Probably Geno, I'm saying that because I'm still not convinced that any deal with Microsoft was reached in time for Banjo to be in the base roster.

 

[Juliusaurus]

Crash was definitely bigger than Banjo, and while I didn't factor in his Remaster+ (that's what they branded it as), it shows that there are a lot of people interested in him, to Activision's surprise.

That wasn't really my point... The argument for Banjo-Kazooie is not the same as Crash, Banjo-Kazooie means something more to Nintendo in an entirely different way, and the competition between the two isn't what my argument was. My argument, if it's even an argument, was about Crash vs. Sonic. And if you have a big reveal at the end for the final character, why would you pick a character that's a lesser Sonic, a Sonic Jr., someone who is just down the line who is beneath the value of the third party characters we've gotten already. Why do that when we can pick a characters that's more meaningful for completely different reasons. Reasons that I described in the first post I made in this thread. That's why Banjo-Kazooie would be bigger than Crash, bigger than Simon, or Megaman, or perhaps even Sonic himself, because Banjo-Kazooie is in a very unique position of once being an actual Nintendo owned character, and brings along history and drama along with him, from the buyout to being owned by a direct home console competitor, to representing a reunion of the Disney and Pixar of the video game world. Banjo-Kazooie, despite sales, is a much bigger deal for Nintendo and thus Smash Bros. than Crash Bandicoot would be.