Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[SPEN18]

The repository of characters Nintendo has access to use, the consistently high-quality gameplay and content, and the reputation and brand name of Smash make it unlikely to be overthrown in its genre any time soon. And, I mean, even if someone else was able to make bank on the genre, that wouldn't stop Nintendo from continuing to make bank on it, too, especially with the massive fanbase that already exists.

Smash NEEDS to keep running for a bit longer on the Everyone Is Here train, because right now it's the characters already in and the ones who might get in that is carrying them.

That's too far. Ultimate absolutely never needed everyone to come back to sell well and be a well-received game whether you like it or not. It still doesn't. We can have the argument about whether or not EiH was a good idea (it wasn't), but implying that the series would go on life support without it seems unjustifiably extreme.

I don't mean to be harsh or express it too strongly, but they could literally cut a couple dozen characters and no other current platform fighter would touch them.

 

[Guynamednelson]

Oh, and stop blaming 'Everyone Is Here!' for why Ultimate was so incomplete at launch. It's not about that at all: it's all about how Sakurai was forced to make it launch in the second year of the Switch. If Sakurai was allowed to make it more at his own pace, we likely would have seen it later and more fleshed out.

It basically had almost three years of development. Its dev cycle was the longest of any Smash game, it wasn't "rushed" at all.

 

[Yamat08]

I just don't think indie games warrant higher than Miis/ATs.

He'd make a good Nintendogs style AT.

So people asked you about Minecraft, but what about Touhou Project?

 

[Trevenant]

Being realistic is just realizing Ultimate isn't happening again tbh. Outside of a port, smash doesn't need EiH to continue, and it isn't going to happen sadly. If they were struggling with just it's base game, what about all the DLC content and new characters on top of that... It frankly isn't realizable and even if it were, smash can still go on without it lol. I'm legitimately surprised at how many people think future smash's must have EiH just is it was a marketing tagline for one game lmao

 

[Gengar84]

I’m fully expecting cuts in the next game (if there is a next game). I really hate the idea of cutting characters which is why I don’t comment on it much but I’m just going by what Sakurai has been saying. I don’t think cuts are a 100% guarantee but I think it’s best to keep our expectations in check.

Thankfully, modding is a thing. If I just want Ultimate with more characters and stages, I can always mod the game. There are tons of great mods already like the Goku mentioned above that really make me want to get back into it. Brawl modding was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in a video game and it’s looking like Ultimate has even more potential in the long run. The only thing holding me back at this point is the fact that I’m not really knowledgeable with technical stuff like that so I’m a little afraid I’m going to screw something up.

 

[Michael the Spikester]

I stand the next approach is a Nintendo Vs. or a spiritual successor whether JRPG or whatever another genre.

It'd avoid the whole backlash of cuts.

Because otherwise I'd rather they keep porting the game with updates or an Ultimate Deluxe Edition.

 

[Gengar84]

I stand the next approach is a Nintendo Vs. or a spiritual successor whether JRPG or whatever another genre.

It'd avoid the whole backlash of cuts.

Because otherwise I'd rather they keep porting the game with updates or an Ultimate Deluxe Edition.

I would love a Smash JRPG but not as a replacement for our current Smash. I do think it would be a fun idea to branch crossovers into other genres. I’m fine with taking a break from the current genre as long as they don’t give up on it and return to it at some point.

 

[Trevenant]

I'm really just surprised by the amount of times I've literally seen people say smash should change genre entirely since Ultimate ended lol... Whether you realize it or not, everyone likes smash cos of the gameplay just as much as, if not more so than the characters, cos without the gameplay, it could literally be a pong clone with the only difference being the face on the paddle or something lmao... We're on smashboards... That isn't just a website based on the concept of smash, it is also the gameplay... the idea of a next game is only based on it being another platform fighter, which is a good thing... Not changing the fundamental gameplay as if it isn't one of the key reasons smash is the one crossover series that stand above other crud like Fortnite and even Brawlhalla by a tenfold is just a weird proposition... It isn't even a possibility. Removing smash's mechanics would be like just slapping two slices of bread together and saying it's a sandwich... What I'm trying to say is... Smash's gameplay is smash... Not just the crossover... That's why smash kart wouldn't work as it isn't smash's gameplay... The series having smash in the title is literally based on it's identity... Stuff like Nintendo vs would be unrelated entirely... They would have no bearing on smash, cos they're completely different games. It's not as bad as a couple days ago but still...

Does anyone recall this happening in the run-up to Ultimate from sm4sh? Genuine question, cos seeing these suggestions has me thinking this must be something that happens after every game or some crap... Or maybe it's specific to ultimate just cos it brought everyone back and they think it's a fitting ending... Idk

 

[Sucumbio]

I'm really just surprised by the amount of times I've literally seen people say smash should change genre entirely since Ultimate ended lol... Whether you realize it or not, everyone likes smash cos of the gameplay just as much as, if not more so than the characters, cos without the gameplay, it could literally be a pong clone with the only difference being the face on the paddle or something lmao... We're on smashboards... That isn't just a website based on the concept of smash, it is also the gameplay... the idea of a next game is only based on it being another platform fighter, which is a good thing... Not changing the fundamental gameplay as if it isn't one of the key reasons smash is the one crossover series that stand above other crud like Fortnite and even Brawlhalla by a tenfold is just a weird proposition... It isn't even a possibility. Removing smash's mechanics would be like just slapping two slices of bread together and saying it's a sandwich... What I'm trying to say is... Smash's gameplay is smash... Not just the crossover... That's why smash kart wouldn't work as it isn't smash's gameplay... The series having smash in the title is literally based on it's identity... Stuff like Nintendo vs would be unrelated entirely... They would have no bearing on smash, cos they're completely different games. It's not as bad as a couple days ago but still...

Does anyone recall this happening in the run-up to Ultimate from sm4sh? Genuine question, cos seeing these suggestions has me thinking this must be something that happens after every game or some crap... Or maybe it's specific to ultimate just cos it brought everyone back and they think it's a fitting ending... Idk

I wasn't involved in speculation from 4 to ultimate but I personally assumed a new game was coming once I heard of the switch. It never dawned on me to even entertain the idea it would be a Port of 4 either, I assumed from the outset it would be a unique sequel. I also didn't predict they'd bring everyone from previous games back. I was very surprised to see so many cloned characters and such.The whole EIH thing was also a surprise.

Even though Sakurai's Said not to assume a sequel will happen and...

"At the very least, I don't think it would head in a direction where all of the current fighters are kept and the roster continues to expand," he explained. "I presume that running such a game on a hypothetical new system alone would exceed the game’s budget."

"However, if we try to keep things fresh by shifting to a different genre or greatly changing the direction, then it's no longer a Super Smash Bros. game. I can't deny that making this title so expansive has made it a tough act to follow."

... I feel a sequel or spiritual successor is still highly likely. But I also believe that the next system will be such that this next installation will be a fully New title and not a Port, ultimate dx, or something similar.

 

[Dinoman96]

I think the idea that Smash should completely change genre or reboot is just because of the notion that a 'normal' Smash sequel that only has like 60 characters would pail in comparison to Ultimate.

 

[Gengar84]

One compromise that might work is to go all in on a Subspace Emissary style platforming campaign and make that the main focus. I feel like that mode has a ton of unrealized potential. If they set out to make as good of a co-op campaign as possible, they could make everything else secondary. There would still be an option for normal battles but it would be more of a secondary mode, like Mario Kart’s battle mode. A great campaign would definitely make a smaller roster more forgiving.

 

[Trevenant]

I wasn't involved in speculation from 4 to ultimate but I personally assumed a new game was coming once I heard of the switch. It never dawned on me to even entertain the idea it would be a Port of 4 either, I assumed from the outset it would be a unique sequel. I also didn't predict they'd bring everyone from previous games back. I was very surprised to see so many cloned characters and such.The whole EIH thing was also a surprise.

Even though Sakurai's Said not to assume a sequel will happen and...

"At the very least, I don't think it would head in a direction where all of the current fighters are kept and the roster continues to expand," he explained. "I presume that running such a game on a hypothetical new system alone would exceed the game’s budget."

"However, if we try to keep things fresh by shifting to a different genre or greatly changing the direction, then it's no longer a Super Smash Bros. game. I can't deny that making this title so expansive has made it a tough act to follow."

... I feel a sequel or spiritual successor is still highly likely. But I also believe that the next system will be such that this next installation will be a fully New title and not a Port, ultimate dx, or something similar.

Yeah, I'm glad that Sakurai has said that... Hopefully that puts any ideas of any smash kart or nintendo vs or movie nonsense to rest... Smash will stay smash... The gameplay is probably more important than the crossover aspect... Any other crossover stuff that happens will either not exist so as to not tread on Smash's toes, or it would be completely unrelated. I'm just astounded at how many people seem to be for this idea when many have literally said they don't view smash just as a crossover game... Fortnite has crossovers, but I absolutely wouldn't say they're good cos they're like the most basic form of crossover yiu can get in there... Even with the clones, or even crud like the Miis, at least thought actually went into how they could fit the characters whilst not being too taxing in regards to resources.

 

[chocolatejr9]

Tencent has acquired Turtle Rock Studios developers of Back 4 Blood and Left 4 Dead

"Turtle Rock will become part of Tencent while retaining its independent operations out of Lake Forest CA and its existing team will continue to run all studio operations"https://t.co/YWstyuIiIQ pic.twitter.com/JdzwBpZ9ZS

— Benji-Sales (@BenjiSales) December 17, 2021

At this rate, even Nintendo might have to start acquiring more studios. Tencent and Netease have done more industry consolidation in a few years than ANY of the big three have across their collective history...

Wait, this needs to be Smash-related, um... Nintendo buying other studios increases their chances of being in Smash? Yeah, I got nothing.

 

[Gengar84]

Tencent has acquired Turtle Rock Studios developers of Back 4 Blood and Left 4 Dead

"Turtle Rock will become part of Tencent while retaining its independent operations out of Lake Forest CA and its existing team will continue to run all studio operations"https://t.co/YWstyuIiIQ pic.twitter.com/JdzwBpZ9ZS

— Benji-Sales (@BenjiSales) December 17, 2021

At this rate, even Nintendo might have to start acquiring more studios. Tencent and Netease have done more industry consolidation in a few years than ANY of the big three have across their collective history...

Wait, this needs to be Smash-related, um... Nintendo buying other studios increases their chances of being in Smash? Yeah, I got nothing.

I’ve got it, Carracosta or Dreadnaw for Smash! They’re both turtle rocks .

 

[osby]

Tencent has acquired Turtle Rock Studios developers of Back 4 Blood and Left 4 Dead

"Turtle Rock will become part of Tencent while retaining its independent operations out of Lake Forest CA and its existing team will continue to run all studio operations"https://t.co/YWstyuIiIQ pic.twitter.com/JdzwBpZ9ZS

— Benji-Sales (@BenjiSales) December 17, 2021

At this rate, even Nintendo might have to start acquiring more studios. Tencent and Netease have done more industry consolidation in a few years than ANY of the big three have across their collective history...

YMMV by I don't think the solution to the monopolization of the industry is big companies getting into an acquisition race.

 

[chocolatejr9]

YMMV by I don't think the solution to the monopolization of the industry is big companies getting into an acquisition race.

I don't know what's sadder: the fact I needed to look up what "YMMV" means, or the fact that that seems to be the direction the industry is going, whether we like it or not...

 

[Sucumbio]

Yeah, I'm glad that Sakurai has said that... Hopefully that puts any ideas of any smash kart or nintendo vs or movie nonsense to rest... Smash will stay smash... The gameplay is probably more important than the crossover aspect... Any other crossover stuff that happens will either not exist so as to not tread on Smash's toes, or it would be completely unrelated. I'm just astounded at how many people seem to be for this idea when many have literally said they don't view smash just as a crossover game... Fortnite has crossovers, but I absolutely wouldn't say they're good cos they're like the most basic form of crossover yiu can get in there... Even with the clones, or even crud like the Miis, at least thought actually went into how they could fit the characters whilst not being too taxing in regards to resources.

Pretty much... gameplay is indeed very important... at least this deep into the series, with the core mechanics not having changed really at all. So it'll still be a multi user fighter on 2.5d platforms, items, an All Star cast and simple controls (ie 3 buttons and the stick.) The project changed minor things between games, gained and lost side modes, and generally expanded the roster. So ultimate should be viewed as the pinnacle of the series especially when considering roster size and games represented etc.

All that said, however, I still believe it's worthy to hope for any character to come back, and for any new characters to join smash. Knowing in the back of one's head that whatever game they make (if one is to be made) will be smaller in scope in terms of sheer roster size really shouldn't effect one's own wants for representation in the new game.

 

[Gengar84]

Pretty much... gameplay is indeed very important... at least this deep into the series, with the core mechanics not having changed really at all. So it'll still be a multi user fighter on 2.5d platforms, items, an All Star cast and simple controls (ie 3 buttons and the stick.) The project changed minor things between games, gained and lost side modes, and generally expanded the roster. So ultimate should be viewed as the pinnacle of the series especially when considering roster size and games represented etc.

All that said, however, I still believe it's worthy to hope for any character to come back, and for any new characters to join smash. Knowing in the back of one's head that whatever game they make (if one is to be made) will be smaller in scope in terms of sheer roster size really shouldn't effect one's own wants for representation in the new game.

Yeah, I partially don’t like thinking about cuts because Sephiroth is my favorite character in Smash and he’s one of the most commonly predicted cuts in a theoretical next Smash game.

 

[PeridotGX]

Tencent has acquired Turtle Rock Studios developers of Back 4 Blood and Left 4 Dead

"Turtle Rock will become part of Tencent while retaining its independent operations out of Lake Forest CA and its existing team will continue to run all studio operations"https://t.co/YWstyuIiIQ pic.twitter.com/JdzwBpZ9ZS

— Benji-Sales (@BenjiSales) December 17, 2021

At this rate, even Nintendo might have to start acquiring more studios. Tencent and Netease have done more industry consolidation in a few years than ANY of the big three have across their collective history...

Wait, this needs to be Smash-related, um... Nintendo buying other studios increases their chances of being in Smash? Yeah, I got nothing.

Nintendo should probably get all of it's coworker companies before anyone else tries. Hal, Inteligent System s, Game F4ear Camelot, Grezzo, Mercury Steam. these companies are almost as key to Nintendo as the internal team. Losing them would be a massive shame.

 

[Diddy Kong]

I do feel people seem to take for granted just how much had to be sacrificed to make "everyone is here" happen, or how much more would have to be sacrificed to make it continue> Ultimate has been the only game to do "Everyone is here" and that game already had to hold back quite a bit on new base game content (ie less newcomers and MUCH less new stages, opting for spirits over trophies, no homerun contest at launch, etc.). How much do you think we'd get with a Smash 6 that has to bring back everything mother****ing Ultimate had?

then what about a Smash 7 that has to bring back everything this hypothetical Smash 6? Smash 8 from Smash 7? etc etc

As great and talented as Sakurai and his team are, even they still have their limits, and while Ultimate managed to turn out alright with an "everyone is here" at play game-qualitywise and balance-wise for the most part, I don't know if I have much confidence this could continue for much longer, or could even work out as well in a Smash 6. or if it could theoretically work out, it'd probably have to be at the expense of Smash doing more new or innovative stuff with the formula (and by "innovative" I don't mean outright genre-changing or anything like that), and this...isn't exactly very exciting to me either. As someone who has put over a thousand hours into Ultimate and will likely continue to put in countless more, the idea of having to wait years for the enxt Smash only to have it be "Smash Ultimate again but with a few new things sprinkled on top" sounds incredibly underwhelming. The idea that we could never see a new or fresh-feeling Smash again just to continue beating the Ultimate horse dead for the next god knows how many years is seriously gross to me.

I agree here. A lot of sacrifices had to be made in order for Everyone Is Here, and Ultimate in general to come to be. Must've been a hell in terms of stress to arrange it all.

But honestly, I don't think a "port" to Ultimate would be a bad idea at all. If they keep all the characters, or are able to readd them through DLC, and focus on more single player content, a new Adventure Mode, and add a couple more newcomers, that would be perfect. I'm not sure why people would be against this. Maybe that's why they're all so radical about cuts?

A "port" to Ultimate with more content would in my eyes be a very ideal situation.

 

[Gengar84]

I agree here. A lot of sacrifices had to be made in order for Everyone Is Here, and Ultimate in general to come to be. Must've been a hell in terms of stress to arrange it all.

But honestly, I don't think a "port" to Ultimate would be a bad idea at all. If they keep all the characters, or are able to readd them through DLC, and focus on more single player content, a new Adventure Mode, and add a couple more newcomers, that would be perfect. I'm not sure why people would be against this. Maybe that's why they're all so radical about cuts?

A "port" to Ultimate with more content would in my eyes be a very ideal situation.

Same here. I don’t even really need much more content at launch. I’d be happy with a straight port that just started up the DLC passes again.

 

[Guynamednelson]

I'm not sure why people would be against this. Maybe that's why they're all so radical about cuts?

It's more like thinking EIH+Brawl levels of new content is impossible. Either too many resources will be spent on relicensing and rebalancing characters, or since it's a port they'll try to be as cheap as possible and have it not truly be an EIH game until you purchase harder-to-relicense characters separately.

 

[chocolatejr9]

Nintendo should probably get all of it's coworker companies before anyone else tries. Hal, Inteligent System s, Game F4ear Camelot, Grezzo, Mercury Steam. these companies are almost as key to Nintendo as the internal team. Losing them would be a massive shame.

Honestly, the only one of these guys I can see issues with is MercurySteam, because apparently some other company already owns 40% of the company. The rest should be fair game, though.

 

[Diddy Kong]

It's more like thinking EIH+Brawl levels of new content is impossible. Either too many resources will be spent on relicensing and rebalancing characters, or since it's a port they'll try to be as cheap as possible and have it not truly be an EIH game until you purchase harder-to-relicense characters separately.

But Ultimate had the best balance of all other Smash games, it wouldn't be so bad to copy paste the balance Ultimate has right now into a Deluxe version. I mean, there's not even a concrete Tier List, never has been. Yeah a general estimation has been made, but nothing has been set in stone yet.

I do suspect that highly esteemed and / or hard to licence characters might turn back to paid DLC , even if they where on the base roster like Snake or even Cloud (Sephiroth too of course).

The only changes in balance I'd see from a direct "port" with a Deluxe version could be the result of move set revamps.

What I also could see is them cutting down the size of the roster to about Smash 4 + DLC levels, and readd a couple of characters that are long time veterans and lesser unique characters as Young Link, Wolf, Dr.Mario and the like are added back as DLC, but with more unique movesets. They could save the development time to simply add a few more unique newcomers.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

Dude I just want CING and Alphadream to come back somehow… if any of the talent is still out there…

 

[Gengar84]

Dude I just want CING and Alphadream to come back somehow… if any of the talent is still out there…

I’ve heard the names but I’m not familiar with their work. What games did CING and Alphadream work on?

 

[Diddy Kong]

Alpha Dreams made the Mario & Luigi RPG games, some of these games being excellent, and had very unique game play. I don't know CING however... I do wish Nintendo would make proper Mario RPG games again, not the Mario vs Rabbids stuff, and the horror that became Paper Mario.

 

[Gengar84]

Alpha Dreams made the Mario & Luigi RPG games, some of these games being excellent, and had very unique game play. I don't know CING however... I do wish Nintendo would make proper Mario RPG games again, not the Mario vs Rabbids stuff, and the horror that became Paper Mario.

Alright, I knew I recognized Alphadream from somewhere. I actually own a couple of the Mario and Luigi games. I do miss Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: TTYD. Those were my top two Mario RPG games.

 

[chocolatejr9]

Alright, I knew I recognized Alphadream from somewhere. I actually own a couple of the Mario and Luigi games. I do miss Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: TTYD. Those were my top two Mario RPG games.

Sadly, the industry was changing faster than AlphaDream could keep up. After awhile, they just... couldn't, y'know?

Anyway, on a more positive note, BrawlFan1 recently came back from his impromptu hiatus, and with a character I don't think many people would expect in Smash:

Not gonna lie, did NOT expect that Final Smash...

 

[Guynamednelson]

But Ultimate had the best balance of all other Smash games, it wouldn't be so bad to copy paste the balance Ultimate has right now into a Deluxe version. I mean, there's not even a concrete Tier List, never has been. Yeah a general estimation has been made, but nothing has been set in stone yet.

That doesn't mean Sakurai will think it's perfect. Like, even if 13.01 is supposed to be the LAST balance patch, I believe they'll make a special exception if people still find something that's super broken. Newcomers would also require them to rebalance the roster anyway, so they don't dominate or get dominated.

 

[Diddy Kong]

That doesn't mean Sakurai will think it's perfect. Like, even if 13.01 is supposed to be the LAST balance patch, I believe they'll make a special exception if people still find something that's super broken. Newcomers would also require them to rebalance the roster anyway, so they don't dominate or get dominated.

Newcomers would require balance changes yeah, but it's easier to balance them alone than having to balance the full roster of course. And of course as I said before, revamped veterans could prove to require balance changes too.

 

[Sid-cada]

So, I've been toying with ideas on how to follow up with Ultimate by soft-rebooting the gameplay in order to shake up the next game, to deal with the near-inevitability of roster cuts.

One thing that I seem to keep coming back to is giving everyone "Smash Specials." Instead of there being 4 different special moves per character, there are now 7. A neutral special, a special for up, down, and sideways performed like a tilt attack, and a special for up, down, and sideways performed like a smash attack.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this, especially regarding the following questions:

1 - Do you think this fits Smash's philosophy of being "easy to learn, hard to master," in regards to control scheme?
2 - Do you think that people who have played smash for a long time will be able to adapt to the three new specials easily?
3 - In general, how much do you think the cast will need to be reworked overall in order to accommodate the new specials? Do you think most of them will mostly be the same except for the new moves, or do expect most of them to have to undergo major changes?
4 - Of all the characters in Ultimate, who do you think will be among the characters to get the largest changes to their kit?
5 - Of all the characters in Ultimate, who do you think would benefit the most from the addition of the new special moves, and who would benefit the least?
6 - Of all the characters in Ultimate, who do you think will be the easiest to make new moves for, and who would be the hardest?
7 - For characters like Ryu who have command inputs as part of their move set, do you think there will be trouble adapting them to the new control scheme?
8 - Are there any other characters who might have trouble adapting to the new control scheme?
9 - Say that the next game choses to bring over 50 veterans, for sake of scale. How much effort do you think it would take to make the changes necessary for this to happen? Approximately how many new characters do you think is equivalent to this amount of work?
10 - Overall, do you think this might be a good idea?

 

[Rie Sonomura]

CING did Hotel Dusk and Trace Memory, fyi

 

[Guynamednelson]

So, I've been toying with ideas on how to follow up with Ultimate by soft-rebooting the gameplay in order to shake up the next game, to deal with the near-inevitability of roster cuts.

One thing that I seem to keep coming back to is giving everyone "Smash Specials." Instead of there being 4 different special moves per character, there are now 7. A neutral special, a special for up, down, and sideways performed like a tilt attack, and a special for up, down, and sideways performed like a smash attack.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this, especially regarding the following questions:

1 - Do you think this fits Smash's philosophy of being "easy to learn, hard to master," in regards to control scheme?
2 - Do you think that people who have played smash for a long time will be able to adapt to the three new specials easily?
3 - In general, how much do you think the cast will need to be reworked overall in order to accommodate the new specials? Do you think most of them will mostly be the same except for the new moves, or do expect most of them to have to undergo major changes?
4 - Of all the characters in Ultimate, who do you think will be among the characters to get the largest changes to their kit?
5 - Of all the characters in Ultimate, who do you think would benefit the most from the addition of the new special moves, and who would benefit the least?
6 - Of all the characters in Ultimate, who do you think will be the easiest to make new moves for, and who would be the hardest?
7 - For characters like Ryu who have command inputs as part of their move set, do you think there will be trouble adapting them to the new control scheme?
8 - Are there any other characters who might have trouble adapting to the new control scheme?
9 - Say that the next game choses to bring over 50 veterans, for sake of scale. How much effort do you think it would take to make the changes necessary for this to happen? Approximately how many new characters do you think is equivalent to this amount of work?
10 - Overall, do you think this might be a good idea?

If anything, I'd like to ask you a question: For characters that already have "Smash Specials", like Samus' super missiles, would they just get 2 more special moves?

 

[Sid-cada]

If anything, I'd like to ask you a question: For characters that already have "Smash Specials", like Samus' super missiles, would they just get 2 more special moves?

It'd probably have to be handled on a case by case basis. The idea is that the difference between a tilt special and a smash special is roughly the same as a tilt attack and a smash attack, and their should be a noticble difference that feels as different.

For Samus, I'd think that they'd keep her homing missiles, as their are no other homing projectiles, at least that I can think of, in Smash's cast. Her new Smash Special would have to be something different. (Just spitballing, but maybe the Shine Spark?)

For someone like Pikachu, the difference in charging can probably go and we can just get a new move no problem.

 

[Yamat08]

Does anyone recall this happening in the run-up to Ultimate from sm4sh? Genuine question, cos seeing these suggestions has me thinking this must be something that happens after every game or some crap... Or maybe it's specific to ultimate just cos it brought everyone back and they think it's a fitting ending... Idk

I didn't stick around the community all that much, but I remember fearing the possibility that we'd lose Mega Man or someone else. Honestly, at the time, I wouldn't have minded if the next Smash game was just a quick Smash4 port that combined content from both the WiiU and 3DS, since it seemed like several WiiU games were getting ported in response to that system's failure. Maybe we'd have gotten a proper Switch installment down the line, but I was thinking said port could've served to fill the gap in between, since it would've been awkward to have the most current Smash iteration stuck on this console that really didn't sell all that great for the next several years. Made it all the more mind-blowing that Ultimate came about as soon as it did.

One compromise that might work is to go all in on a Subspace Emissary style platforming campaign and make that the main focus. I feel like that mode has a ton of unrealized potential. If they set out to make as good of a co-op campaign as possible, they could make everything else secondary. There would still be an option for normal battles but it would be more of a secondary mode, like Mario Kart’s battle mode. A great campaign would definitely make a smaller roster more forgiving.

But I wanted Subspace WITH Everyone Is Here. Though, I wouldn't mind if they just released Subspace as a separate game at this point, and it was cross-compatible with Ultimate's DLC while using its engine. In fact, that sort of semi-update to Ultimate could make for a good option to provide us with some form of new Smash content during what'll likely be a long drought of Smash-related news.

Nintendo should probably get all of it's coworker companies before anyone else tries. Hal, Inteligent System s, Game F4ear Camelot, Grezzo, Mercury Steam. these companies are almost as key to Nintendo as the internal team. Losing them would be a massive shame.

Yes, it would be great if they could prevent another Rare situation from ever happening again.

What I also could see is them cutting down the size of the roster to about Smash 4 + DLC levels, and readd a couple of characters that are long time veterans and lesser unique characters as Young Link, Wolf, Dr.Mario and the like are added back as DLC, but with more unique movesets. They could save the development time to simply add a few more unique newcomers.

I'd say the bolded part is setting your expectations too high. Keep in mind, they're not above selling us semi-clones (as proven with Roy and Lucas in Smash4), and for that matter, Mii costumes would suggest that they'd charge us money even for full clones. Besides, Young Link is semi-unique now anyway (mainly by virtue of Link having a massive update). At any rate, as I keep saying, I certainly wouldn't mind characters relegated to DLC, so long as the full roster is still possible (and indeed, they might've been going for just that in Smash4, but technical complications with IceClimbers and Pokemon Trainer probably made them decide to hold it off until the Switch).

As an aside, does anyone think that a more expensive premium version of Ultimate would sell? Basically, it costs a fair bit more than the standard retail edition (maybe included exclusively in some kind of deluxe packaging that packs in an artbook or whatever), but it has all the DLC included. I'd personally like to see such a thing, for no other reason besides the complete version of Ultimate being able to have a physical release.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

I didn't stick around the community all that much, but I remember fearing the possibility that we'd lose Mega Man or someone else. Honestly, at the time, I wouldn't have minded if the next Smash game was just a quick Smash4 port that combined content from both the WiiU and 3DS, since it seemed like several WiiU games were getting ported in response to that system's failure. Maybe we'd have gotten a proper Switch installment down the line, but I was thinking said port could've served to fill the gap in between, since it would've been awkward to have the most current Smash iteration stuck on this console that really didn't sell all that great for the next several years. Made it all the more mind-blowing that Ultimate came about as soon as it did.


But I wanted Subspace WITH Everyone Is Here. Though, I wouldn't mind if they just released Subspace as a separate game at this point, and it was cross-compatible with Ultimate's DLC while using its engine. In fact, that sort of semi-update to Ultimate could make for a good option to provide us with some form of new Smash content during what'll likely be a long drought of Smash-related news.


Yes, it would be great if they could prevent another Rare situation from ever happening again.


I'd say the bolded part is setting your expectations too high. Keep in mind, they're not above selling us semi-clones (as proven with Roy and Lucas in Smash4), and for that matter, Mii costumes would suggest that they'd charge us money even for full clones. Besides, Young Link is semi-unique now anyway (mainly by virtue of Link having a massive update). At any rate, as I keep saying, I certainly wouldn't mind characters relegated to DLC, so long as the full roster is still possible (and indeed, they might've been going for just that in Smash4, but technical complications with IceClimbers and Pokemon Trainer probably made them decide to hold it off until the Switch).

As an aside, does anyone think that a more expensive premium version of Ultimate would sell? Basically, it costs a fair bit more than the standard retail edition (maybe included exclusively in some kind of deluxe packaging that packs in an artbook or whatever), but it has all the DLC included. I'd personally like to see such a thing, for no other reason besides the complete version of Ultimate being able to have a physical release.

For the last paragraph, they’ve done that with SWSH and Splatoon 2 (the latter is JP only atm and includes the Octo Expansion) so I can see them doing that

 

[Sucumbio]

Yeah, I partially don’t like thinking about cuts because Sephiroth is my favorite character in Smash and he’s one of the most commonly predicted cuts in a theoretical next Smash game.

Actually wait is he though?

I think so long as cloud is playable his nemesis should be...

I was thinking more likely is reps who stand alone in their 3rd party so aegis prolly safer as would be plant (heh) but say not bk, joker, terry and kazuya.... and not any base roster considered like Sonic or snake etc because I'm going to assume for this this discussion they're all safer than dlc.

 

[chocolatejr9]

Now it truly is the Christmas season...

(Also, there's a Smash joke at the end, I'm allowed to post this here).

 

[SPEN18]

Smash definitely doesn't need a premium/deluxe version on the Switch to compete with itself; the best I'd have any scrap of expectation for is some sort of sale/discount where you can buy a hard copy of the game with a code to download the DLC bundled in. They want to continue making money off the extra paid content as long as they can.

Remake/port/deluxe version is not at all likely until we get to a next console, as I'm sure even most of the pro-porters are aware. And we don't know what the next console would be like until its existence is made official, but it's highly likely to be a significant enough increase in hardware specs to make porting from Switch much less of an option. Wii U to Switch was an extremely rare type of transition, and it's probably not prudent to expect another scenario in which porting assets is so doable. Besides, selling what is essentially the same game on a different console with extra DLC that is only available on the new version of the game is probably not what they want as a pattern for their business. Yes, MK8 happened but it was an incredibly unique situation; doing this repeatedly will get people very tired very fast.

Bottom line is that
if they had wanted to add any more content to Ultimate, then they would've just continued the DLC past the second FP. They clearly deem Ultimate to be complete for the immediate and near-immediate future.

I highly doubt there's any sort of master plan to hold off on extra content for Ultimate until we get to a new console that we can port and resell on. The plan, right now, is for Ultimate to be left as-is. Anything other than that would require a unique circumstance and big change in direction.