KneeOfJustice99

First up, we've got in my mind one of the most obvious choices for this sort of thing - Pico. Pico's a good pick for this sort of thing for a few reasons, though. First up - legacy. Whilst other F-Zero picks would undeniably be very cool, Pico's one of the four playable characters that originated in the first game, right back on the SNES. Not only this, but Pico's got a lot of potential for a unique moveset of his own - various pieces of media suggest that he's an ex-military hitman, as well as being exceedingly well-trained with firearms as shown in his pilot profile movie back in GX.

In terms of moveset, I think we could also do well to pull from his vehicle of choice - the Wild Goose. Throughout the series, the Wild Goose somewhat lacks in acceleration, but has high cornering and durability stats to make up for this - which, due to its ability to generally survive a lot of punishment, promotes an aggressive playstyle (which is suggested in the vehicle's origin, being designed for attack runs as a military vehicle for the Polipoto military.) However, it lacks in drifting skill due to its weight.

Overall, Pico's moveset would have a focus on a high level of survivability and an aggressive playstyle, with high attack output - but despite a high-octane degree of power, he's got a couple of flaws that can be exploited. Whilst Falcon's high speed and damage output lends well to comboes, Pico's more focused on singular, heavy strikes - but somewhat suffers in speed due to this as a sort of tradeoff.



Next up, a bit of a wild-card who I think would be exceedingly unlikely, but could still be fun - Digi-Boy. Whilst he doesn't have the legacy of Pico due to only actually appearing in GX and AX, his personality and nature - being focused on his exceptional intelligence and his nature as a child genius - has given him a pretty... interesting reception over time.

Now, Digi-Boy in my mind lends well to a moveset that makes use of his nature as a genius. We could probably take hints from his machine, the Cosmic Dolphin - designed by him, it massively lacks in body strength due to his generally safe driving technique, but also an aspect of self-assuredness. Part of this comes down to the machine being mostly controlled by his computer systems, but it's also notable for having an exceptionally powerful boost.

Overall, I like to imagine that Digi-Boy would focus on a trapper-style moveset. Whilst he essentially falls apart in close combat due to being a literal child, his various inventions would work well here - for example, a high degree of manouverability due to his shoes would make a lot of logical sense. In general, his moveset rewards the player for closely observing the movements of their opponents - and acting accordingly - which mirrors Digi-Boy's own method of racing, specifically by developing equations that his Cosmic Dolphin can use.



Okay, let's dial it back just a bit from the downright bizarre picks to someone who also has a couple more appearances - Mighty Gazelle. Originating from X, he's quite interesting in terms of F-Zero lore - specifically, in that he was almost killed in a massive crash, which resulted in regulatory bodies having to really change up how F-Zero runs. However, being placed in a cybernetic body, Gazelle now essentially lives for racing - having an almost symbiotic relationship with his machine, the Red Gazelle.

Whereas Pico's moveset focused on powerful strikes and Digi-Boy's focused on a lot of stage control, I like to imagine that Mighty Gazelle could come the closest to Falcon's own moveset - but instead of being like Ganondorf in that he's slower and stronger, Gazelle is in fact even faster - but suffers in terms of outright damage output, and essentially becomes a glass cannon in order to offset his speed. Think of him as taking the moveset concept of Little Mac to the logical extreme (except, Gazelle actually functions in the air.)

This mirrors his machine quite well - the Red Gazelle is notable for having exceptionally high speed due to a low weight and low armour plating, given that Mighty Gazelle's mostly mechanical body means he doesn't need as much protection as normal, fleshier drivers. However, this means that his machine - whilst incredibly fast - massively lacks in terms of durability.

Not only this, but you could really experiment with various different implied skills and abilities given that Gazelle is, well, mostly mechanical. Like, there's not many other F-Zero characters where you could reasonably argue "oh they have powerful jets in their back similar to the F-Zero machines", and I think that sort of implied moveset design could be fun to see with a character like this! Honestly, whilst I started this brief thought piece as a diehard Pico fan, I wouldn't be opposed to seeing Gazelle hit the stage - there's a lot of potential for a fun, fast-paced moveset here!



There's a lot of other potential picks I didn't mention. Characters like Bio Rex and Dr. Clash lend well to a moveset on a conceptual level - but then perhaps weirder picks, like a teamup of Phoenix and QQQ (based on QQQ being Phoenix's sidekick throughout their adventures as part of the Time Police), or characters like Zoda, Silver Neelsen, the teamup of Gomar and Shioh, and Spade amongst others, could be cool too.

The conceptual idea of a "sports-based character" has actually been floating around in the community since the Smash 4 days, specifically as a contender for a theoretical fourth Mii Fighter slot (up there with Mii Mage in terms of popularity.) However, I think that this sort of role wouldn't fit a Mii very well, mostly because - ironically - the Sportsmates do actually have enough character to get in as, well, characters! For instance - their appearance would mostly be based on the various different Sportsmates seen in promotional material, similarly to how Inkling has different costumes that all represent the various costumes and the like that can be worn in the source material, without having to delve into Mii-levels of customisation.

In terms of moveset and general design, there's already quite a lot from the source material that could work well in something like this. For less gimmicky moves, you still have the various kicks seen in Soccer, the use of swords as seen in Chambara, or potentially other disjointed moves using the rackets or golf clubs. Not only this, but Sportsmate would lend well to a projectile-heavy moveset - be it by utilising fast-moving tennis balls as quick methods of pressure, larger but slower soccer balls as an element of stage control, or perhaps the bowling ball as a grounded form of pressure. I also think that the bluish outlines seen in various pieces of promotional material, as well as in the game, would give the Sportsmate's general moves quite an interesting look compared to some others.

Not only this, but Nintendo Switch Sports actually lends pretty well to future relevence given its continuation of a popular and well-known IP, and a live-service model intended to also maintain interest. Even if nobody seems to like it for releasing unfinished.

Also I think it would be cool if it had a mechanic where you can use the Joy-Con leg strap but it doesn't function until 9 months after the game's release