I'm a simple man. Therefore, I like simple assist trophies. A lot of different assist trophies have nuanced attack patterns and feel almost like fighters. I think it's great to see Alucard, Spring Man, and Shovel Knight in Smash Bros, but I think how they operate are too similar to one another. They walk around the stage and beat you up. These bore me and I'd rather have one unique premise than a bunch of small attacks that blend in with other assist trophies. Therefore, assist trophies like the Squid Sisters and Shadow stick out in my mind because you know exactly what they will do when you see them and they present a unique concept that produces a bunch of chaos or stress in a match.
This is where my nomination will take inspiration from.
SPACE INVADERS
Specifically, the aliens in Space Invaders. Buckle in boys and girls, because I'm going to take you on a trip in our favorite rocket ship. This post is going to detail why I think the aliens from Space Invaders will be a perfect addition to the assist trophy line up.
I'm going to now start knocking off some of the criteria one by one.
HAS TO ORIGINATE FROM A GAME
Press start to play
Space Invaders originates from a game naturally. It was released in 1978, two years before Pac-man hit the scene. However, it doesn't just originate from any old or new game. Space Invaders is considered one of
the games. The core concept is that aliens are on the top of the screen and your pea-shooter ship is on the bottom. The aliens will approach your ship slowly firing energy rays directly down. You move left to right, firing a single shot, and your goal is to kill every alien on the screen before they kill you. A basic premise that's challenging and fun. It's simple because it was the first of space shooter video games. You probably would not have Gradius or Star Fox without Space Invaders conceptualizing the very idea. So that's cool, but there's more to why Space Invaders is important. Gaming would be nowhere without Space Invaders. It is the core space shooter game that revolutionized not only its home genre, but it also invented the concept of difficulty in gaming.
As you can see here, the longer you progress in a video game, the harder it should become.
The classic premise of difficulty is that when you get further into a game, the enemies become more aggressive. Either their speed gets buffed, their attack patterns become more complicated, or their defenses become sturdier. Yeah, Space Invaders was what made that a thing and
IT WAS A GLITCH! Space Invaders started out slow specifically because of the number of aliens on the screen made the game start chugging. So as you start clearing the screen, the game could move at a "normal" pace and proceed to get harder. This seemingly basic concept in gaming was only made (unintentionally) because Space Invaders came around. So those other arcade games that get harder as you progress in them? Thank Space Invaders. Pac-man getting harder as you get further in the game? Space Invaders. Mario level design getting specifically more complicated because you're further into the game? Space Invaders. What's that? Galaga is getting harder when you're closer to beating a level? PFFFFFFTTTT!!!!
So yeah Space Invaders is a pretty big deal. This leads to the next category:
POPULARITY
Space Invaders is the kind of game your dad can walk into you playing and will actually remember it. The alien designs are iconic in gaming and the premise of playing it is as simple as picking up your burger so you can eat it. It's legendary status rivals the classic Pac-man, Mario, Galaga, Pong, and Punch-out. Interestingly, those games are all represented in Smash Bros. Space Invaders should be no different.
The familiar joystick and button. Space Invaders alongside the other mascot of classic gaming, Pac-man
FUNCTIONALITY
You know how the Pac-Man ghosts are assist trophies? These iconic video game enemies are translated into Smash Bros and your job is to deal with them like in their own respective games. In come the Space Invader aliens.
So here's how this works. Aliens appear from the top of the screen like how a normal game of Space Invaders would boot up. As you can see, there are a lot of aliens and that's pretty formidable. Suddenly, holy crap, they're beginning to move slowly down on the stage! They're firing at you! Time to scramble to your feet and make a game plan. You will have two options:
1) Destroy the aliens. Their durability will be dependent on how many on screen. If Sakurai makes less aliens, I imagine they'll need a lot of HP. If there are over 50 aliens, they might be able to go down in 1 or 2 good aerials. It's not as simple because you're having to get close to the bull to put it to sleep here. These guys are continuously firing at you and their speed will progressively get faster as you destroy more or when their time limit is starting to wrap up. Their power should be fairly decent. I would say a single hit should do 15-20% of damage. The aliens become a greater threat the longer it stays on the screen so you'll be encouraged to punch them.
2) Avoid them. Simple does it. However, good luck avoiding everything if you haven't destroyed any because their numbers should take up a large portion of mass. Plus, you know, your also trying to fight other people in Smash Bros realistically, so you're going to have an interesting day if this gets summoned.
Everything about Space Invaders should lend itself for a chaotic time when it's summoned.
I hear a concern in my head telling me that stage size could be an issue. On a small stage like Fountain of Dreams or Frigate Orphean, Space Invaders would work perfectly. On a larger stage like Palutena's Temple or New Pork City, they couldn't cover as much space in the time they would theoretically be on screen (which is around the Pac-man ghosts). So what do we do? Just not have them be summoned on those stages. Certain assist trophies cannot be summoned on specific stages. For example, Alucard can't be summoned on the Wii Fii Studio stage for some reason. If they took the time, Space Invaders could be made for specific stages and would not take too much mental energy to work out.
SOURCE MATERIAL
If you ever seen the Pong, Sheriff, or Ghosts assist trophies, you should know how this should theoretically be structured. The aliens will be a faithful recreation and how you handle them will be realistic to how you handle them in Space Invaders. You are encouraged to destroy them, they will become faster throughout their life cycle, they will be difficult to deal with, they will hurt if they touch or shoot you, and they would be one of the most classic games represented in the series.
Conclusion
Some of the fun of assist trophies is what they represent. Bomberman represents his classic grid-like chaos, Rathalos represents the Monster Hunter series and the awesome beasts you have to fight, and Guile represents his playstyle in Street Fighter hilariously by camping. Space Invaders would be nothing short because of it's deceptive difficulty, unique premise, iconic status, revolutionary role in our gaming history, and faithful translation into Smash Bros. It's legacy beats out anything listed in the thread so far, and most of all, it's a fun game that represents what we all see in video games. If we are representing classic arcade games in Smash Bros, Space Invaders should be in as soon as possible.