Tons of snips, but maan, so man thoughs here ended up summing too well why I've been personally out of the loop with Smash Ultimate up to this point.
As of late, I haven't really bothered believing on Ultimate being game to gather some of the missing Nintendo All-Stars since K.Rool or Ridley (though I guess Banjo's an exception). In fact, at times I feel like the perception of the characters included by Sakurai and Nintendo most likely won't fall on what makes sense to me or others that thought it as that sort of a series up to this point - I've felt almost ridiculed over time with believing on seeing Toad or Dixie Kong due their "all star" and general recency/affinity with Nintendo's mainstream IPs, after seeing likes of Piranha Plant (and previously in 4, Wii Fit Trainer), getting included instead due how their moveset potential proved more interesting to work on instead.
Both 4 and Ultimate also ended up as games sporting none of the most deeply wanted newcomers consisting of Toad, Dixie, Takamaru, Lip, Starfy and Isaac (+ Lloyd Irving, Roll, Sakura Kasugano and Rayman), enough for me to claim the somewhat recurring statement among this community regarding "I'm not going to ask anything from Sakurai anymore, I've got everything I've wanted - everything's a bonus from here on out".
Probably just lousy luck, but as the series has now shifted to such different expectations and also reminding me that everytime I'd wanna be attempting to rally for some characters, all I need to be reminded is that Toad among many other Assist Trophified characters got shafted over Piranha Plant because latter seemed more fun and unique, while also having a bonus of being from a million-dollar icon franchise of Nintendo, making investment on the series feel like playing a lottery game with my vulnerability on the line regarding my general wishes and passions on certain favorite Nintendo-characters (call them "all star" or not) or beyond. It's utterly disheartening.
Probably what makes this more egregious Toad can't even be on the mural, yet we see taunt-only NPCs like Slime and Morgana included. What gives?
As of now I've looking on other things to even explore the series about and been feeling that Smash itself hasn't tried much to innovate itself from the base character standpoint - in fact, what kinda makes me feel pretty conflicted on DLC-characters and the general direction of them sporting some gimmick, is how it seems to present new ways to evolve the gameplay of Smash for the future titles. Probably what makes this worse is that Banjo&Kazooie, my most favorite of the bunch, aren't that mechanically "overcentralized" as other Fighter Pass DLC and feel most belonging to the base roster - which these days have led them to be the most unpopular or least excited newcomers on the Smash-community.
In fact I've been reading on how some of the fans have ended up calling characters like Banjo a "checklist character", which also is applied on Ridley - being characters fans demand for years from Sakurai and act toxic as well about it, even if "they wouldn't pose to have anything "interesting" or "exciting" on their movesets to warrant their inclusions" (I assume this is implying these characters are the worst bunch due proving how Sakurai listening to fans instead of doing his own thing and ideas leads to actually "Boring" characters, proving we need more out-of-box inclusions not necessarily driven by fan demand like Piranha Plant or Wii Fit Trainer, Terry Bogard, etc.)
Because of this, I feel we'll never see the series actually do anything much new with it's base roster, as the 3rd party inclusions have practically warped what seemed originally a Nintendo-centric party fighter. Kinda has me wish we just stuck on Sonic, Pac-Man, Megaman and Snake (and maybe Simon Belmont) to fill in the 3rd Party selections, and keep out other characters not necessarily associated with Nintendo-platforms heavily before - if not still seeing the characters most might have rallied for, we could maybe seen more newer ideas explored for the previously added fighters instead.
Regarding Dixie Kong, I dunno what to feel about her until June - though I'm seriously hunching that unless Sakurai and Nintendo just ends up discovering something to make her play mechanically as over-specialized to a point of Little Mac's level, we'll never really see her added (Isabelle kinda made the jump during the time Dixie would had the chance due how Echos aren't featured in Fighter Pass. So really, I dunno what's there for me to explore on with this series unless it's possibly eventual reboot - which I could see happening after 5 years from here on out. I'll live, but it makes me wish Fighter Pass 2 actually didn't get announced to get this over with for me that has nothing really to come back for, sans Arle Nadja with how 3rd Parties are the new norm for Smash Bros's roster.
Ah well, I'll live.
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