What about Characters in the game for Marketing Purpoes?

[Wario Bros.]

I'm talking about characters being added into the next Smash Bros. for reasons including to promote an upcoming game a character stars in. Smash Bros. has done this before: Our boy didn't appear in any Fire Emblem games until 4 months after his appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee (Brawl did something similar too with the Gekko from Metal Gear Solid 4 appearing on the Shadow Moses Island stage).

Of course too many characters under this condition can be a problem and take some joy out of some characters (PlayStation All-Stars did this as I think they went WAAAAAYYY overboard on that, especially on the 3rd party characters.) So I'm asking how should marketing purposes be handled in Smash 4? For me, I want to avoid it altogether but if we can't I just want around one or two characters doing this.

What's your opinion on this?

 

[volbound1700]

Arguably Pit may have been this for Brawl (not sure if Sakurai was planning Kid Icarus uprising or not when he decided Brawl roster).

 

[Scoliosis Jones]

Arguably Pit may have been this for Brawl (not sure if Sakurai was planning Kid Icarus uprising or not when he decided Brawl roster).

Pit was one of the most requested characters for Brawl. I would say it was the opposite, that his success in Brawl gave way to Uprising.

 

[volbound1700]

Yes, he was put into Smash to market his comeback. That has been an argument. Not sure if accurate or not. People say that was one of the motivations for his appearance.

 

[Scoliosis Jones]

Yes, he was put into Smash to market his comeback. That has been an argument. Not sure if accurate or not. People say that was one of the motivations for his appearance.

Unless you have proof of that, i'm going to remain skeptical.

 

[Wario Bros.]

I don't say Pit truly counts we never heard of Kid Icarus: Uprising until 3 years after Brawl while I'm pretty sure Fire Emblem: Fūin no Tsurugi was known for a while when Melee came out (that and Pit existed before Smash Bros. was made).

 

[Curious Villager]

Wasn't Sakurai torn between making a new Starfox game or reviving Kid Icarus to modern standards or something along those lines?

Oh well, I guess anything is possible if we get another future release character in smash. Or maybe, it could even be an original character who then later on in the years gets his/her own game perhaps? :/ Sort of like what they did with Pit in his new design... sort of...

 

[Frostwraith]

Sakurai has said that the making of Kid Icarus: Uprising was largely influenced by Pit's inclusion in Brawl. When Sakurai redesigned Pit and included him in Brawl, he had no plans to make a Kid Icarus game.

 

[volbound1700]

Sakurai has said that the making of Kid Icarus: Uprising was largely influenced by Pit's inclusion in Brawl. When Sakurai redesigned Pit and included him in Brawl, he had no plans to make a Kid Icarus game.

If true then this defeats my rumor. It was more or less "accidental" marketing since the game it was marketed for did not exist at the time .


If possible, then yes I see Nintendo adding a character for marketing.

 

[BluePikmin11]

But they don't sell any R.O.B.s anymore.

 

[Wario Bros.]

But they don't sell any R.O.B.s anymore.

No one was talking about R.O.B. Besides he wasn't put in for marketing purposes but rather for being an important part of Nintendo's history (including of help saving people from video game crash of 1983).

 

[BluePikmin11]

What if they invented R.O.B. 2.0 that is way more respondent than the original R.O.B.

 

[Wario Bros.]

What if they invented R.O.B. 2.0 that is way more respondent than the original R.O.B.

Wut? There's no purpose for such a creation in this day and age. And what the heck does that have to do with this topic??

 

[Gingerbread Man]

What if they invented R.O.B. 2.0 that is way more respondent than the original R.O.B.

I certainly hope not.

In my opinion, Nintendo needs to stop devoting their resources to hardware that nobody asks for.

 

[Frostwraith]

If true then this defeats my rumor. It was more or less "accidental" marketing since the game it was marketed for did not exist at the time .


If possible, then yes I see Nintendo adding a character for marketing.

It's true.

The very first plan was to have a shooting game with both air and ground battles. So the same rules as what we have now. And along side that, I was thinking maybe we could revive a franchise that had been out of the spotlight, considering our experience in making Smash Bros. and the love that users were showing towards the character. When we combined these two ideas we ended up with a new Kid Icarus game with the angel Pit who is only able to fly for 5 minutes. We had already brought Pit back in Smash Bros. Brawl so this idea was easily adopted by everyone.

Source

 

[Croph]

Didn't Sakurai flat out say that Roy wasn't added for promotion (or at least that wasn't the main reason)? I've always thought Roy and Marth's inclusion was obviously to help promote the FE series as a whole, but for Roy promoting FE6 was sorta like an added bonus. I guess Roy's inclusion promoted FE6 either way.

Anyway, I've thought of this idea before. But if a character is added solely for promotion, I'd be okay with it...to a certain extent. I could see a character being downloadable if they're not on the initial roster (assuming they'll be DLC) to promote an upcoming game.

 

[Guybrush20X6]

I hope not, and if so I hope it doesn't end up like PS All Stars. If that wasn't in control of marketing we'd have the REAL Dante.

I'd be happy for one to appear for future games like Bayonetta or something.

 

[FalKoopa]

But they don't sell any R.O.B.s anymore.

Well, I would certainly buy a R.O.B. figurine or action figure.

 

[LaniusShrike]

Honestly, it's pretty smart. I'd like to hope that the other game makers of Nintendo communicate with the Smash makers... it would make sense for the SSB4 Link to be the same design as the upcoming Zelda game's, etc.

 

[Dark Phazon]

Honestly, it's pretty smart. I'd like to hope that the other game makers of Nintendo communicate with the Smash makers... it would make sense for the SSB4 Link to be the same design as the upcoming Zelda game's, etc.

In that sense then yh or a alt costume.

 

[Knight Dude]

I guess that new Mewtwo form, or some other 6th gen Pokemon could be included, like Slyveon. Maybe even Genesect given the new movie might still have the smallest bit of influence on the Pokemon area of the roster. Or maybe a potential new villain in the upcoming Zelda game. Or maybe Blue Toad and Yellow Toad.

 

[BridgesWithTurtles]

I'd rather every character earn their inclusion as important Nintendo characters. Brawl managed to be one big advertisement without adding any characters like Roy, so I'd like to see a similar character selection process in this game. Yeah, it's happened before, but that doesn't mean it should happen again. Besides, Roy was a late-addition clone, so it'd make sense that Sakurai would be pressured to add a new character just to fill up the roster on time. Roster padding shouldn't be an issue this time.

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

Sakurai was not the first person after Brawl was released to try and revive the Kid Icarus series. He was just the only one that was successful. He said he'd only do it if no one else was able to do it.

 

[Gene]

 

[Blazeth]

I don't think this will happen, nonetheless, it already has, and I sure didn't see that coming back then either. (Well I was pretty young, but I had a N64 so I knew which characters were in Smash 64 and I played most the popular N64 games)

 

[FlareHabanero]

Didn't Sakurai flat out say that Roy wasn't added for promotion (or at least that wasn't the main reason)? I've always thought Roy and Marth's inclusion was obviously to help promote the FE series as a whole, but for Roy promoting FE6 was sorta like an added bonus. I guess Roy's inclusion promoted FE6 either way.

Roy's inclusion was a combination of promoting Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, promoting the series as a whole alongside Marth, and because his fire sword made him stand out from Marth more then the other choices available at the time.