The Year is 2020. You live in an alternate universe where Smash Bros. does not exist...

[CrusherMania1592]

... everything else is the same. Every other game that has ever existed for a Nintendo console has been released, and they have been just as successful in your world as they have in ours. You work for Nintendo. Your boss comes up to you one day - he has an idea for a party fighting game called Super Smash Bros. He wants it to star 8 of Nintendo's most recognizable mascot characters, and then an additional 4 unlockables.

Since you're not an idiot and don't want to get fired, you are obviously keeping Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, and Pikachu. You also know you need at least one more Pokemon to fill out the secret characters. But anything else feels like fair game. Who do you go with? What 4 additional DLC fighters would you have in mind post-release after the game becomes a hit? Maybe extra waves of DLC fighters if wanting more?

Keep in mind of only two rules for this setting:

1. This game is new and the budget/clout isn't there for the third party characters EXCEPT for DLC. DLC would increase the buys.
2. Only characters who are viewed as protagonists on the roster. No, not characters who are villains who became protagonists in specific games except for the DLC as anything goes as long as it's realistic. The original Smash focused on protagonists only and the closest we had to a "villain" at that time was DK.



For me, this is a tough one. 1998 versus 2020 have different rosters and noticed who is popular and aren't.

Starting Roster: /

Unlockables: / Gen 8 Pokemon

DLC Wave 1: Mike Jones

DLC Wave 2:


Based on how I'm seeing things here from my roster above:

- Pit, and Mike Jones would somewhat be "classic" due to them not having any games recently.
- Samus takes a step down to unlockables to make some shocking hidden characters.
- Lucina can be an alt attire for Marth with the mask for one attire and/or longer hair. I'm feeling the same for Inklings.
- Biggest WTF would be Villager due to his nature. I haven't played much Animal Crossing and seems to fit the bill. Same can be said for Isabelle.
- For Gen 8, I'd most likely go with either Raboot or Toxricity due to their popularity in the anime and in the games. Both are often used on teams.
- Luigi would be the closest thing to a clone with some moves that separates him from Mario unlike Smash 64
- Adding some DLC fighters kinda boost sales here
- Sonic is a no-brainer for this type of thing in the DLC after the popularity boosts. Opens the waves of third party characters to appear in future Smash Bros games.


Have fun!

 

[BowserKing]

I'll give this a try

Starter Roaster:
Unlockable Characters:

DLC Wave 1:
DLC Wave 2:

 

[Oddball]

Initial 8 (let's use a more classic Link)
4 Unlockable

DLC Set 1
DLC Set 2

 

[CrusherMania1592]

DLC Set 1
DLC Set 2

Definitely like how you made your DLCs a theme here. Makes sense for some of them because they were supposed to be in the original Smash

 

[Pupp135]

Starter:
Secret fighters: Cinderace
FP1:
FP2:

Spoiler: Reasons

Kirby, Animal Crossing, Splatoon, and Fire Emblem are all major franchises, so I’d add a character from those franchises. I went with Villager for being the lead character, and Byleth for being the most recent protagonist at the time of the thread’s creation.
For the unlockable fighters, Given that the Yoshi and Wario series are less prominent in the ‘10s and ‘20s compared to the ‘90s, I assume that Luigi and Peach would be higher priorities. Cinderace is just a placeholder for a promotional pokemon. Samus is there for being one of gaming’s first mainstream female protagonists.
FP1: This was used to primarily fill in gaps for franchises without a fighter yet and ending the pass with a popular villain.
FP2: This pass was primarily used to add supplementary characters from franchises with a fighter. Charizard is here as I assume that the Pokemon Company would push for it, and Isabelle is here given MK8 in addition to New Horizons being released around the same time as this hypothetical game. I wanted to end the pass with a 3rd party.

Honorable mentions:
: She is a the second most important character of a large franchise, but I could see Isabelle and a third Pokemon being prioritized over her.
: They are important to Nintendo’s/gaming’s history, but it’d feel off to add them as DLC instead of a base character.

 

[toonito]

Starting 8:
Unlockable 4: (or )

FP1:
FP2:

 

[SmasherMaster]

Here's what I did. Replaced Yoshi, Fox and Samus as starting roster since I feel like Splatoon, Fire Emblem and Xenoblade are getting more attention from Nintendo and a bigger push. The unlockables are because Yoshi would be a better choice than Luigi, Metroid is still in development, Greninja is the most popular Pokemon and Wii Fit Trainer is the oddball choice.
Wave 1- Fresh Franchises: Fox, Little Mac, Pit and Olimar
Wave 2- Female Frenzy: Peach, Zelda, Isabelle and Min Min
Wave 3- Fiendish Foes: Mewtwo, Ganondorf, King Dedede and Bowser

 

[Depressed Gengar]

Starting roster: Mario, Pikachu, Link, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Samus, Wario, Marth

Unlockables: Bowser, Lucario, Villager, Inkling

Spoiler: Reasonings

Starting roster is basically all of Nintendo's major longstanding series that were made before 2000. Not really something I was really aiming for, it just ended up like that when I was making that part of the roster, and I thought it was a neat enough of a detail to keep. And even ignoring that, that's basically all of their major franchises anyways (bar Animal Crossing, which is unlockable anyways).

Marth's still here over any over FE rep not just because first (though admittedly that is part of the reason), but because he's still clearly a really popular character and has left more of a noticeable impact than any other lord. Outside of the Awakening trio (Chrom, Lucina, Robin), none of the other FE characters have not enough of a reason to be in over Marth.

Bowser's here because mostly another Mario character is just as mandatory as a second Pokémon, but also because A) he's a villain, and B) he's another super heavyweight to go alongside DK.

A second Pokémon character's mandatory (seriously, even without the in-thread role it's flat out mandatory), but picking a second Pokémon character's harder than most other franchises, since there's a bigger pool to pull from rather than like two-three major characters to pick from. There's Mewtwo, there's Lucario, there's Meowth, there's Charizard, I could go on. But if there's only two, picking another Gen 1 Pokémon would be a bit of a disservice to the series when there's a decent amount of other non-Gen 1 Pokémon to choose from. Not that it would be too bad or anything, but it'd be better to at least give one of the series's other generations a chance with a fighter before we throw in more Gen 1. With Gen 1 out of the way, that leaves a smaller pool left. That said, out of the smaller pool, Lucario's the most prominent Pokémon, so I went with him.

Animal Crossing needs a character. That said, I am going to stand firm that said rep HAS to be Villager and not Isabelle. Isabelle's popular, sure, but people give her too much credit. She's no definitive mascot people set her out to be. At best, she's shares that title with Tom Nook. At worst, she's below Nook, because not only was Nook the mascot before New Leaf, but has basically reclaimed that role, filling in all the advertising and such that people claimed made Isabelle the mascot years back. And while Nook would be slightly better, the Villager would still be better due to representing what Animal Crossing is: calm village life. The Villager's are the ones that throw the fishing poles, plant and cut down the trees, etc. You could slap that stuff onto Nook and Isabelle, but it just wouldn't fit anywhere near as well.

(Side note: even if I wasn't going along with that minor detail about the starting roster I talked about earlier, I still would leave Villager as an unlockable. In this theoretical universe, I'd imagine most people wouldn't be expecting an Animal Crossing character, so may as well play on that and let people get surprised when they suddenly discover Villager in the game. )

And then there's Inkling... yeah, I think Inkling's obvious.

Spoiler: Character Differences

Important side note: Final Smashes wouldn't be a thing yet. That'd be something that I do for either the second or third game. Otherwise, characters have the same basics as modern entries: side specials, multiple taunts, etc.

Mario's Cape would be replaced with either Cappy or the Star Spin from the Galaxy games, though I'm leaning more towards Cappy, mostly so I can save the Star Spin for someone else later in this theoretical series. Both serve the same purpose as the Cape, reflecting projectiles and spinning opponents around to face the other way, but (obviously) work differently. Cappy would be thrown a set distance, and would stop being able to reflect projectiles once he starts returning to Mario. While Cappy's technically a projectile, if two Cappys were to collide with each other, they'd just fly back to their respective Mario's as though they only bumped into a wall and such. Every other reflector would still actually reflect Cappy and damage Mario. However, if Mario were to avoid getting hit by a reflected Cappy, he'd have to wait a little bit before Cappy could harmlessly return. So not like K. Rool's Krownerang. Meanwhile, the Star Spin, to make up for not being a reflecting projectile, would deal more damage, have less end lag, and even give Mario a slight boost in the air to help with his recovery. His side smash would be changed to resemble the Firebrand from Superstar Saga a bit more, and his up smash would be change to him breaking a single brick that appears above him, with the shattering brick being the damaging part of the attack. And lastly, his Fireball animation would actually make it look like he's throwing the fireball rather than just... doing that weird pose of his and then it comes out, as well as just make him less angry and more joyful.

Bowser no longer spews out a trail of flames for his neutral special, and instead spews out a large fireball that explodes upon impact with anything. That said, it would have a notable cooldown so Bowser can't just spam it. Bowser also damages those who try to footstool him while he's crouching. Otherwise, he's the same as he Ultimate incarnation.

Pikachu's neutral special is now properly called Thunder Shock instead of Thunder Jolt. Whether it's still the same move as "Thunder Jolt" or something new, I'm not sure on, but I'm leaning towards keeping it the same move. Skull Bash would be replaced with Iron Tail, which is basically Mii Swordfighter's Airborne Assault. Quick Attack functions like Lucario's Extreme Speed (this will make a bit more sense in just a bit).

Lucario doesn't have the Aura mechanic. Aura Sphere can no longer be charged and, like Bowser's new fireball, it has cooldown, but it does have minimal aiming properties and can even hit opponents that try to dodge (shielding is still fair game though). Force Palm is no longer a command grab, and instead paralyzes the opponent for a split second before they get launched. Extreme Speed works like Pikachu's Quick Attack (yep, they switched places, mostly to better fit how the moves work in the games). Double Team is replace with Flash Cannon, where Lucario surrounds himself with a red light that sends opponents flying away at the cost of some start lag, a decent amount of end lag, and vulnerability to projectiles while the attacks going on.

Link uses his Twilight Princess design as his main outfit, but has the BOTW one as an alt. As such, Link is basically Smash 4 Link, minus the Final Smash and a few minor tweaks to make him better.

Donkey Kong now throws a barrel for his side special, and it even retains the Headbutt's burying properties right when the barrel actually hits the ground. The barrel itself isn't too powerful, breaks upon hitting anything that isn't the ground, and has a bit of cooldown though. Otherwise, DK's only other change is to make his expressions less angry and more excited about the fight.

Kirby's Hammer Flip no longer is chargeable, and acts like how it actually does in the games. Kirby's dash attack is the same as the slide kick in the Kirby games. Same as Ultimate otherwise.

Samus would no longer just swing her arm cannon around wildly just to hit people with the actual arm cannon. Her jab would have her hold it out while charging a small electrical sphere that can deal multiple small hits, and her down air would be like her forward air, where she fires a few explosive blasts in an arc. Speaking of those attacks though (and down tilt), those explosive blast would be icy rather than fiery, and can't actually freeze and wouldn't deal as much knockback with all of their hits, but maybe do a bit more damage to compensate. Her new side special is the Ice Beam, which CAN actually freeze assuming the opponent is at 100% or higher, but like Bowser's fireball, it has notable cooldown. Since the missiles aren't the side special anymore, Samus's side and up smashes will be replaced with the Super Missiles. Metroid Samus can now finally crawl by using the Morph Ball, doesn't need to hold down to stay crawling, and can even can still even use the Morph Bombs in this state. If you want out, you need to be still and hold back up to return to normal.

Wario's neutral special has him shaking hit opponent wildly rather than chomping on them. So outside of not being able to deal of damage and get extra healing from healing items by chomping on them, it's very similar. The side special is the Shoulder Bash, which is much more powerful and even grants super armor to Wario on the shoulder he's charging with, but he has to stop if he wants to charge the other way, and stopping has lengthy lag. His down smash would be the Earthshake Punch from Shake It. His forward throw would now actually be a Kong Karry of sorts, though he can only throw the opponent forwards when he's carrying them around with a single hand. Up throw would have him leap up and piledrive his opponents. And lastly, Wario would be a super heavyweight rather than just a regular heavyweight. Basically, a more Wario Land inspired moveset.

Marth's only difference is that he no longer has a counter. Instead, his down special is Luna. Marth swings the Falchion in a crescent-like shape. The attack can deal a decent amount of damage to shields, but nowhere near as much as the Shield Breaker. Unalike the Shield Breaker however, it can ignore any kind of armor, dealing decent damage and minimal knockback. It'd probably have to be another cooldown move, but I'm not entirely sure about that.

Villager now just uses two balloons tied to his back for his up special rather than the Balloon Fighter's helmet. Literally no difference otherwise.

Inkling actually just stays the same outside of the Super Jump no longer dealing damage. They're really well represented with their movesets, and trying implement any of their abilities they don't have in Smash as is (swimming in the ink they leave, and especially having permanent ink) would make them flat out broken.

Honorable Mentions:

Yoshi: He actually was on the roster until I decided to include Wario instead. If I could add one more character to the roster it would absolutely be him.
Greninja: When I was thinking about who to include as the second Pokémon character after going against any more Gen 1, Greninja was one of the other two choices besides Lucario.
Gardevoir: ... and this was my other choice.

Yeah, it's a short honorable mentions list, but I felt like they deserved to get mentioned.

Final note, and probably my most controversial one, I would do very little with DLC. At most I'd make a single pass of four characters, some stages and music to go alongside them, and some other free stages. DLC would eventually make it harder to add new content to sequels. Like, obviously the first sequel wouldn't be affected much, but both the original game and the sequel having DLC would really hold back the third game's potential and so on. I don't think DLC is some inherit terrible thing, but if this theoretical series got too much too soon, it'll just hurt the series's potential in the long run.

 

[Wario Wario Wario]

Starter:
Unlockables: , Muddy Mole, , Onix
DLC pack 1:
DLC pack 2: , Crash Bandicoot

 

[Cyberfire]

STARTERS:

UNLOCKABLES:

DLC1:
DLC2: (Gen 8 Pokemon)

REASONINGS: For the starters - Kirby, Splatoon, Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem are a given for modern Nintendo. For AC I went with Isabelle as she is the mascot these days, and FE I went with Chrom (although could also have been Lucina), he seems to be the character Intelligent Systems uses the most in other stuff.

Unlockables - Despite recent history, Samus is still considered a Nintendo all star even outside of Smash. Another Mario character seems obvious, could honestly be anyone out of , but I went Bowser to have a villain. Charizard as it is featured very prominently across the Pokemon brand. Mii's aren't so prominent now but they do still show up in Mario spin-offs.

DLC1 - Luigi seems like an obvious free downloadable character arriving early in the lifecycle. Shulk as Xenoblade is a popular modern franchise. Peach because Nintendo will want her there somewhere. Fox would be the surprise fanservice character of the pack.

DLC2 - Yoshi is a similar situation to Luigi. Zelda to get the Zelda and female reps up. Gen 8 Pokemon for promotional reasons. Pit as Nintendo seem to still regard the Kid Icarus series pretty highly.

 

[nirvanafan]

Starters:



Unlockables:
Eevee

DLC Wave 1:
Arms Rep

DLC Wave 2:
Advance Wars Rep

 

[Pupp135]

Starters:



Unlockables:
Eevee

DLC Wave 1:
Arms Rep

DLC Wave 2:
Advance Wars Rep

While some of these picks wouldn’t be my first choices, I like how you chose to have Pokemon as the only franchise with more than one rep, giving interesting choices. If I followed this rule, I’d replace Bowser, Cinderace, Zelda, and Isabelle with Wario, Ice Climbers, Ness, and Mega Man.

 

[scoobymcsnack]

Hmmmm it's a tough one, but I think I'd go with

Starters:



I feel like the starters should be representative of Nintendo's biggest franchises, and I feel like this lineup does it well. I chose Lucina over Marth as I feel she's more representative of modern Fire Emblem, which is when the series really took off. In this, Link would not be based off of BOTW, but more of a generic green tunic and a moveset that is more of a conglomerate of all of the Links. It was a tough choice, as I originally had Samus instead of Inkling.

Unlockables:


These characters are from some of Nintendo's less popular series, save for Samus, but series that have a following nonetheless. The only reason Samus is here rather than Inkling is I feel Samus has fallen a bit behind in recent years, particularly on the Switch. Honorable mentions go to Luigi, Wario, Olimar, Ness, Yoshi, and Captain Falcon.

First DLC Pack: Villains!


I feel like villains provide a nice change of pace to the original roster, and are incredibly iconic to gaming history as well. They give players the "hero vs villain" aspect in a way unique to Smash, in which the players are both. Bowser and Ganondorf were obvious choices, although Ganondorf could be replace with a more Smash-original design that, similar to Link, is more of a conglomerate of Ganon's appearances rather than one game, or even be replaced by a more Pig/Beast-like form.
Ridley was my third choice, as I feel he is pretty big and iconic.
The last spot was a three way tie between K. Rool, Wario, and King Dedede. I decided against Wario as, despite the fact that the Mario series is huge and Wario is incredibly iconic, the roster would feel less diverse with three Mario characters.
I chose K. Rool over Dedede simply because, based on my Google search, the DK series has more sales than the Kirby series.

Second DLC Pack: Third Party


I think that these four represent non-Nintendo gaming history overall pretty well. I avoided having more than one character per company. Honorable mentions go to Simon, Mega Man, and Cloud.

 

[Pupp135]

For fun I’ll add a roster with a hypothetical sequel that just adds 8 more unique fighters, which is the same number of unique Melee newcomers (I won’t go into clones, but I could see a Young Link and Octoling being obvious choices).
Newcomers:
: A spinoff regular in the Mario series, and he has two subseries even if WarioWare is the only one with some relevancy.
: The second most important character in LoZ.
Ganon: The main antagonist in LoZ.
: A popular recurring character in the Kirby franchise.
Gen 10 Pokemon: This is just assuming that the next promotional pokemon is from Gen 10.
: I wanted a retro character, and he’d probably pop up first in my mind.
: Represent Wii era, and they still exist as avatars and give customization.
: Not my first choice, but I want another third party, and he probably would’ve been requested.

Secret characters: Bowser, Wario, Ganon, King Dedede, Gen 10 Pokemon, Olimar, Pit, Pac-Man, Sonic
DLC in order: Alear, Noah
Diddy and Meta Knight give us additional prominent side characters, Alear and Noah are just placeholders for promotional characters. Ness is a surprise pick, and Mega Man and Cloud give us notable third parties.

Like Depressed Gengar said in their post, the roster gets big much faster with DLC (this roster already has 35 fighters, which is almost the size of Brawl’s, making us get to Ultimate sized rosters sooner and harder to add more over time. Admittingly, most of Nintendo’s biggest all-stars would be in at this point (of all the missing characters, I think Tom Nook and Mewtwo are the biggest omissions), but obviously the more the merrier if possible. Additionally, I’m certain that there would be like 10 3rd parties in the next game in this scenario.

 

[Pokelego999]

Gonna have to make some cuts here. Depressing.
Base:
Unlockable:
DLC Pack:
Star Fox has lost relevancy so it wouldn't be logical in the present day to keep him, same with F-Zero and Mother. The rest are simple.
Mario, DK, Link, Pikachu, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, and Marth are reperesentative of some of Nintendo's biggest ips. Duck Hunt reperesents retro, being there because of Duck Hunt being well known and iconic. Inkling and Villager are there because of being recent very succesful ips. Pokemon Trainer is the forced second pokemon rep, so if we have to add one, why not the main character?
DLC wise, Bowser because of being the main villain, Mii Fighter because Miis are a thing, Shulk to represent Xenoblade, another hit new ip, and Sonic as the surprise guest star character.
This is only by veterans, so no newcomers here.

 

[Janx_uwu]

Base roster:
Unlockables:
DLC wave 1:
DLC wave 2:
DLC wave 3:
The starters remained largely the same as the n64 game, except I replaced Falcon with Villager. In 2020 Animal Crossing saw a surge of popularity, so putting in Villager now is smart. Falcon has faded into obscurity however, and if not for Smash, he’d be a dead character.
Marth since he’s the FE protagonist. Kept Jiggs due to her popularity. Ness since he’s the protagonist of a beloved RPG. Lastly, Inkling due to Splatoon’s massive success.
DLC wave 1 is villains. I didn’t really pick the ones I did for any specific reason other than I wanted those ones.
Wave 2 are characters that haven’t seen the light of day for a while, but still integral to Nintendo’s history.
Wave 3 are the third parties. Very hard to narrow down, but I’m pleased with the end result.
Gosh, this was fun. And also really hard. I would have done and unfortunately ran out of room, but other than that I like the roster!

 

[MarioDDR755]

Ok ok, I do kind of like this idea... the idea mostly being that each of the characters in this modern-day Smash need to each be relevant to today, since that's how it was in 64. Though, to be fair, by the time Smash 64 was being made, Nintendo didn't really have a lot of "dead series" yet.

Anyway, I guess I'm mainly wondering if a modern-day first Smash game would try to appeal to the past or just focus on what is currently popular. But trying to imagine a world without Smash Bros all this time, we have to consider that characters like Captain Falcon, Ness, and Marth would not be so ingrained into us as being iconic characters, they'd just be characters in old games.

Base 8:
Unlocks: , Spring Man, Cinderace
DLC 1:
DLC 2:

I tried making the base roster representatives of all of Nintendo's currently most important series. Since no one would know who Marth is, and 3H is very popular, Byleth seems as good an FE rep as any. But in this game Byleth would be a much more standard swordfighter.

For unlocks, Luigi is a given. I decided Samus is still... important due to the Metroid II remake and the announcement of MP4. I would assume Nintendo would want to represent their newest big IP in the form of an ARMS character, and Spring Man is the main one. And since Cinderace is really popular, it seems like a great 2nd, more contemporary Pokémon rep.

DLC Pack 1: The headliner is Shulk, since Xenoblade Chronicles is popular. Otherwise, the big bads of Mario and Zelda are added. K. Rool still hasn't been in a game in forever, though, so I decided Diddy Kong would be something to pique peoples' interest for another DK rep.

DLC Pack 2: Added Peach since she'd be new and interesting compared to the other characters in the game already. Pit and Fox haven't been super popular in a while, but they both have had games somewhat recently. But the headliner is Sonic in this pack, the one and only non-Nintendo character, here to shake things up!

 

[smashingDoug]

Start

Unlocks

Dlc 1

Dlc 2

Dlc 3

Dlc 4 Twintell,

Most games get 4 packs and if 12 was the base.

 

[CrusherMania1592]

UNLOCKABLES:

Unlockables: Bowser, Lucario, Villager, Inkling

Want to emphasize on this. I am curious who you would replace Bowser with since I mentioned villains aren't really on the main roster for this because the original Smash focused on heroes. DK was the only one considered an anti-hero due to him being a villain in some games

 

[Depressed Gengar]

Want to emphasize on this. I am curious who you would replace Bowser with since I mentioned villains aren't really on the main roster for this because the original Smash focused on heroes. DK was the only one considered an anti-hero due to him being a villain in some games

If I really had to choose someone else, Peach. I said it before, a second Mario character is flat out mandatory if you actually want a 12 character roster about Nintendo all-stars. She'd also be a nice surprise, considering she'd be an unlockable and all. I don't think many people would expect Peach in the first game.

... But I'd still pick Bowser regardless since I can't imagine Nintendo saying no to him, or villains as a whole for that matter.

 

[CrusherMania1592]

Now that this has been bought up for awhile, I thought about adding one more DLC pack

DLC Wave 3:

 

[Hollywoodrok12]

Original 8 (Required): ,,,
Original 8: ,,,
Secret 4: , Euden, Spring Man, (With a lot of customization options; enough to make many things, including but not necessarily limited to the original Mii Types, a Sports user, a Mage and a mix of all of the above)

DLC Wave 1: , , (Uses this timeline's classic alt as default), (Uses , Serperior and . The veterans due to their popularity and Serperior due to how different it would be. Alts are actual different protagonists, not just Red and Leaf)
DLC Wave 2: , , ,
DLC Wave 3: , , ,

I tried to keep overlapping franchises to a minimum, with only Mario & Pokemon getting extra reps since they're the biggest video game franchises of all time.

 

[Butters Stotch]

Original 8:
+

• The first four, as well as Kirby and Pikachu, are pretty self-explanatory and it's hard for me to imagine this roster without them.
• For extra representation, Diddy and DK are a duo, with the former being on the latter games like in Returns and Tropical Freeze.
• Despite Melee not existing in this universe, I'm keeping Marth as the first FE rep, as he was the original protagonist and won the Choose Your Legends: Round 5 poll.
• Yoshi is mostly here as a placeholder, as either him or Wario could be playable. Although their series aren't as prominent as they were in the 2000s, they're still seeing releases every few years and continue to appear in Mario games.

Secret 4:

• A second Mario character is a no-brainer. Being just as iconic as Mario himself and having his own series of games, Luigi is my pick.
• Like with most of the starters, I don't really need to elaborate on Villager's inclusion. As Depressed Gengar pointed out, his inclusion would be unexpected, given the peaceful nature of Animal Crossing, so I think he works better as an unlockable.
• Out of Nintendo's recent IPs, Splatoon is their most popular and is still going strong.
• While the Game & Watch series is pretty much dead outside of the miniature Mario and Zelda releases, I added Mr. G&W as a tribute to it and Nintendo's origins. Besides, he could still bring the same shock factor as he did in Melee, as, just like Villager, someone like him wouldn't be anticipated.

Aside from Yoshi, I'm 100% confident with the choices I've made here. The game would have DLC, but only one pack.

Fighters Pass:

• I explained Wario above. If he's in the base roster, then his spot here is taken by Yoshi.
• Pikmin and Xenoblade are fairly prevalent series and, unlike Star Fox, have actually received their own Switch games.
• Considering that it's Nintendo's second biggest series and that I already have another Mario character, I may as well throw in a second Pokémon. Lucario represents another Gen and is still popular to this day.

Hypothetical sequel for the next Nintendo console (can't be bothered to write out explanations):
(separated)
Stylist Ring Fit Trainee

 

[Tankman from Newgrounds]

My Roster:
Base:
1. Mario
2. DK
3. Yoshi
4. Link
5. Samus
6. Kirby
7. Villager
8. Pikachu

The secret 4:
1. Luigi
2. Fox
3. Inkling
4. Mii Fighter

DLC Wace 1:
1. Marth
2. Olimar
3. Wario
4. Sonic

DLC 2:
1. Ness
2. Springman
3. Megaman
4. Ryu

DLC 3:
1. Shulk
2. ROB
3. Banjo-Kazooie
4. Pacman

Hypothetical DLC 4:
1. Pit
2. Excitebiker
3. Cloud
4. Simon Belmont

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

Okay, here's my alternate "Original Eight."

- Mario here is even more of a mix of his various appearances. Given he's more modern here, I don't think that an attack like F.L.U.D.D makes it in - but I'll say that the Ground Pound makes it in as well. Look, it's Mario - he doesn't change all that much here.
- Link is our "character 2" here. I'd say that he's based on BotW, but more directly - he'd have less focus on attacks used in other Zelda games, and more on BotW specifically. (For instance, a variation of Revali's Gale as his Up Special, and his alts would use different weapons as well as different costumes.)
- Pikachu is "character 3," and he keeps a pretty similar playstyle to what we've seen already. The rushdown style works well for "funny electric rat" but I'd have more of his moves directly represent moves used in the Pokemon series.
- Kirby's an obvious choice. Star Allies has released recently at this point, so I think it'd be a good idea to see him... but that then begs the question, how does Kirby play by now? I personally think there'd be a lot of focus on the Copy Abilities seen throughout the series. However, I do think the ability to copy opponents' neutral specials would be seen as a huge selling point for Kirby specifically.
- Inkling somewhat takes Samus's place as the "psudeo-zoner" of sorts. I think it'd be a pretty reasonable choice given the popularity of both Splatoon 1 and 2, and compared to a newer IP like ARMS, I think Splatoon is "recent" enough to be reasonable to add whilst also having enough of an active presence compared to other newer IPs.
- I'd like to suggest someone like Marth for more classic appeal, but it's undeniable that Byleth is a logical choice. To be honest, I did originally consider that Byleth may have too many similarities to Link to work well, but being a heavier character and having more focus on being, well, the Fire Emblem rep.
- I think Villager is a logical addition to see here, given the popularity of Animal Crossing as a whole but especially the popularity of New Horizons. Whilst I considered adding Isabelle here as opposed to Villager, I think it'd be more reasonable to add the "playable" character because they have more to play with in terms of potential moveset, and it'd feel a little more natural.
- And, well, last up is Yoshi! He might seem like an odd pick, but I'm basing him on the Yoshi series as a whole. Whilst I'm not giving him Baby Mario, one of his taunts will feature him! The thing is, I didn't feel Yoshi was ideal at first - I originally had him as unlockable - but some of the unlockable characters seem to fit better. Not only that, but Yoshi does have a lot of star power... right? I mean, he does have his own series!

And here's my "Unlockable Four."
- I'm sorry, but Luigi has to be here. His design is more unique from Mario's, though. He'd take more from his own appearances such as in Luigi's Mansion, as well as having some interesting differences to Mario in other ways - for instance, in place of fire-based attacks, Luigi uses electricity-based attacks in reference to Mario & Luigi - Superstar Saga.
- Surprised? I think it's an interesting choice to see DK here, because his "psudeo-villain" nature makes him a pretty solid option as an unlockable character. Also, in terms of expectations, I think DK would be a character that a lot of people would like to see, but as an unlockable, he's a solid pick. Unlike his Smash appearance right now, I'd like to suggest that DK is a healthy mix of his Donkey Kong Country appearances, as well as having a "projectile" for his Neutral B in the form of rolling a barrel, in reference to the arcade title. Seems like a solid way to handle him to me!
- Put it this way, this is pre-Dread. Metroid is in a funny situation at this point in time, given Prime 4 is in the works, but kinda a long shot right now... but this makes Samus a pretty solid character as an unlockable. She's also going to have a moveset more closely based on the classic Metroid gameplay as opposed to the Prime series, though her design would be that seen in the Samus Returns remake.
- "Literally who?" I think Ness would be pretty funny to see here. His PK-based playstyle makes him unique, and EarthBound is seen as a cult classic these days - in a weird way, it almost makes more sense to add him now considering the meteoric rise in popularity of the Mother series as a whole. He just seems like a pretty fun and weird pick, though I'd like him to use more abilities he actually uses in the game.

Oh, and a few DLC picks! Here's Pass 1:

- A Mii Fighter feels like a bizarre, but brilliant, addition. I'm basing their moveset on the Wii series, mostly on the sports titles - so whilst they still do have a customisable moveset, they'd use weapons like golf clubs, bowling balls, Frizbees, and so forth, as well as a couple other bits and bobs from other Wii-series titles like Wii Fit and Wii Play.
- The obligatory 2nd Pokemon rep, I had to go with Mewtwo. The problem with choosing more modern Pokemon characters is that they quickly become outdated, despite me genuinely considering Gen VIII reps like Cinderace, Toxtricity, Obstagoon and Dragapult. Mewtwo just felt like a genuinely obvious pick here, having his somewhat antagonistic role as seen in the anime but also being, well, popular.
- A slightly bizarre choice, yes, but I think that Duck Hunt Duo would actually be really fun to see. The idea of them taking inspiration from other duos as well as representing the Zapper as a whole is pretty fun to me, and they'd be a cool retro rep!
- Play a metal remix of his boss theme as you introduce him. Look, Bowser is the Nintendo villain, he needs to be here. I'd like to lean into his huge frame, as well as giving him abilities we've seen him actually use across the series as well as some stuff we have in Smash in the "real world.") He's a pretty safe, but solid, final character to add!

 

[Butters Stotch]

- A slightly bizarre choice, yes, but I think that Duck Hunt Duo would actually be really fun to see. The idea of them taking inspiration from other duos as well as representing the Zapper as a whole is pretty fun to me, and they'd be a cool retro rep!

Just remembered that Duck Hunt actually sold exponentially well, so that could be used to further justify their inclusion.

To be honest, I didn't have it in mind when doing my rosters, so I may add them to a hypothetical fourth game.

 

[DragonRobotKing26]

My Smash Roster

my roster has only one character from a single franchise rep

The Starters and Unlockable Characters
Original 8:
Secret 4:

• i don't want to put Donkey Kong,Yoshi and Wario because they are part of the Mario universe and both Donkey Kong games,Yoshi Games and Wario games are spin-offs
• link with green clothes and cap makes more sense than BoTW link,because link with green clothes and cap is more iconic
• i wanted put spring man on roster,but min min is more popular than spring man

The DLC characters

i want to put 6 characters intead of 4,i know this is a rule-breaking,but i want to do something different

DLC Pack 1(Recent Fighters): Stylist, Isaac, Chibi-Robo
DLC Pack 2(3rd Party Fighters):Black Mage
DLC pack 3(Old School Fighters): Sukapon, Mach Rider, Ayumi

 

[Otoad64]

Base Roster:
-Mario
-Donkey Kong
-Link
-Pikachu
-Kirby
-Isabelle
-Inkling
-Samus

Unlockables:
-Luigi
-Cinderace
-Byleth
-R.O.B

DLC Wave 1:
-Wario
-Bowser
-Zelda
-Ring Fit Trainee

DLC Wave 2:
-Peach
-Shulk
-King Dedede
-Captain Olimar

 

[Master Hero Sock-on-Rye]

I'm glad I stumbled upon this thread...

Starters:
1: Mario
2: Pikachu
3: Link
4: Kirby
5: Marth
6: Villager
7: Shulk
8: Inkling

Unlockables:
9: Luigi
10: Charizard
11: Donkey Kong
12: Samus

DLC Pack 1:
1: Fox
2: Ness
3: Pit
4: Robin (Fire Emblem: Awakening)

My Reasons:
-Mario's No. 1 status remains intact, as there will be no one to dethrone him as Nintendo's mascot.
-Pikachu is the new second banana, because the state of Pokemon in 2020 is wildly different than it was in 1999.
-Link's position as the third hitter stays the same, but Kirby jumps up to the Top 4. This is because Kirby would have more to pull from.
-If we were to assume that Fire Emblem still became popular in the US without Smash, then of course Marth would be a base game character.
-Depending on which month this game would release in 2020, an Animal Crossing rep would be a must-have due to New Horizons selling so well.
-Xenoblade Chronicles has had a resurgence on the Switch, so Shulk would be a good newcomer to have.
-Finally, Inkling would be the newest protagonist on the block.
-Luigi and Charizard are the first unlockables because the former could use the Poltergust and some sports-based moves, while the latter would be highly favored by The Pokemon Company.
-Contrast that with Donkey Kong and Samus, who weren't as big in 2020 as they were in 1999. As such, they would only be here as unlockable fighters if we could be realistic.
-And now for the DLC Pack, or as I call it upon hindsight, "The Ones That Got Away". Star Fox, EarthBound, and Kid Icarus would be unique franchises, and we all know Fire Emblem could have easily earned a second rep in this instance.
-Honorable mentions go to Wario, Bowser, Mewtwo, Sonic, and Ganondorf as the last fighter for DLC. The last of which I almost put here, but villains aren't allowed.
-Also, if we get that sequel in 2023 or later, people would ask for Bowser to be voiced by Jack Black or Wally Wingert. You all know why.