Quillion
Smash Hero
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2014
- Messages
- 5,722
In my opinion, it was possible in the early days of Smash (64, Melee, Brawl to a lesser extent), seeing as we've seen things like Fire Emblem get out of Japan, Mr. Game and Watch getting into the last G&W Gallery, and Pit getting a one-time revival. There's also smaller-scale things like Zelda becoming Sheik for Hyrule Warriors and Jigglypuff remaining a marketing semi-regular long after its anime incarnation's tenure ended.
But with Smash 4-on, it seems near-impossible for characters to be immortalized beyond "just there in Smash". Most of the newcomers since then are already popular to begin with rather than obscure or flavor-of-the-month, and those that are the latter seem to be lost in the fold. We've definitely seen Incineroar and Min Min fall off, and with Nintendo getting more involved in selection, it's unlikely we'll see much more characters with fall-off potential.
Of course, I'm only talking about how characters still appear in their series or their series' marketing. I'm not overly concerned with how they fare in their fanbases considering how unstable that status is. That said, status in fanbase can still be discussed here (not that I can stop it).
But with Smash 4-on, it seems near-impossible for characters to be immortalized beyond "just there in Smash". Most of the newcomers since then are already popular to begin with rather than obscure or flavor-of-the-month, and those that are the latter seem to be lost in the fold. We've definitely seen Incineroar and Min Min fall off, and with Nintendo getting more involved in selection, it's unlikely we'll see much more characters with fall-off potential.
Of course, I'm only talking about how characters still appear in their series or their series' marketing. I'm not overly concerned with how they fare in their fanbases considering how unstable that status is. That said, status in fanbase can still be discussed here (not that I can stop it).