Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[BritishGuy54]

Moving on, I’m going to propose a new topic. If we got a Nintendo vs Capcom by some miracle, what would you want the roster to look like for either company?

At least on the Nintendo side, I’d like a roster like this, maybe?

Mario	Luigi	Peach	Bowser
Donkey Kong	Yoshi	Wario	Captain Falcon
Link	Zelda	Ganondorf	Fox
Kirby	King Dedede	Villager	Isabelle
Marth	Robin	Olimar	Inkling
Samus	Ridley	Shulk	Rex

Pikachu

Charizard

Greninja

Ness

I wanted a general mix of uniqueness, popularity, and leaning more modern here for a new crossover experience. Fox and Falcon are kind of the retro-leaning picks here.

Most here are from Smash, apart from Rex. Why did I choose him over Pyra/Mythra? I think that a traditional 2P fighting game could actually do the Driver/Blade mechanic justice, compared to Smash’s more open nature.

 

[JOJONumber691]

Would’ve chosen Meta Knight and Tom Nook myself but I like this lineup! Excellent job!

 

[fogbadge]

Moving on, I’m going to propose a new topic. If we got a Nintendo vs Capcom by some miracle, what would you want the roster to look like for either company?

I would want to whole thing to look crazy

Very funny but based. Thoughts on Miguel O’hara in a new MvC?

eh I think there are way better spider man characters

 

[Wonder Smash]

Moving on, I’m going to propose a new topic. If we got a Nintendo vs Capcom by some miracle, what would you want the roster to look like for either company?

I could never get into this crossover for some reason. I'd rather just leave that in Smash.

I am more for a Nintendo vs SEGA, though. I think a full crossover between numerous different IPs by those two companies is way overdue. We've seen a few things that alludes to it, like Hyperdimension Neptunia and World War Blue, but never just a straight up crossover between them. It could work not only as a video game but also a comic book/manga. I'm thinking like a JLA/Avengers-style story.

 

[SharkLord]

I’m guessing the majority of the TMNT fans grew up in the 80’s and 90’s like me. TMNT was huge back in the day. It’s still around but never quite reached that level of popularity since. I’d at least give the original 1990 TMNT movie a shot to check it out and see if you like it. The 2003 and 2012 cartoons are both great. Rise of the TMNT and the original 80’s cartoon are good too in their own way if you like pure sillyness. The Rise movie was awesome though. The newest movie, Mutant Mayhem, was fun too but another one that goes the pure silly route. I don’t know if you read comics at all but the IDW TMNT comics are probably the best stories in the franchise.

Back on topic but keeping to the theme of characters from shows I loved, do you think Arcane will have much of an impact on the character selection if we do get a League of Legends rep? I feel like that show really did a lot to expand the audience beyond those that played the game. Vi is my favorite character from the show but they were all great. I wonder if Vi and Jinx have an edge over other LoL characters just from their increased exposure from the show. Season 2 is coming out in November of this year so it should help them stay relevant.

View attachment 389742View attachment 389744

I'm an outsider to LoL but Arcane seems to be the current big thing for the franchise, and was the specific piece of LoL media that got into Fortnite. Jinx seems like a logical frontrunner, especially since she's also the face of Wild Rift. From what I can gather, Ahri, Yasuo, and Lux are fairly prominent as well (For what it's worth Lux apparently has the most alt skins, I think); Not quite as much as Jinx, but at least popular enough to be worth consideration.

I think. Again, not super big on LoL so take my speculation with a grain of salt

Last words said by Hadokeyblade before I spike him to the blast zone using Goombario Headbonk D-Air

Bandana Dee fans realizing that Goombario means no longer have a monopoly on the Hat Goomba Industry

 

[JOJONumber691]

I could never get into this crossover for some reason. I'd rather just leave that in Smash.

I am more for a Nintendo vs SEGA, though. I think a full crossover between numerous different IPs by those two companies is way overdue. We've seen a few things that alludes to it, like Hyperdimension Neptunia and World War Blue, but never just a straight up crossover between them. It could work not only as a video game but also a comic book/manga. I'm thinking like a JLA/Avengers-style story.

I didn’t even think of this but yeah I honestly think this idea would be great. Hell if you want to do the gaming history angle after Ultimate then one could probably make this the next Smash outright.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

I think Nintendo vs. Capcom would probably be a bit easier roster wise, if only because Sega's major franchises are a bit inconsistent region to region. For all the talk of differing tastes of Nintendo with North America vs Japan, the issue is much more complicated with Sega given their game history. The temptation for many Western fans would be to load them up with various Genesis and Dreamcast era favorites alongside the modern hits, with various ones associated with the Master System, Saturn, and arcade IP's getting much less spotlight.

Capcom's series are bit more consistent at least, with the understanding that say an X or Zero will play more to Westerners vs a MegaMan.EXE having more Japanese appeal just to name one example.

 

[Will]

I think Nintendo vs. Capcom would probably be a bit easier roster wise, if only because Sega's major franchises are a bit inconsistent region to region.

30% Sonic characters
30% Yakuza characters
30% Persona characters
5% SMT characters
2% Phantasy Star characters
2% Super Monkey Ball characters
and Segata Sanshiro.

What? You wanted Ristar and Jet Set Radio? Better cough up the MTX money.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

30% Sonic characters
30% Yakuza characters
30% Persona characters
5% SMT characters
2% Phantasy Star characters
2% Super Monkey Ball characters
and Segata Sanshiro.

What? You wanted Ristar and Jet Set Radio? Better cough up the MTX money.

This will somehow lead to a Fighter's Pass with both Billy Hatcher and Sakura Shinguji, just to make sure no one's fully pleased with the DLC.

 

[Guynamednelson]

At least on the Nintendo side, I’d like a roster like this, maybe?

Mario	Luigi	Peach	Bowser
Donkey Kong	Yoshi	Wario	Captain Falcon
Link	Zelda	Ganondorf	Fox
Kirby	King Dedede	Villager	Isabelle
Marth	Robin	Olimar	Inkling
Samus	Ridley	Shulk	Rex

I wanted a general mix of uniqueness, popularity, and leaning more modern here for a new crossover experience. Fox and Falcon are kind of the retro-leaning picks here.

Most here are from Smash, apart from Rex. Why did I choose him over Pyra/Mythra? I think that a traditional 2P fighting game could actually do the Driver/Blade mechanic justice, compared to Smash’s more open nature.

Capcom's crossover rosters tend to be more out-there than just having the Nintendo side feature mostly Smash overlap except for one character.

 

[Wonder Smash]

I think Nintendo vs. Capcom would probably be a bit easier roster wise, if only because Sega's major franchises are a bit inconsistent region to region. For all the talk of differing tastes of Nintendo with North America vs Japan, the issue is much more complicated with Sega given their game history. The temptation for many Western fans would be to load them up with various Genesis and Dreamcast era favorites alongside the modern hits, with various ones associated with the Master System, Saturn, and arcade IP's getting much less spotlight.

Capcom's series are bit more consistent at least, with the understanding that say an X or Zero will play more to Westerners vs a MegaMan.EXE having more Japanese appeal just to name one example.

I don't see how that's an issue. When looking at other crossovers like Project X Zone and SEGA Heroes, they still feature characters from outside of those two eras, so it's not out of the possibility they'll do it again in another crossover.

 

[TheQuester]

Thinking about it, Ahri still seems the most likely due to mascot status, but League of Legends is an ensemble cast, so while I don't think we'll see, like, Amumu or anything, any of the more popular champions are probably up for grabs. Off the top of my head, these would be Ahri, Jinx, Yasuo, Lux, Vi, Ekko, Ashe, Annie, and Akkali.

Honestly, i can't imagine it be anyone else other than Ahri ot Jinx for playable representation characters like Ashe or Ekko feel more AT material to me.

 

[Wonder Smash]

I didn’t even think of this but yeah I honestly think this idea would be great. Hell if you want to do the gaming history angle after Ultimate then one could probably make this the next Smash outright.

Well, I wouldn't say this should be what the next Smash should be. I definitely prefer multiple third-party companies involved instead of just one, so I think this should be separate from Smash. And out of the two, I'd pick SEGA to be the company to do it.

 

[JOJONumber691]

Fair enough.

 

[ninjahmos]

Yeah, as much as I'd love to see Nintendo VS Capcom... Nintendo VS SEGA seems to make a little more sense, considering their history.

 

[cashregister9]

I just misread someone talking about "Ahri" and thought it was "Ahti" and thought we were talking about the best character.

 

[chinkuru]

Moving on, I’m going to propose a new topic. If we got a Nintendo vs Capcom by some miracle, what would you want the roster to look like for either company?

Mario - Ryu
Luigi - Ken
Peach - Chun Li
Bowser - M Bison
Wario - Phoenix Wright
Yoshi - Regina
Donkey Kong - Mike Haggar
Samus - Megaman
Kirby- Zero
Link - Dante
Zelda- Trish
Ganondorf - Asura
Tingle- Norimaro
Pikachu - Monster Hunter
Pit - Morrigan
Marth - Sir Arthur
Isaac - Ryu ( Breath of Fire)
Takamaru - Samanosuke Akechi
Little Mac - Batsu Ichimonji
Captain Falcon - Captain Comando
Fox- Amateratsu
Olimar - Jill Valentine
Villager - Leon S. Kennedy
Inkling - Viewtiful Joe
Ness- Strider Hiryu

 

[TheQuester]

Well, I wouldn't say this should be what the next Smash should be. I definitely prefer multiple third-party companies involved instead of just one, so I think this should be separate from Smash. And out of the two, I'd pick SEGA to be the company to do it.

I think each person has their own idea for what the next smash could be and each one is respectable.
Personally, i'd like the next game to be a regular smash sequel, with maybe more cuts than usual, but other than that.
I think at least 12 unique newcomers base, a brand new stage roster, new items and some new modes and a few new mechanics like air dashes, aerial smashes, something like the infinity stones like mvc or maybe something completely new like shield repulsion where you can pull a windbox to repel players while shielding in exchange of some of your shield health, idk, there's million of possibilities.
I think it's valid if people want the next game to be very diferent like a Smash Bros vs Capcom or a complete reboot.

 

[Speed Weed]

I don't see how that's an issue. When looking at other crossovers like Project X Zone and SEGA Heroes, they still feature characters from outside of those two eras, so it's not out of the possibility they'll do it again in another crossover.

Eh.....I mean sure, both rosters have their exceptions, but let's not act like they're perfectly balanced all-encompassing rosters just for not being literally 100% only what their respective regions prefer. At the end of the day, SEGA Heroes is still very western and Project X Zone is still very Japanese. The former does include stuff like Yakuza, Valkyria Chronicles and Phantasy Star, but it still leans heavily towards appealing to Anglophone SEGA fans' nostalgia, with lots of love given to the Mega Drive in particular. The latter is interesting - you can tell that in the second game they had an international market in mind since they were releasing it worldwide from the outset, and the picks generally reflected that - with the likes of Streets of Rage and Shinobi appearing - but even then, it's not like they went fullhog into adding Comix Zone or whatever: all the characters they added were still at least somewhat well-known in Japan as well. And PxZ1 is just about the weebiest SEGA roster you'll find, with almost all the "classic" stuff that appears hailing from either the Saturn or the arcades, with the big exception to my recollection being Ulala who's practically a constant presence in Japanese SEGA media.

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that that regional divide is something that should be taken into consideration, and it's difficult to tell what direction a roster like this would actually take. Like, when I do my SEGA rosters, I tend to lean towards the Japanese side cause I think that's where the most interesting stuff lies, but sometimes I think to myself: what would a roster like this actually look like? And the truth is I've got no clue, because we've never really gotten, like.....anything that answers that question. PxZ2 is maybe the closest we've gotten so far - made by Japanese devs but clearly with at least some international appeal taken into consideration - but it's also a game where SEGA has to share space with 2-going-on-3 other companies, so we don't even get to explore that angle that much. And I'm not even saying it can't be done - I do think there are just enough classic SEGA franchises with appeal on both sides of the Pacific that you could maybe pull something off - just that it's a hell of a task to get right and no one's really stepped up to the plate with something that fully reconciles the two perspectives. And especially given that a Nintendo vs. SEGA would very likely be made in Japan, I oftentimes find myself wondering how people would react to some of the concessions that'd probably have to be made even if they tried. Like, for example, I'm thinking about a particular sect of characters that are super highly-requested for SEGA crossovers in the West - your Ristars, your Vectormen, stuff like that - that'd likely be immediately off the table because they have so little presence in Japan that they likely wouldn't be on the devs' radar at all, even in their attempts to make a more internationally-appealing roster. And I do wonder how people would feel about stuff like that, and how a roster like this would go over with people. Probably not that bad, in all honesty, but I don't know. It's complicated. We've never really gotten something like that to answer all these questions.

Though personally I'm an unashamed weeb-ass SEGA fan. Gimme all the weirdo arcade/Saturn stuff

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

Eh.....I mean sure, both rosters have their exceptions, but let's not act like they're perfectly balanced all-encompassing rosters just for not being literally 100% only what their respective regions prefer. At the end of the day, SEGA Heroes is still very western and Project X Zone is still very Japanese. The former does include stuff like Yakuza, Valkyria Chronicles and Phantasy Star, but it still leans heavily towards appealing to Anglophone SEGA fans' nostalgia, with lots of love given to the Mega Drive in particular. The latter is interesting - you can tell that in the second game they had an international market in mind since they were releasing it worldwide from the outset, and the picks generally reflected that - with the likes of Streets of Rage and Shinobi appearing - but even then, it's not like they went fullhog into adding Comix Zone or whatever: all the characters they added were still at least somewhat well-known in Japan as well. And PxZ1 is just about the weebiest SEGA roster you'll find, with almost all the "classic" stuff that appears hailing from either the Saturn or the arcades, with the big exception to my recollection being Ulala who's practically a constant presence in Japanese SEGA media.

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that that regional divide is something that should be taken into consideration, and it's difficult to tell what direction a roster like this would actually take. Like, when I do my SEGA rosters, I tend to lean towards the Japanese side cause I think that's where the most interesting stuff lies, but sometimes I think to myself: what would a roster like this actually look like? And the truth is I've got no clue, because we've never really gotten, like.....anything that answers that question. PxZ2 is maybe the closest we've gotten so far - made by Japanese devs but clearly with at least some international appeal taken into consideration - but it's also a game where SEGA has to share space with 2-going-on-3 other companies, so we don't even get to explore that angle that much. And I'm not even saying it can't be done - I do think there are just enough classic SEGA franchises with appeal on both sides of the Pacific that you could maybe pull something off - just that it's a hell of a task to get right and no one's really stepped up to the plate with something that fully reconciles the two perspectives. And especially given that a Nintendo vs. SEGA would very likely be made in Japan, I oftentimes find myself wondering how people would react to some of the concessions that'd probably have to be made even if they tried. Like, for example, I'm thinking about a particular sect of characters that are super highly-requested for SEGA crossovers in the West - your Ristars, your Vectormen, stuff like that - that'd likely be immediately off the table because they have so little presence in Japan that they likely wouldn't be on the devs' radar at all, even in their attempts to make a more internationally-appealing roster. And I do wonder how people would feel about stuff like that, and how a roster like this would go over with people. Probably not that bad, in all honesty, but I don't know. It's complicated. We've never really gotten something like that to answer all these questions.

Though personally I'm an unashamed weeb-ass SEGA fan. Gimme all the weirdo arcade/Saturn stuff

And all this has to be adjusted with the characters that dance in Sakurai's head as fighters with factors like even European appeal possibly playing a role in selection.

As I said, it's a very tough hypothetical because Sega's popular identity with characters is much harder to outright define.

 

[BuckleyTim]

You guys have it all wrong. We don't need Nintendo vs Capcom or Sega vs Nintendo. What we need is Sega Vs Capcom, so we can finally decide if virtua fighter or street fighter is the better franchise with fighter in the name (king of fighters doesn't count because of that pesky "s")

 

[Speed Weed]

You guys have it all wrong. We don't need Nintendo vs Capcom or Sega vs Nintendo. What we need is Sega Vs Capcom, so we can finally decide if virtua fighter or street fighter is the better franchise with fighter in the name (king of fighters doesn't count because of that pesky "s")

I was gonna say this. It is true. SEGA vs. Capcom is better

 

[dream1ng]

I don't think it'd be that challenging to make a Sega roster that caters to both regions. There aren't that many characters you absolutely need, and then with the remaining spaces you can just balance between the two audiences.

 

[pitchfulprocessing]

I'm pretty late, but on the stuff with Shiver, it's worth noting that the reason Nintendo bought Next Level Games is because the owners put its shares up for sale and then less than a year later its founders left the company, so the company was at risk of being bought by someone else. Shiver was owned by Embracer, who are of course in a highly unstable position right now and are splitting up many of the branches under them, so it seems probable that, similar to Next Level Games, Nintendo bought them because their shares were being sold and it was important Nintendo had a fully-owned studio dedicated to porting titles to the Switch 2. Gio Corsi, who you might know for pushing the PlayStation Vita's library and #BuildTheList, recently joined NOA's AAA Third-Party Management branch, and this would about line up with that. I actually wouldn't be surprised if one of the reasons Nintendo purchased them is because they were already working on a notable port to the Switch or Switch 2, and the company dissolving or being purchased by someone else would risk breaking that contract.

The MK11 Switch port, for what it was, was fairly impressive I would say (not sure I'm allowed to embed videos of an M-game like Mortal Kombat), and Hogwarts Legacy, despite looking like **** obviously, ran pretty well, which is very impressive for a game of that caliber. MK1 was obviously clowned on when it came out for understandable reasons, but the game has since received multiple patches which have substantially improved it both visually and performance wise. The Switch is so much weaker than what MK1 is intended to run on and uses entirely different kinds of hardware, so it's kind of surprising they even managed to push that far. Overall I wouldn't say their track record is too bad. They're not the best studio at porting to the Switch, Panic Button, the company that did Doom Eternal, is better for example imo, but Panic Button is a private company that has no reason to put itself up for sale and is closely linked with Id anyways. From that angle, I understand it. Until we see what Shiver actually does for the Switch 2 it will be hard to say how good the investment is while Embracer walks away with that extra liquidity, but I'm glad the employees are in what seems like a much more stable situation now.

The way Nintendo does acquisitions and the way the rest of the industry does acquisitions are very different. Namely, Nintendo doesn't do it unless they have a good reason to.

I definitely would not say this lol. I think even setting aside everything else, most of Sony's acquisitions have made sense and have ended up being good investments for the company. Nintendo probably acquired Shiver for the same reason Sony acquired Nixxe, the former is to port games to the home console while the latter is to port home console games to other systems. Corporate consolidation has obvious bad consequences in most cases and I wouldn't want to glaze Nintendo for this.

Besides, if you want an example of corporate consolidation that's obviously bad and is causing people to get laid off as we speak

IGN Entertainment acquires Eurogamer, GI, VG247, Rock Paper Shotgun and more. New owner makes redundancies across the Gamer Network portfoliohttps://t.co/tQLcmNxpPt

— GamesIndustry (@GIBiz) May 21, 2024

 

[Godzillathewonderdog]

Sega vs. Capcom would be awesome.

Sega and Capcom have so many characters I’d love to see in Smash, we can’t have them all, so a Sega vs. Capcom would be the next best thing for me.

DLC

Spoiler

Wesker just barely missed out on being on my roster

 

[DarthEnderX]

Moving on, I’m going to propose a new topic. If we got a Nintendo vs Capcom by some miracle, what would you want the roster to look like for either company?

Uhh...the Nintendo part of the Smash Ultimate roster + the Capcom half of the UMvC3 & MvC:Infinite rosters I guess?

Either add Capcom characters or cut Nintendo characters till they're even.

 

[Speed Weed]

Sega vs. Capcom would be awesome. Sega and Capcom have so many characters I’d love to see in Smash, we can’t have them all, so a Sega vs. Capcom would be the next best thing for me.

DLC

Spoiler

View attachment 389775

Just a sidenote but I'm really happy the Magician is starting to get way more traction in fan rosters as of late, one of the best picks for House of the Dead IMO

 

[pitchfulprocessing]

Just a sidenote but I'm really happy the Magician is starting to get way more traction in fan rosters as of late, one of the best picks for House of the Dead IMO

Nemesis vs Magician is one of those like must-have matches if you're doing Sega vs Capcom I'd say, up there with Cody vs Axel.

 

[Wonder Smash]

I was gonna say this. It is true. SEGA vs. Capcom is better

This just shows that SEGA is a company that crossover with almost anything. It could be Nintendo, Capcom, Namco, Tecmo, SNK, and heck, Square-Enix and heck, even NetherRealm. Maybe even Rockstar.

Though in my case, I always see SEGA as Nintendo's rival from the Console Wars. They were like DC and Marvel. WWF/E and WCW. Coke and Pepsi. That's why I say a Nintendo vs. SEGA crossover makes the most sense.

 

[Kirbeh]

I'm personally more partial to a hypothetical Nintendo vs Capcom because they have the most characters and franchises that I care about. If it's another crossover between companies though, I say skip the the x vs y and just make a Project X Zone fighting game with Namco, Capcom, Sega and Nintendo all involved from previous entries plus SNK as the newcomer to the series. Or ease up on the licensing costs and go wild with the representation in Smash.

Overall, a more collaborative effort where each company gets equal billing would be cool to see. Bonus points if they recreate/follow up the Namco x Capcom intro but with characters from all parties.

 

[pitchfulprocessing]

I think on paper a Nintendo vs Capcom or Sega game would be cool, they have a lot of franchises that pair well and it would be room to give some deeper cuts, though it might have trouble establishing an identity away from Smash to an extent. The worst part would really be that it would have to be Switch exclusive and so be stuck with Nintendo's **** online lol, have to hope the Switch 2 makes fighting game online viable.


My one request for any Sega crossover fighting game is some kind of Roommania #203 stage, both because it has a really interesting history and is quite a unique game which captures some themes that resonate with me, and also because I really like Serani Poji. Get those songs in.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

It's a pity we're passed the era of more modest AA games, because man there's an interesting what if where a lot of the Japanese heavy hitters (Capcom, Konami, Koei Tecmo, Namco, SE, Sega, Nintendo) had developed a strong fighting game ecosystem between each other circa the sixth gen and we got all sorts of crossover fighting games from that kind of collaboration. Smash is the closest we've gotten and even that's just scratching the surface.

 

[KingofPhantoms]

We really need a Nintendo vs. Nintendo fighting game.

...Wait...

 

[Nickthebrick1]

I've been hearing a lot that if paper mario or Geno would get in, but what about something from the Yoshi series or Luigi's Manison. For the latter, they could use King Boo to represent the main series' antagonist. Professor E gadd to represent the gaming mechanics and he has been in all 3 games like Boo. They could even make gooigi as a clone of luigi.

Kamek is what I would choose for Yoshi. And I know they are technically a Mario universe character but so is Donkey Kong and Wario. Besides, in the Yoshi series he has a significant presence there, and is practically the right hand man of bowser.

Thoughts

 

[dream1ng]

I think on paper a Nintendo vs Capcom or Sega game would be cool, though it might have trouble establishing an identity away from Smash to an extent.

If it plays completely differently, the roster is 50% Nintendo 50% the other one, and they do the vs. Capcom thing where rather than just taking from the top they take a mix of big names and deeper cuts, I really don't think that'd be a problem.

I mean even SNK vs Capcom and Marvel vs Capcom have different identities, and those would be a closer to each other than Smash and Nintendo vs. Capcom.

I've been hearing a lot that if paper mario or Geno would get in, but what about something from the Yoshi series or Luigi's Manison. For the latter, they could use King Boo to represent the main series' antagonist. Professor E gadd to represent the gaming mechanics and he has been in all 3 games like Boo. They could even make gooigi as a clone of luigi.

Kamek is what I would choose for Yoshi. And I know they are technically a Mario universe character but so is Donkey Kong and Wario. Besides, in the Yoshi series he has a significant presence there, and is practically the right hand man of bowser.

Thoughts

I think Paper Mario or Geno would get because they're prevalent or requested enough while King Boo, E. Gadd or Kamek would get in more to represent those series/sub-series, which is a difference that makes them less likely.

But yeah, that's probably who we'd get if we did receive that specific kind of representation.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

I've been hearing a lot that if paper mario or Geno would get in, but what about something from the Yoshi series or Luigi's Manison. For the latter, they could use King Boo to represent the main series' antagonist. Professor E gadd to represent the gaming mechanics and he has been in all 3 games like Boo. They could even make gooigi as a clone of luigi.

Kamek is what I would choose for Yoshi. And I know they are technically a Mario universe character but so is Donkey Kong and Wario. Besides, in the Yoshi series he has a significant presence there, and is practically the right hand man of bowser.

Thoughts

All are options, but I don't think they're really calculable ones. Competition from the Mario and Mario adjacent cast is pretty steep. You've got fan favorites in Geno and Waluigi, potential side character mainstays like Pauline and Nabbit, important spin-off characters with King Boo, Professor E. Gadd, Paper Mario, Kamek, Poochy, and Ashley, and go crazy go stupid picks like a Hammer Bro. or Goomba or something (though I don't think they'd do the same thing twice in a row). Oh yeah, and Toad has somehow missed the cut for 5 straight roster selections.

Honestly I think it's going to come down to who sparks the most inspiration in Sakurai.

 

[The Stoopid Unikorn]

I've been hearing a lot that if paper mario or Geno would get in, but what about something from the Yoshi series or Luigi's Manison. For the latter, they could use King Boo to represent the main series' antagonist. Professor E gadd to represent the gaming mechanics and he has been in all 3 games like Boo. They could even make gooigi as a clone of luigi.

Kamek is what I would choose for Yoshi. And I know they are technically a Mario universe character but so is Donkey Kong and Wario. Besides, in the Yoshi series he has a significant presence there, and is practically the right hand man of bowser.

Thoughts

I would say there's a high likelihood that, if he gets added, Kamek would be branded as a Mario series character since he's also fairly involved in mainline Mario, arguably moreso than Yoshi, but we would know him as the honorary second Yoshi rep.

 

[Wonder Smash]

While we're talking about SEGA, I just saw this video a few days ago:

Things like this makes me really wish SEGA would make something like this!

 

[Ivander]

Might miss the Sega/Capcom talk with how long this post turned out to be, but anyway.

It's not hard to find a good balance between JP picks and Western picks, although two things to consider is that for one, the Versus Capcom series does have a more bigger audience in the West, being the biggest reason why Tatsunoko vs Capcom came over to the West in the first place was because of the high interest and demand from Western audiences.
The second thing is that when Capcom makes a Versus game for a specific audience, they do take into question the more popular characters to the audience they are marketing to. When they were doing Tatsunoko vs Capcom originally, they were choosing characters more familiar to Japanese audiences, but when they brought TvC to the West and were making Marvel vs Capcom 3, they chose characters more familiar to Western audiences. It's the reason why Date Masamune from Sengoku Basara and Fou-Lu from Breath of Fire 4, despite being very popular with the creators, were ultimately not chosen for Marvel vs Capcom 3 due to their lack of appeal in the West.
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That said, characters having more appeal and more people familiar with them should not be a full reason to exclude lesser known characters as choices. There should be a bit of a higher priority towards more popular characters, but seeing the reactions to crossover rosters through out, I think there's a bigger audience of people who are quite open and ready to be surprised by characters they don't know about than there are people who are hyperfocused on their favorites only. Do those people who are open to more unknown characters still prioritise their favorites? Yes, but they aren't against characters who still look really cool and have very cool looking movesets.
And besides the characters themselves and their movesets, there's also their interactions with the other characters from the other side. Which is one of the biggest appeals of the crossover game is how characters from one franchise interacts with another character from another franchise. And boy, do Sega and Capcom have a ton of them that would fit very well.

Spoiler: Long list

• The biggest ones would be Megaman & Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter & Virtua Fighter and Devil May Cry & Bayonetta. Those ones I see being the ones fans most want to see.
• The next ones would be Resident Evil & House of the Dead and Final Fight & Streets of Rage. The former two being two of the notable kickstarters to the horror genre during the later 1990s and the latter two being the kickstarters to the Beat-em-up craze throughout the 1990s.
• There's Phantasy Star Online and Monster Hunter, the latter being inspired by the former. But you also have Plasma Blade/Star Gladiator that would fit well alongside Phantasy Star's setting.
• Golden Axe is one of the Beat-em-up/hack-and-slash kickstarters alongside Final Fight, but you have a ton of Capcom fantasy beat-em-ups/action platformer games that can fit side by side with Golden Axe, between Ghosts'n Goblins, Black Tiger, Magic Sword, Trojan, King of Dragons, etc.
• There's Shinobi and Strider, which focus around a character going gung-ho against an entire world threatening organization. I think Joe Musashi would fit best with Strider since both of their final enemy consists of a "Master", with Strider Hiryu's being the Grandmaster Meio while Joe Musashi in Shinobi 3 fights against the Shadow Master.
• There's Sakura Wars and Cyberbots, both Mecha-based games from Sega and Capcom respectively. Capcom's Armoured Warriors and Lost Planet also has Mechas as well.
• Yakuza can pretty much fit with any modern time game like Ace Attorney(heck, Phoenix Wright apparently defended Majima at one point according to Project X Zone 2) or Dead Rising.
  Although if you want a surprise kicker, one of Yakuza's spin-offs, Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!, focuses around Miyamoto Musashi, who has two Capcom versions in both Onimusha and Sengoku Basara. Tokegawa Ieyesu also appears in Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan and Sengoku Basara and Soki from Onimusha Dawn of Dreams is supposedly his biological son(stuff says Ieyesu is Soki's biological father, but also says Hideyoshi is Soki's illegitimate father, sometimes adoptive father). The character Tenkai also appears in all three, although Tenkai in Onimusha and Sengoku Basara is a disguise for another character, for Samanosuke in Onimusha and Mitsuhide Akechi in Sengoku Basara.
• Gunstar Heroes and Power Stone. What's a shoot-em-up and an arena fighter have in common? Power Stone has the fighters searching for the Power Stones that can grant wishes while Gunstar Heroes has the heroes searching for the Treasure Gems/Mystical Gems that are the source of an evil android's power, who is part of a legend that states, "Revive the God that sleeps on the moon, and he will guide the most righteous people to Utopia."
• Regina from Dino Crisis can easily work as another agent working along Leon, as she does in Teppen, or another Agent from a Sega or Capcom game. But why simply do that when you can also have her to go up against elemental dinosaurs from Dinosaur King?
• Alex Kidd and SonSon. Pretty simple.
• Comix Zone and Viewtiful Joe, both having main characters fighting against bad guys in a form of entertainment(Comic Book for Comix Zone and Video for Viewtiful Joe) with in-game 4th wall breaks(The main villain of Comix Zone outright drawing bad guys and hazards to hurt the main character and for Viewtiful Joe, the characters sometimes talk to people outside of the movie and whatnot).
• And even with games that don't really have any connection to each other, you have characters who could interact with other characters interestingly. NiGHTs and Morrigan. Both are a race that has an involvement with dreams, with NiGHTs being a exiled Nightmaren who lives in the dream world and Morrigan being a succubus sometimes portrayed with powers involving dreams. Vyse from Skies of Arcadia and Ruby Heart from MvC2. Both pirates with flying ships that both could be competing with the other. Capcom also has Zack & Wiki and Pirate Ship Higemaru for pirate characters, with Zack and Momotaru. There's Space Harrier and the Unknown Soldiers of Forgotten Worlds, as well as Michelle Heart and Kevin Walker from Legendary Wings.
• And obviously, even if there's no connection at all, nothing wrong with bringing in other series like the Shining series, Breath of Fire, Bionic Commando, Super Monkey Ball, Quiz Nanairo Dreams, Panzer Dragoon, Red Earth, Dragon's Dogma, Mushiking, Altered Beast, Okami, Samba de Amigo, Capcom Adventure Quiz, Valkyria Chronicles, etc.
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• In terms of Atlus IPs, Shin Megami Tensei and it's spin-offs can practically fit with any IP involving demons, like Devil May Cry(which it has crossovered with before), Bayonetta, Gargoyle's Quest, Darkstalkers, etc. Persona somewhat too, but it's less apocalyptic and more modern nature helps it fit more with other modern-based games like Yakuza, Rival Schools/Project Justice and Ace Attorney(Persona 5 would be a different game if Ren/Joker had Phoenix Wright at the beginning of P5).
• Etrian Odyssey would be interesting to see and would be cool to see next to Dragon's Dogma for both having class-based systems.

Basically, if Sega and Capcom can make the characters great, their movesets fun and their interactions cool, more people overall would be pretty open to seeing characters they don't really know about. And the general appeal of those characters wouldn't stop them from being seen as cool picks compared to more "Western-appeal picks" or "Japanese-appeal picks". For the most part, they should try to at least get the obvious ones in, but still try to have a few surprise or fun picks in.