MACH RIDER SMASH BROS 4
I find Mach Rider to be a severely overlooked retro character. Most people vouch for either Takamaru or Lip, and after recent events Lip has appeared on less and less rosters and even retro characters were becoming a less common addition. But why should Super Smash Bros 4 be the game to break tradition and not include a retro character? Sakurai says that he loves adding retro characters, and that the ability to revive lost franchises makes him one of the luckiest men in the world, so a retro seems to be inevitable. So let's lo at some popular retro choices, shall we?
Takamaru - Possibly the most popular and expected retro, Takamaru had a lot going for him a few months back. A minigame in Nintendo Land, a fair amount of popularity in Japan, and his relationship to the "Class of 1986" (Takamaru is to Link as Pit is to Samus) were all extremely beneficial to his likeliness. But recently something has made me skeptical of Takamaru's once "inevitable" inclusion. Greninja. While Greninja has "ninja" elements rather than "samurai" elements (which Takamaru obviously possesses), I feel that Greninja took on the whole Japanese folklore niche regardless. Shurikens and using smoke to teleport are evidence of this claim, abilities that once belonged to Takamaru. Plus, Greninja has a few attacks featuring a water sword. As Takamaru's weapon of choice is a sword, this worries me quite a bit. I don't think that Takamaru's chances are anywhere near dead, and I would love to see him included in the game, but I feel that he took a major hit with the reveal of Greninja.
Lip - There isn't too much to say about Lip anymore, since Lip's Stick has supposedly been revealed as an item once again. While Lip possesses abilities outside of her magic flower, that's what she would likely fight with if she was to be included in Smash Bros. Due to this, I consider her chances as good as dead.
Little Mac? - Although I personally don't consider Little Mac to be the retro addition, some believe that this is the case, due to his supposed obscurity in Japan and Punch Out's long hiatus. I would argue heavily that Mac is a modern Nintendo character rather than a retro. Sakurai usually adds Retros because he sees potential in their series; he loves to bring back series from the dead like he has done with Kid Icarus. Of course, doing this with Little Mac would be a lost cause, due to the Punch Out reboot on the Wii back in 2008. I define "retro" as a character that can possibly be revived by Sakura in a similar style to Kid Icarus, but Little Mac cannot since he has already been revived. Add to this the fact that Kid Icarus got a reboot even more recently than Punch Out (2011) and nobody refers to Pit as retro anymore (Kid Icarus is on it's way to getting a second character, after all). As a result, Mac is as retro as Pit: AKA, not retro.
So who is a retro character with hardly anything in his way at the moment AND has been mentioned by Sakurai in the past? It's Mach Rider, of course.
Mach Rider was a decently popular launch title for the NES, releasing alongside classics such as Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, and Ice Climber. It was one of the first games to experiment with 3D-ish effects, showing perspective while Rider drove along the track. I would imagine this was pretty mind blowing back then, as something like this had never really been seen on home consoles back in the mid-80's. The game never received a sequel, but one can say that F-Zero was a spiritual successor to Mach Rider, with it's futuristic setting, Mode 7 graphics, and falling under the racing genre. As F-Zero went on to become a popular Nintendo series and receive a character in Smash Bros (in the form of the ever popular Captain Falcon), Mach Rider was left in the dust (no punintendo). In Smash Bros Melee, Sakurai expressed interest in Mach Rider's inclusion as a playable character, even stating that he was his favorite character concept for the game, yet Mach has been absent from the series. The only aspects of Mach Rider that have appeared are a trophy and an awesome track. I'm led to believe that Mach Rider was at least planned for Melee and possibly Brawl, since Sakurai was so fond of the idea. Finally, a sequel to Mach Rider was rumored for 3DS and even listed as an upcoming title in such magazines as Nintendo Power, but as time went on the game disappeared from the listing, probably cancelled. It makes me wonder how the game would have ended up: with a cool character like Mach Rider I'm sure the game would have been awesome.
Clearly Mach's history with Nintendo is pretty extensive, dating back to the NES, and Sakurai loves the idea of adding the character, so I find Mach Rider to be a great choice for a retro character. So how would he work? Many figure that Mach Rider would play like Captain Falcon given their similar stature and games, but I had another idea that was even considered for Melee: a "mount character". A mount character is essentially a character who stays mounted on an object while fighting. With Sakurai's originality this time around, a unique character like this seems like an awesome idea. Some people find this idea unlikely or "impossible", but looking back at Melee the idea doesn't seem too farfetch'd. Supposedly the character Excitebiker, from Excitebike obviously, was planned to be featured in Melee. The original plan was to have Biker ride around and fight while mounted on his motorcycle, just like my proposal for Mach Rider. However, Sakurai encountered problems with making Excitebiker jump while on his bike, and ultimately pulled the plug on the character. With Sakurai revisiting past ideas that either fell through or were considered "impossible" (cough cough, Villager), I could totally see him coming back to this one. However, some may try to be smart and say "well why not just add Excitebiker like the original plan?" The answer goes back to my definition of "retro". Excitebike has seen releases past its NES iteration, I believe there was even one on WiiWare, so technically speaking it can't be considered retro, just like Pit and Little Mac, or revived for that matter. So unless Sakurai finds Excitebike to be an important enough Nintendo franchise to warrant a character, I don't believe that he'll be jumping at the opportunity. But since the idea of a mount character is likely still floating around Sakurai's head, he'll look back to Melee and think about Excitebiker. As Sakurai is looking for unique characters, he may pass by Mach Rider at first for being too similar to Captain Falcon, even though he loves the character, but I'm sure that eventually Sakurai would put two and two together and come up with the idea of Mach Rider mounted on his bike, which, who knows, could have been the idea in the first place. I'm positive that both characters have passed Sakurai's mind recently. Mounting Mach Rider on his bike makes him a very worthwhile and unique addition in my eyes, and with nothing standing in his way, we may see Mach Rider race into battle very soon.
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