Official DLC Speculation Discussion Volume II

[RileyXY1]

And this is the end. This has been one wild ride.

 

[SharkLord]

View attachment 335219
Tell me your secrets... How do you make the masses listen?

Honestly I got lucky. Ys had a fair bit to go through, a straightforward appeal, lots of legacy ease of access, and a leak that gained traction. When that all lined up, I just talked. A lot.

Basically, pray something lines up, pray people pay attention, and be prepared to write a %$#@ton of words.

 

[~ Valkyrie ~]

It's been quite a while since the penultimate reveal... and I must say, Sora finishing this with a bang was nothing short of a perfect way to send this particularly unreal installment of the series off. I have to yet settle on trying him as I've been mainly taking my time on exploring what Smash-series' speculation has been for me.

For a while I've ended ruminating on more what to feel about my current investment and active speculation on this series for about a decade or so now, and where I'd go from here. Admittedly I have pretty mixed feelings on my speculation era as a whole from 4 to Ultimate, with more or less ending seeing a lot of my personal wishes locked to Assist-status or other NPC-roles: these including Starfy, Lip, Takamaru, Saki Amamiya, Tingle, Isaac, Toad and Dixie Kong (who's missing outright strangely, as ChronoBound had noted in his essay.).

Some of these even tended to get mockery from the fanbase outside of Smashboards, slowly making me go abandon being a fan of them over time despite popping in the future ( and ). It thus made it difficult for me to enjoy the series openly as more of these mockings came out more and more depending on what deconfirmations seemed ripe enough for such material. Most notable of all was how Smash-series slowly got really onto this since Sm4sh-days, which despite being fun to many, wasn't personally good taste to me and perhaps contributed all the more to my feelings of alienation and gorwing cynicism.


With this, a lot of personal pciks seem to have mainly ended from me picking up pieces or enjoyable newcomers along the way, such as Roy, Pac-Man, Lemmy Koopa and Zelda in Ultimate- in fact, the only exceptions to these have been Richter Belmont that kinda sits in the middle, being a character I really love but wouldn't entirely think of supporting over the characters that ended pushed aside, and Banjo-Kazooie, who I wasn't sure on seeing happening due being locked to Microsoft over time, but dearly wished him to return to his roots as Nintendo-star from 64-days, along being one of my more cherished platforming heroes from my younger years. I could call Banjo & Kazooie closest on feeling dreams coming really true in that end, but IDK was it enough to vindicate most of the experiences I've had to go through on seeing the series shift so much from how I remember growing up with it and dreaming of possibilities within - such as the fun of playing as Toad someday in the future on Mushroom Kingdom II back in my younger 2000s' times with Melee.

I'd be lying if it didn't make me feel like like I might have perhaps ended enjoying Smash-series a little bit more if I just came from a place of wanting it to be this current Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny"-type of game, like a lot people from days of making dream matchups between various big videogame characters with Smash Bros serving as the battling grounds. I remember merely wanting to play as some lesser-known but really amazing stars of Nintendo's more obscurer or cult-classic catalogue - alas, it seems in recurring ways it wasn't that much meant to be as time went on with how many of them were still brought back as Assists, with most notable one from thesse periods getting picked up being Little Mac back in Smash 4-era. (Even then IDK if I like how kinda devoid of Punch-Out-centric characters or cameos it is when it comes to representing his series.).

Yet, I have to keep remembering that my time here spent on speculation and being a fan of this series has had a huge development on me as a person, being able to share ton of interesting thoughts and converse with so many intellectual, charming people. It had even helped me even branch off to different places as per my pursuit for experiences in similar gloriousness as Smash- such as Captain Rainbow long before coming to Smashboards, enjoying certain personal dream matchups with Chrom meeting titular Holy Warrior herself in Project x Zone-series, and Konami's Parodius long before it in the early 2010s... still need to work on my personal video project on that one. It's made me also wonder on how it'd be to take on something similar as Sakurai had, but do it in a much different way.


Back to Ultimate, in some ways I feel it might have suffered from other ends when it focused so much on the dream matchups and new shiny 3rd Parties that when we go away from that, the game's still kind of plagued with problems that had me not bother coming back to it:

- The utterly shoddy quickplay online that has ended more or less allowing "scrubby" get carried around to easy victories while skilled or seasoned players are forced to wrestle with lag more than the actual match for control of their character - and I had bought LAN-adapter + bridged my connection to NAT A before.

- Many DLC-characters practically outshining ton of the old veterans of Smash-series, indicating the latter really need to be given major updates to really feel interesting to come back to, which I alluded to earlier when wishing veterans would get overhauled to some degree in next games to not feel easily overshadowed.

- Not that much to do in Single-Player after Spirit Battles + Adventure Mode and Classic Mode's been done with- though of course we have had the well-improved Stage Builder, which is pretty neat timesink.


Combined with speculation era dragging on really long, did kinda exhaust me quite a while, and has me think I might only come back to the series if the existing characters and the general gameplay is given new overhaul to revisit them over spending most of my focus on wishing for certain characters to pop in just to bolster the roster to my own satisfactory bias. I really wish to enjoy play as some of the older veterans I enjoyed ton out of back in Pre-4 days, especially Kirby, who I was introduced to via Smash 64, and came to like immediately for his cute, peculiar appearance and copy ability.

Ultimately, I feel the series I remember growing up with as a more Nintendo-centric crossover doesn't seem to make sense existing as it used to now with how just much the series had shifted on 3rd Party-centric dream matchups more than anything - I guess it makes me not feel like a "geared fan" as much anymore, since I feel it's become more notable to see Smash-series as merely collection of pop-culture shaking events centering more or less to "Mario VS *Insert big VG Icon here", over letting me explore play as my own favorite brand of Nintendo All-Star and just see Nintendo celebrate it's catalogue beyond their most profitable or trademarked ones (some cult-classics withstanding). Probably this is why I feel kinda more on side of not coming back on the series as an active fan anymore if this is the way the series continues, and even then I'm getting sadly older and older as I speak, being at the other half of my middle age by the time this decade would come to a close.

However, the fine silver lining here is that it lets me restart all over again, and look over what Ultimate has to offer, with so many amazing and often-times miraculous character picks that allow us such unimaginably high number of dream matchups that it gets difficult to count them without having to take a deep breath and just watch what we really have got to receive our hands: thanks to Sakurai and his team's endless efforts of passion to make this Ultimate the truly best Smash-game it can ever be. After all, I can't still stop appreciating the sheer coolness of Richter being here along the ride, and the unrealness of Banjo & Kazooie joining the roster despite me viewing it as kind of an impossibility some long time ago. I'm sure many Sora-fans have come to share the same feelings for the past few weeks.



Now then... I wanna deeply thank everyone for your support and admiration shown to me as years had gone by.

I remember being so much more youthful and extroverted during fully settling into Smashboards around 2011 as I entered the "Smash Wii U"-discussion thread in a somewhat fancy moniker of "Young Horsetail", which itself was a spruced-up take on my username on Nintendo Database's forums Tsukushi-kun, named after my favorite Gym Leader's Japanese one. Before then I used to crawl around with cutesy nicknames showing my love to Starfy and Kirby ala SutafiKaabii.

I've made passionate, priceless friends there such as Fuzzy Pickles! Diddy Kong , BirthNote , @Oasis_S, N3ON , ChronoBound , Swamp Sensei , FalKoopa , Shorts (May Rest in Peace), Scoliosis Jones , and much much more.

Some I haven't talked to much since going my ways during Smash 4's speculation era coming to close before DLC came along, but I couldn't be more happier to have you guys supporting me all the way during my time of growth here.

While at it, over here is where I'd wanna leave my thanks to the certain avid supporters of Robin back in those Smash 4-days, for taking me in to their private social circle around here out of finding me an interesting anomaly among the Chrom-fans- In fact I remember one of the founders of it feeling little anxious of bringing me in due wondering was I bearing a grudge on them - I appreciated the sentiment, but knew I had found myself to a fine and intellectual group of people. Sadly a lot of them aren't here anymore, but I hope to leave my shoutout privately to one of the members.


Looking back to posts I had made a decade ago on seems to make me kind of flushed due how child-like they came off in spite of my going to high school back then, but I can really tell how just much my wisdom had grown since those days, through wondering my relationship with this series as reveals came on by. I remember avidly making support threads for good sum of the lesser-known Nintendo-stars, some of which I passed along to certain people after my own support for them had gone by, such as Lip for N N. Onymous - my most heartfelt thanks for keeping her support alive to Ultimate's days. I also remember spearheading the support thread for Palutena back in Smash 4-days, though more out of liking her in Uprising along my friends in the old Smash 4 Wii U-discussion thread. I sadly missed her reveal back in E3 due working my part-time job at the time, but was still highly hyped for two times in a row due getting to see Toad get his own game in Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. And of course, there was the surprising pick with Pac-Man, which really shook the grounds in a game where we already got Megaman with Sonic and Mario. His moveset just seemed utterly fun, hence why I've been playing as him avidly to this day.

Along the way I remember contributing to some cause of trying to extinquish the flames of toxic behaviour here and there, and enjoyed contributing out various explorations on the series' possibilities, which here and there looked to become true unexpectedly. I remember predicting Sable Prince having his "jingle" play when appearing, and also kind of predicted for a long time of Launch Star becoming an item eventually in the series. (Though in more "Sling Star-"like fashion, it seems~)

On top of that, certain character threads I've held real close to my heart for the good times, such as the current Dixie-thread, which housed such amazing community of shared passions, discussions and creativity over not only her as a character, but to entirety of DK-franchise and Rareware as a whole. With close second comes the Roy-thread around Smash 4-days, where I got to band together for his return, and share in appreciation of him in a time where it wasn't too easy to come by.

Most of all, I've been easily surprised by how I ended inadvertently marketing Namco's Valkyrie-character to a lot of people in Smashboards, eventually leading to me making a support thread for her out of recurring encouragament from some people, in spite of not exactly believing on her chances myself. Sometimes it has me wonder if I could have contributed on that cause some more... but in all honesty, I've found the assumed affinity of myself to her a strong and confident cornerstone for me to write as authentically about my thoughts as I wish, something I can't say I do in other social media platforms (where I kinda just don't exist at all, and find it overwhelming to explore appealing to masses there with my content as it usually goes over my own authenticity or feels too much effort to feel "noted" in today's approval-seeking landscape.

I'm not sure where to go from here, but I'm still hoping to pop in some social threads, while working through some possibilities of my own with knack for visual concepts for various spin-offy gameplay ideas, some of which I did for Smash-series during my free time around here. In whole though, I'm looking forward to defining Ultimate on my own experiences in full now that the speculation period's over, and most of the controversies' been kinda swept off by time.

My thousands of sweetest thanks to all of you having read to this point, and most of all, it's been an utterly crazy ride. Right now I'll go back to settling on my somewhat normal life - and let my muse finally rise back into the vast blue skies.


May we meet again when we choose our fates to do so.

 

[Capybara Gaming]

Well, it's been a wild ride, and though it definitely got rough towards the end with how toxic a lot of the Smash speculation fanbase, it was by far one of my favorite ways to wile away an evening, reading, responding, watching videos - all about this wonderful game which I love so much. Watching eagerly each Nintendo event to see who the next challenger would be is a batch of memories I never want to leave behind. From exciting reveals for my long time requests like K. Rool and Simon, to new fighters that while I personally have little attachment to, still added so much to the game, like Chrom, Hero, and Incineroar, to confusing additions like Piranha Plant that couldn't help but force a laugh from me, to the absolutely insane roster of legendary inclusions, beloved both in and out of the Smash community (Ridley, K. Rool, Banjo, etc.), to insane crossovers with which I never could've imagined and introducing me to series I may not have tried without it, like Joker, Steve, and Kazuya, all leading up my most wanted character of over a decade - Sora, the last key closing out a crossover so legendary and impossible, that it'll never happen again - Mr. Sakurai's wild ride finally comes to an end, with me on the last run of the old ride.

It's been a blast, and no game could ever top this for me. I'm glad that, though I wasn't as active as in my younger days due to a busy schedule, that I was able to take this ride with you guys. From the closing door to many more guiding adventures in gaming, though I won't be around as much as I used to, I'll still be with you all, Smashing fools left and right. Til we meet again, friends - may your heart be your guiding key.

 

[Theguy123]

In any case, its still to early to talk about the next smash game but all Ill say is, If my son Villager goes missing, im calling the police

Huh, this is the first i have heard of this

There was An article posted a few months ago taking about a new game level 5 was working on and how it was being printed Around on advertisement papers as they were looking for help. That was most likely the new rpg they’re working on as the advertisement mentioned needing experience working on RPG’s

down in the bottom corner though they had another advertisement that said they needed help on a game that’s further in development.

Could be any game but since there’s not been a Layton game since 2017 and they keep giving merch outside Japan and trying to fill gaps with ports of games, music and a rebroadcast of the anime etc it’s most likely Layton 8 if I had to guess.

 

[SKX31]

Byleth was a great addition from a gameplay perspective and I will die on the hill of loving their moveset. I think it was probably a bit tone deaf considering how poorly Corrin went over, but I honestly really appreciate having Byleth here and it's hard to stay upset when Pass 2 was so consistently amazing anyway and did bring so much good stuff. They also brought some fantastic music and they're a nice Switch character to compliment Min Min and Pyra/Mythra. Would I sub them out for others? Probably, but I've learned to really enjoy that they're here and make the most of them on the roster and Three Houses deserves the nod anyway. If we hadn't got Corrin I really do think they would have gone over a hundred times better, but Corrin was all around just a rough choice given that context (and ironically I like the way Corrin plays too, but I admit Fates was not the game they should have picked to push and it didn't even get a good treatment like Byleth did since Corrin came without a stage and very little music).

I do think there's probably too many FE characters for the franchise's relative size (even with Heroes hooking the whales like it has), but damn I'm a big fan of how they all end up playing in the game, so I'm happy they're here in all honesty and I'm gonna miss them when they get cut from a gameplay perspective (and I'll launch a multinational campaign of support to save Ike from ever being cut damn it).

There's one last Fire Emblem post for the road.

Thanks for the nuanced take. While I've never been 100 % keen on Byleth's gameplay (in particular, Byleth having an amazing time juggling but struggles hard with being juggled), Byleth's design signalled that Sakurai was trying to experiment with how a FE character should handle. And I honestly appriciate that - there's no counter for instance, While it may have been a very contentious inclusion, FE Three Houses has a strong claim as a major Switch title and can be justifiably seen as a good inclusion.

I just wish God Shattering Star was included.

It's been fun. The theories, the memes, the hornyposting. There's a few people I'd like to thank for making the wait periods more bearable, like fellow MOBA enthusiasts SKX31 and Rie Sonomura ,

Props to SKX31 for always taking the time to bring light to some facets of gaming and Smash discourse that often go unmentioned in here. I don't understand any of it, but I would know more than anyone that it's a great feeling to be able to gush about The Topic You Know A Lot About

SKX31 and his analytics of the Smash Bros competitive scene and articulate views on characters give me things to think about.​

Thank you all very much. You three were great to have around here (what with your staunch support for your respective choices and all). Both the competitive scene and the unmentioned aspects (Non-Nintendo, other regions) are aspects that stand in the periphery in this context, but nevertheless influence character design and selection respectively. As my final post here, I'll delve into those one last time:

While the former is really small compared to the total Smash fanbase, some of Smash's biggest content creators are competitive players and they have a noticeable effect on how characters are viewed throughout the years (even if it mostly applies to the tippy top that the competitive players themselves inhabit): TerminalMontage is probably the best example of how a character being considered strong can "filter down" through memetic mutation. It's also worth noting that throughout Ultimate Sakurai and co. tried to avoid creating characters that can overwhelm most of the cast. Lessons learned and all: While has Foresight...I shudder to imagine what would've happened if it was as strong as 's Witch Time.

As for the latter - it's worth remembering that Nintendo's currently in a phase of global expansion. It's evident in how LatAm recently became (part of) a major region - the Americas - in Nintendo's eyes, and that Nintendo of Korea has revitalized during the Switch era (after almost shutting down). But this is not limited to LatAm or South Korea.

I've written about China in depth (Nintendo's gaining fans there slowly but surely both through official and grey market means- such as new Nintendo stores in Chinese shopping malls - although the legal regime is not making it easy), but I'm also talking about South East Asia: a region where PCs and mobiles are king but consoles are finding a stronger foothold (a couple SmashBoards users come from this region and have joined relatively recently). In fact, SEA is one of the regions where Pokemon Unite is doing really well apparently:

(Weird footnote: It's doing pretty well in India too, 61st amongst mobile games at the moment, while it's 68th in the US)

I'm also talking about the Middle East and Russia - the former like SEA leans mobile-centric with a PC fanbase and growing console fanbase while Russia skews more towards the computer and most Russians consider the PlayStation the console of choice. The Middle East has a small but notable Switch fanbase while Ultimate is one of the first Nintendo games localized in Russian.

All of the above regions have relatively small, but active and notable Smash fanbases.

Currently, "Other" regions account for ca. 11 % of Nintendo's revenue as of FY 20/21, but according to Zhuge it has grown from ca. 9 % FY19/20. One cannot expect this growth to continue forever... but one can expect Nintendo's expansion to work at least somewhere.

Overall, this expansion has its promises and dangers for Nintendo as well as a wide variety of implications for the future. Including Smash. On one hand, if more people get to enjoy Nintendo games outside of the traditional regions (JP, Americas, EU, ANZ) that's honestly great! But on the other, corporate politics is never easy - just look at Konami - and involvment in more regions does mean that Nintendo will get indirectly tangled with some really unfortunate behind-the-scenes implications (besides the elephant in the room that is how raw minerals for Switches are produced). Tencent - Nintendo's partner there - is still in the centre of China's surveillance system, and SNK's new owner is none other than a certain Saudi Crown Prince.

However, that should not entirely detract from the fact more and more people - around the world in fact - are discovering Nintendo games (incl. Smash). Does it come with its usual caveats? Yes, such as Unite's microtransaction shenaningas and more serious socio-political contentions. But as long as this happens, this global strategy will perhaps mean that more people join the Nintendo fandom - and it'll start to influence Smash more as well. KoF being a big thing amongst Japan's, LatAm's and China's FGC was a contributed to the inclusion. It was not primary - Sakurai himself was inspired by KoF and SNK has been a consistent partner for Nintendo during the Switch era, but still.

And what matters a lot to me, is the comforting thought that as video games have gone truly global and spawling... people all around the world find joy in playing them. Including Nintendo and adjacent games. Franchises like Crash, Tekken and Touhou have become popular in places one might not expect, and as long as Smash continues down this path more people will join the Smash fandom. Around the world.

And again, thank you. I really enjoyed my time spent here, even if there was a lot of weird arguments and eye-raising leaks (and not in the good way). But I suppose that this is a good final post here from my end.

So long, thread. Gone, but never forgotten:

 

[Fluttershy64]

Krystal Social Thread

This is a Krystal from Star Fox thread to discuss our favorite blue fox. Come here to discuss speculations about new Star Fox games and other things that come to your mind!

smashboards.com

I made a Krystal Social Thread of anyone wants to join!

 

[Nabbitfan730]

You want me to pull up your posts where you blamed Ultimate for the scandals and not the players while arguing that "This never happened in Melee or Brawl"? It'll take less than 5 minutes for me to do so.

Why are you so adamant on defend such people just keep some rose tinted view "Journey" over products sold via faceless corporations to make a quick buck?

Those aren't only glaring problems of DLC and the "ride" I've stated before so why do willing ignore that?

Back to Ultimate, in some ways I feel it might have suffered from other ends when it focused so much on the dream matchups and new shiny 3rd Parties that when we go away from that, the game's still kind of plagued with problems that had me not bother coming back to it:

- The utterly shoddy quickplay online that has ended more or less allowing "scrubby" get carried around to easy victories while skilled or seasoned players are forced to wrestle with lag more than the actual match for control of their character - and I had bought LAN-adapter + bridged my connection to NAT A before.

- Many DLC-characters practically outshining ton of the old veterans of Smash-series, indicating the latter really need to be given major updates to really feel interesting to come back to, which I alluded to earlier when wishing veterans would get overhauled to some degree in next games to not feel easily overshadowed.

- Not that much to do in Single-Player after Spirit Battles + Adventure Mode and Classic Mode's been done with- though of course we have had the well-improved Stage Builder, which is pretty neat timesink.


Combined with speculation era dragging on really long, did kinda exhaust me quite a while, and has me think I might only come back to the series if the existing characters and the general gameplay is given new overhaul to revisit them over spending most of my focus on wishing for certain characters to pop in just to bolster the roster to my own satisfactory bias. I really wish to enjoy play as some of the older veterans I enjoyed ton out of back in Pre-4 days, especially Kirby, who I was introduced to via Smash 64, and came to like immediately for his cute, peculiar appearance and copy ability.

Ultimately, I feel the series I remember growing up with as a more Nintendo-centric crossover doesn't seem to make sense existing as it used to now with how just much the series had shifted on 3rd Party-centric dream matchups more than anything - I guess it makes me not feel like a "geared fan" as much anymore, since I feel it's become more notable to see Smash-series as merely collection of pop-culture shaking events centering more or less to "Mario VS *Insert big VG Icon here", over letting me explore play as my own favorite brand of Nintendo All-Star and just see Nintendo celebrate it's catalogue beyond their most profitable or trademarked ones (some cult-classics withstanding). Probably this is why I feel kinda more on side of not coming back on the series as an active fan anymore if this is the way the series continues, and even then I'm getting sadly older and older as I speak, being at the other half of my middle age by the time this decade would come to a close.

Exactly. Smash Bros used to be a GAME about Nintendo's History seeing our favorite characters coming together to crossover duking it out during the Melee/Brawl and 4 days too where Speculation was great and supporting characters was fun and exciting but with Ultimate DLC, it's just Nintendo's Interactive ad campaign with corporations buffing themselves with a museum just to stare at without any substance that extends and add to the title's lifespan, value or replayability yet ironically it's called the "celebration of gaming" with not much game to celebrate. By next week, the majority will have move on from the game being forgotten while games like Melee or even Brawl will still be remembered and be more popular

Imagine those 2 games in future out shining the self-proclaimed "celebration of gaming" or the "Ultimate" game

It's a shame that hurts so much because this is supposed to be the Ultimate Smash Game with Base being great but overall with DLC and Speculation being so much worse now, can't support your favorite characters without being hated on, you must like the next big popular thing or else. This period is kinda a shadow of its former self.

Well Smash 6 with things hopefully back to normal, we still return back to left of the glory days of the past.

 

[DaybreakHorizon]

actually i do know of another thing you oversold and that is reisalin "ryza" stout from atelier ryza: ever darkness & the secret hideout for the playstation 4 and nintendo sw-

bro I don't know what you're talking about I did NOT advocate for her over Discord for like three months before Steve was revealed no you don't need to fact check that please don't pull up the posts

 

[KillerCage]

I'm going to miss this place.

 

[Shroob]

Why are you so adamant on defend such people just keep some rose tinted view "Journey" over products sold via faceless corporations to make a quick buck?

Those aren't only glaring problems of DLC and the "ride" I've stated before so why do willing ignore that?

What does literally any of that have to do with you trying to pin the blame of the people on the game itself?


Don't pull the "Capitalism bad" card where it doesn't fit, you were the one going "Oh, Melee and Brawl times were SO much better, we never had sex offenders then", and then proceeding to blame Ultimate for said sex offender's instead of, ya know, the sex offenders themselves.

 

[Opossum]

Well there's less than an hour left for this section, so let me wrap things up once more with another barely-coherent yet fond farewell, to all who are going and all who have gone already. It's really starting to hit that so many of the folks who were around during the early days of Smash 4 speculation, back in like 2011-2012, are gone now. And so many of them I never got to say goodbye to, since I just didn't know they were leaving.

But considering that, in a lot of ways, the Smash 4 and Ultimate cycles feel like one long era, all of y'all from the old days deserve a send off too. I couldn't possibly name everyone from back then, for there were too many to count. N3ON, Swamp, Scoliosis Jones, IsmaR, BKupa666, Starphoenix, FalKoopa, Oasis_S, Luco, HolderoftheHeel, ---, Fuzzy Pickles, MetalOverlord, Smooth Criminal, Disfunkshunal, KumaOso, Moon Monkey, BirthNote, Croph, KingOfPhantoms, Chronobound, Psycho, TheFirstPoppyBro, Hoots, Hex (nowadays better known as ArtsyOmni), APC, Venus, and anyone and everyone who was part of the old Smash 4 Community Hangout group who I certainly missed naming in this last-minute role call, whether you're still on the site or left it ages ago, whether you end up seeing this by chance or not...

...Know that I truly value the time I had spent talking to y'all, some of my oldest friends and acquaintances on this site.

It's been over ten years now since I joined this site to talk about the then-newly-announced fourth Smash game, for both the 3DS and the as-of-then unreleased Wii U (previously Project Cafe), and all of you made an impression right from the start. Who knows if I'll still be here (like, on the site...I'll still be alive probably lol) by the time they announce the next Smash, even if I'm the last of that speculation generation, I'll always look back on those times with fondness.

It's cliche, but, as they say...it's not a "goodbye," as much as it is a "see you later." And if some of those who left or are leaving do decide to return, I might just be back here to meet you with a "welcome back."

To the friends we've all made along the way, and the good times both past and future. Thanks guys.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

one last time for the road I guess but:

don’t feed the troll, just report and ignore their ass

 

[EricTheGamerman]

Koei Tecmo and Falcom are definitely two companies I would have bet on showing up somewhere in Smash that haven't really at all save for the limited Fatal Frame content that partially belongs to Nintendo. Koei is just so close to Nintendo and Falcom is just such a classic and influential player with Ys that they felt like such easy places for Smash to pick up a couple characters, but I guess neither really did stand a chance in Pass 2 where Nintendo was aiming so much larger. I would have very much enjoyed seeing Ninja Gaiden and Ys get the nod and into Smash (Ys would have been a fun way to rep the Turbografx-16 as well like Terry did the Neo Geo).

They'll be missed alongside Crash and Dark Souls content in terms of things I would have expected to show up somewhere (No Dark Souls content, not even a Solaire Mii Costume or something also really bewildered me), but the game does indeed have to end somewhere and Pass 2 did a phenomenal job tying up loose ends and making some declarations of Smash's insanity.

 

[DaybreakHorizon]

Why are you so adamant on defend such people just keep some rose tinted view "Journey" over products sold via faceless corporations to make a quick buck?

Those aren't only glaring problems of DLC and the "ride" I've stated before so why do willing ignore that?

Exactly. Smash Bros used to be a GAME about Nintendo's History seeing our favorite characters coming together to crossover duking it out during the Melee/Brawl and 4 days too where Speculation was great and supporting characters was fun and exciting but with Ultimate DLC, it's just Nintendo's Interactive ad campaign with corporations buffing themselves with a museum just to stare at without any substance that extends and add to the title's lifespan, value or replayability yet ironically it's called the "celebration of gaming" with not much game to celebrate. By next week, the majority will have move on from the game being forgotten while games like Melee or even Brawl will still be remembered and be more popular

Imagine those 2 games in future out shining the self-proclaimed "celebration of gaming" or the "Ultimate" game

It's a shame that hurts so much because this is supposed to be the Ultimate Smash Game with Base being great but overall with DLC and Speculation being so much worse now, can't support your favorite characters without being hated on, you must like the next big popular thing or else. This period is kinda a shadow of its former self.

Well Smash 6 with things hopefully back to normal, we still return back to left of the glory days of the past.

Maybe because your argument is nonsensical and invalidating to a majority of the users here, who in one way or another have had a meaningful experience here?

I also find it ironic that you talk about rose-tinted views yet don't acknowledge the clear nostalgia goggles you have on for Melee and Brawl. Seriously, "return back to the glory days of the past?" Do you hear yourself?

You're throwing an awful lot of stones from that glass house of yours.

 

[Shroob]

Well, since the thread didn't close yesterday, and it's on the verge of closing now


It's been fun.



That's really all there is to say. This has been a 3 year period I won't forget, be it the good, or the bad, this speculation cycle has had to be hands down the most interesting that we've ever had.

 

[EricTheGamerman]

Exactly. Smash Bros used to be a GAME about Nintendo's History seeing our favorite characters coming together to crossover duking it out during the Melee/Brawl and 4 days too where Speculation was great and supporting characters was fun and exciting but with Ultimate DLC, it's just Nintendo's Interactive ad campaign with corporations buffing themselves with a museum just to stare at without any substance that extends and add to the title's lifespan, value or replayability yet ironically it's called the "celebration of gaming" with not much game to celebrate. By next week, the majority will have move on from the game being forgotten while games like Melee or even Brawl will still be remembered and be more popular

Imagine those 2 games in future out shining the self-proclaimed "celebration of gaming" or the "Ultimate" game

It's a shame that hurts so much because this is supposed to be the Ultimate Smash Game with Base being great but overall with DLC and Speculation being so much worse now, can't support your favorite characters without being hated on, you must like the next big popular thing or else. This period is kinda a shadow of its former self.

Well Smash 6 with things hopefully back to normal, we still return back to left of the glory days of the past.

Best $110 museum ticket ever.

 

[Flyboy]

There are many things I'll remember this cycle for and many things it gave me and many things I'm thankful I can look forward to...

...But I still think one of my favorite tiny memories was in the old discussion/social thread pre-release when for a brief, glimmering, shining instant it felt like the entirety of the place actively considered the possibility that this was the game in which we could get James Bond.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

And here I was about to share a Smash Bros. Music video I made that I was really proud of (after Kazuya came out but before Sora) but I can’t do it with this current mood

guess I’ll share it in the social

 

[Shroob]

Why are you so adamant on defend such people just keep some rose tinted view "Journey" over products sold via faceless corporations to make a quick buck?

Rose tinted view
Goes on to talk about how Melee and Brawl days were soo much better

You can't make this **** up I tell ya h'wat.

 

[chocolatejr9]

It was fun while it lasted. I have no regrets of my time here.

 

[slrigeigdew]

This Isn't Goodbye, It's See You Later

I'll miss lurking here, occasionally posting my thoughts and memes about the community, DLC and Smash in general. Thank you everyone for all the interesting discussions and wild theories over the years. And thank you Mr. Sakurai for making so many dreams come true.

Until the next Smash, in whatever form it takes.

(Source: bromojumbo)
https://mobile.twitter.com/bromojumbo

 

[Neverx]

Just wanted to say it's been an awesome ride, been lurking here since the switch released in 2017, while I haven't posted often I've always enjoyed reading this thread and the various speculation threads. I got Pyra/Mythra andSteve my two most wanteds going into the game as well as characters like Joker and Byleth which I didn't know I wanted along with characters I didn't think possible like K Rool, Ridley, Sora and Banjo. From chair theory to Vergeben to the grinch leak, it's been a crazy journey and I am glad to have experienced everyones crazy speculation and theories along the way.

 

[Guynamednelson]

You can't make this **** up I tell ya h'wat.

Complaints about whether or not Brawl's gameplay changes were a good thing were nothing compared to whether or not Smash selling out is.

 

[DaybreakHorizon]

Also I'll just say for anyone who looks back on Smash 4 speculation favorably...it was by no means perfect either

• Groups and cliques formed easily, and if you weren't in the in group you were excluded from most everything
  • It was far worse than not being in the in group this cycle, as users this time around seemed to have made a more concentrated effort to be inclusive and accepting to newer members.
• Third party speculation was shut down fast and anyone who even mentioned characters like Cloud Strife were laughed at and insulted.
• Fanbases were far more dogmatic and fervent which created increased toxicity and fandom wars.
• Roster cut arguments were vitriolic and more repetitive than Fire Emblem and Pokémon arguments here.
• Gematsu was essentially the word of God, and speculation centered around it harder than base Ultimate speculation centered around Vergeben.
• Forum drama ran rampant, especially around the times of the Ninka/Vaanrose leak and especially the ESRB leak where people blew up at one another.
  • What the toxicity of the Grinch leak was intensity, the toxicity of the Ninka/Vaanrose more than made up for in persistence, blowing up harder than the Grinch leak when the ESRB leak confirmed it.
  • There was also the Roy/Ryu leak time, where Ryu fans got absolutely **** on by the core community.

I enjoyed my time speculating on Smash 4 for sure, but let's not act like it was perfect or make it out to be more than what it was. Just as we shouldn't idealize any period of speculation, be it Melee, Brawl, Smash 4, or even Ultimate.

...guess there's no better way to go out than one more petty internet argument, am I right everyone?

 

[Will]

Man, this thing's still alive? Well, that means I get to ****post.

 

[Shroob]

Man, this thing's still alive? Well, that means I get to ****post.

View attachment 335230

Kermieplz

 

[Nabbitfan730]

Maybe because your argument is nonsensical and invalidating to a majority of the users here, who in one way or another have had a meaningful experience here?

I also find it ironic that you talk about rose-tinted views yet don't acknowledge the clear nostalgia goggles you have on for Melee and Brawl. Seriously, "return back to the glory days of the past?" Do you hear yourself?

You're throwing an awful lot of stones from that glass house of yours.

How is nonsensical and invaliding? Wouldn't call lame memes, toxicity, 2020 Debacle etc meaningful? Also is those experiences around the game itself or just the hype blowing around it ? If the roster wasn't big, would those experiences still be there?

Melee and Brawl were much better times to be a Smash Fan than now. Character support was fun and exciting for our favorite characters getting in with our games to enjoy. Can't say the same for Ult's DLC season

What does literally any of that have to do with you trying to pin the blame of the people on the game itself?


Don't pull the "Capitalism bad" card where it doesn't fit, you were the one going "Oh, Melee and Brawl times were SO much better, we never had sex offenders then", and then proceeding to blame Ultimate for said sex offender's instead of, ya know, the sex offenders themselves.

Where did I say capitalism was bad there exactly?

Also were those offenders playing Melee or Ultimate?

 

[Fuzzy Pickles!]

It's been quite a while since the penultimate reveal... and I must say, Sora finishing this with a bang was nothing short of a perfect way to send this particularly unreal installment of the series off. I have to yet settle on trying him as I've been mainly taking my time on exploring what Smash-series' speculation has been for me.

For a while I've ended ruminating on more what to feel about my current investment and active speculation on this series for about a decade or so now, and where I'd go from here. Admittedly I have pretty mixed feelings on my speculation era as a whole from 4 to Ultimate, with more or less ending seeing a lot of my personal wishes locked to Assist-status or other NPC-roles: these including Starfy, Lip, Takamaru, Saki Amamiya, Tingle, Isaac, Toad and Dixie Kong (who's missing outright strangely, as ChronoBound had noted in his essay.).

Some of these even tended to get mockery from the fanbase outside of Smashboards, slowly making me go abandon being a fan of them over time despite popping in the future ( and ). It thus made it difficult for me to enjoy the series openly as more of these mockings came out more and more depending on what deconfirmations seemed ripe enough for such material. Most notable of all was how Smash-series slowly got really onto this since Sm4sh-days, which despite being fun to many, wasn't personally good taste to me and perhaps contributed all the more to my feelings of alienation and gorwing cynicism.


With this, a lot of personal pciks seem to have mainly ended from me picking up pieces or enjoyable newcomers along the way, such as Roy, Pac-Man, Lemmy Koopa and Zelda in Ultimate- in fact, the only exceptions to these have been Richter Belmont that kinda sits in the middle, being a character I really love but wouldn't entirely think of supporting over the characters that ended pushed aside, and Banjo-Kazooie, who I wasn't sure on seeing happening due being locked to Microsoft over time, but dearly wished him to return to his roots as Nintendo-star from 64-days, along being one of my more cherished platforming heroes from my younger years. I could call Banjo & Kazooie closest on feeling dreams coming really true in that end, but IDK was it enough to vindicate most of the experiences I've had to go through on seeing the series shift so much from how I remember growing up with it and dreaming of possibilities within - such as the fun of playing as Toad someday in the future on Mushroom Kingdom II back in my younger 2000s' times with Melee.

I'd be lying if it didn't make me feel like like I might have perhaps ended enjoying Smash-series a little bit more if I just came from a place of wanting it to be this current Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny"-type of game, like a lot people from days of making dream matchups between various big videogame characters with Smash Bros serving as the battling grounds. I remember merely wanting to play as some lesser-known but really amazing stars of Nintendo's more obscurer or cult-classic catalogue - alas, it seems in recurring ways it wasn't that much meant to be as time went on with how many of them were still brought back as Assists, with most notable one from thesse periods getting picked up being Little Mac back in Smash 4-era. (Even then IDK if I like how kinda devoid of Punch-Out-centric characters or cameos it is when it comes to representing his series.).

Yet, I have to keep remembering that my time here spent on speculation and being a fan of this series has had a huge development on me as a person, being able to share ton of interesting thoughts and converse with so many intellectual, charming people. It had even helped me even branch off to different places as per my pursuit for experiences in similar gloriousness as Smash- such as Captain Rainbow long before coming to Smashboards, enjoying certain personal dream matchups with Chrom meeting titular Holy Warrior herself in Project x Zone-series, and Konami's Parodius long before it in the early 2010s... still need to work on my personal video project on that one. It's made me also wonder on how it'd be to take on something similar as Sakurai had, but do it in a much different way.


Back to Ultimate, in some ways I feel it might have suffered from other ends when it focused so much on the dream matchups and new shiny 3rd Parties that when we go away from that, the game's still kind of plagued with problems that had me not bother coming back to it:

- The utterly shoddy quickplay online that has ended more or less allowing "scrubby" get carried around to easy victories while skilled or seasoned players are forced to wrestle with lag more than the actual match for control of their character - and I had bought LAN-adapter + bridged my connection to NAT A before.

- Many DLC-characters practically outshining ton of the old veterans of Smash-series, indicating the latter really need to be given major updates to really feel interesting to come back to, which I alluded to earlier when wishing veterans would get overhauled to some degree in next games to not feel easily overshadowed.

- Not that much to do in Single-Player after Spirit Battles + Adventure Mode and Classic Mode's been done with- though of course we have had the well-improved Stage Builder, which is pretty neat timesink.


Combined with speculation era dragging on really long, did kinda exhaust me quite a while, and has me think I might only come back to the series if the existing characters and the general gameplay is given new overhaul to revisit them over spending most of my focus on wishing for certain characters to pop in just to bolster the roster to my own satisfactory bias. I really wish to enjoy play as some of the older veterans I enjoyed ton out of back in Pre-4 days, especially Kirby, who I was introduced to via Smash 64, and came to like immediately for his cute, peculiar appearance and copy ability.

Ultimately, I feel the series I remember growing up with as a more Nintendo-centric crossover doesn't seem to make sense existing as it used to now with how just much the series had shifted on 3rd Party-centric dream matchups more than anything - I guess it makes me not feel like a "geared fan" as much anymore, since I feel it's become more notable to see Smash-series as merely collection of pop-culture shaking events centering more or less to "Mario VS *Insert big VG Icon here", over letting me explore play as my own favorite brand of Nintendo All-Star and just see Nintendo celebrate it's catalogue beyond their most profitable or trademarked ones (some cult-classics withstanding). Probably this is why I feel kinda more on side of not coming back on the series as an active fan anymore if this is the way the series continues, and even then I'm getting sadly older and older as I speak, being at the other half of my middle age by the time this decade would come to a close.

However, the fine silver lining here is that it lets me restart all over again, and look over what Ultimate has to offer, with so many amazing and often-times miraculous character picks that allow us such unimaginably high number of dream matchups that it gets difficult to count them without having to take a deep breath and just watch what we really have got to receive our hands: thanks to Sakurai and his team's endless efforts of passion to make this Ultimate the truly best Smash-game it can ever be. After all, I can't still stop appreciating the sheer coolness of Richter being here along the ride, and the unrealness of Banjo & Kazooie joining the roster despite me viewing it as kind of an impossibility some long time ago. I'm sure many Sora-fans have come to share the same feelings for the past few weeks.



Now then... I wanna deeply thank everyone for your support and admiration shown to me as years had gone by.

I remember being so much more youthful and extroverted during fully settling into Smashboards around 2011 as I entered the "Smash Wii U"-discussion thread in a somewhat fancy moniker of "Young Horsetail", which itself was a spruced-up take on my username on Nintendo Database's forums Tsukushi-kun, named after my favorite Gym Leader's Japanese one. Before then I used to crawl around with cutesy nicknames showing my love to Starfy and Kirby ala SutafiKaabii.

I've made passionate, priceless friends there such as Fuzzy Pickles! Diddy Kong , BirthNote , @Oasis_S, N3ON , ChronoBound , Swamp Sensei , FalKoopa , Shorts (May Rest in Peace), Scoliosis Jones , and much much more.

Some I haven't talked to much since going my ways during Smash 4's speculation era coming to close before DLC came along, but I couldn't be more happier to have you guys supporting me all the way during my time of growth here.

While at it, over here is where I'd wanna leave my thanks to the certain avid supporters of Robin back in those Smash 4-days, for taking me in to their private social circle around here out of finding me an interesting anomaly among the Chrom-fans- In fact I remember one of the founders of it feeling little anxious of bringing me in due wondering was I bearing a grudge on them - I appreciated the sentiment, but knew I had found myself to a fine and intellectual group of people. Sadly a lot of them aren't here anymore, but I hope to leave my shoutout privately to one of the members.


Looking back to posts I had made a decade ago on seems to make me kind of flushed due how child-like they came off in spite of my going to high school back then, but I can really tell how just much my wisdom had grown since those days, through wondering my relationship with this series as reveals came on by. I remember avidly making support threads for good sum of the lesser-known Nintendo-stars, some of which I passed along to certain people after my own support for them had gone by, such as Lip for N N. Onymous - my most heartfelt thanks for keeping her support alive to Ultimate's days. I also remember spearheading the support thread for Palutena back in Smash 4-days, though more out of liking her in Uprising along my friends in the old Smash 4 Wii U-discussion thread. I sadly missed her reveal back in E3 due working my part-time job at the time, but was still highly hyped for two times in a row due getting to see Toad get his own game in Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. And of course, there was the surprising pick with Pac-Man, which really shook the grounds in a game where we already got Megaman with Sonic and Mario. His moveset just seemed utterly fun, hence why I've been playing as him avidly to this day.

Along the way I remember contributing to some cause of trying to extinquish the flames of toxic behaviour here and there, and enjoyed contributing out various explorations on the series' possibilities, which here and there looked to become true unexpectedly. I remember predicting Sable Prince having his "jingle" play when appearing, and also kind of predicted for a long time of Launch Star becoming an item eventually in the series. (Though in more "Sling Star-"like fashion, it seems~)

On top of that, certain character threads I've held real close to my heart for the good times, such as the current Dixie-thread, which housed such amazing community of shared passions, discussions and creativity over not only her as a character, but to entirety of DK-franchise and Rareware as a whole. With close second comes the Roy-thread around Smash 4-days, where I got to band together for his return, and share in appreciation of him in a time where it wasn't too easy to come by.

Most of all, I've been easily surprised by how I ended inadvertently marketing Namco's Valkyrie-character to a lot of people in Smashboards, eventually leading to me making a support thread for her out of recurring encouragament from some people, in spite of not exactly believing on her chances myself. Sometimes it has me wonder if I could have contributed on that cause some more... but in all honesty, I've found the assumed affinity of myself to her a strong and confident cornerstone for me to write as authentically about my thoughts as I wish, something I can't say I do in other social media platforms (where I kinda just don't exist at all, and find it overwhelming to explore appealing to masses there with my content as it usually goes over my own authenticity or feels too much effort to feel "noted" in today's approval-seeking landscape.

I'm not sure where to go from here, but I'm still hoping to pop in some social threads, while working through some possibilities of my own with knack for visual concepts for various spin-offy gameplay ideas, some of which I did for Smash-series during my free time around here. In whole though, I'm looking forward to defining Ultimate on my own experiences in full now that the speculation period's over, and most of the controversies' been kinda swept off by time.

My thousands of sweetest thanks to all of you having read to this point, and most of all, it's been an utterly crazy ride. Right now I'll go back to settling on my somewhat normal life - and let my muse finally rise back into the vast blue skies.


May we meet again when we choose our fates to do so.

I appreciate the mention Valkyrie! Along with people like ChronoBound, BKupa666, and others that no longer come in here, you were one of the first people that I met on Smashboards during Smash 4 speculation. It’s been a decade since speculation began. Long time, isn’t it?

I don’t have much to say regarding the thread’s closure. All I have to say is that bodies will turn to dust, but with that dust comes new life. We end this very long chapter in our lives. For some of us, that took as long as a decade.

When this thread closes, a new chapter in our life will start. Personally, I’m excited to see where it will take me going forward. I still have dreams to accomplish and fortunately, I still feel optimistic I can achieve them.

 

[Flyboy]

Just remembered that one person in the pre-release thread who kept saying they were going to add Duon as DLC. I think that's what I'm gonna miss most; people latching onto joke fighters based on crazy crackpot theories that are barely distinguishable from the real crackpot theories we always had going on at any time. Weight Theory and Fire Theory must never die.

Man, of course I'd get all sentimental right at the end. It's all the little moments I'll take with me, I think.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

Also I'll just say for anyone who looks back on Smash 4 speculation favorably...it was by no means perfect either

• Groups and cliques formed easily, and if you weren't in the in group you were excluded from most everything
  • It was far worse than not being in the in group this cycle, as users this time around seemed to have made a more concentrated effort to be inclusive and accepting to newer members.
• Third party speculation was shut down fast and anyone who even mentioned characters like Cloud Strife were laughed at and insulted.
• Fanbases were far more dogmatic and fervent which created increased toxicity and fandom wars.
• Roster cut arguments were vitriolic and more repetitive than Fire Emblem and Pokémon arguments here.
• Gematsu was essentially the word of God, and speculation centered around it harder than base Ultimate speculation centered around Vergeben.
• Forum drama ran rampant, especially around the times of the Ninka/Vaanrose leak and especially the ESRB leak where people blew up at one another.
  • What the toxicity of the Grinch leak was intensity, the toxicity of the Ninka/Vaanrose more than made up for in persistence, blowing up harder than the Grinch leak when the ESRB leak confirmed it.
  • There was also the Roy/Ryu leak time, where Ryu fans got absolutely **** on by the core community.

I enjoyed my time speculating on Smash 4 for sure, but let's not act like it was perfect or make it out to be more than what it was. Just as we shouldn't idealize any period of speculation, be it Melee, Brawl, Smash 4, or even Ultimate.

...guess there's no better way to go out than one more petty internet argument, am I right everyone?

Can confirm about the cliques thing…

and Vaanrose… wonder how he’s doing now

 

[Isaac: Venus Adept]

So, here we are, my last post on the site.

I’ve been a member here for over thirteen years, a speculator even longer. Smash has ended up playing a role in my life I literally lack to words to properly express. But life continues, people change, and the pull that kept me here has been fading. I long ago showed up as an angsty scene kid teenager, and now I’m leaving as a, hopefully, halfway functional adult. It’s a good time to lower the curtain, and become one with the force.

And that’s not to diminish all the crazy experiences I’ve had been part of this wonderful terrible circus of a fanbase. All the laughs I’ve shared, all the groans I’ve caused, all the work my ban hammer got, all the analyzing and overanalyzing and then analyzing the overanalyzing. The pop-offs and the trolls. The people I’ve connected with, both friends, and somehow… also enemies? frenemies?, you’ve left an indelible impact on me. This was a constant for over a decade in my life, it can’t soon be forgot. Nor would I want it to.

Ultimate truly is a game I never imagined could exist. For its scale, for its scope, for its ambitions. I’ve got a character I’ve wanted since Smash became a thing, one which I, for a very long and sad time, thought actually impossible. But this game clearly made the impossible possible. For all the impact you lot have made on me, I wish I could impart to Sakurai what his works have meant to me as well. Hopefully one day I’ll run into him at an award show.

Suffice it to say, Ultimate somehow ended on a high, and I think it’s fantastic that, with Ultimate, my time here gets to mirror that. Ending on a high.

So thanks to everyone here for helping create one of the most engaging distractions an argumentative, attention-challenged procrastinator could ask for. You kept me entertained, impassioned and thinking, and hopefully I could return the favour.

Best of luck and best wishes going forward. In Smash, and in your own lives. As much as any of us actually has one. xD

Oh, and, Isaac for Smash. Always.

Now put me on a train, I’m outta here.

Oh I didn't know you were really leaving the site for good. Well then I hope you enjoy whatever the future has going for you N3ON! Thank you for creating and managing the Isaac for Smash thread for the past two Smash games, even though we didn't always see eye to eye on certain things I always did appreciate your level headed approach to speculating and the great sense of humor you always brought as well as the general appreciation you had to the Golden Sun movement. Your presence will certainly be missed when we're speculating for the next game that's for sure. Again farewell and thank you so much for your contributions, we'll always remember you <3

 

[Ridrool64]

And now... the end is near... and so we face... the final curtain.

Throughout all of speculation I tried to do things my way. Sure, I batted 0 when the answer wasn't clear as day due to leaks, but I felt like the barriers being broken are both a blessing and a curse... on one hand, speculation has less barriers but on the other I feel like the barriers were necessary for us to speculate at all. Now if everybody has a chance then likelihood is a myth. Except Pokémon reps not from Gen 1 or the latest gen. That's still true, unfortunately. You know Heracross would be great.

Farewell, DLC Speculation Discussion. May we meet again in 2025. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. Who's counting? Perhaps with no Sakurai, perhaps with the return of our favorite director. Until we meet again!

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

Never thought I'd apply a Doctor Who quote to Smash or the speculation scene, but sometimes things just fit:


This song is ending, but the story never ends...

 

[Rie Sonomura]

While I’m at it, I’ll reference the Xenoblade X post credits scene:

This story never truly ends…

 

[Guynamednelson]

Also I'll just say for anyone who looks back on Smash 4 speculation favorably...it was by no means perfect either

• Groups and cliques formed easily, and if you weren't in the in group you were excluded from most everything
  • It was far worse than not being in the in group this cycle, as users this time around seemed to have made a more concentrated effort to be inclusive and accepting to newer members.
• Third party speculation was shut down fast and anyone who even mentioned characters like Cloud Strife were laughed at and insulted.
• Fanbases were far more dogmatic and fervent which created increased toxicity and fandom wars.
• Roster cut arguments were vitriolic and more repetitive than Fire Emblem and Pokémon arguments here.
• Gematsu was essentially the word of God, and speculation centered around it harder than base Ultimate speculation centered around Vergeben.
• Forum drama ran rampant, especially around the times of the Ninka/Vaanrose leak and especially the ESRB leak where people blew up at one another.
  • What the toxicity of the Grinch leak was intensity, the toxicity of the Ninka/Vaanrose more than made up for in persistence, blowing up harder than the Grinch leak when the ESRB leak confirmed it.
  • There was also the Roy/Ryu leak time, where Ryu fans got absolutely **** on by the core community.

I enjoyed my time speculating on Smash 4 for sure, but let's not act like it was perfect or make it out to be more than what it was. Just as we shouldn't idealize any period of speculation, be it Melee, Brawl, Smash 4, or even Ultimate.

...guess there's no better way to go out than one more petty internet argument, am I right everyone?

Seems like my glasses about the past of Smash discussion are rose-tinted due to my lack of time here during the Smash 4 days.

 

[cashregister9]

(Yeah I already did a goodbye post but shush.)

So it is time to leave this specific thread behind. I just joined this place on a whim and became the certified EstellePoster™

Speculation had its ups and downs but I genuinely enjoyed talking with all of you especially considering how rough the last 2 years have been.

I shall be on the boards for a while and definitely when the next smash game comes around.

and with that Time to move to the future.

 

[Flyboy]

When there's a next time I hope we get fake leaks half as hilarious and quality as the Agnes fake, or Onceler Joker. I'll make them myself if I have to. You'll see, I'll get everyone talking about the Wave Race Guy.

 

[Dinoman96]

Okay my last post in here for real

 

[DarthEnderX]

You're still here?

...