We got Piranha Planted and people still holding that "ruleset of newcomers".
While I don't expect an anime character, I wouldn't be totally surprised.
I'd bet on Mickey against Piranha Plant chances 24/7, but here we are...
There's a method to the madness behind Piranha Plant though. To wit, it's got qualities that make it a counterpart to Yoshi, following a Duality theme.
-One is an animal with human-like intelligence, while the other is a plant with violent impulses. You've got Fauna & Flora here.
-One is an animal with recognizable features that makes them feel humanized, while the other is a plant with unconventional means of emoting.
-One is portrayed as a friendly and mostly-harmless creature with a goofy nose, while the other is menacing and has a mouth for a head with killer teeth.
-One moves around like a person, while the other is mostly stationary, with unconventional means of locomotion when forced to get by.
-Both are gluttonous and their methods of chowing down on prey differs slightly. Yoshi reels in food while Piranha Plant moves toward its food.
-Both sport white,
red,
green, and
brown in their color schemes, funnily enough.
-Both weaponize round objects that they're able to toss at their foes, and their objects travel in arcs.
-Both of them are minions, with one being a companion (a heroic mook if you will), and the other being an obstacle/enemy.
You shouldn't expect Harry Potter or Reckless safety notice man, but an Spirit or Assist Trophy no problem.
Chrom appears into Robin victory pose.
But I can imagine some more weird stuff making in the game as DLC.
Chrom makes me think that characters like X, Protoman, Kumatora, and Poo could happen, but at the same time, it feels like the same situation as the Mii Fighter outfits where if you're already playable in the game, the costume is just a bonus, but the same rule doesn't apply for Mii Fighter outfits of characters who
aren't playable.
Trends are broken all the time though. We used to get a retro character every game. Then Ultimate happened. We used to never get multiple third party reps from the same company. Then Ryu happened. We used to never have multiple characters for the same third party series. Then Richter happened. Playable characters used to never also have a final smash role. Then Chrom happened. WTF characters used to exclusively be retro characters. Then Wii Fit Trainer happened. We used to never have cut characters return. Then Dr. Mario happened. Trends are consistently broken.
Those don't count as trends at all though. The closest thing to retro characters in the first Smash were Mario and Donkey Kong, going by their seniority status at that point.
Ultimate gave us Simon, who is plenty Retro. Hell, even Ridley is a retro character if you want to bring up Nintendo-only examples. I think you're trying to define the term as a "spot for a character who only ever had one game on the NES, and faded into obscurity since then".
Ryu made sense because of Capcom's history with Nintendo, and the fact that Ryu is
the original Fighting Game character. If anything Ryu confirmed that a company can get more than one character provided there is justification for it. His inclusion wasn't surprising in the slightest.
Chrom was added because he was a popular request within the community, an easy Echo, and his appearance in Robin's Final Smash was just lazy on Sakurai's part (or directly ported from Smash 4 and not changed at all for whatever reason). The bottom-line is that Chrom was already an assist character previously. Him being in Robin's Final Smash
again had no bearing on weather or not he's playable. Refer to my above post regarding Kumatora, Protoman, and the others.
"WTF characters" and "retro characters" aren't mutually exclusive. You can attribute it to Yoshi, Ness, Jigglypuff, Captain Falcon, Peach, Zelda, Ice Climbers, Dr. Mario, Pichu, Sheik, Fox, Falco, Villager, and so on. All of these characters share traits in common that make them very unconventional ideas for fighters, yet here they are (and always have been). Even Snake is a "WTF" character by virtue of public ignorance. Like I said before, Sakurai had plans to include him in Melee.
The cutting argument comes from people assuming that every new Smash game beyond Brawl would be soft reboots where characters wouldn't return. It came from how Brawl got rid of Dr. Mario, Pichu, Young Link, Mewtwo, and Roy. Cuts came about due to certain circumstances, but as time went on, we learned that Sakurai doesn't like to cut characters from each new entry (assuming he actually spoke about this in an interview). In this example, it's once again public ignorance assuming Sakurai has made that statement. It's like when Isabelle was revealed as a non-Echo Fighter in the September Direct: That got Shadow's fanbase demanding their Most-Wanted to be unique as well just because they had different expectations with Isabelle. Never mind the fact that Isabelle is a first-party character with certain privileges, while a unique Shadow would have made unique Richter a missed opportunity.
Can't be regulated to Random.
Random's at the top before Battlefield.
Oh, it is?
[Checks]
So it is! Wowie, I totally missed that somehow! Okay then, I guess it's down to either the DLC button like with Smash 4, oooor the Stage Builder stages.
should get itself a stage too. I love the idea of its stage a stage full of pipes. A good name for it would be Pipe Zone.
