What if the first Smash Bros game was made in 2014?

[kantoskies]

I feel like this thread has been made before...oh well

Let's pretend that the first Smash game came out in 2014. It's still made by Sakurai and is only for the Wii U. What would it be like? My guess:

Characters:

Spoiler

• Mario
• Luigi
• Princess Peach
• Bowser
• Yoshi
• Donkey Kong
• Diddy Kong
• Link
• Zelda
• Ganondorf
• Ghirahim
• Samus
• Kirby
• King Dedede
• Meta Knight
• Pikachu
• Fennekin
• Chespin
• Froakie
• Fox McCloud
• Pit
• Palutena
• Chrom
• Lucina
• Robin
• Captain Olimar
• Villager
• Little Mac
• Shulk
• Pac-Man
• Mii Fighter

There most likely would have been a much smaller budget, so obviously less characters. Notes:

• Yoshi would be classified as a Mario character
• The Legend of Zelda characters would be based off their Skyward Sword appearances rather than Twilight Princess (kinda surprised they didn't do this in the game we got but eh)
• Most recent games in each series would probably be the only ones represented, so only Pokemon X/Y, Fire Emblem Awakening, etc major characters
• Series that have Smash Bros as one major reason for being as popular as they are (Earthbound, F-Zero) wouldn't be represented
• Pac-Man would be the only 3rd Party character, as it would still be produced with Namco and Sonic/Mega Man were fan favorites (which wouldn't really be considered in the first game of the series)
• There would be only one Mii Fighter due to time constraints
• The same treatment Sakurai gives the Kirby series would still be there, so only classic Kirby stuff.

Stages:

Spoiler

• Battlefield
• Final Destination
• Mushroom Kingdom
• Jungle Hijinx
• Hyrule Temple
• Pyrosphere
• Green Greens
• Pokemon Stadium
• Great Fox
• Palutena's Temple
• Coliseum
• Garden of Hope
• Smashville
• Boxing Ring
• Gaur Plain
• Pac Maze
• Wuhu Island

My reasoning behind this is, like Smash 64, there'd only be one stage per series. I tried thinking of generic locations that would work as a "catch-all" for each series.

My overall reasoning for this list is that, since there'd be a smaller budget and no fan expectations (of who should return from previous entries/what series needs more representation) I mainly chose main characters from the most recent games from each series (up through 2013, that is). I also feel like it would be called something like "Nintendo All-Star Brawl" or something like that (basically similar to its Japanese name). There probably wouldn't be stuff like trophies, My Music, 8 Player Smash, etc. But I think there'd be some kind of 1P mode (not Subspace Emissary and maybe not even Adventure Mode, maybe something similar to Classic Mode, but similar to the earlier games because I get the feeling that Smash Wii U's Classic Mode was an attempt to change things up which wouldn't be a thing here). Stuff like Home Run Contest and Multi Man Smash would probably still be in, and maybe we'd have Break the Targets or something similar?

 

[sogeki]

We would have a story mode.

 

[Opossum]

I would like to say, though, that I do think Marth would be included somewhere in the Fire Emblem line up solely for being the original protagonist, the star of four games (two, not including remakes), and heavily emphasized as a plot point in Awakening (I won't give spoilers for those who haven't played it, though honestly if you played Smash that's a moot point ). Whether he is simply a fourth character or replaces Lucina in this scenario is anyone's guess.


The only other major issue I have is with the Pokemon selection you made. Namely, I still think Charizard and Lucario, at least, would edge out some of the Kalos starters, simply due to sheer popularity and marketability.


I've actually thought about this quite a bit, haha. Though going off what you said about F-Zero and Earthbound, I'd actually wonder about Kid Icarus as well. If this was, hypothetically, the first game, then Sakurai wouldn't have revived Pit in Brawl. As well, he then wouldn't have had the idea to make Uprising as he never redesigned Pit. He'd instead make that Star Fox game he originally planned on, since Pit didn't have a revival. And then adding Palutena would be overkill had Uprising never happened.



Timeline logic is kinda screwy.

 

[Xermo]

It'd be fast paced and have combos that don't rely on down-throw.

 

[kantoskies]

I would like to say, though, that I do think Marth would be included somewhere in the Fire Emblem line up solely for being the original protagonist, the star of four games (two, not including remakes), and heavily emphasized as a plot point in Awakening (I won't give spoilers for those who haven't played it, though honestly if you played Smash that's a moot point ). Whether he is simply a fourth character or replaces Lucina in this scenario is anyone's guess.


The only other major issue I have is with the Pokemon selection you made. Namely, I still think Charizard and Lucario, at least, would edge out some of the Kalos starters, simply due to sheer popularity and marketability.


I've actually thought about this quite a bit, haha. Though going off what you said about F-Zero and Earthbound, I'd actually wonder about Kid Icarus as well. If this was, hypothetically, the first game, then Sakurai wouldn't have revived Pit in Brawl. As well, he then wouldn't have had the idea to make Uprising as he never redesigned Pit. He'd instead make that Star Fox game he originally planned on, since Pit didn't have a revival. And then adding Palutena would be overkill had Uprising never happened.



Timeline logic is kinda screwy.

I actually had a lot of difficulty coming up with the Pokemon/Fire Emblem rosters; I could definitely see Marth being in and probably Charizard but I'm not sure about Lucario, maybe he would be if there was enough time. It'd be weird if they only had 2 Kalos starters instead of all three or just one, and they'd all probably be first forms too since they're more marketable so it's kinda tricky to determine what would be best.

I was thinking about that too with Kid Icarus, but from what I read it seemed like he was already making Uprising as a new IP and then thought of making it a Kid Icarus game. From what I read it didn't say he made it that because of Brawl's popularity but only used Brawl's designs for Pit and Palutena. Unless he explicitly said somewhere he made it a Kid Icarus game only because of Brawl's popularity I feel like he still would have made the same choice (he seemed to be a fan of the original Kid Icarus) although maybe with different designs for Pit/Palutena. I didn't know about the Star Fox game though!

 

[Opossum]

I actually had a lot of difficulty coming up with the Pokemon/Fire Emblem rosters; I could definitely see Marth being in and probably Charizard but I'm not sure about Lucario, maybe he would be if there was enough time. It'd be weird if they only had 2 Kalos starters instead of all three or just one, and they'd all probably be first forms too since they're more marketable so it's kinda tricky to determine what would be best.

I was thinking about that too with Kid Icarus, but from what I read it seemed like he was already making Uprising as a new IP and then thought of making it a Kid Icarus game. From what I read it didn't say he made it that because of Brawl's popularity but only used Brawl's designs for Pit and Palutena. Unless he explicitly said somewhere he made it a Kid Icarus game only because of Brawl's popularity I feel like he still would have made the same choice (he seemed to be a fan of the original Kid Icarus) although maybe with different designs for Pit/Palutena. I didn't know about the Star Fox game though!

Perhaps it would just be Charizard/Greninja/Lucario? That seems like a good mix, and all are in Smash already. I mainly said Lucario simply since he's marketed so much. Pokken, the anime, an entire movie, so much merchandise, etc.



As for the Kid Icarus/Star Fox thing, it comes from this interview.

 

[Sleeplost]

The game would probably be a lot more like Smash 64 in terms of gameplay and people would be running to stores just to play the game rather than complaining about Fox not having a technical dominance over the meta-game.

 

[kantoskies]

Perhaps it would just be Charizard/Greninja/Lucario? That seems like a good mix, and all are in Smash already. I mainly said Lucario simply since he's marketed so much. Pokken, the anime, an entire movie, so much merchandise, etc.



As for the Kid Icarus/Star Fox thing, it comes from this interview.

That's true, now that I think about it I could see that happening. And that interview clears things up, so I guess his interest in KI really did start in Brawl. Well if that's the case then instead of Pit/Palutena it'd probably be Fox and one or two characters from that new StarFox game.

 

[Opossum]

I decided to make a mock-up of what I think the situation would be like in this hypothetical situation. It's actually really similar to yours.

Allow me to explain the choices:
- Mario series includes the core four + Yoshi, since nowadays he's much more a part of the Mario series than his own. Rosalina and Bowser Jr. are not included to avoid first-game Mario overload.
- Wario is in his WarioWare attire and the sole character of his franchise.
- Similar to Mario, I didn't want to overload DK with an additional character, so I kept it at these two.
- Punch-Out!! for the Wii in addition to cultural relevance would keep Mac on the roster under these conditions.
- R.O.B. is here for a few reasons. He's the only true retro, since I don't think the first game would take that many risks, but he's justified due to cultural relevance with the Game Crash, as well as Sakurai's penchant for retros.
- Zelda's kept to the Triforce Three.
- Samus is alone because Sakurai hates Ridley being playable.
- Fire Emblem time! Marth is the face of the series, so he's kept. Ike misses the timeframe due to this being the first game. Chrom takes his niche, but not his whole moveset. Robin is like the Robin we have.
- With Kirby, I think Sakurai's self-admitted anti-Kirby-bias would not enable him to put all three in the first game, so it'd be Kirby and Dedede, like what was planned for Melee.
- Olimar because of Pikmin being huge to Nintendo nowadays.
- Because of the whole Brawl>Uprising>StarFox debacle, Pit and the whole Kid Icarus series wouldn't make the cut, but Star Fox would get two characters in the forms of Fox and Falco. Star Fox Uprising was a big game, after all.
- Pokemon is where I'm treading a fine line. I'm gonna stick with "current roster minus Jiggs" over all though, since I think all four stand great odds if the game were made today, and Pokemon is big enough to warrant it.
- Villager because Animal Crossing is big.
- Shulk, because I still think the whole Project Rainfall thing would make him in the public eye enough to be noticed without pre-game fan support.
- Ness, Lucas, and Falcon aren't here due to being relics in today's age. Wii Fit Trainer isn't here due to it being a riskier choice, in a way.
- The current roster was decided in 2012. But if the game were made in 2014, I think Sakurai would have enough foresight to add in Inkling as a little bit of a promotion.
- Only one Mii for simplicity.
- Only one third party, Pac-Man, since Namco helped and fan popularity wouldn't be included (as it's the first game). Maybe Sonic and Mega Man would be DLC down the line.




That's how I see the situation anyway. That was fun.

 

[Game&Watcher]

I decided to make a mock-up of what I think the situation would be like in this hypothetical situation. It's actually really similar to yours.
View attachment 49179

I'm assuming, since there is no Captain Falcon for Ganondorf to be a clone of, he has his own moveset.

 

[Toon612Link]

"WOW is Nintendo so desperate they have to steal idea's from PSAS? There is no way in hell I will ever buy a nintendo console ever again."

 

[Deleted member]

We'd probably just have Smash 64 but in HD and with a few more characters and stages.

 

[GideonSmash]

Fire Emblem would have been dead as a series long ago if it wasn't for super smash bros. .... So there's that...

 

[Heroine of Winds]

It'll probably end up like Smash 4. Same graphics and all.

"WOW is Nintendo so desperate they have to steal idea's from PSAS? There is no way in hell I will ever buy a nintendo console ever again."

Nintendo: But SSB isn't a rip-off of PASBR! It's completely different from that!

Seriously, this is what Sony actually said back when PASBR came out.

 

[Malkasaur]

Pit, Palutena, Chrom, Lucina, and Robin would not be in. Kid Icarus wouldn't be relevant if Brawl didn't come out and Fire Emblem would have still been a Japan exclusive if not for Melee.

 

[Game&Watcher]

I doubt Game & Watch would have made it. However, he probably would have made it in some sequel (aka, same story as his current situation).

 

[Geno Boost]

-fire emblem might be a dead series
-kid icarus franchise is going to be dead
-wont have fans and dead forever
-no melee fa"n"s
-we will have story mode
-no 3rd party characters
- in hyrule warrior design
-and shadow mario can transform/change pokemon
-wont be in smash
-with his own moveset from the game that appeared in
-ruined forever
-wont be DLC he will be in the roster without DLC
-will not be a very popular game

 

[BubbaDuke]

Well Jigglypuff definitely wouldn't be in lol

And yea, one thing to consider is that Smash sparked a lot of interest in Nintendo Games that weren't Mario/Zelda/Pokemon. Who knows where some of these games might be Smash hadn't been around.

Smash pretty much brought Fire Emblem to the West
Smash rebooted Kid Icarus
Smash reminded everyone that Samus existed (Keep in mind it had been a long time since a Metroid game had come out when Melee rolled around.)

I do think you're wrong about the Pokemon reps. I think Lucario would have made it. I feel like people underestimate the amount of exposure Lucario has had. Next to Pikachu, he might be the most popular/iconic Pokemon.

 

[Vontre]

Smash 64 was developed off of a totally different non-Nintendo IP game. If Smash were first developed today it would probably be something like a cross between a traditional fighter and Mario Kart and be a very, very bad game.

 

[kantoskies]

Smash 64 was developed off of a totally different non-Nintendo IP game. If Smash were first developed today it would probably be something like a cross between a traditional fighter and Mario Kart and be a very, very bad game.

Maybe, but if it was still Sakurai working on it (and he never made that Dragon King game) then it could very well still be the same basic formula. There'd probably be a whole new physics engine that aren't in any of the 4 games we have now but it could very well be the same type of game.

 

[Purin a.k.a. José]

(Dixie)
The first game would most likely be a introduction to Nintendo's series... Many series had no games for years (F-Zero, Mother, Duck Hunt, Game & Watch, ROB, Kid Icarus would be dead), some characters would be irrelevant (Sheik, Ike, Toon Link), FE would still be a Japan-only series (unless they localized any of them), the game would solely focus on the Nintendo Universe (no Sonic, no Snake, no Pac-Man and Megaman is dead!). Shulk would still be in since the Xenoblade IP would be quite fresh and was also released on the US.
Each series would have a stage based on older and new games:
Mario -> Mushroom Kingdom, Sprixie Kingdom
DONG -> Kongo Jungle, Tropical Freeze stage
Punch-Out!!! -> N Stole My Bike City, Boxing Ring
Zelda -> Hyrule Field, Skyloft
Metroid -> Zebes, Pyrosphere
Kirby -> Dream Land, Triple Deluxe stage?
Star Fox -> Old Corneria, Assault Great Fox
Pokémon -> Saffron City, Lumiose City
Animal Crossing -> Doubutsu no Mori town, Tortimer Island
Pikmin -> PNF-404, Koppai
Wii Fit -> Wii Fit Studio, Wuhu Island
Shulk -> Gaur Plain, ??? (Not a Xenoblade player)

 

[Arcadenik]

36 characters

Mario series
Toad (3D World, Captain Toad)

Donkey Kong series
Dixie Kong (Tropical Freeze)

Zelda series
Impa (Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time 3D, Hyrule Warriors), Tingle (Wind Waker HD, Majora's Mask 3D, Hyrule Warriors)

Pokemon series
Meowth (anime), Deoxys (ORAS), Zoroark (BW, B2W2)

Kirby series
Waddle Dee (Return to Dream Land, Triple Deluxe, Rainbow Curse)

Other franchises
Inkling (Splatoon)

 

[RADSheikah]

Roster:
(Toad)
(Dixie)

 

[J.P]

People would stop calling L-Cancel a "glitch"

 

[Ohsm]

Let's imagine this from a competitive point of view:

The first Smash titel would be released last year with the same mechanices as Smash4 and Sakurai's non competitive mindset.

Would there be a real competitive scene with tournaments and stuff?
Or would the only competition be online in For Glory, like Mario Kart?

 

[Kirby Dragons]

 

[Kamui Nohr]

Not sure I would still play games on Nintendo consoles up to 2014 if it wasn't for the Super Smash Bros. series introducing me to a lot of games that might have grown on me.

 

[Depressed Gengar]

Pit, Palutena, Chrom, Lucina, and Robin would not be in. Kid Icarus wouldn't be relevant if Brawl didn't come out and Fire Emblem would have still been a Japan exclusive if not for Melee.

KI isn't really even relevant now. :/

 

[GunGunW]

I would guess the roster would still be somewhat big, but I agree characters like Captain Falcon, Ness and Pit might not be included.

 

[Tino]

It would still be like Sm4sh except with very few characters included.

 

[Depressed Gengar]

I'd imagine that this would be close to the roster.

Spoiler

Mario, Bowser, Peach, Luigi, Pikachu, Lucario, Meowth, Charizard, Link, Zelda, Ganondorf, DK, Diddy, Kirby, Dedede, Samus, Yoshi, Fox, Wario, Olimar, Villager, Marth, and ROB. Most of these choices are safe picks, and I really doubt Ninty would go crazy with wild picks in the first game.

 

[MapleWooD]

tbh, we probbaly wouldn't have any Star Fox representatives. Even though we got Star Fox 64 3D a few years aback, I'm pretty sure, without Smash Bros, they would've stopped making Star Fox games after Assault. In addition, other characters who's series, although many classic such as Punch-Out, would not have representatives without a game being made in so long.

 

[Tino]

Another thing I forgot to mention, if this was the first Smash Bros. game to come out, it wouldn't be as competitive as it is now and we wouldn't even be in here.

 

[Malkasaur]

Let's imagine this from a competitive point of view:

The first Smash titel would be released last year with the same mechanices as Smash4 and Sakurai's non competitive mindset.

Would there be a real competitive scene with tournaments and stuff?
Or would the only competition be online in For Glory, like Mario Kart?

For Glory wouldn't exist. Nintendo REAAAAAAALLY doesn't like the competitive community. But the non competitive mindset wouldn't exist. Melee is the reason why that mindset exists.