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Official DLC Speculation Discussion Volume II
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WeirdChillFever
Smash Hero
I gotta stick around on SmashBoards until I win a Make Your Move contest so I might as well pop into Social Threads and what not.
Dutch Raikuna
Life's a sweet bitter beauty song.......
So I'm mostly based in the social thread but thought I'd say to hi to you guys.
A forum shift will be happening as we go into the post Smash era and yous are welcome in other parts of the forum.
As older members have told me, this won't be like Smash 4 where the forums drop to nothing. Nintendo is in far healthier times with Pokemon, Splatoon, NSO, Kirby and all in the near future so there will be plenty of discussion around the forums regardless so you don't need to worry about the place going quiet anytime soon.
I'll be here in the social thread like usual but just remember that for many friendships you have made: It's not the end. In fact it's only the beginning.
So people who any of you guys have made friends with but want to sail off: Go and add them on other social media like Twitter, Discord or anything like that. Make Smash the beginning of the friendships and not the core. See how far you and your friends go. Doesn't have to end in one place.
Really owe it to this place on here but Speculation is where I got my start. And on the social thread I've met some of my closest friends online who I know I'll be talking to for ages.
Not bad for what was originally a throwaway account.
That is all for you Specs.
A forum shift will be happening as we go into the post Smash era and yous are welcome in other parts of the forum.
As older members have told me, this won't be like Smash 4 where the forums drop to nothing. Nintendo is in far healthier times with Pokemon, Splatoon, NSO, Kirby and all in the near future so there will be plenty of discussion around the forums regardless so you don't need to worry about the place going quiet anytime soon.
I'll be here in the social thread like usual but just remember that for many friendships you have made: It's not the end. In fact it's only the beginning.
So people who any of you guys have made friends with but want to sail off: Go and add them on other social media like Twitter, Discord or anything like that. Make Smash the beginning of the friendships and not the core. See how far you and your friends go. Doesn't have to end in one place.
Really owe it to this place on here but Speculation is where I got my start. And on the social thread I've met some of my closest friends online who I know I'll be talking to for ages.
Not bad for what was originally a throwaway account.
That is all for you Specs.
ChronoBound
Smash Hero
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2006
- Messages
- 8,998
This is my first time ever posting in the second iteration of the Ultimate Newcomer/DLC discussion thread. I have basically been in the background for speculation in regards to Pass 2. Of my predictions, they were mostly wrong, with the only two possibilities I had ended up happening being Steve and Sora.
Regardless, I am here to say I have a very important message to which I want to share with this community. I have been a part of this site for over 15 years. I have seen many things unfold during that time. I want to say I think I am basically done with speculation and character support. Do not get me wrong, there are still some additions that I would like to see happen, but I would say Ultimate has very much satisfied me.
However, I still want to write about Smash and its content, just not about speculation. I prepared a sort of farewell essay that gives me thoughts about the conclusion to Ultimate and my hopes for the future. My hope is that despite the length, that many of you will read it in its entirety. I absolutely encourage anyone who reads it to please send their thoughts and ideas about what I wrote as a personal message to me. I really want to hear the many stories that Ultimate has behind it.
Without further ado, here is my "farewell" essay:
As I said, I implore anyone that reads this to share their thoughts via a personal message. I am curious to hear what you think. I apologize for the length. Thank you very much for your time and patience. I am blessed to have met the people here that I have. You have helped me grow in many ways, and I am grateful for what I have learned and experienced during my 20 years as a participant in Smash speculation. I hope those who continue on will similarly be blessed with friendship and personal growth, and that your personal Smash desires (or at least some of them) are fulfilled in the future.
Regardless, I am here to say I have a very important message to which I want to share with this community. I have been a part of this site for over 15 years. I have seen many things unfold during that time. I want to say I think I am basically done with speculation and character support. Do not get me wrong, there are still some additions that I would like to see happen, but I would say Ultimate has very much satisfied me.
However, I still want to write about Smash and its content, just not about speculation. I prepared a sort of farewell essay that gives me thoughts about the conclusion to Ultimate and my hopes for the future. My hope is that despite the length, that many of you will read it in its entirety. I absolutely encourage anyone who reads it to please send their thoughts and ideas about what I wrote as a personal message to me. I really want to hear the many stories that Ultimate has behind it.
Without further ado, here is my "farewell" essay:
Introduction
Ultimate speculation has finally drawn to an end. This title in particular has been very poignant to me. It fulfilled many different things to which I thought unlikely to ever happen for a Smash title and also were personal dreams and hopes I had. The inclusion of Ridley (my single most wanted character for nearly 20 years) and bringing back the entire past roster were absolutely incredible to me personally, as were the inclusions of the Belmonts and Banjo & Kazooie. Heck, even non-roster inclusions such as most prior stages being brought back and Pico (my favorite F-Zero character) having a role beyond trophy/spirit, meant a lot to me.
In a recent column Sakurai made in Famitsu, he said, "Everything must come to an end at some point."( https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...ai_says_he_likes_the_idea_of_early_retirement Sakurai ) used this column to announce that he would retire his Famitsu column that he had been writing since 2003. Ultimate will not be the end for Smash, but I think Sakurai will likely to take a break from the franchise for a few years, especially after having worked nonstop on Smash for nearly a decade (development on Smash 4 began in early 2012).
At this point much of my interest in Smash speculation and character support is gone. There are a multitude of reasons for this. One is that I have far less free time than I did during prior Smash speculation epochs. Another is that I am getting older and gradually losing interest in many gaming things in general. Another reason is that the general dynamics for speculation have changed with the in-depth dives only really only being appreciated if you are a known Youtube personality. Platforms like Reddit and Twitter seem counter-intuitive for speculation to me, and the old mainstays like GameFAQs and SmashBoards have bled much of their userbase.
Another important thing about my depreciated interest is that Ultimate has basically given me most of what I had been hoping for in regards to Smash. Ultimate implemented many things I had wanted to see, but had always thought of as being very unlikely to ever happen. I am someone that had been following Smash even before the first installment was internationally released, and I have been involved in online roster speculation for 20 years now. To me, Ultimate feels like a culmination or rather a personal conclusion.
In general Ultimate was basically a "too good to be true" title that somehow ended up being real. There are some things that I wish ended up happening with Ultimate, but the thing is that as far as a Smash title goes in terms of being in line with my own personal desires and tastes, this is the best it will get (assuming Ultimate is not ported and built upon). At some point the journey has to end for myself.
By comparison, there are many others that are still waiting for their most wanted characters to debut in Smash or for it to take a direction that they want the series to go down (such as a single player mode that is similar to Subspace Emissary or a high focus on competitive gameplay). For many others here, their dream Smash has yet to be realized and it is what will be driving them going forward aside from particular characters that they want to see make it onto the roster.
Ultimate is likely the pinnacle in terms of character and stage count, but there are other directions Smash can taken that can take that can make them stand as tall as Ultimate has. For myself, though, Ultimate is what I was hoping for.
There are still a few things left that I would like to see, most notably Dixie Kong being a part of the roster (it is still peculiar how we are at nearly 90 characters, yet she is not part of them), however, overall I would say 95% of my personal desires for Smash Bros. have now been fulfilled.
For myself, the overwhelming bulk of my involvement during this speculation period was during the base game period. I made over 500 posts in 2018 alone. By comparison, I only made around 110 posts in 2019, and only 30 in 2020. I would say for Pass 2 most of my interest in speculating had been very depreciated. I would also say none of the Pass 2 characters in general I was personally hyped for, although of all the DLC characters in general, the only one that I was personally glad to see was Banjo & Kazooie. That being said I am still very happy about the additions that were made with the base roster. I would have satisfied even if there had been no DLC at all for Ultimate.
Ultimate Ending Is A Massive Milestone
I am not sure how many of you are aware of this, but Ultimate concluding is not just the end of Ultimate but also the end of the long cycle that began all the way back when Smash 4 was first announced in June 2011. In general, it seems as though Sakurai seems to view Smash 4 and Ultimate as a single development cycle. Sakurai quite explicitly stated this in one of this columns, and it was alluded to again during the Kazuya presentation to which he showed a short clip of every newcomer in Smash 4 to Ultimate beginning with Villager.
The development between Smash 4 to Ultimate was continuous. The project plan for Ultimate was completed in December 2015, the same month to which Corrin and Bayonetta were unveiled. Sakurai said he began development for Smash 4 soon after Kid Icarus Uprising was finished (which was early 2012), so he has been working on Smash for nearly a decade now.
Making Ultimate was also a “last request” from Iwata to Sakurai (Source: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2..._sakurai_and_he_doesnt_know_what_hell_do_next ) . Sakurai went over and beyond for Ultimate as a way to honor the deceased Iwata. I think without the particular gravity of Iwata passing soon after he made this request to Sakurai, it might have been possible Ultimate would not be as “ultimate” as it turned out to be.
Ultimate is also the culmination of what began starting with Smash 64 in 1999. It not only has the entire roster up until this current point, and almost all of the stages, but also almost the entire soundtrack for 64, Melee, Brawl, and Smash 4 as well.
Thoughts On Sora
I have barely played the Kingdom Hearts series, so I cannot say I have a personal affinity for the series and its main protagonist, Sora. With that being said, Sora was a fitting conclusion for Ultimate. The main motif of Ultimate going back to its formal unveil at E3 2018 was the “making the impossible possible”. Sora was a character long thought to be impossible due to the unique copyright situation for the character, and in particular being owned by Disney.
There was also the matter that a very important part of Kingdom Hearts is the crossover with Disney’s traditional animation properties. With Sakurai still being very hesitant to add non-game characters to Smash, many believed that adding Kingdom Hearts to Smash Bros. was very unfeasible, and if it was, that it would open the floodgates for non-gaming characters to be added to the roster for future Smash titles.
The revelation that Sora was the true winner to the Smash Ballot makes him the most fitting end to Ultimate in general with the consideration that the Smash Ballot was the basis to which Ultimate’s foundation was derived. Everyone Is Here, Ridley, King K. Rool, the Belmonts, Chrom, Dark Samus, and Banjo & Kazooie all could probably owe their inclusion in Ultimate due to their ballot performance.
There was something very poignant about Sakurai saying that he talked about the results to Iwata (which was probably only months or weeks before he died). Ultimate in general was made as a sort of last request from Iwata to Sakurai. I think with the addition of Sora to Ultimate in a way made Iwata’s last request finally fulfilled. Ultimate is a legendary title that is truly worthy of its moniker.
It is difficult to think of a character that could have beat out Sora in terms of being a bigger finish than he was. Master Chief might have been able to rival him in the West, but he is a pretty niche character outside of Western game markets. I think Sora is the one character that ties best with Ultimate’s unveil motif of making the impossible possible.
A Shout Out To The Dixie Kong Support Thread
I said this to the Dixie Kong support thread in the past, but I was amazed how a cozy and supportive online community that is actually on topic about it (or relatively on topic since it often talked about the DK franchise in general) could exist on today’s internet. You had artists, all sorts of different and unique takes on how Dixie Kong could be approached as a fighter, and many just bringing up their own personal stories about how or why they were fans of the character. It was not a replacement for a social circle like many other online spaces either, most people usually posted when they actually had something to contribute.
Also, there was a tolerance for differing viewpoints and ideas. The most contentious of these for the Dixie Kong thread was whether she should or could work as an echo fighter. Even then, users generally had respect for one another even if they were in different camps in regards to this. The proprietor to the Dixie Kong thread,
BirthNote
, would also constantly highlight the contributions that various Dixie Kong supporters put out by changing the topic title. This actually helped foster a sense of community without it being a “social club”. It made everyone feel like their contributions were meaningful and that they put forth something worthwhile.
This sort of environment proved to me that a non-toxic environment in relation to Smash or Nintendo is still possible on today’s internet. This was how an internet community should be. People with unique talents and perspectives coming together and sharing their passion together, and still having a respect for one another even if they have a different opinion on an aspect to that shared interest. Even though Dixie Kong was ultimately never added to Ultimate’s roster I am still thankful for the positive experience I had within that thread during my last few years with the Smash community.
A Brief Background for Who I Am
There are likely many of you that are reading this piece that have little idea as to who I am. In particular, I stopped being very active in speculation after 2018, and I made hardly any posts from the second half of 2015 to June 2018.
My history with Smash speculation and character support is a very long one, but I will only talk about the most important details.
I began my involvement with online Smash speculation and character support all the way back in 2001 a few months after the Melee unveil at E3 2001. I initially joined because I had a hope for Ridley making the roster for that title due to his appearance in the Melee unveil trailer. The basic foundation of what to expect with speculation, with fan expectations not being aligned with what ultimately ended up happening, manias pertaining to peculiar characters at certain points, and legit roster leaks being met with denial and vitriol. It was simply a preview of what was going to expand much more when Brawl was unveiled.
For the next epoch, Brawl speculation, I was at the forefront of speculation. It was in 2007 where I began regularly putting out long write ups in regards to speculation. I was even the first one to piece together the entirety of Brawl’s roster, as all of the legit leakers gave out an incomplete picture, and it was only through looking at how all the ones that were proven to be legit overlapped, that I was able to figure out Brawl’s 35 (or 39) character roster. I also was the first one to call the scrapped characters that still had folders within Brawl’s coding, “the Forbidden 7”.
I apologize if the previous paragraph came across as “boastful”, that was not my intention, but rather to provide context to my impact on the speculation community and just how far back this influence was. There are many who are now here that have little idea as to who I am, so I wanted to provide some anecdotes as to my work in the far past.
After Brawl’s release, I did five things: do extensive history lessons on the history of character support and speculation (I was one of the few speculators from the pre-Melee and first half of pre-Brawl that was still around), provide extensive analyses, do extensive character support for Ridley, extensive character support for Roy’s return, and do research into the desires of the Japanese side to the Smash fanbase.
With Sakurai seeming to give a definitive statement on Ridley as a playable fighter (it almost seemed like he would never become playable) in November 2014 and Roy confirmed to return for Smash 4 in June 2015, I basically left speculation in June 2015. I only made two posts after June 2015 and prior to April 2018.
I only returned in April 2018 a month after the Inkling teaser. I only made a few posts before the Ultimate unveil in June 2018. Ultimate’s unveil ended up fulfilling two of my dreams that I thought unlikely to ever happen, namely bringing back every single veteran and bringing in my single most wanted character for almost two decades, Ridley. At that point, I ended up back to being fully involved in Smash speculation and character support.
The August 2018 direct brought my hype to even further heights through the confirmation of the Belmonts (and the extensive Castlevania content in general), Dark Samus, and K. Rool being confirmed, as well as the confirmation nearly all of the prior stages to the series would be returning. It was shortly after this direct that I began to devote myself to doing character support for Dixie Kong. She was the one character I felt was most conspicuously absent from a roster as legendary as Ultimate’s, as well as the game character that meant a lot to me during my childhood that still was not on the roster (aside from Banjo & Kazooie, whom seemed impossible at the time).
When Ultimate released, I felt largely satisfied with the game and that it had fulfilled most of the desires that I had pertaining to Smash Bros. My activity during the DLC period was much less than it was during the second half of 2018. I was very happy to see Banjo & Kazooie happen. After 2019, I most relegated myself to making infrequent posts in the Dixie support thread as well as my own Pass 2 predictions topic (which ended up being mostly incorrect).
Overall, I am someone known for their very long legacy within the Smash Bros. speculation and character support community, and for making extensive essays on a myriad of different topics. The two primary characters I was known for supporting were Ridley and Roy. I also started extensively supporting Dixie Kong since 2018, although most of that was limited to her support thread.
At this point, I feel like I have lost most of my interest in doing character support and roster speculation. However, I still feel like I have ideas and essays to share with others….
Everyone Is Here: Everyone’s Stories
At the forefront of Roy support, I would constantly hear how Roy was a worthless addition for Smash Bros., and that they could not understand why anyone, much less an avid Fire Emblem fan, be a fan of him. Over the course of supporting Roy’s return for Smash, I also ended up becoming sympathetic to the supporters of other cut veterans, and hoped that somehow that they would get to enjoy their favorite Smash veteran returning one day as well.
There are many deep personal stories that people have in regards to the 89 playable characters on Ultimate’s legendary roster. I really want people to share their own personal stories and be able share just why any character on Ultimate’s roster, whether one of gaming’s biggest icons or ones that are largely forgotten are ones are dear to their heart.
There are many, many personal stories out there regarding each character on Ultimate’s legendary roster. One of my goals going forward is to find a personal story for every single character, from the likes of Link to the likes of Corrin. I would also like to extend this to people who were happy about a particular Mii costume, Assist Trophy appearance, and stage appearance or role. For myself for example, I was extremely pleasantly surprised about Pico’s World of Light role, and I would provide a personal story on why I like Pico so much, and why even though it was not a roster role, it still meant a lot to me.
Here are some of the people I already have in mind to explain their stories:
Arcadenik
: Duck Hunt
Opossum
: Chrom
N3ON
: Banjo & Kazooie
BKupa666
: King K. Rool
Fuzzy Pickles!
: Mega Man
Diem
: Dark Samus
Diddy Kong
: (What do you think)
DaybreakHorizon
: Sora ; Joker
P Phoenix Douchebag : Simon
These are just a few of people that come to mind in regards to a certain character inclusion meaning a lot to someone in particular, I apologize if there are others out there that are strongly associated with a character already on the roster and you are not part of this “example list”. As to the examples given on this list, I am not sure whether they would be interested in sharing their stories about these characters, but I hope they do. To anyone else out there that wants to write their own particular personal story pertaining to a particular character on Ultimate’s roster, you are more than welcome. Just send me a private message about the character that means something personally to you.
I would also like to write about the speculation history pertaining to each character on Ultimate’s roster as well, but I cannot make a certain promise I can do it. I will chime in on a particular character’s speculation and character support backstory if I feel I have anything worthwhile to add.
In regards to when the stories have to be written, the truth is that you have plenty of time to write out your stories. I want to turn this into a regular series of sorts, so it would take years to build up a sizable amount of content.
The other reason why you do not have to get your own stories ready immediately (you can write them gradually over the course of months) ties in with my future plans that I want to do after speculation and character support. Back in the summer of 2018, after the August 2018 Ultimate direct, I started thinking about all of the characters on Ultimate’s roster to which meant something me to personally. Initially thinking about it, it was 25 characters. However, over the course of three years, it expanded to 30 and then 40.
For all of these characters, they would each have a series of essays about them. The character in question would be the common “glue” between all of the essays.
Here is an example of what a series of essays would look like for a particular character as part of this project would look like, and how the character in question would serve as the “umbrella” to which all of the essays fall under.
Bowser Jr. will be a part of this 40 character series. Here are the series of essays that I would compose as part of the Bowser Jr. “set”:
As can be seen, each character might very well have a novella about them.
As mentioned earlier, these are 40 characters on Ultimate’s legendary roster that have some sort of personal meaning to me. It will take a very, very long time for me to get through every single one of these characters, and it will likely take at least one decade.
All of the major roster leaks would be covered as part of this series, as well as many different parts of speculation history in general. This is a personal passion project of mine, and it will take a very, very long time to complete. I am uncertain even what sort of format these essays will take, or where I will even host them.
I know it is difficult for many to read a large piece, so I am contemplating perhaps the video format (it has been suggested by a few others as well to me). However, if it were to be a video format, it would take probably at least two years before my first videos would be published. In the case of a video format, I would also narrate the personal stories of others and try to something special for each of them (like put particular music tracks from that character’s title at particular points in the story as well as put up nice artwork of that particular character at various points in the video).
The Decline of The Smash Community
The other reason for “Everyone’s Stories” is to carve out a nice little niche for the Smash fanbase in general free from much of the toxicity that exists today for most online entertainment medium fanbases.
It is no secret that the old mainstays for roster speculation and character support like SmashBoards and GameFAQs have heavily declined in users and activity since the Smash 4 epoch. Much of the activity these days are now on “mega platforms” such as Reddit, Twitter, Discord, and Youtube. For most of these platforms, character support and speculation is mostly done through memes and ****posts. Your own voice and ideas are drowned out in the massive void.
The only one of these platforms where an individual can make a difference and have their own unique ideas and speculation heard is YouTube, but even there it only really matters if your own channel has a large following (at least 5,000 subscribers) and good luck getting to that number with today’s algorithms.
GameFAQs’s Smash circle has basically degenerated into a sort of 4chan-lite except with usernames in terms of aggressiveness and general nonsense. Aside from that there is only ResetEra and SmashBoards in terms of traditional Smash speculation left. For the former, the site is notorious for how authoritarian it is and how just overbearing and petty the mod team there is.
For SmashBoards though, the decline has been a result of a few different factors. One is that traffic has generally flowed out of dedicated forums onto the “mega cities”. Another is that different aspects to the fanbase now have there needs met elsewhere. For example, SmashBoards used to have lots of active discussion for each of the characters on a particular title’s roster, now these subforums are basically ghost towns. Competitive discussion in general used to be extremely active on the site, now it is simply relegated to a single thread.
Most of SmashBoards activity these days actually pertaining to Smash (or at least during the past two years) has only been the DLC/newcomer discussion thread and the old Geno thread (which was extremely active due to devious reasons). Other character support threads remained slow even for third party characters were deemed likely at particular points during the DLC epoch.
Another reason is due to the aggressiveness and meanness of some of the most prominent users on this site. More deflating for those have complained about this to me is that nothing has been done about this and is usually dismissed as being “oh that is just how XXXXX is.” This sort of “cool kids can say and do whatever they want” mentality chased away many people. The demoralization that many feel when their opinion was mocked by by a "clique" or "cool kids" was a sizeable factor for why many gradually left this site. Regardless of their level of prominence, users should not be allowed to be nasty and condescending towards others and their opinions.
In general, this is a problem seen on many smaller sized forums, not just SmashBoards, where there is an “in-group” and everyone else, which is part of the reason why many have retreated to Discord servers and or go into the “mega cities”.
In general, I hate to say this but I think much of internet discourse has been homogenized in a bad way. The megacities have become horrific echo chambers where people aggressively compete for the best way to accrue the most praise possible (this is especially evident on Reddit). On both Twitter and Reddit (and anonymous spaces like 4chan), there is horrific dehumanization of individuals whom do not share the same views as the rest of the “crowd”. Heterodox thinking is increasingly shunned and marginalized on most of the megacities.
In general, almost every space on the internet is incredibly toxic in one way or another. Many people who are in their 30’s now could have been natural leaders and been shepherds in online circles towards the younger cohorts and making positive environments. Instead, I have mostly been seeing stunted people in most entertainment fanbases regardless of their age or time spent in these spaces. ResetEra has most of its user base over 30, yet are notorious for being one of the most backbiting, authoritarian, close-minded spaces for game discussion on the internet.
I have no idea what went wrong and why things have just deteriorated as opposed to getting better. My thinking was that people would mature as they got older and just guide the younger cohorts. Instead many of the older cohorts got nastier, while the younger ones got largely absorbed into the maelstroms that are the megacities.
Also, another thing I am critical of is the “like” system. I am not sure anyone else has noticed, but I have never “liked” a post on SmashBoards. I always thought it encouraged group think, cliques, and in general was a lazy way to show that you enjoyed a person’s content. It does take work to write out that you had a positive opinion on someone’s written work, but at the same time it is far personal as your words are those made by your own intellect and personality. With a “like” it simply one among many. One person’s own individual voice means far more than many likes in my opinion.
Some General Advice to Speculators And Character Support Fanbases Going Forward
I would also like to bestow a few words of advice to those who continue speculating and doing character support for Smash in the years ahead. There have been quite a few disturbing trends I have seen exasperate over the past decade in relation to speculation and character support, namely massive group think, an incredible thirst for leaks no matter how dubious, support for a particular character becoming one’s own primary personal identity and social circle, and believing a “leak” simply because it has their character of choice as part of it.
One of the biggest pratfalls for many character fanbases is the tendency to believe a “leak” if their character of choice is a part of it. As we getting further and further into the future, very believable fake leaks will be more and more common.
A notorious example of this was the “Grinch leak” where a banner was made of a whole bunch of characters that were both highly desired by the Smash fanbase as well as seen as likely in general. To many people, it seemed very likely to be “real” due to the quality of it and amount of effort necessary to fake it.
There have also been instances where people have had credible information in the past but later started making up fake information in order to increase support of their character of choice (a particular example of this was with loz getting multiple details over Ultimate’s unveil correct, but then making up a bunch of fake information in order for Skull Kid to have a massive increase in support).
Overall, a very important piece of advice for any character fanbase going forward is to naturally be very skeptical of any “leaks”, especially if they happen to mention their character of choice as being a part of the roster. I have seen fake “leaks” increasingly become more and more elaborate, and I expect that trend to continue for the next Smash title.
Please be extremely skeptical and do not give any of your mental or emotional energy towards trying to validate these “leaks”.
I must also stress to avoid falling into manias. Character support is not a replacement for a social circle. I would also advise that your own personal history with a character (especially playing some sort of title heavily featuring them) is vastly preferable over you getting excited over a character because others are or because they seem “likely”. Beware the bandwagons.
Please overall, try to find your own individual voices, and do not be afraid to speak out even if it is an opinion that runs contrary to what everyone else is saying.
What Is Truly Important
I have been a part of the online Smash speculation and character support for over 20 years at this point. I am someone that has gone from day dreaming about Smash when characters like Bowser, Wario, Diddy Kong, and Ganondorf were not yet a part of the roster, to a point where now almost half of the newcomers for the latest Smash title are third-party characters.
I had many dreams and hopes dashed and realized over the course of these past 20 years. The realization of Ridley as a fighter for the roster alone took nearly 20 years to happen. It was amazing to have seen not just Roy return, but every single veteran in the history to the franchise as well. Ultimate in general seemed to have realized nearly all of my hopes and dreams for Smash as a series, even some minor ones.
With all of this being said though, I want to say that in the end, getting your favorite character as part of Smash’s roster, even a character you might spending over a decade hoping for, is not as lasting an elation as you might believe it to be.
I can definitely say it is still surreal to be controlling Ridley in Ultimate, and I am still very grateful that he somehow miraculously made the roster. However, over the course of these 20 years, the things that truly mattered to me where something even more pertinent to me going forward.
It is about the friends I have made during my time being involved in speculation and character support. Some of these individuals, I am hoping to have lifelong friendships with in particular. Meeting these people were truly some of the most fulfilling aspects of speculation, and eclipse even the satisfaction of my longest running Smash dreams becoming a reality.
I feel that building these friendships and meeting these people were the true “victory” of my time with Smash speculation and character support. There are also quite a few people that I met that I value as acquaintances and enjoy sharing my thoughts and ideas with. I am really hoping I can continue communication with these individuals even though I plan to no longer be involved in character support and roster speculation going forward.
It was truly a blessing to meet these people. I just want to say that is not the number of friends you might have, but rather the quality. Gaining good friends is very rare in today’s world, and I think I was very fortunate to have made the connections I did.
Conclusion
Ultimate was such a legendary title. It gave me so many of the long running dreams I had hoped for in regards to Smash but thought to be very unlikely or virtually impossible. While there are still a few things that I would like to see in Smash Bros. that did not happen with Ultimate, the game in general granted most of what I had wanted to see.
Ridley was a legendary addition to me, as was bringing back every single veteran in the history of the Super Smash Bros. franchise. Many other additions meant a lot to me as well such as most stages being brought back, Castlevania getting extensive representation, and Banjo-Kazooie happening. Through the Assist Trophies, Mii costumes, and spirits it seems almost every sort of Nintendo character and many third-party franchises in general got some sort of recognition or consolation prize.
In general, Ultimate was a landmark title for myself. It is one of the very few games I can recall from at least from the past ten years that actually lived up to and exceeded my expectations. Ultimate was the Smash title I had always been dreaming about that miraculously became a reality.
I still want to make contributions relating to Smash, but not necessarily the future of Smash if that makes sense. I have a desire to talk about the past and share just what I love about particular content that exists in Ultimate and from prior installments in general. I am not sure how much of an interest there is in this though. Even if I decide to follow through on doing it, it will likely take years before the first content I make for it is finished.
The other important thing I am hoping for is for people to contribute their own personal stories about a particular character on Ultimate’s roster that has a personal meaning to them. It could even be a personal story about a stage, Mii costume, Assist Trophy, or music track that has some sort of significant meaning to you as an individual. I really want to highlight these stories, as I feel in the future, that if there are significant cuts going from Ultimate to the next Smash title, that the conventional belief will be that all of the cuts were “merited” and that they did not much meaning to be a part of Ultimate’s roster in the first place. I doubt I will be able to make much of a dent in this kind of thinking, but I hope to give a platform to those who have something personal to share on some aspect of Ultimate.
I have been an extensive writer for Smash speculation for nearly 15 years now. I am not sure how influential my works pertaining to Smash roster speculation and character support have been during that time, but I hope that I was a good influence overall to these communities. Thank you to all that read my works all throughout the years, or those that only started reading them within the past few years, or even those that just started reading now.
As Sakurai said earlier this year, “Everything must come to an end at some point.” Ultimate was a very special title to me personally. It was the title I dreamed about but never thought it could ever happen. It gave me 95% of the things I wanted to see for Smash in general. In comparison to previous Smash titles that concluded, I feel extremely satisfied and content.
I would have liked to have seen Dixie Kong as part of Ultimate’s legendary roster, and the roster does not quite feel “complete” for me without her being a part of it, but I think for my OWN (as in me in particular) personal desires, Ultimate is as good as it is going to get. I could easily see the next title jettisoning many of the veterans and stages I am particularly attached to. However, I am still extremely happy with how Ultimate turned out, and it fulfilled so many seemingly “impossible” dreams I had.
However, above else, I met so many wonderful people over the course of this 20 year journey. My best friends I have now I met as a result of my time doing speculation and character support. That was the greatest blessing of all for this journey and easily eclipsed even Ultimate’s really special realization.
Thank you to all who actually read this essay in its entirety. If you want to inquire about Everyone’s Stories or have some sort of personal comment you wish to share in regards to any part of this essay, please feel free to send me a private message. I look forward to hearing just what stories are out there.
Thank you very much. I am looking forward to one day working on this next endeavor, and although it will probably take me years before I finally get content out relating to it, I am excited to work on something that talks about what we love about something that already exists in Smash not what we hope about one day ends up being included in it.
Ultimate was a legendary title in many ways, and I want to celebrate this title in the years to come even though successive Smash titles will probably eclipse Ultimate in ways outside of roster and stage count. However, it will not just be me talking about what was so special about Ultimate’s content. It will be all of you. I want to hear your voices and give a platform to them. Even if only a handful of you are interested in it, I would still like to pursue it.
This now ends my “farewell” essay to Smash roster speculation and character support. I wish you all the best. Thank you and farewell. This was both ultimate and special.
In a recent column Sakurai made in Famitsu, he said, "Everything must come to an end at some point."( https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...ai_says_he_likes_the_idea_of_early_retirement Sakurai ) used this column to announce that he would retire his Famitsu column that he had been writing since 2003. Ultimate will not be the end for Smash, but I think Sakurai will likely to take a break from the franchise for a few years, especially after having worked nonstop on Smash for nearly a decade (development on Smash 4 began in early 2012).
At this point much of my interest in Smash speculation and character support is gone. There are a multitude of reasons for this. One is that I have far less free time than I did during prior Smash speculation epochs. Another is that I am getting older and gradually losing interest in many gaming things in general. Another reason is that the general dynamics for speculation have changed with the in-depth dives only really only being appreciated if you are a known Youtube personality. Platforms like Reddit and Twitter seem counter-intuitive for speculation to me, and the old mainstays like GameFAQs and SmashBoards have bled much of their userbase.
Another important thing about my depreciated interest is that Ultimate has basically given me most of what I had been hoping for in regards to Smash. Ultimate implemented many things I had wanted to see, but had always thought of as being very unlikely to ever happen. I am someone that had been following Smash even before the first installment was internationally released, and I have been involved in online roster speculation for 20 years now. To me, Ultimate feels like a culmination or rather a personal conclusion.
In general Ultimate was basically a "too good to be true" title that somehow ended up being real. There are some things that I wish ended up happening with Ultimate, but the thing is that as far as a Smash title goes in terms of being in line with my own personal desires and tastes, this is the best it will get (assuming Ultimate is not ported and built upon). At some point the journey has to end for myself.
By comparison, there are many others that are still waiting for their most wanted characters to debut in Smash or for it to take a direction that they want the series to go down (such as a single player mode that is similar to Subspace Emissary or a high focus on competitive gameplay). For many others here, their dream Smash has yet to be realized and it is what will be driving them going forward aside from particular characters that they want to see make it onto the roster.
Ultimate is likely the pinnacle in terms of character and stage count, but there are other directions Smash can taken that can take that can make them stand as tall as Ultimate has. For myself, though, Ultimate is what I was hoping for.
There are still a few things left that I would like to see, most notably Dixie Kong being a part of the roster (it is still peculiar how we are at nearly 90 characters, yet she is not part of them), however, overall I would say 95% of my personal desires for Smash Bros. have now been fulfilled.
For myself, the overwhelming bulk of my involvement during this speculation period was during the base game period. I made over 500 posts in 2018 alone. By comparison, I only made around 110 posts in 2019, and only 30 in 2020. I would say for Pass 2 most of my interest in speculating had been very depreciated. I would also say none of the Pass 2 characters in general I was personally hyped for, although of all the DLC characters in general, the only one that I was personally glad to see was Banjo & Kazooie. That being said I am still very happy about the additions that were made with the base roster. I would have satisfied even if there had been no DLC at all for Ultimate.
Ultimate Ending Is A Massive Milestone
I am not sure how many of you are aware of this, but Ultimate concluding is not just the end of Ultimate but also the end of the long cycle that began all the way back when Smash 4 was first announced in June 2011. In general, it seems as though Sakurai seems to view Smash 4 and Ultimate as a single development cycle. Sakurai quite explicitly stated this in one of this columns, and it was alluded to again during the Kazuya presentation to which he showed a short clip of every newcomer in Smash 4 to Ultimate beginning with Villager.
The development between Smash 4 to Ultimate was continuous. The project plan for Ultimate was completed in December 2015, the same month to which Corrin and Bayonetta were unveiled. Sakurai said he began development for Smash 4 soon after Kid Icarus Uprising was finished (which was early 2012), so he has been working on Smash for nearly a decade now.
Making Ultimate was also a “last request” from Iwata to Sakurai (Source: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2..._sakurai_and_he_doesnt_know_what_hell_do_next ) . Sakurai went over and beyond for Ultimate as a way to honor the deceased Iwata. I think without the particular gravity of Iwata passing soon after he made this request to Sakurai, it might have been possible Ultimate would not be as “ultimate” as it turned out to be.
Ultimate is also the culmination of what began starting with Smash 64 in 1999. It not only has the entire roster up until this current point, and almost all of the stages, but also almost the entire soundtrack for 64, Melee, Brawl, and Smash 4 as well.
Thoughts On Sora
I have barely played the Kingdom Hearts series, so I cannot say I have a personal affinity for the series and its main protagonist, Sora. With that being said, Sora was a fitting conclusion for Ultimate. The main motif of Ultimate going back to its formal unveil at E3 2018 was the “making the impossible possible”. Sora was a character long thought to be impossible due to the unique copyright situation for the character, and in particular being owned by Disney.
There was also the matter that a very important part of Kingdom Hearts is the crossover with Disney’s traditional animation properties. With Sakurai still being very hesitant to add non-game characters to Smash, many believed that adding Kingdom Hearts to Smash Bros. was very unfeasible, and if it was, that it would open the floodgates for non-gaming characters to be added to the roster for future Smash titles.
The revelation that Sora was the true winner to the Smash Ballot makes him the most fitting end to Ultimate in general with the consideration that the Smash Ballot was the basis to which Ultimate’s foundation was derived. Everyone Is Here, Ridley, King K. Rool, the Belmonts, Chrom, Dark Samus, and Banjo & Kazooie all could probably owe their inclusion in Ultimate due to their ballot performance.
There was something very poignant about Sakurai saying that he talked about the results to Iwata (which was probably only months or weeks before he died). Ultimate in general was made as a sort of last request from Iwata to Sakurai. I think with the addition of Sora to Ultimate in a way made Iwata’s last request finally fulfilled. Ultimate is a legendary title that is truly worthy of its moniker.
It is difficult to think of a character that could have beat out Sora in terms of being a bigger finish than he was. Master Chief might have been able to rival him in the West, but he is a pretty niche character outside of Western game markets. I think Sora is the one character that ties best with Ultimate’s unveil motif of making the impossible possible.
A Shout Out To The Dixie Kong Support Thread
I said this to the Dixie Kong support thread in the past, but I was amazed how a cozy and supportive online community that is actually on topic about it (or relatively on topic since it often talked about the DK franchise in general) could exist on today’s internet. You had artists, all sorts of different and unique takes on how Dixie Kong could be approached as a fighter, and many just bringing up their own personal stories about how or why they were fans of the character. It was not a replacement for a social circle like many other online spaces either, most people usually posted when they actually had something to contribute.
Also, there was a tolerance for differing viewpoints and ideas. The most contentious of these for the Dixie Kong thread was whether she should or could work as an echo fighter. Even then, users generally had respect for one another even if they were in different camps in regards to this. The proprietor to the Dixie Kong thread,
BirthNote
, would also constantly highlight the contributions that various Dixie Kong supporters put out by changing the topic title. This actually helped foster a sense of community without it being a “social club”. It made everyone feel like their contributions were meaningful and that they put forth something worthwhile.This sort of environment proved to me that a non-toxic environment in relation to Smash or Nintendo is still possible on today’s internet. This was how an internet community should be. People with unique talents and perspectives coming together and sharing their passion together, and still having a respect for one another even if they have a different opinion on an aspect to that shared interest. Even though Dixie Kong was ultimately never added to Ultimate’s roster I am still thankful for the positive experience I had within that thread during my last few years with the Smash community.
A Brief Background for Who I Am
There are likely many of you that are reading this piece that have little idea as to who I am. In particular, I stopped being very active in speculation after 2018, and I made hardly any posts from the second half of 2015 to June 2018.
My history with Smash speculation and character support is a very long one, but I will only talk about the most important details.
I began my involvement with online Smash speculation and character support all the way back in 2001 a few months after the Melee unveil at E3 2001. I initially joined because I had a hope for Ridley making the roster for that title due to his appearance in the Melee unveil trailer. The basic foundation of what to expect with speculation, with fan expectations not being aligned with what ultimately ended up happening, manias pertaining to peculiar characters at certain points, and legit roster leaks being met with denial and vitriol. It was simply a preview of what was going to expand much more when Brawl was unveiled.
For the next epoch, Brawl speculation, I was at the forefront of speculation. It was in 2007 where I began regularly putting out long write ups in regards to speculation. I was even the first one to piece together the entirety of Brawl’s roster, as all of the legit leakers gave out an incomplete picture, and it was only through looking at how all the ones that were proven to be legit overlapped, that I was able to figure out Brawl’s 35 (or 39) character roster. I also was the first one to call the scrapped characters that still had folders within Brawl’s coding, “the Forbidden 7”.
I apologize if the previous paragraph came across as “boastful”, that was not my intention, but rather to provide context to my impact on the speculation community and just how far back this influence was. There are many who are now here that have little idea as to who I am, so I wanted to provide some anecdotes as to my work in the far past.
After Brawl’s release, I did five things: do extensive history lessons on the history of character support and speculation (I was one of the few speculators from the pre-Melee and first half of pre-Brawl that was still around), provide extensive analyses, do extensive character support for Ridley, extensive character support for Roy’s return, and do research into the desires of the Japanese side to the Smash fanbase.
With Sakurai seeming to give a definitive statement on Ridley as a playable fighter (it almost seemed like he would never become playable) in November 2014 and Roy confirmed to return for Smash 4 in June 2015, I basically left speculation in June 2015. I only made two posts after June 2015 and prior to April 2018.
I only returned in April 2018 a month after the Inkling teaser. I only made a few posts before the Ultimate unveil in June 2018. Ultimate’s unveil ended up fulfilling two of my dreams that I thought unlikely to ever happen, namely bringing back every single veteran and bringing in my single most wanted character for almost two decades, Ridley. At that point, I ended up back to being fully involved in Smash speculation and character support.
The August 2018 direct brought my hype to even further heights through the confirmation of the Belmonts (and the extensive Castlevania content in general), Dark Samus, and K. Rool being confirmed, as well as the confirmation nearly all of the prior stages to the series would be returning. It was shortly after this direct that I began to devote myself to doing character support for Dixie Kong. She was the one character I felt was most conspicuously absent from a roster as legendary as Ultimate’s, as well as the game character that meant a lot to me during my childhood that still was not on the roster (aside from Banjo & Kazooie, whom seemed impossible at the time).
When Ultimate released, I felt largely satisfied with the game and that it had fulfilled most of the desires that I had pertaining to Smash Bros. My activity during the DLC period was much less than it was during the second half of 2018. I was very happy to see Banjo & Kazooie happen. After 2019, I most relegated myself to making infrequent posts in the Dixie support thread as well as my own Pass 2 predictions topic (which ended up being mostly incorrect).
Overall, I am someone known for their very long legacy within the Smash Bros. speculation and character support community, and for making extensive essays on a myriad of different topics. The two primary characters I was known for supporting were Ridley and Roy. I also started extensively supporting Dixie Kong since 2018, although most of that was limited to her support thread.
At this point, I feel like I have lost most of my interest in doing character support and roster speculation. However, I still feel like I have ideas and essays to share with others….
Everyone Is Here: Everyone’s Stories
At the forefront of Roy support, I would constantly hear how Roy was a worthless addition for Smash Bros., and that they could not understand why anyone, much less an avid Fire Emblem fan, be a fan of him. Over the course of supporting Roy’s return for Smash, I also ended up becoming sympathetic to the supporters of other cut veterans, and hoped that somehow that they would get to enjoy their favorite Smash veteran returning one day as well.
There are many deep personal stories that people have in regards to the 89 playable characters on Ultimate’s legendary roster. I really want people to share their own personal stories and be able share just why any character on Ultimate’s roster, whether one of gaming’s biggest icons or ones that are largely forgotten are ones are dear to their heart.
There are many, many personal stories out there regarding each character on Ultimate’s legendary roster. One of my goals going forward is to find a personal story for every single character, from the likes of Link to the likes of Corrin. I would also like to extend this to people who were happy about a particular Mii costume, Assist Trophy appearance, and stage appearance or role. For myself for example, I was extremely pleasantly surprised about Pico’s World of Light role, and I would provide a personal story on why I like Pico so much, and why even though it was not a roster role, it still meant a lot to me.
Here are some of the people I already have in mind to explain their stories:
Arcadenik
: Duck Hunt
Opossum
: Chrom
N3ON
: Banjo & Kazooie
BKupa666
: King K. Rool
Fuzzy Pickles!
: Mega Man
Diem
: Dark Samus
Diddy Kong
: (What do you think)
DaybreakHorizon
: Sora ; JokerP Phoenix Douchebag : Simon
These are just a few of people that come to mind in regards to a certain character inclusion meaning a lot to someone in particular, I apologize if there are others out there that are strongly associated with a character already on the roster and you are not part of this “example list”. As to the examples given on this list, I am not sure whether they would be interested in sharing their stories about these characters, but I hope they do. To anyone else out there that wants to write their own particular personal story pertaining to a particular character on Ultimate’s roster, you are more than welcome. Just send me a private message about the character that means something personally to you.
I would also like to write about the speculation history pertaining to each character on Ultimate’s roster as well, but I cannot make a certain promise I can do it. I will chime in on a particular character’s speculation and character support backstory if I feel I have anything worthwhile to add.
In regards to when the stories have to be written, the truth is that you have plenty of time to write out your stories. I want to turn this into a regular series of sorts, so it would take years to build up a sizable amount of content.
The other reason why you do not have to get your own stories ready immediately (you can write them gradually over the course of months) ties in with my future plans that I want to do after speculation and character support. Back in the summer of 2018, after the August 2018 Ultimate direct, I started thinking about all of the characters on Ultimate’s roster to which meant something me to personally. Initially thinking about it, it was 25 characters. However, over the course of three years, it expanded to 30 and then 40.
For all of these characters, they would each have a series of essays about them. The character in question would be the common “glue” between all of the essays.
Here is an example of what a series of essays would look like for a particular character as part of this project would look like, and how the character in question would serve as the “umbrella” to which all of the essays fall under.
Bowser Jr. will be a part of this 40 character series. Here are the series of essays that I would compose as part of the Bowser Jr. “set”:
- A review and analysis of Bowser’s Fury (Bowser Jr. is the co-protagonist of this title)
- A review and analysis Bowser Jr.’s Journey (Bowser Jr. is the main protagonist of this title)
- History and analysis of Bowser Jr.
- History and analysis of the Koopalings
- A look at the history of the animosity between the fanbases of Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings and how it was eventually healed
- An essay on multiple characters existing within the same slot as “palette swaps” (like it does for characters like Bowser Jr., Olimar, Hero, and Steve).
- An analysis, history, and breakdown of the ESRB leak in regards to Smash 4 (Bowser Jr. was among the final characters leaked for Smash 4’s base roster)
- A history of the very high competition that always existed between various fanbases for potential Mario newcomers going back to pre-Melee to the very present.
As can be seen, each character might very well have a novella about them.
As mentioned earlier, these are 40 characters on Ultimate’s legendary roster that have some sort of personal meaning to me. It will take a very, very long time for me to get through every single one of these characters, and it will likely take at least one decade.
All of the major roster leaks would be covered as part of this series, as well as many different parts of speculation history in general. This is a personal passion project of mine, and it will take a very, very long time to complete. I am uncertain even what sort of format these essays will take, or where I will even host them.
I know it is difficult for many to read a large piece, so I am contemplating perhaps the video format (it has been suggested by a few others as well to me). However, if it were to be a video format, it would take probably at least two years before my first videos would be published. In the case of a video format, I would also narrate the personal stories of others and try to something special for each of them (like put particular music tracks from that character’s title at particular points in the story as well as put up nice artwork of that particular character at various points in the video).
The Decline of The Smash Community
The other reason for “Everyone’s Stories” is to carve out a nice little niche for the Smash fanbase in general free from much of the toxicity that exists today for most online entertainment medium fanbases.
It is no secret that the old mainstays for roster speculation and character support like SmashBoards and GameFAQs have heavily declined in users and activity since the Smash 4 epoch. Much of the activity these days are now on “mega platforms” such as Reddit, Twitter, Discord, and Youtube. For most of these platforms, character support and speculation is mostly done through memes and ****posts. Your own voice and ideas are drowned out in the massive void.
The only one of these platforms where an individual can make a difference and have their own unique ideas and speculation heard is YouTube, but even there it only really matters if your own channel has a large following (at least 5,000 subscribers) and good luck getting to that number with today’s algorithms.
GameFAQs’s Smash circle has basically degenerated into a sort of 4chan-lite except with usernames in terms of aggressiveness and general nonsense. Aside from that there is only ResetEra and SmashBoards in terms of traditional Smash speculation left. For the former, the site is notorious for how authoritarian it is and how just overbearing and petty the mod team there is.
For SmashBoards though, the decline has been a result of a few different factors. One is that traffic has generally flowed out of dedicated forums onto the “mega cities”. Another is that different aspects to the fanbase now have there needs met elsewhere. For example, SmashBoards used to have lots of active discussion for each of the characters on a particular title’s roster, now these subforums are basically ghost towns. Competitive discussion in general used to be extremely active on the site, now it is simply relegated to a single thread.
Most of SmashBoards activity these days actually pertaining to Smash (or at least during the past two years) has only been the DLC/newcomer discussion thread and the old Geno thread (which was extremely active due to devious reasons). Other character support threads remained slow even for third party characters were deemed likely at particular points during the DLC epoch.
Another reason is due to the aggressiveness and meanness of some of the most prominent users on this site. More deflating for those have complained about this to me is that nothing has been done about this and is usually dismissed as being “oh that is just how XXXXX is.” This sort of “cool kids can say and do whatever they want” mentality chased away many people. The demoralization that many feel when their opinion was mocked by by a "clique" or "cool kids" was a sizeable factor for why many gradually left this site. Regardless of their level of prominence, users should not be allowed to be nasty and condescending towards others and their opinions.
In general, this is a problem seen on many smaller sized forums, not just SmashBoards, where there is an “in-group” and everyone else, which is part of the reason why many have retreated to Discord servers and or go into the “mega cities”.
In general, I hate to say this but I think much of internet discourse has been homogenized in a bad way. The megacities have become horrific echo chambers where people aggressively compete for the best way to accrue the most praise possible (this is especially evident on Reddit). On both Twitter and Reddit (and anonymous spaces like 4chan), there is horrific dehumanization of individuals whom do not share the same views as the rest of the “crowd”. Heterodox thinking is increasingly shunned and marginalized on most of the megacities.
In general, almost every space on the internet is incredibly toxic in one way or another. Many people who are in their 30’s now could have been natural leaders and been shepherds in online circles towards the younger cohorts and making positive environments. Instead, I have mostly been seeing stunted people in most entertainment fanbases regardless of their age or time spent in these spaces. ResetEra has most of its user base over 30, yet are notorious for being one of the most backbiting, authoritarian, close-minded spaces for game discussion on the internet.
I have no idea what went wrong and why things have just deteriorated as opposed to getting better. My thinking was that people would mature as they got older and just guide the younger cohorts. Instead many of the older cohorts got nastier, while the younger ones got largely absorbed into the maelstroms that are the megacities.
Also, another thing I am critical of is the “like” system. I am not sure anyone else has noticed, but I have never “liked” a post on SmashBoards. I always thought it encouraged group think, cliques, and in general was a lazy way to show that you enjoyed a person’s content. It does take work to write out that you had a positive opinion on someone’s written work, but at the same time it is far personal as your words are those made by your own intellect and personality. With a “like” it simply one among many. One person’s own individual voice means far more than many likes in my opinion.
Some General Advice to Speculators And Character Support Fanbases Going Forward
I would also like to bestow a few words of advice to those who continue speculating and doing character support for Smash in the years ahead. There have been quite a few disturbing trends I have seen exasperate over the past decade in relation to speculation and character support, namely massive group think, an incredible thirst for leaks no matter how dubious, support for a particular character becoming one’s own primary personal identity and social circle, and believing a “leak” simply because it has their character of choice as part of it.
One of the biggest pratfalls for many character fanbases is the tendency to believe a “leak” if their character of choice is a part of it. As we getting further and further into the future, very believable fake leaks will be more and more common.
A notorious example of this was the “Grinch leak” where a banner was made of a whole bunch of characters that were both highly desired by the Smash fanbase as well as seen as likely in general. To many people, it seemed very likely to be “real” due to the quality of it and amount of effort necessary to fake it.
There have also been instances where people have had credible information in the past but later started making up fake information in order to increase support of their character of choice (a particular example of this was with loz getting multiple details over Ultimate’s unveil correct, but then making up a bunch of fake information in order for Skull Kid to have a massive increase in support).
Overall, a very important piece of advice for any character fanbase going forward is to naturally be very skeptical of any “leaks”, especially if they happen to mention their character of choice as being a part of the roster. I have seen fake “leaks” increasingly become more and more elaborate, and I expect that trend to continue for the next Smash title.
Please be extremely skeptical and do not give any of your mental or emotional energy towards trying to validate these “leaks”.
I must also stress to avoid falling into manias. Character support is not a replacement for a social circle. I would also advise that your own personal history with a character (especially playing some sort of title heavily featuring them) is vastly preferable over you getting excited over a character because others are or because they seem “likely”. Beware the bandwagons.
Please overall, try to find your own individual voices, and do not be afraid to speak out even if it is an opinion that runs contrary to what everyone else is saying.
What Is Truly Important
I have been a part of the online Smash speculation and character support for over 20 years at this point. I am someone that has gone from day dreaming about Smash when characters like Bowser, Wario, Diddy Kong, and Ganondorf were not yet a part of the roster, to a point where now almost half of the newcomers for the latest Smash title are third-party characters.
I had many dreams and hopes dashed and realized over the course of these past 20 years. The realization of Ridley as a fighter for the roster alone took nearly 20 years to happen. It was amazing to have seen not just Roy return, but every single veteran in the history to the franchise as well. Ultimate in general seemed to have realized nearly all of my hopes and dreams for Smash as a series, even some minor ones.
With all of this being said though, I want to say that in the end, getting your favorite character as part of Smash’s roster, even a character you might spending over a decade hoping for, is not as lasting an elation as you might believe it to be.
I can definitely say it is still surreal to be controlling Ridley in Ultimate, and I am still very grateful that he somehow miraculously made the roster. However, over the course of these 20 years, the things that truly mattered to me where something even more pertinent to me going forward.
It is about the friends I have made during my time being involved in speculation and character support. Some of these individuals, I am hoping to have lifelong friendships with in particular. Meeting these people were truly some of the most fulfilling aspects of speculation, and eclipse even the satisfaction of my longest running Smash dreams becoming a reality.
I feel that building these friendships and meeting these people were the true “victory” of my time with Smash speculation and character support. There are also quite a few people that I met that I value as acquaintances and enjoy sharing my thoughts and ideas with. I am really hoping I can continue communication with these individuals even though I plan to no longer be involved in character support and roster speculation going forward.
It was truly a blessing to meet these people. I just want to say that is not the number of friends you might have, but rather the quality. Gaining good friends is very rare in today’s world, and I think I was very fortunate to have made the connections I did.
Conclusion
Ultimate was such a legendary title. It gave me so many of the long running dreams I had hoped for in regards to Smash but thought to be very unlikely or virtually impossible. While there are still a few things that I would like to see in Smash Bros. that did not happen with Ultimate, the game in general granted most of what I had wanted to see.
Ridley was a legendary addition to me, as was bringing back every single veteran in the history of the Super Smash Bros. franchise. Many other additions meant a lot to me as well such as most stages being brought back, Castlevania getting extensive representation, and Banjo-Kazooie happening. Through the Assist Trophies, Mii costumes, and spirits it seems almost every sort of Nintendo character and many third-party franchises in general got some sort of recognition or consolation prize.
In general, Ultimate was a landmark title for myself. It is one of the very few games I can recall from at least from the past ten years that actually lived up to and exceeded my expectations. Ultimate was the Smash title I had always been dreaming about that miraculously became a reality.
I still want to make contributions relating to Smash, but not necessarily the future of Smash if that makes sense. I have a desire to talk about the past and share just what I love about particular content that exists in Ultimate and from prior installments in general. I am not sure how much of an interest there is in this though. Even if I decide to follow through on doing it, it will likely take years before the first content I make for it is finished.
The other important thing I am hoping for is for people to contribute their own personal stories about a particular character on Ultimate’s roster that has a personal meaning to them. It could even be a personal story about a stage, Mii costume, Assist Trophy, or music track that has some sort of significant meaning to you as an individual. I really want to highlight these stories, as I feel in the future, that if there are significant cuts going from Ultimate to the next Smash title, that the conventional belief will be that all of the cuts were “merited” and that they did not much meaning to be a part of Ultimate’s roster in the first place. I doubt I will be able to make much of a dent in this kind of thinking, but I hope to give a platform to those who have something personal to share on some aspect of Ultimate.
I have been an extensive writer for Smash speculation for nearly 15 years now. I am not sure how influential my works pertaining to Smash roster speculation and character support have been during that time, but I hope that I was a good influence overall to these communities. Thank you to all that read my works all throughout the years, or those that only started reading them within the past few years, or even those that just started reading now.
As Sakurai said earlier this year, “Everything must come to an end at some point.” Ultimate was a very special title to me personally. It was the title I dreamed about but never thought it could ever happen. It gave me 95% of the things I wanted to see for Smash in general. In comparison to previous Smash titles that concluded, I feel extremely satisfied and content.
I would have liked to have seen Dixie Kong as part of Ultimate’s legendary roster, and the roster does not quite feel “complete” for me without her being a part of it, but I think for my OWN (as in me in particular) personal desires, Ultimate is as good as it is going to get. I could easily see the next title jettisoning many of the veterans and stages I am particularly attached to. However, I am still extremely happy with how Ultimate turned out, and it fulfilled so many seemingly “impossible” dreams I had.
However, above else, I met so many wonderful people over the course of this 20 year journey. My best friends I have now I met as a result of my time doing speculation and character support. That was the greatest blessing of all for this journey and easily eclipsed even Ultimate’s really special realization.
Thank you to all who actually read this essay in its entirety. If you want to inquire about Everyone’s Stories or have some sort of personal comment you wish to share in regards to any part of this essay, please feel free to send me a private message. I look forward to hearing just what stories are out there.
Thank you very much. I am looking forward to one day working on this next endeavor, and although it will probably take me years before I finally get content out relating to it, I am excited to work on something that talks about what we love about something that already exists in Smash not what we hope about one day ends up being included in it.
Ultimate was a legendary title in many ways, and I want to celebrate this title in the years to come even though successive Smash titles will probably eclipse Ultimate in ways outside of roster and stage count. However, it will not just be me talking about what was so special about Ultimate’s content. It will be all of you. I want to hear your voices and give a platform to them. Even if only a handful of you are interested in it, I would still like to pursue it.
This now ends my “farewell” essay to Smash roster speculation and character support. I wish you all the best. Thank you and farewell. This was both ultimate and special.
As I said, I implore anyone that reads this to share their thoughts via a personal message. I am curious to hear what you think. I apologize for the length. Thank you very much for your time and patience. I am blessed to have met the people here that I have. You have helped me grow in many ways, and I am grateful for what I have learned and experienced during my 20 years as a participant in Smash speculation. I hope those who continue on will similarly be blessed with friendship and personal growth, and that your personal Smash desires (or at least some of them) are fulfilled in the future.
Michael the Spikester
Smash Obsessed
Last day eh?
It was a great run while it lasted.
It was a great run while it lasted.
Cutie Gwen
Lovely warrior
Isaac: Venus Adept
Smash Lord
I wasn't too active on this thread (mostly because it goes by so fast and I get overwhelmed lol because I can't afford to miss any big information) but I'm going to miss the legacy Ultimate speculation left behind and the fun times I've had with it altogether. I didn't get Isaac but I got to interact with the wider Golden Sun community more than I ever had before and had fun events like #GoldenSunday which boosted activity and morale in the community. (For anyone that cares I made a general Golden Sun discussion thread in NintenZone) https://smashboards.com/threads/golden-sun-franchise-discussion-thread.515645/
Smash DLCwise I didn't get the characters I asked for besides Banjo but I've mostly enjoyed the characters they released. Kazuya, and Terry are fun surprises I never would've expected to join Smash nor expect to be as fun as they are to play. I'll try frequent the active threads every now and then but I'll see most of you again when Smash 6 newcomer speculation opens =)
Smash DLCwise I didn't get the characters I asked for besides Banjo but I've mostly enjoyed the characters they released. Kazuya, and Terry are fun surprises I never would've expected to join Smash nor expect to be as fun as they are to play. I'll try frequent the active threads every now and then but I'll see most of you again when Smash 6 newcomer speculation opens =)
Adrianette Bromide
Smash Lord
I'm pretty sad the Red Shell hat never returned, oh the tragedy. Consider me done with Smash Bros FOREVER, how could they bring back a costume of some random nobody from a Mario RPG spin-off but not the ICONIC, the TRADEMARK, the Red Shell Mii hat!!!
/s
/s
GilTheGreat19
Smash Master
- Joined
- May 19, 2021
- Messages
- 3,348
And then the internet can make haha funny about him leaving PSASBR
Also, I wanna talk to some of y'all more for sure, on the Social thread or even on Discord, after all this ends.
Might attach my Discord to my signature.
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FreeFox
Smash Lord
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2018
- Messages
- 1,510
Since this is the last day, I think its time to finally put my favorites of this game in a list:
Best Regular Veteran:
I am glad she is still here in Smash after all these 5 games. I can only hope she keeeps being a regular since I love her unique fighting style.
Best returning veteran: My favorite character in brawl and a hype moment during the "everyone is here" trailer. I am glad to see him return to form especially considering howmuch additional work the character requires. I also love how he plays to his day.
Best base game newcomer: Ridley was the biggest surprise for the moment especially after The Sakurai interview and the comment of being too big. Ridley always seemed to be the best choice for a Metroid fighter and after being relegated to either a cameo or a boss battle since the very first smash, I am glad he is finally here.
Best FP1 fighter: One of my most wanted and part of a funny story with . I couldnt believe it even with the leaks and the trailer out. All of my friends knew he was going to be an insta-main for me the moment he was released.
Best FP2 fighter: One of the most impossibe characters ever. I am having a good time playing him since I like floatier characters. Me and my brother usually play the KH gmaes together and when there is the option, I play Sora and he plays Riku. Kinda wish we had Utada Hikari´s music (and we could buy the last song instead of a new game to get it) but besides that, I like what they have done to represent the series.
Honorable mentions:
Regular Veterans:
Returning Veterans:
Base game newcomer:
FP1:
FP2:
Best Regular Veteran:
I am glad she is still here in Smash after all these 5 games. I can only hope she keeeps being a regular since I love her unique fighting style.Best returning veteran:
My favorite character in brawl and a hype moment during the "everyone is here" trailer. I am glad to see him return to form especially considering howmuch additional work the character requires. I also love how he plays to his day.Best base game newcomer:
Ridley was the biggest surprise for the moment especially after The Sakurai interview and the comment of being too big. Ridley always seemed to be the best choice for a Metroid fighter and after being relegated to either a cameo or a boss battle since the very first smash, I am glad he is finally here.Best FP1 fighter:
One of my most wanted and part of a funny story with . I couldnt believe it even with the leaks and the trailer out. All of my friends knew he was going to be an insta-main for me the moment he was released.Best FP2 fighter:
One of the most impossibe characters ever. I am having a good time playing him since I like floatier characters. Me and my brother usually play the KH gmaes together and when there is the option, I play Sora and he plays Riku. Kinda wish we had Utada Hikari´s music (and we could buy the last song instead of a new game to get it) but besides that, I like what they have done to represent the series.Honorable mentions:
Regular Veterans:
Returning Veterans:
Base game newcomer:
FP1:
FP2:
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BluePikmin11
Akko is my dear daughter!
Full summary of the Sora column in this Twitter thread:
This is the summary of Sakurai's Column 639, “The Final One”. Sakurai discusses Sora’s inclusion in Smash Ultimate. @KodyNOKOLO is joining me with this translation and will be posting the second half. Please make sure to follow both of us for the full details! pic.twitter.com/GyBRbKOvUf
— Will (PushDustIn) (@PushDustIn) October 20, 2021
Adrianette Bromide
Smash Lord
Originally FP2 was planned to only have 5 fighters in the Pass -- just like FP1. All the fighters had been decided, but it looked like Sora would be able to join after all. So even though it was quite challenging, it was decided to increase the number of fighters in FP2! pic.twitter.com/hS73pc8Xdc
— Will (PushDustIn) (@PushDustIn) October 20, 2021
Indeed then, pass 2 was supposed to end on Kazuya until Disney McGee got his big shot to join Smash! Honestly, amazing in every step of the way.
GilTheGreat19
Smash Master
- Joined
- May 19, 2021
- Messages
- 3,348
Wow
So Kazuya was almost our last fighter
Dang
So Kazuya was almost our last fighter
Dang
Michael the Spikester
Smash Obsessed
Imagine the timeline where Kazuya was indeed our last fighter.
PeridotGX
Smash Hero
I was right! They did add an extra character last minute!
...exept that i thought the bonus would be an undertale rep but i mean what's the difference? both sora and papyrus have bones (probably).
spicynun
Smash Journeyman
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2020
- Messages
- 333
Cool to get it confirmed that Banjo-Kazooie also ranked high on the ballot (they were my vote at the time)
Ivander
Smash Legend
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2014
- Messages
- 10,323
Last day for this thread, eh?
It was certainly a wild journey experiencing the waves of Ultimate. Witnessing some of the straight-forward reveals and the craziest reveals together with alot of people. It's not something you will just forget.
As for the next forum, I won't really be on much until the next Smash gets revealed. I might pop up from time to time, but otherwise, I'll mostly be doing other stuff until the next Smash gets announced, in which I will start shilling characters from other games and series for that game, like Metroid Dread and whatever comes out between now and then. And it'll sure be something when we are looking at what the next Smash is going to do.
It was certainly a wild journey experiencing the waves of Ultimate. Witnessing some of the straight-forward reveals and the craziest reveals together with alot of people. It's not something you will just forget.
As for the next forum, I won't really be on much until the next Smash gets revealed. I might pop up from time to time, but otherwise, I'll mostly be doing other stuff until the next Smash gets announced, in which I will start shilling characters from other games and series for that game, like Metroid Dread and whatever comes out between now and then. And it'll sure be something when we are looking at what the next Smash is going to do.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that without a simple-yet-with-depth character like Sora to end things on - who gained legitimacy by winning the Ballot outright, mind - quite a lot of people would've complained about the DLC skewing too much into complex territory. Something which wouldn't be entirely accurate - they're still fully playable casually - but Kazuya highlights that to a very large extent.
While the reception to Kazuya was surprisingly positive in a lot of ways (helps that he hasn't become a
/ case) it also kinda doesn't help that the FGC is relatively isolated due to its mechanical emphasis. Yes, a lot of people play Tekken / SF casually and don't go for the more complex stuff - this also applies to people playing the FGC characters in Smash - but still the FGC's identity is heavily based around the mechanical side of things.Also, some additional notes now that I've gotten into Elite Smash with
(after a lot of back and forth, took me 86 games):- Yes, Sora's Counter beats Sephiroth's. The technical reason why is probably because Seph's is a projectile-based one, but it's a fun kind of irony.
- Matches where Sora's outranged can indeed be tricky (I ran into more s than expected) especially online, but Sora can exploit the lag on Byleth's and Sephiroth's stuff to get in.
- That said, Sora's not excellent at boxing (also met more s than I expected) because his frame data is rather slow, but the positive tradeoff Sora has is that his swings are pretty generous - especially D-Tilt and Smashes. He's pretty decent at spacing as a result.
- Sonic Blade's kinda good in the air or as a retreat option, but it's also really commital and laggy - more punishable than I expected (it's semi-reliably punished by his own F-Smash). Also, one has to keep the stick neutral if one wants to avoid using all three dashes.
- Blizzaga in particular looks better than initially thought: it does a lot of shield damage, and so does Down Smash. He's got good ways to deal with shields as a result.
- Oh and apparently Down Smash is intangible at start up (8 frames of intangibility, 4 on the whole body), huge and extremely difficult to punish. It can armor through tilts and landing aerials wtf.
- Up Air looks really good, both rising and falling. Back Air is pretty generous and can stage spike rather early.
- His Dash Attack is really nice. Lasts for a long while, low profiles and sends at a decent angle for him. His ground game is better than I previously thought.
- He struggles a lot with getting juggled, as kinda expected given his floatiness. Down Air is a huge hitbox but is beat by most Up Airs, and any trades that happen can be really awkward.
And as for the last day: I'll still stick around but likely become a bit less active on here. Thinking about joining the social, but I'll hang around the competitive thread as well.
Well, Sakurai's wild ride is over and I'm thankful for the end result: this game and roster, even as the rail tracks were incredibly bumpy.
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Last day for the thread huh?
Well, it's definitely going to be a bit weird not having it around after so many years. But I'm definitely a bit relieved that things are winding down now. After going through Smash 4 and Ult. speculation essentially back to back, I think a break is warranted lol.
Still, it's been fun. The Smash hype cycle is certainly something that can't be replicated, and boy was there a lot of hype this time around. Even with whatever discourse speculation could bring, the good times were always good.
I'll probably hop on to the social thread every now and then just to check up on folks. Whether I see you there, years down the line for the next Smash, or never again... I hope things go well for you all. Take care.
Well, it's definitely going to be a bit weird not having it around after so many years. But I'm definitely a bit relieved that things are winding down now. After going through Smash 4 and Ult. speculation essentially back to back, I think a break is warranted lol.
Still, it's been fun. The Smash hype cycle is certainly something that can't be replicated, and boy was there a lot of hype this time around. Even with whatever discourse speculation could bring, the good times were always good.
I'll probably hop on to the social thread every now and then just to check up on folks. Whether I see you there, years down the line for the next Smash, or never again... I hope things go well for you all. Take care.
WeirdChillFever
Smash Hero
Since a “like” would not do right to a post like this (even though the irony of “liking“ a post from a user that doesn’t use said system sounds enticing), I’ll simply share my graditude for you and others that have made speculation this bizarre and incredible world of thoughts. I’ve seen you around in the Dixie Kong thread and have heard whispers in the old Ridley thread and have read your essays, and your speculation acumen is on point.This is my first time ever posting in the second iteration of the Ultimate Newcomer/DLC discussion thread. I have basically been in the background for speculation in regards to Pass 2. Of my predictions, they were mostly wrong, with the only two possibilities I had ended up happening being Steve and Sora.
Regardless, I am here to say I have a very important message to which I want to share with this community. I have been a part of this site for over 15 years. I have seen many things unfold during that time. I want to say I think I am basically done with speculation and character support. Do not get me wrong, there are still some additions that I would like to see happen, but I would say Ultimate has very much satisfied me.
However, I still want to write about Smash and its content, just not about speculation. I prepared a sort of farewell essay that gives me thoughts about the conclusion to Ultimate and my hopes for the future. My hope is that despite the length, that many of you will read it in its entirety. I absolutely encourage anyone who reads it to please send their thoughts and ideas about what I wrote as a personal message to me. I really want to hear the many stories that Ultimate has behind it.
Without further ado, here is my "farewell" essay:
IntroductionUltimate speculation has finally drawn to an end. This title in particular has been very poignant to me. It fulfilled many different things to which I thought unlikely to ever happen for a Smash title and also were personal dreams and hopes I had. The inclusion of Ridley (my single most wanted character for nearly 20 years) and bringing back the entire past roster were absolutely incredible to me personally, as were the inclusions of the Belmonts and Banjo & Kazooie. Heck, even non-roster inclusions such as most prior stages being brought back and Pico (my favorite F-Zero character) having a role beyond trophy/spirit, meant a lot to me.
In a recent column Sakurai made in Famitsu, he said, "Everything must come to an end at some point."( https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...ai_says_he_likes_the_idea_of_early_retirement Sakurai ) used this column to announce that he would retire his Famitsu column that he had been writing since 2003. Ultimate will not be the end for Smash, but I think Sakurai will likely to take a break from the franchise for a few years, especially after having worked nonstop on Smash for nearly a decade (development on Smash 4 began in early 2012).
At this point much of my interest in Smash speculation and character support is gone. There are a multitude of reasons for this. One is that I have far less free time than I did during prior Smash speculation epochs. Another is that I am getting older and gradually losing interest in many gaming things in general. Another reason is that the general dynamics for speculation have changed with the in-depth dives only really only being appreciated if you are a known Youtube personality. Platforms like Reddit and Twitter seem counter-intuitive for speculation to me, and the old mainstays like GameFAQs and SmashBoards have bled much of their userbase.
Another important thing about my depreciated interest is that Ultimate has basically given me most of what I had been hoping for in regards to Smash. Ultimate implemented many things I had wanted to see, but had always thought of as being very unlikely to ever happen. I am someone that had been following Smash even before the first installment was internationally released, and I have been involved in online roster speculation for 20 years now. To me, Ultimate feels like a culmination or rather a personal conclusion.
In general Ultimate was basically a "too good to be true" title that somehow ended up being real. There are some things that I wish ended up happening with Ultimate, but the thing is that as far as a Smash title goes in terms of being in line with my own personal desires and tastes, this is the best it will get (assuming Ultimate is not ported and built upon). At some point the journey has to end for myself.
By comparison, there are many others that are still waiting for their most wanted characters to debut in Smash or for it to take a direction that they want the series to go down (such as a single player mode that is similar to Subspace Emissary or a high focus on competitive gameplay). For many others here, their dream Smash has yet to be realized and it is what will be driving them going forward aside from particular characters that they want to see make it onto the roster.
Ultimate is likely the pinnacle in terms of character and stage count, but there are other directions Smash can taken that can take that can make them stand as tall as Ultimate has. For myself, though, Ultimate is what I was hoping for.
There are still a few things left that I would like to see, most notably Dixie Kong being a part of the roster (it is still peculiar how we are at nearly 90 characters, yet she is not part of them), however, overall I would say 95% of my personal desires for Smash Bros. have now been fulfilled.
For myself, the overwhelming bulk of my involvement during this speculation period was during the base game period. I made over 500 posts in 2018 alone. By comparison, I only made around 110 posts in 2019, and only 30 in 2020. I would say for Pass 2 most of my interest in speculating had been very depreciated. I would also say none of the Pass 2 characters in general I was personally hyped for, although of all the DLC characters in general, the only one that I was personally glad to see was Banjo & Kazooie. That being said I am still very happy about the additions that were made with the base roster. I would have satisfied even if there had been no DLC at all for Ultimate.
Ultimate Ending Is A Massive Milestone
I am not sure how many of you are aware of this, but Ultimate concluding is not just the end of Ultimate but also the end of the long cycle that began all the way back when Smash 4 was first announced in June 2011. In general, it seems as though Sakurai seems to view Smash 4 and Ultimate as a single development cycle. Sakurai quite explicitly stated this in one of this columns, and it was alluded to again during the Kazuya presentation to which he showed a short clip of every newcomer in Smash 4 to Ultimate beginning with Villager.
The development between Smash 4 to Ultimate was continuous. The project plan for Ultimate was completed in December 2015, the same month to which Corrin and Bayonetta were unveiled. Sakurai said he began development for Smash 4 soon after Kid Icarus Uprising was finished (which was early 2012), so he has been working on Smash for nearly a decade now.
Making Ultimate was also a “last request” from Iwata to Sakurai (Source: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2..._sakurai_and_he_doesnt_know_what_hell_do_next ) . Sakurai went over and beyond for Ultimate as a way to honor the deceased Iwata. I think without the particular gravity of Iwata passing soon after he made this request to Sakurai, it might have been possible Ultimate would not be as “ultimate” as it turned out to be.
Ultimate is also the culmination of what began starting with Smash 64 in 1999. It not only has the entire roster up until this current point, and almost all of the stages, but also almost the entire soundtrack for 64, Melee, Brawl, and Smash 4 as well.
Thoughts On Sora
I have barely played the Kingdom Hearts series, so I cannot say I have a personal affinity for the series and its main protagonist, Sora. With that being said, Sora was a fitting conclusion for Ultimate. The main motif of Ultimate going back to its formal unveil at E3 2018 was the “making the impossible possible”. Sora was a character long thought to be impossible due to the unique copyright situation for the character, and in particular being owned by Disney.
There was also the matter that a very important part of Kingdom Hearts is the crossover with Disney’s traditional animation properties. With Sakurai still being very hesitant to add non-game characters to Smash, many believed that adding Kingdom Hearts to Smash Bros. was very unfeasible, and if it was, that it would open the floodgates for non-gaming characters to be added to the roster for future Smash titles.
The revelation that Sora was the true winner to the Smash Ballot makes him the most fitting end to Ultimate in general with the consideration that the Smash Ballot was the basis to which Ultimate’s foundation was derived. Everyone Is Here, Ridley, King K. Rool, the Belmonts, Chrom, Dark Samus, and Banjo & Kazooie all could probably owe their inclusion in Ultimate due to their ballot performance.
There was something very poignant about Sakurai saying that he talked about the results to Iwata (which was probably only months or weeks before he died). Ultimate in general was made as a sort of last request from Iwata to Sakurai. I think with the addition of Sora to Ultimate in a way made Iwata’s last request finally fulfilled. Ultimate is a legendary title that is truly worthy of its moniker.
It is difficult to think of a character that could have beat out Sora in terms of being a bigger finish than he was. Master Chief might have been able to rival him in the West, but he is a pretty niche character outside of Western game markets. I think Sora is the one character that ties best with Ultimate’s unveil motif of making the impossible possible.
A Shout Out To The Dixie Kong Support Thread
I said this to the Dixie Kong support thread in the past, but I was amazed how a cozy and supportive online community that is actually on topic about it (or relatively on topic since it often talked about the DK franchise in general) could exist on today’s internet. You had artists, all sorts of different and unique takes on how Dixie Kong could be approached as a fighter, and many just bringing up their own personal stories about how or why they were fans of the character. It was not a replacement for a social circle like many other online spaces either, most people usually posted when they actually had something to contribute.
Also, there was a tolerance for differing viewpoints and ideas. The most contentious of these for the Dixie Kong thread was whether she should or could work as an echo fighter. Even then, users generally had respect for one another even if they were in different camps in regards to this. The proprietor to the Dixie Kong thread,
This sort of environment proved to me that a non-toxic environment in relation to Smash or Nintendo is still possible on today’s internet. This was how an internet community should be. People with unique talents and perspectives coming together and sharing their passion together, and still having a respect for one another even if they have a different opinion on an aspect to that shared interest. Even though Dixie Kong was ultimately never added to Ultimate’s roster I am still thankful for the positive experience I had within that thread during my last few years with the Smash community.
A Brief Background for Who I Am
There are likely many of you that are reading this piece that have little idea as to who I am. In particular, I stopped being very active in speculation after 2018, and I made hardly any posts from the second half of 2015 to June 2018.
My history with Smash speculation and character support is a very long one, but I will only talk about the most important details.
I began my involvement with online Smash speculation and character support all the way back in 2001 a few months after the Melee unveil at E3 2001. I initially joined because I had a hope for Ridley making the roster for that title due to his appearance in the Melee unveil trailer. The basic foundation of what to expect with speculation, with fan expectations not being aligned with what ultimately ended up happening, manias pertaining to peculiar characters at certain points, and legit roster leaks being met with denial and vitriol. It was simply a preview of what was going to expand much more when Brawl was unveiled.
For the next epoch, Brawl speculation, I was at the forefront of speculation. It was in 2007 where I began regularly putting out long write ups in regards to speculation. I was even the first one to piece together the entirety of Brawl’s roster, as all of the legit leakers gave out an incomplete picture, and it was only through looking at how all the ones that were proven to be legit overlapped, that I was able to figure out Brawl’s 35 (or 39) character roster. I also was the first one to call the scrapped characters that still had folders within Brawl’s coding, “the Forbidden 7”.
I apologize if the previous paragraph came across as “boastful”, that was not my intention, but rather to provide context to my impact on the speculation community and just how far back this influence was. There are many who are now here that have little idea as to who I am, so I wanted to provide some anecdotes as to my work in the far past.
After Brawl’s release, I did five things: do extensive history lessons on the history of character support and speculation (I was one of the few speculators from the pre-Melee and first half of pre-Brawl that was still around), provide extensive analyses, do extensive character support for Ridley, extensive character support for Roy’s return, and do research into the desires of the Japanese side to the Smash fanbase.
With Sakurai seeming to give a definitive statement on Ridley as a playable fighter (it almost seemed like he would never become playable) in November 2014 and Roy confirmed to return for Smash 4 in June 2015, I basically left speculation in June 2015. I only made two posts after June 2015 and prior to April 2018.
I only returned in April 2018 a month after the Inkling teaser. I only made a few posts before the Ultimate unveil in June 2018. Ultimate’s unveil ended up fulfilling two of my dreams that I thought unlikely to ever happen, namely bringing back every single veteran and bringing in my single most wanted character for almost two decades, Ridley. At that point, I ended up back to being fully involved in Smash speculation and character support.
The August 2018 direct brought my hype to even further heights through the confirmation of the Belmonts (and the extensive Castlevania content in general), Dark Samus, and K. Rool being confirmed, as well as the confirmation nearly all of the prior stages to the series would be returning. It was shortly after this direct that I began to devote myself to doing character support for Dixie Kong. She was the one character I felt was most conspicuously absent from a roster as legendary as Ultimate’s, as well as the game character that meant a lot to me during my childhood that still was not on the roster (aside from Banjo & Kazooie, whom seemed impossible at the time).
When Ultimate released, I felt largely satisfied with the game and that it had fulfilled most of the desires that I had pertaining to Smash Bros. My activity during the DLC period was much less than it was during the second half of 2018. I was very happy to see Banjo & Kazooie happen. After 2019, I most relegated myself to making infrequent posts in the Dixie support thread as well as my own Pass 2 predictions topic (which ended up being mostly incorrect).
Overall, I am someone known for their very long legacy within the Smash Bros. speculation and character support community, and for making extensive essays on a myriad of different topics. The two primary characters I was known for supporting were Ridley and Roy. I also started extensively supporting Dixie Kong since 2018, although most of that was limited to her support thread.
At this point, I feel like I have lost most of my interest in doing character support and roster speculation. However, I still feel like I have ideas and essays to share with others….
Everyone Is Here: Everyone’s Stories
At the forefront of Roy support, I would constantly hear how Roy was a worthless addition for Smash Bros., and that they could not understand why anyone, much less an avid Fire Emblem fan, be a fan of him. Over the course of supporting Roy’s return for Smash, I also ended up becoming sympathetic to the supporters of other cut veterans, and hoped that somehow that they would get to enjoy their favorite Smash veteran returning one day as well.
There are many deep personal stories that people have in regards to the 89 playable characters on Ultimate’s legendary roster. I really want people to share their own personal stories and be able share just why any character on Ultimate’s roster, whether one of gaming’s biggest icons or ones that are largely forgotten are ones are dear to their heart.
There are many, many personal stories out there regarding each character on Ultimate’s legendary roster. One of my goals going forward is to find a personal story for every single character, from the likes of Link to the likes of Corrin. I would also like to extend this to people who were happy about a particular Mii costume, Assist Trophy appearance, and stage appearance or role. For myself for example, I was extremely pleasantly surprised about Pico’s World of Light role, and I would provide a personal story on why I like Pico so much, and why even though it was not a roster role, it still meant a lot to me.
Here are some of the people I already have in mind to explain their stories:
P Phoenix Douchebag : Simon
These are just a few of people that come to mind in regards to a certain character inclusion meaning a lot to someone in particular, I apologize if there are others out there that are strongly associated with a character already on the roster and you are not part of this “example list”. As to the examples given on this list, I am not sure whether they would be interested in sharing their stories about these characters, but I hope they do. To anyone else out there that wants to write their own particular personal story pertaining to a particular character on Ultimate’s roster, you are more than welcome. Just send me a private message about the character that means something personally to you.
I would also like to write about the speculation history pertaining to each character on Ultimate’s roster as well, but I cannot make a certain promise I can do it. I will chime in on a particular character’s speculation and character support backstory if I feel I have anything worthwhile to add.
In regards to when the stories have to be written, the truth is that you have plenty of time to write out your stories. I want to turn this into a regular series of sorts, so it would take years to build up a sizable amount of content.
The other reason why you do not have to get your own stories ready immediately (you can write them gradually over the course of months) ties in with my future plans that I want to do after speculation and character support. Back in the summer of 2018, after the August 2018 Ultimate direct, I started thinking about all of the characters on Ultimate’s roster to which meant something me to personally. Initially thinking about it, it was 25 characters. However, over the course of three years, it expanded to 30 and then 40.
For all of these characters, they would each have a series of essays about them. The character in question would be the common “glue” between all of the essays.
Here is an example of what a series of essays would look like for a particular character as part of this project would look like, and how the character in question would serve as the “umbrella” to which all of the essays fall under.
Bowser Jr. will be a part of this 40 character series. Here are the series of essays that I would compose as part of the Bowser Jr. “set”:
- A review and analysis of Bowser’s Fury (Bowser Jr. is the co-protagonist of this title)
- A review and analysis Bowser Jr.’s Journey (Bowser Jr. is the main protagonist of this title)
- History and analysis of Bowser Jr.
- History and analysis of the Koopalings
- A look at the history of the animosity between the fanbases of Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings and how it was eventually healed
- An essay on multiple characters existing within the same slot as “palette swaps” (like it does for characters like Bowser Jr., Olimar, Hero, and Steve).
- An analysis, history, and breakdown of the ESRB leak in regards to Smash 4 (Bowser Jr. was among the final characters leaked for Smash 4’s base roster)
- A history of the very high competition that always existed between various fanbases for potential Mario newcomers going back to pre-Melee to the very present.
As can be seen, each character might very well have a novella about them.
As mentioned earlier, these are 40 characters on Ultimate’s legendary roster that have some sort of personal meaning to me. It will take a very, very long time for me to get through every single one of these characters, and it will likely take at least one decade.
All of the major roster leaks would be covered as part of this series, as well as many different parts of speculation history in general. This is a personal passion project of mine, and it will take a very, very long time to complete. I am uncertain even what sort of format these essays will take, or where I will even host them.
I know it is difficult for many to read a large piece, so I am contemplating perhaps the video format (it has been suggested by a few others as well to me). However, if it were to be a video format, it would take probably at least two years before my first videos would be published. In the case of a video format, I would also narrate the personal stories of others and try to something special for each of them (like put particular music tracks from that character’s title at particular points in the story as well as put up nice artwork of that particular character at various points in the video).
The Decline of The Smash Community
The other reason for “Everyone’s Stories” is to carve out a nice little niche for the Smash fanbase in general free from much of the toxicity that exists today for most online entertainment medium fanbases.
It is no secret that the old mainstays for roster speculation and character support like SmashBoards and GameFAQs have heavily declined in users and activity since the Smash 4 epoch. Much of the activity these days are now on “mega platforms” such as Reddit, Twitter, Discord, and Youtube. For most of these platforms, character support and speculation is mostly done through memes and ****posts. Your own voice and ideas are drowned out in the massive void.
The only one of these platforms where an individual can make a difference and have their own unique ideas and speculation heard is YouTube, but even there it only really matters if your own channel has a large following (at least 5,000 subscribers) and good luck getting to that number with today’s algorithms.
GameFAQs’s Smash circle has basically degenerated into a sort of 4chan-lite except with usernames in terms of aggressiveness and general nonsense. Aside from that there is only ResetEra and SmashBoards in terms of traditional Smash speculation left. For the former, the site is notorious for how authoritarian it is and how just overbearing and petty the mod team there is.
For SmashBoards though, the decline has been a result of a few different factors. One is that traffic has generally flowed out of dedicated forums onto the “mega cities”. Another is that different aspects to the fanbase now have there needs met elsewhere. For example, SmashBoards used to have lots of active discussion for each of the characters on a particular title’s roster, now these subforums are basically ghost towns. Competitive discussion in general used to be extremely active on the site, now it is simply relegated to a single thread.
Most of SmashBoards activity these days actually pertaining to Smash (or at least during the past two years) has only been the DLC/newcomer discussion thread and the old Geno thread (which was extremely active due to devious reasons). Other character support threads remained slow even for third party characters were deemed likely at particular points during the DLC epoch.
Another reason is due to the aggressiveness and meanness of some of the most prominent users on this site. More deflating for those have complained about this to me is that nothing has been done about this and is usually dismissed as being “oh that is just how XXXXX is.” This sort of “cool kids can say and do whatever they want” mentality chased away many people. The demoralization that many feel when their opinion was mocked by by a "clique" or "cool kids" was a sizeable factor for why many gradually left this site. Regardless of their level of prominence, users should not be allowed to be nasty and condescending towards others and their opinions.
In general, this is a problem seen on many smaller sized forums, not just SmashBoards, where there is an “in-group” and everyone else, which is part of the reason why many have retreated to Discord servers and or go into the “mega cities”.
In general, I hate to say this but I think much of internet discourse has been homogenized in a bad way. The megacities have become horrific echo chambers where people aggressively compete for the best way to accrue the most praise possible (this is especially evident on Reddit). On both Twitter and Reddit (and anonymous spaces like 4chan), there is horrific dehumanization of individuals whom do not share the same views as the rest of the “crowd”. Heterodox thinking is increasingly shunned and marginalized on most of the megacities.
In general, almost every space on the internet is incredibly toxic in one way or another. Many people who are in their 30’s now could have been natural leaders and been shepherds in online circles towards the younger cohorts and making positive environments. Instead, I have mostly been seeing stunted people in most entertainment fanbases regardless of their age or time spent in these spaces. ResetEra has most of its user base over 30, yet are notorious for being one of the most backbiting, authoritarian, close-minded spaces for game discussion on the internet.
I have no idea what went wrong and why things have just deteriorated as opposed to getting better. My thinking was that people would mature as they got older and just guide the younger cohorts. Instead many of the older cohorts got nastier, while the younger ones got largely absorbed into the maelstroms that are the megacities.
Also, another thing I am critical of is the “like” system. I am not sure anyone else has noticed, but I have never “liked” a post on SmashBoards. I always thought it encouraged group think, cliques, and in general was a lazy way to show that you enjoyed a person’s content. It does take work to write out that you had a positive opinion on someone’s written work, but at the same time it is far personal as your words are those made by your own intellect and personality. With a “like” it simply one among many. One person’s own individual voice means far more than many likes in my opinion.
Some General Advice to Speculators And Character Support Fanbases Going Forward
I would also like to bestow a few words of advice to those who continue speculating and doing character support for Smash in the years ahead. There have been quite a few disturbing trends I have seen exasperate over the past decade in relation to speculation and character support, namely massive group think, an incredible thirst for leaks no matter how dubious, support for a particular character becoming one’s own primary personal identity and social circle, and believing a “leak” simply because it has their character of choice as part of it.
One of the biggest pratfalls for many character fanbases is the tendency to believe a “leak” if their character of choice is a part of it. As we getting further and further into the future, very believable fake leaks will be more and more common.
A notorious example of this was the “Grinch leak” where a banner was made of a whole bunch of characters that were both highly desired by the Smash fanbase as well as seen as likely in general. To many people, it seemed very likely to be “real” due to the quality of it and amount of effort necessary to fake it.
There have also been instances where people have had credible information in the past but later started making up fake information in order to increase support of their character of choice (a particular example of this was with loz getting multiple details over Ultimate’s unveil correct, but then making up a bunch of fake information in order for Skull Kid to have a massive increase in support).
Overall, a very important piece of advice for any character fanbase going forward is to naturally be very skeptical of any “leaks”, especially if they happen to mention their character of choice as being a part of the roster. I have seen fake “leaks” increasingly become more and more elaborate, and I expect that trend to continue for the next Smash title.
Please be extremely skeptical and do not give any of your mental or emotional energy towards trying to validate these “leaks”.
I must also stress to avoid falling into manias. Character support is not a replacement for a social circle. I would also advise that your own personal history with a character (especially playing some sort of title heavily featuring them) is vastly preferable over you getting excited over a character because others are or because they seem “likely”. Beware the bandwagons.
Please overall, try to find your own individual voices, and do not be afraid to speak out even if it is an opinion that runs contrary to what everyone else is saying.
What Is Truly Important
I have been a part of the online Smash speculation and character support for over 20 years at this point. I am someone that has gone from day dreaming about Smash when characters like Bowser, Wario, Diddy Kong, and Ganondorf were not yet a part of the roster, to a point where now almost half of the newcomers for the latest Smash title are third-party characters.
I had many dreams and hopes dashed and realized over the course of these past 20 years. The realization of Ridley as a fighter for the roster alone took nearly 20 years to happen. It was amazing to have seen not just Roy return, but every single veteran in the history to the franchise as well. Ultimate in general seemed to have realized nearly all of my hopes and dreams for Smash as a series, even some minor ones.
With all of this being said though, I want to say that in the end, getting your favorite character as part of Smash’s roster, even a character you might spending over a decade hoping for, is not as lasting an elation as you might believe it to be.
I can definitely say it is still surreal to be controlling Ridley in Ultimate, and I am still very grateful that he somehow miraculously made the roster. However, over the course of these 20 years, the things that truly mattered to me where something even more pertinent to me going forward.
It is about the friends I have made during my time being involved in speculation and character support. Some of these individuals, I am hoping to have lifelong friendships with in particular. Meeting these people were truly some of the most fulfilling aspects of speculation, and eclipse even the satisfaction of my longest running Smash dreams becoming a reality.
I feel that building these friendships and meeting these people were the true “victory” of my time with Smash speculation and character support. There are also quite a few people that I met that I value as acquaintances and enjoy sharing my thoughts and ideas with. I am really hoping I can continue communication with these individuals even though I plan to no longer be involved in character support and roster speculation going forward.
It was truly a blessing to meet these people. I just want to say that is not the number of friends you might have, but rather the quality. Gaining good friends is very rare in today’s world, and I think I was very fortunate to have made the connections I did.
Conclusion
Ultimate was such a legendary title. It gave me so many of the long running dreams I had hoped for in regards to Smash but thought to be very unlikely or virtually impossible. While there are still a few things that I would like to see in Smash Bros. that did not happen with Ultimate, the game in general granted most of what I had wanted to see.
Ridley was a legendary addition to me, as was bringing back every single veteran in the history of the Super Smash Bros. franchise. Many other additions meant a lot to me as well such as most stages being brought back, Castlevania getting extensive representation, and Banjo-Kazooie happening. Through the Assist Trophies, Mii costumes, and spirits it seems almost every sort of Nintendo character and many third-party franchises in general got some sort of recognition or consolation prize.
In general, Ultimate was a landmark title for myself. It is one of the very few games I can recall from at least from the past ten years that actually lived up to and exceeded my expectations. Ultimate was the Smash title I had always been dreaming about that miraculously became a reality.
I still want to make contributions relating to Smash, but not necessarily the future of Smash if that makes sense. I have a desire to talk about the past and share just what I love about particular content that exists in Ultimate and from prior installments in general. I am not sure how much of an interest there is in this though. Even if I decide to follow through on doing it, it will likely take years before the first content I make for it is finished.
The other important thing I am hoping for is for people to contribute their own personal stories about a particular character on Ultimate’s roster that has a personal meaning to them. It could even be a personal story about a stage, Mii costume, Assist Trophy, or music track that has some sort of significant meaning to you as an individual. I really want to highlight these stories, as I feel in the future, that if there are significant cuts going from Ultimate to the next Smash title, that the conventional belief will be that all of the cuts were “merited” and that they did not much meaning to be a part of Ultimate’s roster in the first place. I doubt I will be able to make much of a dent in this kind of thinking, but I hope to give a platform to those who have something personal to share on some aspect of Ultimate.
I have been an extensive writer for Smash speculation for nearly 15 years now. I am not sure how influential my works pertaining to Smash roster speculation and character support have been during that time, but I hope that I was a good influence overall to these communities. Thank you to all that read my works all throughout the years, or those that only started reading them within the past few years, or even those that just started reading now.
As Sakurai said earlier this year, “Everything must come to an end at some point.” Ultimate was a very special title to me personally. It was the title I dreamed about but never thought it could ever happen. It gave me 95% of the things I wanted to see for Smash in general. In comparison to previous Smash titles that concluded, I feel extremely satisfied and content.
I would have liked to have seen Dixie Kong as part of Ultimate’s legendary roster, and the roster does not quite feel “complete” for me without her being a part of it, but I think for my OWN (as in me in particular) personal desires, Ultimate is as good as it is going to get. I could easily see the next title jettisoning many of the veterans and stages I am particularly attached to. However, I am still extremely happy with how Ultimate turned out, and it fulfilled so many seemingly “impossible” dreams I had.
However, above else, I met so many wonderful people over the course of this 20 year journey. My best friends I have now I met as a result of my time doing speculation and character support. That was the greatest blessing of all for this journey and easily eclipsed even Ultimate’s really special realization.
Thank you to all who actually read this essay in its entirety. If you want to inquire about Everyone’s Stories or have some sort of personal comment you wish to share in regards to any part of this essay, please feel free to send me a private message. I look forward to hearing just what stories are out there.
Thank you very much. I am looking forward to one day working on this next endeavor, and although it will probably take me years before I finally get content out relating to it, I am excited to work on something that talks about what we love about something that already exists in Smash not what we hope about one day ends up being included in it.
Ultimate was a legendary title in many ways, and I want to celebrate this title in the years to come even though successive Smash titles will probably eclipse Ultimate in ways outside of roster and stage count. However, it will not just be me talking about what was so special about Ultimate’s content. It will be all of you. I want to hear your voices and give a platform to them. Even if only a handful of you are interested in it, I would still like to pursue it.
This now ends my “farewell” essay to Smash roster speculation and character support. I wish you all the best. Thank you and farewell. This was both ultimate and special.
As I said, I implore anyone that reads this to share their thoughts via a personal message. I am curious to hear what you think. I apologize for the length. Thank you very much for your time and patience. I am blessed to have met the people here that I have. You have helped me grow in many ways, and I am grateful for what I have learned and experienced during my 20 years as a participant in Smash speculation. I hope those who continue on will similarly be blessed with friendship and personal growth, and that your personal Smash desires (or at least some of them) are fulfilled in the future.
This place has had many homes for me. I think that is the power of this site. You pop in a thread and everybody knows your name. Throughout speculation, I‘ve had many homes like that and they all taught me valuable lessons and got me to talk to the coolest people I have the pleasure of knowing, or the clairvoyantest of speculators. I’d like to thank each of these homes.
Smash 4:
My first thread was the old Smash 4 Ridley thread. A riproaring cacophony of regulars that had an unrivalled sense of camaraderi. I feel the fact that this was my first thread is important. It was big, it was overwhelming and it was the type of location many a speculator warned you about, in that very folksy sense but the people were nice and so began my venture in the great big world of the internet (well, not specifically. I‘ve had some years of Miiverse behind me). I don’t remember specifically caring a lot for Ridley himself, just fitting in was enough. Of course, Pyrosphere was too much for any faint-hearted child to handle.
The K. Rool community was a pure blast. Not surprisingly, considering the amazing
BKupa666
was at the helm the whole time, but K. Rool always felt so gosh darn collaborative to me. New users were lauded with a One of Us serenade and I remember many a fun thread game that made everyone part of a collective. Fun example of that was “King K. Lone”, a summer stint that invited users to make K. Rool a clone of everybody on the roster by creating a special moveset. KAOS the robot as a Villager Tree, that sort of thing. It was my first foray into moveset making which is a secret mouseketool that will help us later. I really felt it when the Mii Costume got revealed, but it was okay back then and in the end because we had eachother.Speaking of creative endeavours, I will always remember
BirthNote
very very fondly for planting the first seed towards inspiring me to make art. That’s a gift no one will ever take away from me and I will always have the incredibly supportive Dixie thread to thank for that. Sorry I didn‘t pop in more often, you guys rock.It was in the Captain Toad thread where I truly found my love for tinkering around with movesets. Or rather, I found the Make Your Move thread thanks to the Captain Toad gang. Wouldn’t do a lot with that thread until the cusp of Ultimate’s release, but again the collaborative nature of the thread spoke to me. Can’t let that be the only memory of the Toad thread though, since everyone there shared an incredible love for the series I loved so much as well.
The Daisy thread was were it all came colliding. Later, crashing, but in the beginning it would somehow be this thread, for this character, that I honestly at first visited out of boredom, that would define my speculation. This character, that would turn out had a moveset potential rivalling that of my previous thread bearers, but instead of filling in the gaps of what Kannonball would go where, I was the trailblazer in a true collab fashion. Somehow, Daisy jogged my creative brain both in realizing theories about her chances as well as her potential moveset that grew with each entry.
Guys. Daisy is so fun to speculate on. Take a character with one central motif and over sixty games worth of appearances. Each of these games filled with elements, worlds within worlds. There must’ve been over a hundred ways to put the puzzle pieces together and in that thread we explored a lot of them. I still want to make movesets of various degrees of uniqueness for her.
And so, armed with that knowledge and a Twitter account that came like three months after the Kremling Kampaigner already did it, we set out, Uneasy alliances, weirdly combatative polemics that I still regret going through the ballot and even more ways to complete the Rubik’s Cube….
and she was confirmed.
Like, two weeks after my speculation turned towards the “If clones came back she was in”, she got in as newly baptized Echo Fighter. I still swear by the fact I felt it in my guts she was coming once I saw a weird scribbly symbol next to Dark Pit and Lucina in that trailer. I didn’t have mudh time to make use of my newfound knowledge. She got in. Bittersweetly, with none of the set ideas we all had for her, but she got in. In a disappointingly abrupt ending, so was her moveset.
I still had energy left though, so instead of putting my energy in looking at the angles in what she can do in Smash, I used her as a muse for my art. The versatile design makes it that the sky is the limit when it comes to the different interpretations of Daisy and thanks to this character, it is that the seed planted by the Dixie Kong thread went into full bloom. This remnant energy is stull burning, which is why I’m excited to hear about a possibility to tell her story once again.
Sadly, I cannot tag any specific inspiration here for this time. The thread owner died. (To me), but I do want to give a shoutout to
BluePikmin11
for matching my crazy energy with even more crazy energy for a broad spectrum of characters.Smash Ultimate:
In what I once called the skidmark of Daisy speculation, I somehow survived Smash Ultimate speculation despite not having a home like I had with the other threads, but I’d like to thank
Delzethin
for giving me one regardless. He’s just so darn good at looking at the different angles that, even if Lycanroc nor Zacian were really high on my priority list, it was still incredibly fun to talk about them and their potential place on the roster. It mattered to me to be part of the ride once again and even though they didn’t make it in, I would like to thank Delz for making all of our minds brighter in the process. He really matters to me and I cannot in good conscience leave this part of the boards without having told him that.And that’s…basically what I did during Smash Ultimate speculation. I was done fighting or arguing or going deep into the rabbit hole and despite that I think I enjoyed that new sort of speculation a lot too. It was only in the end that I really got a new most wanted in Octoling and Off the Hook, but that didn’t come much further than memeing.
I did find a new home in Make Your Move, going full speed ahead in what I otherwise only dipped in once a year. I got far and even close to winning, but if that community is all I take away from a bazillion years of speculating, it will be worth it all the same. Here’s to the next wild wild ride.
I don’t know if and where I will make my home next. I will always get fired up about Mario spin-offs and I’m absolutely spiteful enough to gun for Waluigi and make my case for Toadette. Splatoon will be a big name next time around too, so I could see myself pushing the envelope for Off the Hook to join in tandem with Octoling. Whatever it’ll be, I hope I can make that place feel a little bit like home.
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I find it funny how instead of Sora giving life to all of the fighters and shaking hands with Mario as a heartfelt ending to the game, our final trailer for Ultimate was originally going to be Kazuya throwing the dead bodies of the cast members off a cliff.
CosmicQuark
Smash Master
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2018
- Messages
- 3,522
From what I've read, there was some funny business with the order of FP2 characters in post or game data, but I can't remember where I read that from. But the idea was they were going to end on Sephiroth until they cleared Sora, and then moved Kazuya and Sephiroth around. Might be baseless, since I don't have the source, but it's not known for certain who the last character would have been in the original FP2. Ending on Sora was perfect in the end.
I'm so glad to get confirmation as well! In his previous Famitsu columns, he mentioned when talking about the characters if they were popular on the ballot, though he didn't mention that for Banjo & Kazooie's write-up. I expected them to be higher up, because they were popular enough during Melee for Sakurai to comment on why they (and James Bond lol) couldn't make it in (a combination of working with companies overseas, as well as just before the Microsoft/Rare merger). And reading back it looked like that's where talk of them dropped off, but I always felt it was because they were considered impossible at that point, so why bother. It was only until Phil Spencer's tweet that a sizable amount of people who wanted them in started to think it could be possible. Now it's treated by many circles that their inclusion was inevitable/predictable, some rewriting of history (though it didn't help that they leaked, same with Sora). Glad 2 of my most wanted characters were high up on the ballot to get a mention--wish I knew where Crash ranked, and if that was a Nintendo decision, lack of popularity on the ballot at the time, or Activision being a pain.
And I'm so glad that my predictions failed, but 3 of my top 5 wants (Sora, Banjo & Kazooie, Persona) got in. While I'll have to get used to how Sora plays, not being familiar with sword characters, I feel like it doesn't matter how a character plays--if I really like the character, I want to work hard to get good at them. Thankfully B&K were natural for me.
Banjo and Kazooie also ranked very high in the Fighter Ballot results as well. From a Japanese perspective, it was quite surprising.
— Will (PushDustIn) (@PushDustIn) October 20, 2021
The barriers to Sora’s inclusion in Smash weren’t as surprising, though. It wasn’t the same as getting other fighters. pic.twitter.com/EwU8NKF0K3
I'm so glad to get confirmation as well! In his previous Famitsu columns, he mentioned when talking about the characters if they were popular on the ballot, though he didn't mention that for Banjo & Kazooie's write-up. I expected them to be higher up, because they were popular enough during Melee for Sakurai to comment on why they (and James Bond lol) couldn't make it in (a combination of working with companies overseas, as well as just before the Microsoft/Rare merger). And reading back it looked like that's where talk of them dropped off, but I always felt it was because they were considered impossible at that point, so why bother. It was only until Phil Spencer's tweet that a sizable amount of people who wanted them in started to think it could be possible. Now it's treated by many circles that their inclusion was inevitable/predictable, some rewriting of history (though it didn't help that they leaked, same with Sora). Glad 2 of my most wanted characters were high up on the ballot to get a mention--wish I knew where Crash ranked, and if that was a Nintendo decision, lack of popularity on the ballot at the time, or Activision being a pain.
And I'm so glad that my predictions failed, but 3 of my top 5 wants (Sora, Banjo & Kazooie, Persona) got in. While I'll have to get used to how Sora plays, not being familiar with sword characters, I feel like it doesn't matter how a character plays--if I really like the character, I want to work hard to get good at them. Thankfully B&K were natural for me.
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PeridotGX
Smash Hero
The irony is not lost on me, liking a post that discusses the pointlessness of likes, but it would be a disservice to such an essay to not. This is really well written! I'll strongly consider writing for your project.This is my first time ever posting in the second iteration of the Ultimate Newcomer/DLC discussion thread. I have basically been in the background for speculation in regards to Pass 2. Of my predictions, they were mostly wrong, with the only two possibilities I had ended up happening being Steve and Sora.
Regardless, I am here to say I have a very important message to which I want to share with this community. I have been a part of this site for over 15 years. I have seen many things unfold during that time. I want to say I think I am basically done with speculation and character support. Do not get me wrong, there are still some additions that I would like to see happen, but I would say Ultimate has very much satisfied me.
However, I still want to write about Smash and its content, just not about speculation. I prepared a sort of farewell essay that gives me thoughts about the conclusion to Ultimate and my hopes for the future. My hope is that despite the length, that many of you will read it in its entirety. I absolutely encourage anyone who reads it to please send their thoughts and ideas about what I wrote as a personal message to me. I really want to hear the many stories that Ultimate has behind it.
Without further ado, here is my "farewell" essay:
IntroductionUltimate speculation has finally drawn to an end. This title in particular has been very poignant to me. It fulfilled many different things to which I thought unlikely to ever happen for a Smash title and also were personal dreams and hopes I had. The inclusion of Ridley (my single most wanted character for nearly 20 years) and bringing back the entire past roster were absolutely incredible to me personally, as were the inclusions of the Belmonts and Banjo & Kazooie. Heck, even non-roster inclusions such as most prior stages being brought back and Pico (my favorite F-Zero character) having a role beyond trophy/spirit, meant a lot to me.
In a recent column Sakurai made in Famitsu, he said, "Everything must come to an end at some point."( https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...ai_says_he_likes_the_idea_of_early_retirement Sakurai ) used this column to announce that he would retire his Famitsu column that he had been writing since 2003. Ultimate will not be the end for Smash, but I think Sakurai will likely to take a break from the franchise for a few years, especially after having worked nonstop on Smash for nearly a decade (development on Smash 4 began in early 2012).
At this point much of my interest in Smash speculation and character support is gone. There are a multitude of reasons for this. One is that I have far less free time than I did during prior Smash speculation epochs. Another is that I am getting older and gradually losing interest in many gaming things in general. Another reason is that the general dynamics for speculation have changed with the in-depth dives only really only being appreciated if you are a known Youtube personality. Platforms like Reddit and Twitter seem counter-intuitive for speculation to me, and the old mainstays like GameFAQs and SmashBoards have bled much of their userbase.
Another important thing about my depreciated interest is that Ultimate has basically given me most of what I had been hoping for in regards to Smash. Ultimate implemented many things I had wanted to see, but had always thought of as being very unlikely to ever happen. I am someone that had been following Smash even before the first installment was internationally released, and I have been involved in online roster speculation for 20 years now. To me, Ultimate feels like a culmination or rather a personal conclusion.
In general Ultimate was basically a "too good to be true" title that somehow ended up being real. There are some things that I wish ended up happening with Ultimate, but the thing is that as far as a Smash title goes in terms of being in line with my own personal desires and tastes, this is the best it will get (assuming Ultimate is not ported and built upon). At some point the journey has to end for myself.
By comparison, there are many others that are still waiting for their most wanted characters to debut in Smash or for it to take a direction that they want the series to go down (such as a single player mode that is similar to Subspace Emissary or a high focus on competitive gameplay). For many others here, their dream Smash has yet to be realized and it is what will be driving them going forward aside from particular characters that they want to see make it onto the roster.
Ultimate is likely the pinnacle in terms of character and stage count, but there are other directions Smash can taken that can take that can make them stand as tall as Ultimate has. For myself, though, Ultimate is what I was hoping for.
There are still a few things left that I would like to see, most notably Dixie Kong being a part of the roster (it is still peculiar how we are at nearly 90 characters, yet she is not part of them), however, overall I would say 95% of my personal desires for Smash Bros. have now been fulfilled.
For myself, the overwhelming bulk of my involvement during this speculation period was during the base game period. I made over 500 posts in 2018 alone. By comparison, I only made around 110 posts in 2019, and only 30 in 2020. I would say for Pass 2 most of my interest in speculating had been very depreciated. I would also say none of the Pass 2 characters in general I was personally hyped for, although of all the DLC characters in general, the only one that I was personally glad to see was Banjo & Kazooie. That being said I am still very happy about the additions that were made with the base roster. I would have satisfied even if there had been no DLC at all for Ultimate.
Ultimate Ending Is A Massive Milestone
I am not sure how many of you are aware of this, but Ultimate concluding is not just the end of Ultimate but also the end of the long cycle that began all the way back when Smash 4 was first announced in June 2011. In general, it seems as though Sakurai seems to view Smash 4 and Ultimate as a single development cycle. Sakurai quite explicitly stated this in one of this columns, and it was alluded to again during the Kazuya presentation to which he showed a short clip of every newcomer in Smash 4 to Ultimate beginning with Villager.
The development between Smash 4 to Ultimate was continuous. The project plan for Ultimate was completed in December 2015, the same month to which Corrin and Bayonetta were unveiled. Sakurai said he began development for Smash 4 soon after Kid Icarus Uprising was finished (which was early 2012), so he has been working on Smash for nearly a decade now.
Making Ultimate was also a “last request” from Iwata to Sakurai (Source: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2..._sakurai_and_he_doesnt_know_what_hell_do_next ) . Sakurai went over and beyond for Ultimate as a way to honor the deceased Iwata. I think without the particular gravity of Iwata passing soon after he made this request to Sakurai, it might have been possible Ultimate would not be as “ultimate” as it turned out to be.
Ultimate is also the culmination of what began starting with Smash 64 in 1999. It not only has the entire roster up until this current point, and almost all of the stages, but also almost the entire soundtrack for 64, Melee, Brawl, and Smash 4 as well.
Thoughts On Sora
I have barely played the Kingdom Hearts series, so I cannot say I have a personal affinity for the series and its main protagonist, Sora. With that being said, Sora was a fitting conclusion for Ultimate. The main motif of Ultimate going back to its formal unveil at E3 2018 was the “making the impossible possible”. Sora was a character long thought to be impossible due to the unique copyright situation for the character, and in particular being owned by Disney.
There was also the matter that a very important part of Kingdom Hearts is the crossover with Disney’s traditional animation properties. With Sakurai still being very hesitant to add non-game characters to Smash, many believed that adding Kingdom Hearts to Smash Bros. was very unfeasible, and if it was, that it would open the floodgates for non-gaming characters to be added to the roster for future Smash titles.
The revelation that Sora was the true winner to the Smash Ballot makes him the most fitting end to Ultimate in general with the consideration that the Smash Ballot was the basis to which Ultimate’s foundation was derived. Everyone Is Here, Ridley, King K. Rool, the Belmonts, Chrom, Dark Samus, and Banjo & Kazooie all could probably owe their inclusion in Ultimate due to their ballot performance.
There was something very poignant about Sakurai saying that he talked about the results to Iwata (which was probably only months or weeks before he died). Ultimate in general was made as a sort of last request from Iwata to Sakurai. I think with the addition of Sora to Ultimate in a way made Iwata’s last request finally fulfilled. Ultimate is a legendary title that is truly worthy of its moniker.
It is difficult to think of a character that could have beat out Sora in terms of being a bigger finish than he was. Master Chief might have been able to rival him in the West, but he is a pretty niche character outside of Western game markets. I think Sora is the one character that ties best with Ultimate’s unveil motif of making the impossible possible.
A Shout Out To The Dixie Kong Support Thread
I said this to the Dixie Kong support thread in the past, but I was amazed how a cozy and supportive online community that is actually on topic about it (or relatively on topic since it often talked about the DK franchise in general) could exist on today’s internet. You had artists, all sorts of different and unique takes on how Dixie Kong could be approached as a fighter, and many just bringing up their own personal stories about how or why they were fans of the character. It was not a replacement for a social circle like many other online spaces either, most people usually posted when they actually had something to contribute.
Also, there was a tolerance for differing viewpoints and ideas. The most contentious of these for the Dixie Kong thread was whether she should or could work as an echo fighter. Even then, users generally had respect for one another even if they were in different camps in regards to this. The proprietor to the Dixie Kong thread,
This sort of environment proved to me that a non-toxic environment in relation to Smash or Nintendo is still possible on today’s internet. This was how an internet community should be. People with unique talents and perspectives coming together and sharing their passion together, and still having a respect for one another even if they have a different opinion on an aspect to that shared interest. Even though Dixie Kong was ultimately never added to Ultimate’s roster I am still thankful for the positive experience I had within that thread during my last few years with the Smash community.
A Brief Background for Who I Am
There are likely many of you that are reading this piece that have little idea as to who I am. In particular, I stopped being very active in speculation after 2018, and I made hardly any posts from the second half of 2015 to June 2018.
My history with Smash speculation and character support is a very long one, but I will only talk about the most important details.
I began my involvement with online Smash speculation and character support all the way back in 2001 a few months after the Melee unveil at E3 2001. I initially joined because I had a hope for Ridley making the roster for that title due to his appearance in the Melee unveil trailer. The basic foundation of what to expect with speculation, with fan expectations not being aligned with what ultimately ended up happening, manias pertaining to peculiar characters at certain points, and legit roster leaks being met with denial and vitriol. It was simply a preview of what was going to expand much more when Brawl was unveiled.
For the next epoch, Brawl speculation, I was at the forefront of speculation. It was in 2007 where I began regularly putting out long write ups in regards to speculation. I was even the first one to piece together the entirety of Brawl’s roster, as all of the legit leakers gave out an incomplete picture, and it was only through looking at how all the ones that were proven to be legit overlapped, that I was able to figure out Brawl’s 35 (or 39) character roster. I also was the first one to call the scrapped characters that still had folders within Brawl’s coding, “the Forbidden 7”.
I apologize if the previous paragraph came across as “boastful”, that was not my intention, but rather to provide context to my impact on the speculation community and just how far back this influence was. There are many who are now here that have little idea as to who I am, so I wanted to provide some anecdotes as to my work in the far past.
After Brawl’s release, I did five things: do extensive history lessons on the history of character support and speculation (I was one of the few speculators from the pre-Melee and first half of pre-Brawl that was still around), provide extensive analyses, do extensive character support for Ridley, extensive character support for Roy’s return, and do research into the desires of the Japanese side to the Smash fanbase.
With Sakurai seeming to give a definitive statement on Ridley as a playable fighter (it almost seemed like he would never become playable) in November 2014 and Roy confirmed to return for Smash 4 in June 2015, I basically left speculation in June 2015. I only made two posts after June 2015 and prior to April 2018.
I only returned in April 2018 a month after the Inkling teaser. I only made a few posts before the Ultimate unveil in June 2018. Ultimate’s unveil ended up fulfilling two of my dreams that I thought unlikely to ever happen, namely bringing back every single veteran and bringing in my single most wanted character for almost two decades, Ridley. At that point, I ended up back to being fully involved in Smash speculation and character support.
The August 2018 direct brought my hype to even further heights through the confirmation of the Belmonts (and the extensive Castlevania content in general), Dark Samus, and K. Rool being confirmed, as well as the confirmation nearly all of the prior stages to the series would be returning. It was shortly after this direct that I began to devote myself to doing character support for Dixie Kong. She was the one character I felt was most conspicuously absent from a roster as legendary as Ultimate’s, as well as the game character that meant a lot to me during my childhood that still was not on the roster (aside from Banjo & Kazooie, whom seemed impossible at the time).
When Ultimate released, I felt largely satisfied with the game and that it had fulfilled most of the desires that I had pertaining to Smash Bros. My activity during the DLC period was much less than it was during the second half of 2018. I was very happy to see Banjo & Kazooie happen. After 2019, I most relegated myself to making infrequent posts in the Dixie support thread as well as my own Pass 2 predictions topic (which ended up being mostly incorrect).
Overall, I am someone known for their very long legacy within the Smash Bros. speculation and character support community, and for making extensive essays on a myriad of different topics. The two primary characters I was known for supporting were Ridley and Roy. I also started extensively supporting Dixie Kong since 2018, although most of that was limited to her support thread.
At this point, I feel like I have lost most of my interest in doing character support and roster speculation. However, I still feel like I have ideas and essays to share with others….
Everyone Is Here: Everyone’s Stories
At the forefront of Roy support, I would constantly hear how Roy was a worthless addition for Smash Bros., and that they could not understand why anyone, much less an avid Fire Emblem fan, be a fan of him. Over the course of supporting Roy’s return for Smash, I also ended up becoming sympathetic to the supporters of other cut veterans, and hoped that somehow that they would get to enjoy their favorite Smash veteran returning one day as well.
There are many deep personal stories that people have in regards to the 89 playable characters on Ultimate’s legendary roster. I really want people to share their own personal stories and be able share just why any character on Ultimate’s roster, whether one of gaming’s biggest icons or ones that are largely forgotten are ones are dear to their heart.
There are many, many personal stories out there regarding each character on Ultimate’s legendary roster. One of my goals going forward is to find a personal story for every single character, from the likes of Link to the likes of Corrin. I would also like to extend this to people who were happy about a particular Mii costume, Assist Trophy appearance, and stage appearance or role. For myself for example, I was extremely pleasantly surprised about Pico’s World of Light role, and I would provide a personal story on why I like Pico so much, and why even though it was not a roster role, it still meant a lot to me.
Here are some of the people I already have in mind to explain their stories:
P Phoenix Douchebag : Simon
These are just a few of people that come to mind in regards to a certain character inclusion meaning a lot to someone in particular, I apologize if there are others out there that are strongly associated with a character already on the roster and you are not part of this “example list”. As to the examples given on this list, I am not sure whether they would be interested in sharing their stories about these characters, but I hope they do. To anyone else out there that wants to write their own particular personal story pertaining to a particular character on Ultimate’s roster, you are more than welcome. Just send me a private message about the character that means something personally to you.
I would also like to write about the speculation history pertaining to each character on Ultimate’s roster as well, but I cannot make a certain promise I can do it. I will chime in on a particular character’s speculation and character support backstory if I feel I have anything worthwhile to add.
In regards to when the stories have to be written, the truth is that you have plenty of time to write out your stories. I want to turn this into a regular series of sorts, so it would take years to build up a sizable amount of content.
The other reason why you do not have to get your own stories ready immediately (you can write them gradually over the course of months) ties in with my future plans that I want to do after speculation and character support. Back in the summer of 2018, after the August 2018 Ultimate direct, I started thinking about all of the characters on Ultimate’s roster to which meant something me to personally. Initially thinking about it, it was 25 characters. However, over the course of three years, it expanded to 30 and then 40.
For all of these characters, they would each have a series of essays about them. The character in question would be the common “glue” between all of the essays.
Here is an example of what a series of essays would look like for a particular character as part of this project would look like, and how the character in question would serve as the “umbrella” to which all of the essays fall under.
Bowser Jr. will be a part of this 40 character series. Here are the series of essays that I would compose as part of the Bowser Jr. “set”:
- A review and analysis of Bowser’s Fury (Bowser Jr. is the co-protagonist of this title)
- A review and analysis Bowser Jr.’s Journey (Bowser Jr. is the main protagonist of this title)
- History and analysis of Bowser Jr.
- History and analysis of the Koopalings
- A look at the history of the animosity between the fanbases of Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings and how it was eventually healed
- An essay on multiple characters existing within the same slot as “palette swaps” (like it does for characters like Bowser Jr., Olimar, Hero, and Steve).
- An analysis, history, and breakdown of the ESRB leak in regards to Smash 4 (Bowser Jr. was among the final characters leaked for Smash 4’s base roster)
- A history of the very high competition that always existed between various fanbases for potential Mario newcomers going back to pre-Melee to the very present.
As can be seen, each character might very well have a novella about them.
As mentioned earlier, these are 40 characters on Ultimate’s legendary roster that have some sort of personal meaning to me. It will take a very, very long time for me to get through every single one of these characters, and it will likely take at least one decade.
All of the major roster leaks would be covered as part of this series, as well as many different parts of speculation history in general. This is a personal passion project of mine, and it will take a very, very long time to complete. I am uncertain even what sort of format these essays will take, or where I will even host them.
I know it is difficult for many to read a large piece, so I am contemplating perhaps the video format (it has been suggested by a few others as well to me). However, if it were to be a video format, it would take probably at least two years before my first videos would be published. In the case of a video format, I would also narrate the personal stories of others and try to something special for each of them (like put particular music tracks from that character’s title at particular points in the story as well as put up nice artwork of that particular character at various points in the video).
The Decline of The Smash Community
The other reason for “Everyone’s Stories” is to carve out a nice little niche for the Smash fanbase in general free from much of the toxicity that exists today for most online entertainment medium fanbases.
It is no secret that the old mainstays for roster speculation and character support like SmashBoards and GameFAQs have heavily declined in users and activity since the Smash 4 epoch. Much of the activity these days are now on “mega platforms” such as Reddit, Twitter, Discord, and Youtube. For most of these platforms, character support and speculation is mostly done through memes and ****posts. Your own voice and ideas are drowned out in the massive void.
The only one of these platforms where an individual can make a difference and have their own unique ideas and speculation heard is YouTube, but even there it only really matters if your own channel has a large following (at least 5,000 subscribers) and good luck getting to that number with today’s algorithms.
GameFAQs’s Smash circle has basically degenerated into a sort of 4chan-lite except with usernames in terms of aggressiveness and general nonsense. Aside from that there is only ResetEra and SmashBoards in terms of traditional Smash speculation left. For the former, the site is notorious for how authoritarian it is and how just overbearing and petty the mod team there is.
For SmashBoards though, the decline has been a result of a few different factors. One is that traffic has generally flowed out of dedicated forums onto the “mega cities”. Another is that different aspects to the fanbase now have there needs met elsewhere. For example, SmashBoards used to have lots of active discussion for each of the characters on a particular title’s roster, now these subforums are basically ghost towns. Competitive discussion in general used to be extremely active on the site, now it is simply relegated to a single thread.
Most of SmashBoards activity these days actually pertaining to Smash (or at least during the past two years) has only been the DLC/newcomer discussion thread and the old Geno thread (which was extremely active due to devious reasons). Other character support threads remained slow even for third party characters were deemed likely at particular points during the DLC epoch.
Another reason is due to the aggressiveness and meanness of some of the most prominent users on this site. More deflating for those have complained about this to me is that nothing has been done about this and is usually dismissed as being “oh that is just how XXXXX is.” This sort of “cool kids can say and do whatever they want” mentality chased away many people. The demoralization that many feel when their opinion was mocked by by a "clique" or "cool kids" was a sizeable factor for why many gradually left this site. Regardless of their level of prominence, users should not be allowed to be nasty and condescending towards others and their opinions.
In general, this is a problem seen on many smaller sized forums, not just SmashBoards, where there is an “in-group” and everyone else, which is part of the reason why many have retreated to Discord servers and or go into the “mega cities”.
In general, I hate to say this but I think much of internet discourse has been homogenized in a bad way. The megacities have become horrific echo chambers where people aggressively compete for the best way to accrue the most praise possible (this is especially evident on Reddit). On both Twitter and Reddit (and anonymous spaces like 4chan), there is horrific dehumanization of individuals whom do not share the same views as the rest of the “crowd”. Heterodox thinking is increasingly shunned and marginalized on most of the megacities.
In general, almost every space on the internet is incredibly toxic in one way or another. Many people who are in their 30’s now could have been natural leaders and been shepherds in online circles towards the younger cohorts and making positive environments. Instead, I have mostly been seeing stunted people in most entertainment fanbases regardless of their age or time spent in these spaces. ResetEra has most of its user base over 30, yet are notorious for being one of the most backbiting, authoritarian, close-minded spaces for game discussion on the internet.
I have no idea what went wrong and why things have just deteriorated as opposed to getting better. My thinking was that people would mature as they got older and just guide the younger cohorts. Instead many of the older cohorts got nastier, while the younger ones got largely absorbed into the maelstroms that are the megacities.
Also, another thing I am critical of is the “like” system. I am not sure anyone else has noticed, but I have never “liked” a post on SmashBoards. I always thought it encouraged group think, cliques, and in general was a lazy way to show that you enjoyed a person’s content. It does take work to write out that you had a positive opinion on someone’s written work, but at the same time it is far personal as your words are those made by your own intellect and personality. With a “like” it simply one among many. One person’s own individual voice means far more than many likes in my opinion.
Some General Advice to Speculators And Character Support Fanbases Going Forward
I would also like to bestow a few words of advice to those who continue speculating and doing character support for Smash in the years ahead. There have been quite a few disturbing trends I have seen exasperate over the past decade in relation to speculation and character support, namely massive group think, an incredible thirst for leaks no matter how dubious, support for a particular character becoming one’s own primary personal identity and social circle, and believing a “leak” simply because it has their character of choice as part of it.
One of the biggest pratfalls for many character fanbases is the tendency to believe a “leak” if their character of choice is a part of it. As we getting further and further into the future, very believable fake leaks will be more and more common.
A notorious example of this was the “Grinch leak” where a banner was made of a whole bunch of characters that were both highly desired by the Smash fanbase as well as seen as likely in general. To many people, it seemed very likely to be “real” due to the quality of it and amount of effort necessary to fake it.
There have also been instances where people have had credible information in the past but later started making up fake information in order to increase support of their character of choice (a particular example of this was with loz getting multiple details over Ultimate’s unveil correct, but then making up a bunch of fake information in order for Skull Kid to have a massive increase in support).
Overall, a very important piece of advice for any character fanbase going forward is to naturally be very skeptical of any “leaks”, especially if they happen to mention their character of choice as being a part of the roster. I have seen fake “leaks” increasingly become more and more elaborate, and I expect that trend to continue for the next Smash title.
Please be extremely skeptical and do not give any of your mental or emotional energy towards trying to validate these “leaks”.
I must also stress to avoid falling into manias. Character support is not a replacement for a social circle. I would also advise that your own personal history with a character (especially playing some sort of title heavily featuring them) is vastly preferable over you getting excited over a character because others are or because they seem “likely”. Beware the bandwagons.
Please overall, try to find your own individual voices, and do not be afraid to speak out even if it is an opinion that runs contrary to what everyone else is saying.
What Is Truly Important
I have been a part of the online Smash speculation and character support for over 20 years at this point. I am someone that has gone from day dreaming about Smash when characters like Bowser, Wario, Diddy Kong, and Ganondorf were not yet a part of the roster, to a point where now almost half of the newcomers for the latest Smash title are third-party characters.
I had many dreams and hopes dashed and realized over the course of these past 20 years. The realization of Ridley as a fighter for the roster alone took nearly 20 years to happen. It was amazing to have seen not just Roy return, but every single veteran in the history to the franchise as well. Ultimate in general seemed to have realized nearly all of my hopes and dreams for Smash as a series, even some minor ones.
With all of this being said though, I want to say that in the end, getting your favorite character as part of Smash’s roster, even a character you might spending over a decade hoping for, is not as lasting an elation as you might believe it to be.
I can definitely say it is still surreal to be controlling Ridley in Ultimate, and I am still very grateful that he somehow miraculously made the roster. However, over the course of these 20 years, the things that truly mattered to me where something even more pertinent to me going forward.
It is about the friends I have made during my time being involved in speculation and character support. Some of these individuals, I am hoping to have lifelong friendships with in particular. Meeting these people were truly some of the most fulfilling aspects of speculation, and eclipse even the satisfaction of my longest running Smash dreams becoming a reality.
I feel that building these friendships and meeting these people were the true “victory” of my time with Smash speculation and character support. There are also quite a few people that I met that I value as acquaintances and enjoy sharing my thoughts and ideas with. I am really hoping I can continue communication with these individuals even though I plan to no longer be involved in character support and roster speculation going forward.
It was truly a blessing to meet these people. I just want to say that is not the number of friends you might have, but rather the quality. Gaining good friends is very rare in today’s world, and I think I was very fortunate to have made the connections I did.
Conclusion
Ultimate was such a legendary title. It gave me so many of the long running dreams I had hoped for in regards to Smash but thought to be very unlikely or virtually impossible. While there are still a few things that I would like to see in Smash Bros. that did not happen with Ultimate, the game in general granted most of what I had wanted to see.
Ridley was a legendary addition to me, as was bringing back every single veteran in the history of the Super Smash Bros. franchise. Many other additions meant a lot to me as well such as most stages being brought back, Castlevania getting extensive representation, and Banjo-Kazooie happening. Through the Assist Trophies, Mii costumes, and spirits it seems almost every sort of Nintendo character and many third-party franchises in general got some sort of recognition or consolation prize.
In general, Ultimate was a landmark title for myself. It is one of the very few games I can recall from at least from the past ten years that actually lived up to and exceeded my expectations. Ultimate was the Smash title I had always been dreaming about that miraculously became a reality.
I still want to make contributions relating to Smash, but not necessarily the future of Smash if that makes sense. I have a desire to talk about the past and share just what I love about particular content that exists in Ultimate and from prior installments in general. I am not sure how much of an interest there is in this though. Even if I decide to follow through on doing it, it will likely take years before the first content I make for it is finished.
The other important thing I am hoping for is for people to contribute their own personal stories about a particular character on Ultimate’s roster that has a personal meaning to them. It could even be a personal story about a stage, Mii costume, Assist Trophy, or music track that has some sort of significant meaning to you as an individual. I really want to highlight these stories, as I feel in the future, that if there are significant cuts going from Ultimate to the next Smash title, that the conventional belief will be that all of the cuts were “merited” and that they did not much meaning to be a part of Ultimate’s roster in the first place. I doubt I will be able to make much of a dent in this kind of thinking, but I hope to give a platform to those who have something personal to share on some aspect of Ultimate.
I have been an extensive writer for Smash speculation for nearly 15 years now. I am not sure how influential my works pertaining to Smash roster speculation and character support have been during that time, but I hope that I was a good influence overall to these communities. Thank you to all that read my works all throughout the years, or those that only started reading them within the past few years, or even those that just started reading now.
As Sakurai said earlier this year, “Everything must come to an end at some point.” Ultimate was a very special title to me personally. It was the title I dreamed about but never thought it could ever happen. It gave me 95% of the things I wanted to see for Smash in general. In comparison to previous Smash titles that concluded, I feel extremely satisfied and content.
I would have liked to have seen Dixie Kong as part of Ultimate’s legendary roster, and the roster does not quite feel “complete” for me without her being a part of it, but I think for my OWN (as in me in particular) personal desires, Ultimate is as good as it is going to get. I could easily see the next title jettisoning many of the veterans and stages I am particularly attached to. However, I am still extremely happy with how Ultimate turned out, and it fulfilled so many seemingly “impossible” dreams I had.
However, above else, I met so many wonderful people over the course of this 20 year journey. My best friends I have now I met as a result of my time doing speculation and character support. That was the greatest blessing of all for this journey and easily eclipsed even Ultimate’s really special realization.
Thank you to all who actually read this essay in its entirety. If you want to inquire about Everyone’s Stories or have some sort of personal comment you wish to share in regards to any part of this essay, please feel free to send me a private message. I look forward to hearing just what stories are out there.
Thank you very much. I am looking forward to one day working on this next endeavor, and although it will probably take me years before I finally get content out relating to it, I am excited to work on something that talks about what we love about something that already exists in Smash not what we hope about one day ends up being included in it.
Ultimate was a legendary title in many ways, and I want to celebrate this title in the years to come even though successive Smash titles will probably eclipse Ultimate in ways outside of roster and stage count. However, it will not just be me talking about what was so special about Ultimate’s content. It will be all of you. I want to hear your voices and give a platform to them. Even if only a handful of you are interested in it, I would still like to pursue it.
This now ends my “farewell” essay to Smash roster speculation and character support. I wish you all the best. Thank you and farewell. This was both ultimate and special.
As I said, I implore anyone that reads this to share their thoughts via a personal message. I am curious to hear what you think. I apologize for the length. Thank you very much for your time and patience. I am blessed to have met the people here that I have. You have helped me grow in many ways, and I am grateful for what I have learned and experienced during my 20 years as a participant in Smash speculation. I hope those who continue on will similarly be blessed with friendship and personal growth, and that your personal Smash desires (or at least some of them) are fulfilled in the future.
I agree with you the most on the centralization of the internet. I'm genuinely worried that Smashboards won't be alive for the next Smash game, because most of the users have wandered away to twitter and discord. I'd like to ensure a consistent user base, but I don't know what would do it.
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3BitSaurus
Smash Master
So, it's finally the dawn of the last day. For real, this time.
I'll probably leave until the "future speculation" thread opens, and even then I'll still be far less active than usual.
That said... what a wild ride it's been. Over 3 years. Absolutely insane that a Nintendo game got DLC support for this long, and I hope they repeat this pipeline at least come next Smash.
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
, fellow Banjo-Kazooie fans like
Evil Trapezium
, fellow SNK fans like
Sari
and people who introduced me to new stuff like
SharkLord
,
Wunderwaft
and
Ivander
. There's more, but I don't wanna make this any longer than it is already.
Now if you excuse me, time to go extinct for a while.
I'll probably leave until the "future speculation" thread opens, and even then I'll still be far less active than usual.
That said... what a wild ride it's been. Over 3 years. Absolutely insane that a Nintendo game got DLC support for this long, and I hope they repeat this pipeline at least come next Smash.
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
, fellow Banjo-Kazooie fans like
Evil Trapezium
, fellow SNK fans like
Sari
and people who introduced me to new stuff like
SharkLord
,
Wunderwaft
and
Ivander
. There's more, but I don't wanna make this any longer than it is already.Now if you excuse me, time to go extinct for a while.
Mamboo07
Smash Hero
Looks like this is the last day of speculation.
It's been 2 years since I joined this site, made new friends, posted cursed stuff and Kirby fan art, more new friends and speculating about characters for Smash.
Been so great...
It's been 2 years since I joined this site, made new friends, posted cursed stuff and Kirby fan art, more new friends and speculating about characters for Smash.
Been so great...
Rie Sonomura
fly octo fly
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2014
- Messages
- 19,698
- NNID
- RieSonomura
- Switch FC
- SW-4976-7649-4666
Just a reminder y’all can add me on discord or any other social media site in my signature. For discord, try to make it obvious who you are, either by name or PFP.
and also, I guess one last thought of mine is that I might be observing how Ultimate sells now that everything’s finished. Last I checked it’s been climbing up the ranks of best selling games since Sora
and also, I guess one last thought of mine is that I might be observing how Ultimate sells now that everything’s finished. Last I checked it’s been climbing up the ranks of best selling games since Sora
Metal Shop X
CHAINSAW POWEEEEEEEER
- Joined
- May 4, 2015
- Messages
- 26,849
- Location
- USA
- NNID
- Mao644
- 3DS FC
- 4339-3012-0905
- Switch FC
- SW-2905-0652-6700
Kazuya could have been the last fighter?
That's....honestly pretty weird to think about.
I think I would have been cool with it, buut really, i'm quite glad it ended with Sora instead.
That's....honestly pretty weird to think about.
I think I would have been cool with it, buut really, i'm quite glad it ended with Sora instead.
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Flyboy
Smash Hero
It's so funny how Kazuya being the final fighter would've been a huge hype bomb for me because I love Tekken and thought it was totally out of the running, but it's also funny to consider that the final Smash trailer would've been him cleaning up the bodies from the Sephiroth massacre. I'm glad we aren't subject to endless debates about how "Smash never ends on a high note".
This game truly is a miracle by all accounts. I'm glad I got to be part of it with all of you. Just serendipitous happening after serendipitous happening all coming together to create the game I never would have dared to dream about. Coming back to this forum helped fill a void in my life and kept my head above water during my darkest times. So a deep and heartfelt Thank You to absolutely everyone I ever talked with either here, in support threads, on Discord, in PMs.
I'll probably mostly be in Speed Weed's Battle Of AGES thread and the NASB thread, but I'll be around in my own little way.
This game truly is a miracle by all accounts. I'm glad I got to be part of it with all of you. Just serendipitous happening after serendipitous happening all coming together to create the game I never would have dared to dream about. Coming back to this forum helped fill a void in my life and kept my head above water during my darkest times. So a deep and heartfelt Thank You to absolutely everyone I ever talked with either here, in support threads, on Discord, in PMs.
I'll probably mostly be in Speed Weed's Battle Of AGES thread and the NASB thread, but I'll be around in my own little way.
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2001
- Messages
- 34,042
- Location
- Cull Hazard
- NNID
- Irene4
- 3DS FC
- 1203-9265-8784
- Switch FC
- SW-7567-8572-3791
Weird thing is, I remember talking to you via DM's. I dunno why I can't find your old name among my friend list. Weird. Anyway, friend request was sent under the name Irene.
Wunderwaft
Smash Master
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2019
- Messages
- 3,463
A well done essay, I know you said you don't like likes but I couldn't resist lolThis is my first time ever posting in the second iteration of the Ultimate Newcomer/DLC discussion thread. I have basically been in the background for speculation in regards to Pass 2. Of my predictions, they were mostly wrong, with the only two possibilities I had ended up happening being Steve and Sora.
Regardless, I am here to say I have a very important message to which I want to share with this community. I have been a part of this site for over 15 years. I have seen many things unfold during that time. I want to say I think I am basically done with speculation and character support. Do not get me wrong, there are still some additions that I would like to see happen, but I would say Ultimate has very much satisfied me.
However, I still want to write about Smash and its content, just not about speculation. I prepared a sort of farewell essay that gives me thoughts about the conclusion to Ultimate and my hopes for the future. My hope is that despite the length, that many of you will read it in its entirety. I absolutely encourage anyone who reads it to please send their thoughts and ideas about what I wrote as a personal message to me. I really want to hear the many stories that Ultimate has behind it.
Without further ado, here is my "farewell" essay:
IntroductionUltimate speculation has finally drawn to an end. This title in particular has been very poignant to me. It fulfilled many different things to which I thought unlikely to ever happen for a Smash title and also were personal dreams and hopes I had. The inclusion of Ridley (my single most wanted character for nearly 20 years) and bringing back the entire past roster were absolutely incredible to me personally, as were the inclusions of the Belmonts and Banjo & Kazooie. Heck, even non-roster inclusions such as most prior stages being brought back and Pico (my favorite F-Zero character) having a role beyond trophy/spirit, meant a lot to me.
In a recent column Sakurai made in Famitsu, he said, "Everything must come to an end at some point."( https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...ai_says_he_likes_the_idea_of_early_retirement Sakurai ) used this column to announce that he would retire his Famitsu column that he had been writing since 2003. Ultimate will not be the end for Smash, but I think Sakurai will likely to take a break from the franchise for a few years, especially after having worked nonstop on Smash for nearly a decade (development on Smash 4 began in early 2012).
At this point much of my interest in Smash speculation and character support is gone. There are a multitude of reasons for this. One is that I have far less free time than I did during prior Smash speculation epochs. Another is that I am getting older and gradually losing interest in many gaming things in general. Another reason is that the general dynamics for speculation have changed with the in-depth dives only really only being appreciated if you are a known Youtube personality. Platforms like Reddit and Twitter seem counter-intuitive for speculation to me, and the old mainstays like GameFAQs and SmashBoards have bled much of their userbase.
Another important thing about my depreciated interest is that Ultimate has basically given me most of what I had been hoping for in regards to Smash. Ultimate implemented many things I had wanted to see, but had always thought of as being very unlikely to ever happen. I am someone that had been following Smash even before the first installment was internationally released, and I have been involved in online roster speculation for 20 years now. To me, Ultimate feels like a culmination or rather a personal conclusion.
In general Ultimate was basically a "too good to be true" title that somehow ended up being real. There are some things that I wish ended up happening with Ultimate, but the thing is that as far as a Smash title goes in terms of being in line with my own personal desires and tastes, this is the best it will get (assuming Ultimate is not ported and built upon). At some point the journey has to end for myself.
By comparison, there are many others that are still waiting for their most wanted characters to debut in Smash or for it to take a direction that they want the series to go down (such as a single player mode that is similar to Subspace Emissary or a high focus on competitive gameplay). For many others here, their dream Smash has yet to be realized and it is what will be driving them going forward aside from particular characters that they want to see make it onto the roster.
Ultimate is likely the pinnacle in terms of character and stage count, but there are other directions Smash can taken that can take that can make them stand as tall as Ultimate has. For myself, though, Ultimate is what I was hoping for.
There are still a few things left that I would like to see, most notably Dixie Kong being a part of the roster (it is still peculiar how we are at nearly 90 characters, yet she is not part of them), however, overall I would say 95% of my personal desires for Smash Bros. have now been fulfilled.
For myself, the overwhelming bulk of my involvement during this speculation period was during the base game period. I made over 500 posts in 2018 alone. By comparison, I only made around 110 posts in 2019, and only 30 in 2020. I would say for Pass 2 most of my interest in speculating had been very depreciated. I would also say none of the Pass 2 characters in general I was personally hyped for, although of all the DLC characters in general, the only one that I was personally glad to see was Banjo & Kazooie. That being said I am still very happy about the additions that were made with the base roster. I would have satisfied even if there had been no DLC at all for Ultimate.
Ultimate Ending Is A Massive Milestone
I am not sure how many of you are aware of this, but Ultimate concluding is not just the end of Ultimate but also the end of the long cycle that began all the way back when Smash 4 was first announced in June 2011. In general, it seems as though Sakurai seems to view Smash 4 and Ultimate as a single development cycle. Sakurai quite explicitly stated this in one of this columns, and it was alluded to again during the Kazuya presentation to which he showed a short clip of every newcomer in Smash 4 to Ultimate beginning with Villager.
The development between Smash 4 to Ultimate was continuous. The project plan for Ultimate was completed in December 2015, the same month to which Corrin and Bayonetta were unveiled. Sakurai said he began development for Smash 4 soon after Kid Icarus Uprising was finished (which was early 2012), so he has been working on Smash for nearly a decade now.
Making Ultimate was also a “last request” from Iwata to Sakurai (Source: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2..._sakurai_and_he_doesnt_know_what_hell_do_next ) . Sakurai went over and beyond for Ultimate as a way to honor the deceased Iwata. I think without the particular gravity of Iwata passing soon after he made this request to Sakurai, it might have been possible Ultimate would not be as “ultimate” as it turned out to be.
Ultimate is also the culmination of what began starting with Smash 64 in 1999. It not only has the entire roster up until this current point, and almost all of the stages, but also almost the entire soundtrack for 64, Melee, Brawl, and Smash 4 as well.
Thoughts On Sora
I have barely played the Kingdom Hearts series, so I cannot say I have a personal affinity for the series and its main protagonist, Sora. With that being said, Sora was a fitting conclusion for Ultimate. The main motif of Ultimate going back to its formal unveil at E3 2018 was the “making the impossible possible”. Sora was a character long thought to be impossible due to the unique copyright situation for the character, and in particular being owned by Disney.
There was also the matter that a very important part of Kingdom Hearts is the crossover with Disney’s traditional animation properties. With Sakurai still being very hesitant to add non-game characters to Smash, many believed that adding Kingdom Hearts to Smash Bros. was very unfeasible, and if it was, that it would open the floodgates for non-gaming characters to be added to the roster for future Smash titles.
The revelation that Sora was the true winner to the Smash Ballot makes him the most fitting end to Ultimate in general with the consideration that the Smash Ballot was the basis to which Ultimate’s foundation was derived. Everyone Is Here, Ridley, King K. Rool, the Belmonts, Chrom, Dark Samus, and Banjo & Kazooie all could probably owe their inclusion in Ultimate due to their ballot performance.
There was something very poignant about Sakurai saying that he talked about the results to Iwata (which was probably only months or weeks before he died). Ultimate in general was made as a sort of last request from Iwata to Sakurai. I think with the addition of Sora to Ultimate in a way made Iwata’s last request finally fulfilled. Ultimate is a legendary title that is truly worthy of its moniker.
It is difficult to think of a character that could have beat out Sora in terms of being a bigger finish than he was. Master Chief might have been able to rival him in the West, but he is a pretty niche character outside of Western game markets. I think Sora is the one character that ties best with Ultimate’s unveil motif of making the impossible possible.
A Shout Out To The Dixie Kong Support Thread
I said this to the Dixie Kong support thread in the past, but I was amazed how a cozy and supportive online community that is actually on topic about it (or relatively on topic since it often talked about the DK franchise in general) could exist on today’s internet. You had artists, all sorts of different and unique takes on how Dixie Kong could be approached as a fighter, and many just bringing up their own personal stories about how or why they were fans of the character. It was not a replacement for a social circle like many other online spaces either, most people usually posted when they actually had something to contribute.
Also, there was a tolerance for differing viewpoints and ideas. The most contentious of these for the Dixie Kong thread was whether she should or could work as an echo fighter. Even then, users generally had respect for one another even if they were in different camps in regards to this. The proprietor to the Dixie Kong thread,
This sort of environment proved to me that a non-toxic environment in relation to Smash or Nintendo is still possible on today’s internet. This was how an internet community should be. People with unique talents and perspectives coming together and sharing their passion together, and still having a respect for one another even if they have a different opinion on an aspect to that shared interest. Even though Dixie Kong was ultimately never added to Ultimate’s roster I am still thankful for the positive experience I had within that thread during my last few years with the Smash community.
A Brief Background for Who I Am
There are likely many of you that are reading this piece that have little idea as to who I am. In particular, I stopped being very active in speculation after 2018, and I made hardly any posts from the second half of 2015 to June 2018.
My history with Smash speculation and character support is a very long one, but I will only talk about the most important details.
I began my involvement with online Smash speculation and character support all the way back in 2001 a few months after the Melee unveil at E3 2001. I initially joined because I had a hope for Ridley making the roster for that title due to his appearance in the Melee unveil trailer. The basic foundation of what to expect with speculation, with fan expectations not being aligned with what ultimately ended up happening, manias pertaining to peculiar characters at certain points, and legit roster leaks being met with denial and vitriol. It was simply a preview of what was going to expand much more when Brawl was unveiled.
For the next epoch, Brawl speculation, I was at the forefront of speculation. It was in 2007 where I began regularly putting out long write ups in regards to speculation. I was even the first one to piece together the entirety of Brawl’s roster, as all of the legit leakers gave out an incomplete picture, and it was only through looking at how all the ones that were proven to be legit overlapped, that I was able to figure out Brawl’s 35 (or 39) character roster. I also was the first one to call the scrapped characters that still had folders within Brawl’s coding, “the Forbidden 7”.
I apologize if the previous paragraph came across as “boastful”, that was not my intention, but rather to provide context to my impact on the speculation community and just how far back this influence was. There are many who are now here that have little idea as to who I am, so I wanted to provide some anecdotes as to my work in the far past.
After Brawl’s release, I did five things: do extensive history lessons on the history of character support and speculation (I was one of the few speculators from the pre-Melee and first half of pre-Brawl that was still around), provide extensive analyses, do extensive character support for Ridley, extensive character support for Roy’s return, and do research into the desires of the Japanese side to the Smash fanbase.
With Sakurai seeming to give a definitive statement on Ridley as a playable fighter (it almost seemed like he would never become playable) in November 2014 and Roy confirmed to return for Smash 4 in June 2015, I basically left speculation in June 2015. I only made two posts after June 2015 and prior to April 2018.
I only returned in April 2018 a month after the Inkling teaser. I only made a few posts before the Ultimate unveil in June 2018. Ultimate’s unveil ended up fulfilling two of my dreams that I thought unlikely to ever happen, namely bringing back every single veteran and bringing in my single most wanted character for almost two decades, Ridley. At that point, I ended up back to being fully involved in Smash speculation and character support.
The August 2018 direct brought my hype to even further heights through the confirmation of the Belmonts (and the extensive Castlevania content in general), Dark Samus, and K. Rool being confirmed, as well as the confirmation nearly all of the prior stages to the series would be returning. It was shortly after this direct that I began to devote myself to doing character support for Dixie Kong. She was the one character I felt was most conspicuously absent from a roster as legendary as Ultimate’s, as well as the game character that meant a lot to me during my childhood that still was not on the roster (aside from Banjo & Kazooie, whom seemed impossible at the time).
When Ultimate released, I felt largely satisfied with the game and that it had fulfilled most of the desires that I had pertaining to Smash Bros. My activity during the DLC period was much less than it was during the second half of 2018. I was very happy to see Banjo & Kazooie happen. After 2019, I most relegated myself to making infrequent posts in the Dixie support thread as well as my own Pass 2 predictions topic (which ended up being mostly incorrect).
Overall, I am someone known for their very long legacy within the Smash Bros. speculation and character support community, and for making extensive essays on a myriad of different topics. The two primary characters I was known for supporting were Ridley and Roy. I also started extensively supporting Dixie Kong since 2018, although most of that was limited to her support thread.
At this point, I feel like I have lost most of my interest in doing character support and roster speculation. However, I still feel like I have ideas and essays to share with others….
Everyone Is Here: Everyone’s Stories
At the forefront of Roy support, I would constantly hear how Roy was a worthless addition for Smash Bros., and that they could not understand why anyone, much less an avid Fire Emblem fan, be a fan of him. Over the course of supporting Roy’s return for Smash, I also ended up becoming sympathetic to the supporters of other cut veterans, and hoped that somehow that they would get to enjoy their favorite Smash veteran returning one day as well.
There are many deep personal stories that people have in regards to the 89 playable characters on Ultimate’s legendary roster. I really want people to share their own personal stories and be able share just why any character on Ultimate’s roster, whether one of gaming’s biggest icons or ones that are largely forgotten are ones are dear to their heart.
There are many, many personal stories out there regarding each character on Ultimate’s legendary roster. One of my goals going forward is to find a personal story for every single character, from the likes of Link to the likes of Corrin. I would also like to extend this to people who were happy about a particular Mii costume, Assist Trophy appearance, and stage appearance or role. For myself for example, I was extremely pleasantly surprised about Pico’s World of Light role, and I would provide a personal story on why I like Pico so much, and why even though it was not a roster role, it still meant a lot to me.
Here are some of the people I already have in mind to explain their stories:
P Phoenix Douchebag : Simon
These are just a few of people that come to mind in regards to a certain character inclusion meaning a lot to someone in particular, I apologize if there are others out there that are strongly associated with a character already on the roster and you are not part of this “example list”. As to the examples given on this list, I am not sure whether they would be interested in sharing their stories about these characters, but I hope they do. To anyone else out there that wants to write their own particular personal story pertaining to a particular character on Ultimate’s roster, you are more than welcome. Just send me a private message about the character that means something personally to you.
I would also like to write about the speculation history pertaining to each character on Ultimate’s roster as well, but I cannot make a certain promise I can do it. I will chime in on a particular character’s speculation and character support backstory if I feel I have anything worthwhile to add.
In regards to when the stories have to be written, the truth is that you have plenty of time to write out your stories. I want to turn this into a regular series of sorts, so it would take years to build up a sizable amount of content.
The other reason why you do not have to get your own stories ready immediately (you can write them gradually over the course of months) ties in with my future plans that I want to do after speculation and character support. Back in the summer of 2018, after the August 2018 Ultimate direct, I started thinking about all of the characters on Ultimate’s roster to which meant something me to personally. Initially thinking about it, it was 25 characters. However, over the course of three years, it expanded to 30 and then 40.
For all of these characters, they would each have a series of essays about them. The character in question would be the common “glue” between all of the essays.
Here is an example of what a series of essays would look like for a particular character as part of this project would look like, and how the character in question would serve as the “umbrella” to which all of the essays fall under.
Bowser Jr. will be a part of this 40 character series. Here are the series of essays that I would compose as part of the Bowser Jr. “set”:
- A review and analysis of Bowser’s Fury (Bowser Jr. is the co-protagonist of this title)
- A review and analysis Bowser Jr.’s Journey (Bowser Jr. is the main protagonist of this title)
- History and analysis of Bowser Jr.
- History and analysis of the Koopalings
- A look at the history of the animosity between the fanbases of Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings and how it was eventually healed
- An essay on multiple characters existing within the same slot as “palette swaps” (like it does for characters like Bowser Jr., Olimar, Hero, and Steve).
- An analysis, history, and breakdown of the ESRB leak in regards to Smash 4 (Bowser Jr. was among the final characters leaked for Smash 4’s base roster)
- A history of the very high competition that always existed between various fanbases for potential Mario newcomers going back to pre-Melee to the very present.
As can be seen, each character might very well have a novella about them.
As mentioned earlier, these are 40 characters on Ultimate’s legendary roster that have some sort of personal meaning to me. It will take a very, very long time for me to get through every single one of these characters, and it will likely take at least one decade.
All of the major roster leaks would be covered as part of this series, as well as many different parts of speculation history in general. This is a personal passion project of mine, and it will take a very, very long time to complete. I am uncertain even what sort of format these essays will take, or where I will even host them.
I know it is difficult for many to read a large piece, so I am contemplating perhaps the video format (it has been suggested by a few others as well to me). However, if it were to be a video format, it would take probably at least two years before my first videos would be published. In the case of a video format, I would also narrate the personal stories of others and try to something special for each of them (like put particular music tracks from that character’s title at particular points in the story as well as put up nice artwork of that particular character at various points in the video).
The Decline of The Smash Community
The other reason for “Everyone’s Stories” is to carve out a nice little niche for the Smash fanbase in general free from much of the toxicity that exists today for most online entertainment medium fanbases.
It is no secret that the old mainstays for roster speculation and character support like SmashBoards and GameFAQs have heavily declined in users and activity since the Smash 4 epoch. Much of the activity these days are now on “mega platforms” such as Reddit, Twitter, Discord, and Youtube. For most of these platforms, character support and speculation is mostly done through memes and ****posts. Your own voice and ideas are drowned out in the massive void.
The only one of these platforms where an individual can make a difference and have their own unique ideas and speculation heard is YouTube, but even there it only really matters if your own channel has a large following (at least 5,000 subscribers) and good luck getting to that number with today’s algorithms.
GameFAQs’s Smash circle has basically degenerated into a sort of 4chan-lite except with usernames in terms of aggressiveness and general nonsense. Aside from that there is only ResetEra and SmashBoards in terms of traditional Smash speculation left. For the former, the site is notorious for how authoritarian it is and how just overbearing and petty the mod team there is.
For SmashBoards though, the decline has been a result of a few different factors. One is that traffic has generally flowed out of dedicated forums onto the “mega cities”. Another is that different aspects to the fanbase now have there needs met elsewhere. For example, SmashBoards used to have lots of active discussion for each of the characters on a particular title’s roster, now these subforums are basically ghost towns. Competitive discussion in general used to be extremely active on the site, now it is simply relegated to a single thread.
Most of SmashBoards activity these days actually pertaining to Smash (or at least during the past two years) has only been the DLC/newcomer discussion thread and the old Geno thread (which was extremely active due to devious reasons). Other character support threads remained slow even for third party characters were deemed likely at particular points during the DLC epoch.
Another reason is due to the aggressiveness and meanness of some of the most prominent users on this site. More deflating for those have complained about this to me is that nothing has been done about this and is usually dismissed as being “oh that is just how XXXXX is.” This sort of “cool kids can say and do whatever they want” mentality chased away many people. The demoralization that many feel when their opinion was mocked by by a "clique" or "cool kids" was a sizeable factor for why many gradually left this site. Regardless of their level of prominence, users should not be allowed to be nasty and condescending towards others and their opinions.
In general, this is a problem seen on many smaller sized forums, not just SmashBoards, where there is an “in-group” and everyone else, which is part of the reason why many have retreated to Discord servers and or go into the “mega cities”.
In general, I hate to say this but I think much of internet discourse has been homogenized in a bad way. The megacities have become horrific echo chambers where people aggressively compete for the best way to accrue the most praise possible (this is especially evident on Reddit). On both Twitter and Reddit (and anonymous spaces like 4chan), there is horrific dehumanization of individuals whom do not share the same views as the rest of the “crowd”. Heterodox thinking is increasingly shunned and marginalized on most of the megacities.
In general, almost every space on the internet is incredibly toxic in one way or another. Many people who are in their 30’s now could have been natural leaders and been shepherds in online circles towards the younger cohorts and making positive environments. Instead, I have mostly been seeing stunted people in most entertainment fanbases regardless of their age or time spent in these spaces. ResetEra has most of its user base over 30, yet are notorious for being one of the most backbiting, authoritarian, close-minded spaces for game discussion on the internet.
I have no idea what went wrong and why things have just deteriorated as opposed to getting better. My thinking was that people would mature as they got older and just guide the younger cohorts. Instead many of the older cohorts got nastier, while the younger ones got largely absorbed into the maelstroms that are the megacities.
Also, another thing I am critical of is the “like” system. I am not sure anyone else has noticed, but I have never “liked” a post on SmashBoards. I always thought it encouraged group think, cliques, and in general was a lazy way to show that you enjoyed a person’s content. It does take work to write out that you had a positive opinion on someone’s written work, but at the same time it is far personal as your words are those made by your own intellect and personality. With a “like” it simply one among many. One person’s own individual voice means far more than many likes in my opinion.
Some General Advice to Speculators And Character Support Fanbases Going Forward
I would also like to bestow a few words of advice to those who continue speculating and doing character support for Smash in the years ahead. There have been quite a few disturbing trends I have seen exasperate over the past decade in relation to speculation and character support, namely massive group think, an incredible thirst for leaks no matter how dubious, support for a particular character becoming one’s own primary personal identity and social circle, and believing a “leak” simply because it has their character of choice as part of it.
One of the biggest pratfalls for many character fanbases is the tendency to believe a “leak” if their character of choice is a part of it. As we getting further and further into the future, very believable fake leaks will be more and more common.
A notorious example of this was the “Grinch leak” where a banner was made of a whole bunch of characters that were both highly desired by the Smash fanbase as well as seen as likely in general. To many people, it seemed very likely to be “real” due to the quality of it and amount of effort necessary to fake it.
There have also been instances where people have had credible information in the past but later started making up fake information in order to increase support of their character of choice (a particular example of this was with loz getting multiple details over Ultimate’s unveil correct, but then making up a bunch of fake information in order for Skull Kid to have a massive increase in support).
Overall, a very important piece of advice for any character fanbase going forward is to naturally be very skeptical of any “leaks”, especially if they happen to mention their character of choice as being a part of the roster. I have seen fake “leaks” increasingly become more and more elaborate, and I expect that trend to continue for the next Smash title.
Please be extremely skeptical and do not give any of your mental or emotional energy towards trying to validate these “leaks”.
I must also stress to avoid falling into manias. Character support is not a replacement for a social circle. I would also advise that your own personal history with a character (especially playing some sort of title heavily featuring them) is vastly preferable over you getting excited over a character because others are or because they seem “likely”. Beware the bandwagons.
Please overall, try to find your own individual voices, and do not be afraid to speak out even if it is an opinion that runs contrary to what everyone else is saying.
What Is Truly Important
I have been a part of the online Smash speculation and character support for over 20 years at this point. I am someone that has gone from day dreaming about Smash when characters like Bowser, Wario, Diddy Kong, and Ganondorf were not yet a part of the roster, to a point where now almost half of the newcomers for the latest Smash title are third-party characters.
I had many dreams and hopes dashed and realized over the course of these past 20 years. The realization of Ridley as a fighter for the roster alone took nearly 20 years to happen. It was amazing to have seen not just Roy return, but every single veteran in the history to the franchise as well. Ultimate in general seemed to have realized nearly all of my hopes and dreams for Smash as a series, even some minor ones.
With all of this being said though, I want to say that in the end, getting your favorite character as part of Smash’s roster, even a character you might spending over a decade hoping for, is not as lasting an elation as you might believe it to be.
I can definitely say it is still surreal to be controlling Ridley in Ultimate, and I am still very grateful that he somehow miraculously made the roster. However, over the course of these 20 years, the things that truly mattered to me where something even more pertinent to me going forward.
It is about the friends I have made during my time being involved in speculation and character support. Some of these individuals, I am hoping to have lifelong friendships with in particular. Meeting these people were truly some of the most fulfilling aspects of speculation, and eclipse even the satisfaction of my longest running Smash dreams becoming a reality.
I feel that building these friendships and meeting these people were the true “victory” of my time with Smash speculation and character support. There are also quite a few people that I met that I value as acquaintances and enjoy sharing my thoughts and ideas with. I am really hoping I can continue communication with these individuals even though I plan to no longer be involved in character support and roster speculation going forward.
It was truly a blessing to meet these people. I just want to say that is not the number of friends you might have, but rather the quality. Gaining good friends is very rare in today’s world, and I think I was very fortunate to have made the connections I did.
Conclusion
Ultimate was such a legendary title. It gave me so many of the long running dreams I had hoped for in regards to Smash but thought to be very unlikely or virtually impossible. While there are still a few things that I would like to see in Smash Bros. that did not happen with Ultimate, the game in general granted most of what I had wanted to see.
Ridley was a legendary addition to me, as was bringing back every single veteran in the history of the Super Smash Bros. franchise. Many other additions meant a lot to me as well such as most stages being brought back, Castlevania getting extensive representation, and Banjo-Kazooie happening. Through the Assist Trophies, Mii costumes, and spirits it seems almost every sort of Nintendo character and many third-party franchises in general got some sort of recognition or consolation prize.
In general, Ultimate was a landmark title for myself. It is one of the very few games I can recall from at least from the past ten years that actually lived up to and exceeded my expectations. Ultimate was the Smash title I had always been dreaming about that miraculously became a reality.
I still want to make contributions relating to Smash, but not necessarily the future of Smash if that makes sense. I have a desire to talk about the past and share just what I love about particular content that exists in Ultimate and from prior installments in general. I am not sure how much of an interest there is in this though. Even if I decide to follow through on doing it, it will likely take years before the first content I make for it is finished.
The other important thing I am hoping for is for people to contribute their own personal stories about a particular character on Ultimate’s roster that has a personal meaning to them. It could even be a personal story about a stage, Mii costume, Assist Trophy, or music track that has some sort of significant meaning to you as an individual. I really want to highlight these stories, as I feel in the future, that if there are significant cuts going from Ultimate to the next Smash title, that the conventional belief will be that all of the cuts were “merited” and that they did not much meaning to be a part of Ultimate’s roster in the first place. I doubt I will be able to make much of a dent in this kind of thinking, but I hope to give a platform to those who have something personal to share on some aspect of Ultimate.
I have been an extensive writer for Smash speculation for nearly 15 years now. I am not sure how influential my works pertaining to Smash roster speculation and character support have been during that time, but I hope that I was a good influence overall to these communities. Thank you to all that read my works all throughout the years, or those that only started reading them within the past few years, or even those that just started reading now.
As Sakurai said earlier this year, “Everything must come to an end at some point.” Ultimate was a very special title to me personally. It was the title I dreamed about but never thought it could ever happen. It gave me 95% of the things I wanted to see for Smash in general. In comparison to previous Smash titles that concluded, I feel extremely satisfied and content.
I would have liked to have seen Dixie Kong as part of Ultimate’s legendary roster, and the roster does not quite feel “complete” for me without her being a part of it, but I think for my OWN (as in me in particular) personal desires, Ultimate is as good as it is going to get. I could easily see the next title jettisoning many of the veterans and stages I am particularly attached to. However, I am still extremely happy with how Ultimate turned out, and it fulfilled so many seemingly “impossible” dreams I had.
However, above else, I met so many wonderful people over the course of this 20 year journey. My best friends I have now I met as a result of my time doing speculation and character support. That was the greatest blessing of all for this journey and easily eclipsed even Ultimate’s really special realization.
Thank you to all who actually read this essay in its entirety. If you want to inquire about Everyone’s Stories or have some sort of personal comment you wish to share in regards to any part of this essay, please feel free to send me a private message. I look forward to hearing just what stories are out there.
Thank you very much. I am looking forward to one day working on this next endeavor, and although it will probably take me years before I finally get content out relating to it, I am excited to work on something that talks about what we love about something that already exists in Smash not what we hope about one day ends up being included in it.
Ultimate was a legendary title in many ways, and I want to celebrate this title in the years to come even though successive Smash titles will probably eclipse Ultimate in ways outside of roster and stage count. However, it will not just be me talking about what was so special about Ultimate’s content. It will be all of you. I want to hear your voices and give a platform to them. Even if only a handful of you are interested in it, I would still like to pursue it.
This now ends my “farewell” essay to Smash roster speculation and character support. I wish you all the best. Thank you and farewell. This was both ultimate and special.
As I said, I implore anyone that reads this to share their thoughts via a personal message. I am curious to hear what you think. I apologize for the length. Thank you very much for your time and patience. I am blessed to have met the people here that I have. You have helped me grow in many ways, and I am grateful for what I have learned and experienced during my 20 years as a participant in Smash speculation. I hope those who continue on will similarly be blessed with friendship and personal growth, and that your personal Smash desires (or at least some of them) are fulfilled in the future.
I do agree with you that users....can be a bit too mean and confrontational. There has been some cases where people acted snarky and aggressive to look cool in an internet forum and it negatively affects the community and how it gains more new users. I'm not sure how to fix this, and I honestly don't know if it will get better or worse in the next game, especially since cuts will be a heavy topic again.
Speaking of cuts, your point that people will justify and give merit to the cuts in the next game about how "X didn't deserve to be in Ultimate to begin with" is both a bit sad and worrying, yet at the same time I think it is inevitably going to happen with the sequel of a roster size of this large. The next game will no doubt be ballistic and violent when it comes to cut discussion, as people will fight tooth and nail for the vets they like.
It's sad to see you go since it always sucks to see old internet community sages leave but it's understandable. Hope you fare well in your next endeavor!
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Professor Pumpkaboo
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The world is t eanding, the threwd is just closing and a new one is even coming up after this, why is everyone acting like its The End?
ROBnWatch
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I wonder if, had they not gotten Sora, would they have swapped the order of the FP2 fighters? Perhaps make one of the larger 2 (Steve or Sephiroth) from the remaining 5 the last one. Not saying Kazuya couldn’t have Also carried the banner of “Last Ultimate Character” though.
And seeing as this is the last day for the thread, I’d like to reiterate how fun it’s been, regardless of how frequent (or not) I’ve been here. I’m glad it’s all over now, and I hope everyone can go on to enjoy everything Ultimate has to offer. It’s been a great ride, and despite none of my MWs getting in, I can’t say that I haven’t enjoyed every newcomer in some way. Hope to hear from everyone again at some point. Until then, happy Smashing, everyone!
And seeing as this is the last day for the thread, I’d like to reiterate how fun it’s been, regardless of how frequent (or not) I’ve been here. I’m glad it’s all over now, and I hope everyone can go on to enjoy everything Ultimate has to offer. It’s been a great ride, and despite none of my MWs getting in, I can’t say that I haven’t enjoyed every newcomer in some way. Hope to hear from everyone again at some point. Until then, happy Smashing, everyone!
GilTheGreat19
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He's about to reach out to Mario's hand for a handshake.
Then he one-hand yeets him into oblivion
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I ****ing knew Kazuya felt way more trad-"final DLC" than Sora (Which is to say, a B-lister with awesome gameplay.)
I was saying I thought FP11 could actually have been our "bonus fighter" all along.
My predictions may have mostly been a bust, but not this one, dammit.
DarthEnderX
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If we hadn't had Covid, and Sora hadn't been added to the end, then I'm betting:
Steve would have been the big 2020 E3 announcement.
Sephiroth would have been the 2021 E3 announcement. And also the finale character.
I'm betting Sephiroth got moved up several sports just to put some space between him and Sora. He's big enough to be a grand finale, and with him killing Galleem in his trailer, it even has that "full circle" feel.
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ProfPeanut
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I'd say the biggest contributing factor is that a small number of people will speak devotedly about a particular subject matter, while a much greater number of people will only have a light passing interaction with those matters. The old internet favored the former, while the current one uplifts the latter.
That's not to say that the old crowds are gone - I just think they've moved. Most old forums you'll care to find now consist of similar-looking user circles, whether they be old users familiar with each other or new ones making their own circles. Many just turn to making Discord servers for themselves, since it allows them to interact more casually and regularly with their friends in ways that would've been seen as spammy in a typical forum format, and I have a feeling that that's where most competitive talk and character support groups have disappeared into. Yet, it's impossible to read what happens there from the outside, and who knows how many of us wouldn't have gotten into internet forum talk if it was all just private clubs back then?
Still, it's definitely kind of sad to watch how the internet has developed. The IGN forums that I first entered the Smash internet speculation scene through are dead now, their only remnants a single thread in IGN's general Nintendo Gaming forum, with a completely different circle of regulars. But the old forum was a lively place in the Brawl days, a mix of regulars from all over the community spectrum, from mods to memers, all united by a reliable place to talk about Smash Bros. And when you enter that kind of community, you can't help but admire those who are at the top of that hierarchy- well-informed, willing to type a lot, never one to fall for nonsense, and always a source of good posts to be read and genuinely appreciated. Who wouldn't want to be like that kind of user?
And I think...maybe there was something dangerous in trying to emulate that kind of user after all, because it's a persona that only really works when you can remain on the objective right of things. And when you get older, you find that there's not so many things in the world as objective as a Smash Bros. inclusion, or video game facts--yet even those matters may not be the objective truths you'd hoped to be backing. Go back to the old days and tell people that both Sora and a Piranha Plant will make it into the roster before the likes of Toad or Skull Kid. They'd have every objective fact backing them up to blow you out on the matter.
Funny how life happens. Funny that we're now in a world where Waluigi is the most requested first-party character.
Ultimately, speculating about Smash Bros. and playing Smash Bros. are two completely different parts of enjoying Smash Bros. - and for most people, very little of the former actually carries over to the latter unless they really enjoy the character. The hype cycle of Brawl could not save it from its own meta, nor the way modders tore through its code in the decade that followed to make their own idealized versions of Smash. Even now, you can easily see people planning their own ideas to continue "speculating" by dreaming up what Smash 6 might be like - not an evolution so much as the same old thread dressed in new clothes. Because if they stopped speculating, what reason would they have to stick around here anymore?
(Don't ask me, though - I found a home in Make Your Move, and that's the only reason I'm around here anymore.)
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So Sora was sorta a last minute decision after all, I reckoned the negotiations may have swayed it like that. I had my thoughts on the sixth character being somewhat of a "bonus", so it lines up. Great character to end on.
But had Sora not been possible, I think Kazuya (or whoever they would have had last) would have been equally as great. The last trailer would have likely been adjusted accordingly to go along with it, the characters were chosen in 2019 after all.
But had Sora not been possible, I think Kazuya (or whoever they would have had last) would have been equally as great. The last trailer would have likely been adjusted accordingly to go along with it, the characters were chosen in 2019 after all.
Being such a Kazuya (Tekken in general) fangirl, I'm at least glad he didn't have to deal with the baggage of being the final fighter, being the "fighting game dude" and all.
Instead, the final fighter was one of the few characters that would be immune to such baggage. That's excellent.
Instead, the final fighter was one of the few characters that would be immune to such baggage. That's excellent.
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A wonderful essay as always, Chrono. I'm glad you were able to post it before the deadline. And thanks for the shout out! I won't have time to get the essay done today, sadly, but as per your request, a Chrom essay will indeed be coming.This is my first time ever posting in the second iteration of the Ultimate Newcomer/DLC discussion thread. I have basically been in the background for speculation in regards to Pass 2. Of my predictions, they were mostly wrong, with the only two possibilities I had ended up happening being Steve and Sora.
Regardless, I am here to say I have a very important message to which I want to share with this community. I have been a part of this site for over 15 years. I have seen many things unfold during that time. I want to say I think I am basically done with speculation and character support. Do not get me wrong, there are still some additions that I would like to see happen, but I would say Ultimate has very much satisfied me.
However, I still want to write about Smash and its content, just not about speculation. I prepared a sort of farewell essay that gives me thoughts about the conclusion to Ultimate and my hopes for the future. My hope is that despite the length, that many of you will read it in its entirety. I absolutely encourage anyone who reads it to please send their thoughts and ideas about what I wrote as a personal message to me. I really want to hear the many stories that Ultimate has behind it.
Without further ado, here is my "farewell" essay:
IntroductionUltimate speculation has finally drawn to an end. This title in particular has been very poignant to me. It fulfilled many different things to which I thought unlikely to ever happen for a Smash title and also were personal dreams and hopes I had. The inclusion of Ridley (my single most wanted character for nearly 20 years) and bringing back the entire past roster were absolutely incredible to me personally, as were the inclusions of the Belmonts and Banjo & Kazooie. Heck, even non-roster inclusions such as most prior stages being brought back and Pico (my favorite F-Zero character) having a role beyond trophy/spirit, meant a lot to me.
In a recent column Sakurai made in Famitsu, he said, "Everything must come to an end at some point."( https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...ai_says_he_likes_the_idea_of_early_retirement Sakurai ) used this column to announce that he would retire his Famitsu column that he had been writing since 2003. Ultimate will not be the end for Smash, but I think Sakurai will likely to take a break from the franchise for a few years, especially after having worked nonstop on Smash for nearly a decade (development on Smash 4 began in early 2012).
At this point much of my interest in Smash speculation and character support is gone. There are a multitude of reasons for this. One is that I have far less free time than I did during prior Smash speculation epochs. Another is that I am getting older and gradually losing interest in many gaming things in general. Another reason is that the general dynamics for speculation have changed with the in-depth dives only really only being appreciated if you are a known Youtube personality. Platforms like Reddit and Twitter seem counter-intuitive for speculation to me, and the old mainstays like GameFAQs and SmashBoards have bled much of their userbase.
Another important thing about my depreciated interest is that Ultimate has basically given me most of what I had been hoping for in regards to Smash. Ultimate implemented many things I had wanted to see, but had always thought of as being very unlikely to ever happen. I am someone that had been following Smash even before the first installment was internationally released, and I have been involved in online roster speculation for 20 years now. To me, Ultimate feels like a culmination or rather a personal conclusion.
In general Ultimate was basically a "too good to be true" title that somehow ended up being real. There are some things that I wish ended up happening with Ultimate, but the thing is that as far as a Smash title goes in terms of being in line with my own personal desires and tastes, this is the best it will get (assuming Ultimate is not ported and built upon). At some point the journey has to end for myself.
By comparison, there are many others that are still waiting for their most wanted characters to debut in Smash or for it to take a direction that they want the series to go down (such as a single player mode that is similar to Subspace Emissary or a high focus on competitive gameplay). For many others here, their dream Smash has yet to be realized and it is what will be driving them going forward aside from particular characters that they want to see make it onto the roster.
Ultimate is likely the pinnacle in terms of character and stage count, but there are other directions Smash can taken that can take that can make them stand as tall as Ultimate has. For myself, though, Ultimate is what I was hoping for.
There are still a few things left that I would like to see, most notably Dixie Kong being a part of the roster (it is still peculiar how we are at nearly 90 characters, yet she is not part of them), however, overall I would say 95% of my personal desires for Smash Bros. have now been fulfilled.
For myself, the overwhelming bulk of my involvement during this speculation period was during the base game period. I made over 500 posts in 2018 alone. By comparison, I only made around 110 posts in 2019, and only 30 in 2020. I would say for Pass 2 most of my interest in speculating had been very depreciated. I would also say none of the Pass 2 characters in general I was personally hyped for, although of all the DLC characters in general, the only one that I was personally glad to see was Banjo & Kazooie. That being said I am still very happy about the additions that were made with the base roster. I would have satisfied even if there had been no DLC at all for Ultimate.
Ultimate Ending Is A Massive Milestone
I am not sure how many of you are aware of this, but Ultimate concluding is not just the end of Ultimate but also the end of the long cycle that began all the way back when Smash 4 was first announced in June 2011. In general, it seems as though Sakurai seems to view Smash 4 and Ultimate as a single development cycle. Sakurai quite explicitly stated this in one of this columns, and it was alluded to again during the Kazuya presentation to which he showed a short clip of every newcomer in Smash 4 to Ultimate beginning with Villager.
The development between Smash 4 to Ultimate was continuous. The project plan for Ultimate was completed in December 2015, the same month to which Corrin and Bayonetta were unveiled. Sakurai said he began development for Smash 4 soon after Kid Icarus Uprising was finished (which was early 2012), so he has been working on Smash for nearly a decade now.
Making Ultimate was also a “last request” from Iwata to Sakurai (Source: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2..._sakurai_and_he_doesnt_know_what_hell_do_next ) . Sakurai went over and beyond for Ultimate as a way to honor the deceased Iwata. I think without the particular gravity of Iwata passing soon after he made this request to Sakurai, it might have been possible Ultimate would not be as “ultimate” as it turned out to be.
Ultimate is also the culmination of what began starting with Smash 64 in 1999. It not only has the entire roster up until this current point, and almost all of the stages, but also almost the entire soundtrack for 64, Melee, Brawl, and Smash 4 as well.
Thoughts On Sora
I have barely played the Kingdom Hearts series, so I cannot say I have a personal affinity for the series and its main protagonist, Sora. With that being said, Sora was a fitting conclusion for Ultimate. The main motif of Ultimate going back to its formal unveil at E3 2018 was the “making the impossible possible”. Sora was a character long thought to be impossible due to the unique copyright situation for the character, and in particular being owned by Disney.
There was also the matter that a very important part of Kingdom Hearts is the crossover with Disney’s traditional animation properties. With Sakurai still being very hesitant to add non-game characters to Smash, many believed that adding Kingdom Hearts to Smash Bros. was very unfeasible, and if it was, that it would open the floodgates for non-gaming characters to be added to the roster for future Smash titles.
The revelation that Sora was the true winner to the Smash Ballot makes him the most fitting end to Ultimate in general with the consideration that the Smash Ballot was the basis to which Ultimate’s foundation was derived. Everyone Is Here, Ridley, King K. Rool, the Belmonts, Chrom, Dark Samus, and Banjo & Kazooie all could probably owe their inclusion in Ultimate due to their ballot performance.
There was something very poignant about Sakurai saying that he talked about the results to Iwata (which was probably only months or weeks before he died). Ultimate in general was made as a sort of last request from Iwata to Sakurai. I think with the addition of Sora to Ultimate in a way made Iwata’s last request finally fulfilled. Ultimate is a legendary title that is truly worthy of its moniker.
It is difficult to think of a character that could have beat out Sora in terms of being a bigger finish than he was. Master Chief might have been able to rival him in the West, but he is a pretty niche character outside of Western game markets. I think Sora is the one character that ties best with Ultimate’s unveil motif of making the impossible possible.
A Shout Out To The Dixie Kong Support Thread
I said this to the Dixie Kong support thread in the past, but I was amazed how a cozy and supportive online community that is actually on topic about it (or relatively on topic since it often talked about the DK franchise in general) could exist on today’s internet. You had artists, all sorts of different and unique takes on how Dixie Kong could be approached as a fighter, and many just bringing up their own personal stories about how or why they were fans of the character. It was not a replacement for a social circle like many other online spaces either, most people usually posted when they actually had something to contribute.
Also, there was a tolerance for differing viewpoints and ideas. The most contentious of these for the Dixie Kong thread was whether she should or could work as an echo fighter. Even then, users generally had respect for one another even if they were in different camps in regards to this. The proprietor to the Dixie Kong thread,
This sort of environment proved to me that a non-toxic environment in relation to Smash or Nintendo is still possible on today’s internet. This was how an internet community should be. People with unique talents and perspectives coming together and sharing their passion together, and still having a respect for one another even if they have a different opinion on an aspect to that shared interest. Even though Dixie Kong was ultimately never added to Ultimate’s roster I am still thankful for the positive experience I had within that thread during my last few years with the Smash community.
A Brief Background for Who I Am
There are likely many of you that are reading this piece that have little idea as to who I am. In particular, I stopped being very active in speculation after 2018, and I made hardly any posts from the second half of 2015 to June 2018.
My history with Smash speculation and character support is a very long one, but I will only talk about the most important details.
I began my involvement with online Smash speculation and character support all the way back in 2001 a few months after the Melee unveil at E3 2001. I initially joined because I had a hope for Ridley making the roster for that title due to his appearance in the Melee unveil trailer. The basic foundation of what to expect with speculation, with fan expectations not being aligned with what ultimately ended up happening, manias pertaining to peculiar characters at certain points, and legit roster leaks being met with denial and vitriol. It was simply a preview of what was going to expand much more when Brawl was unveiled.
For the next epoch, Brawl speculation, I was at the forefront of speculation. It was in 2007 where I began regularly putting out long write ups in regards to speculation. I was even the first one to piece together the entirety of Brawl’s roster, as all of the legit leakers gave out an incomplete picture, and it was only through looking at how all the ones that were proven to be legit overlapped, that I was able to figure out Brawl’s 35 (or 39) character roster. I also was the first one to call the scrapped characters that still had folders within Brawl’s coding, “the Forbidden 7”.
I apologize if the previous paragraph came across as “boastful”, that was not my intention, but rather to provide context to my impact on the speculation community and just how far back this influence was. There are many who are now here that have little idea as to who I am, so I wanted to provide some anecdotes as to my work in the far past.
After Brawl’s release, I did five things: do extensive history lessons on the history of character support and speculation (I was one of the few speculators from the pre-Melee and first half of pre-Brawl that was still around), provide extensive analyses, do extensive character support for Ridley, extensive character support for Roy’s return, and do research into the desires of the Japanese side to the Smash fanbase.
With Sakurai seeming to give a definitive statement on Ridley as a playable fighter (it almost seemed like he would never become playable) in November 2014 and Roy confirmed to return for Smash 4 in June 2015, I basically left speculation in June 2015. I only made two posts after June 2015 and prior to April 2018.
I only returned in April 2018 a month after the Inkling teaser. I only made a few posts before the Ultimate unveil in June 2018. Ultimate’s unveil ended up fulfilling two of my dreams that I thought unlikely to ever happen, namely bringing back every single veteran and bringing in my single most wanted character for almost two decades, Ridley. At that point, I ended up back to being fully involved in Smash speculation and character support.
The August 2018 direct brought my hype to even further heights through the confirmation of the Belmonts (and the extensive Castlevania content in general), Dark Samus, and K. Rool being confirmed, as well as the confirmation nearly all of the prior stages to the series would be returning. It was shortly after this direct that I began to devote myself to doing character support for Dixie Kong. She was the one character I felt was most conspicuously absent from a roster as legendary as Ultimate’s, as well as the game character that meant a lot to me during my childhood that still was not on the roster (aside from Banjo & Kazooie, whom seemed impossible at the time).
When Ultimate released, I felt largely satisfied with the game and that it had fulfilled most of the desires that I had pertaining to Smash Bros. My activity during the DLC period was much less than it was during the second half of 2018. I was very happy to see Banjo & Kazooie happen. After 2019, I most relegated myself to making infrequent posts in the Dixie support thread as well as my own Pass 2 predictions topic (which ended up being mostly incorrect).
Overall, I am someone known for their very long legacy within the Smash Bros. speculation and character support community, and for making extensive essays on a myriad of different topics. The two primary characters I was known for supporting were Ridley and Roy. I also started extensively supporting Dixie Kong since 2018, although most of that was limited to her support thread.
At this point, I feel like I have lost most of my interest in doing character support and roster speculation. However, I still feel like I have ideas and essays to share with others….
Everyone Is Here: Everyone’s Stories
At the forefront of Roy support, I would constantly hear how Roy was a worthless addition for Smash Bros., and that they could not understand why anyone, much less an avid Fire Emblem fan, be a fan of him. Over the course of supporting Roy’s return for Smash, I also ended up becoming sympathetic to the supporters of other cut veterans, and hoped that somehow that they would get to enjoy their favorite Smash veteran returning one day as well.
There are many deep personal stories that people have in regards to the 89 playable characters on Ultimate’s legendary roster. I really want people to share their own personal stories and be able share just why any character on Ultimate’s roster, whether one of gaming’s biggest icons or ones that are largely forgotten are ones are dear to their heart.
There are many, many personal stories out there regarding each character on Ultimate’s legendary roster. One of my goals going forward is to find a personal story for every single character, from the likes of Link to the likes of Corrin. I would also like to extend this to people who were happy about a particular Mii costume, Assist Trophy appearance, and stage appearance or role. For myself for example, I was extremely pleasantly surprised about Pico’s World of Light role, and I would provide a personal story on why I like Pico so much, and why even though it was not a roster role, it still meant a lot to me.
Here are some of the people I already have in mind to explain their stories:
P Phoenix Douchebag : Simon
These are just a few of people that come to mind in regards to a certain character inclusion meaning a lot to someone in particular, I apologize if there are others out there that are strongly associated with a character already on the roster and you are not part of this “example list”. As to the examples given on this list, I am not sure whether they would be interested in sharing their stories about these characters, but I hope they do. To anyone else out there that wants to write their own particular personal story pertaining to a particular character on Ultimate’s roster, you are more than welcome. Just send me a private message about the character that means something personally to you.
I would also like to write about the speculation history pertaining to each character on Ultimate’s roster as well, but I cannot make a certain promise I can do it. I will chime in on a particular character’s speculation and character support backstory if I feel I have anything worthwhile to add.
In regards to when the stories have to be written, the truth is that you have plenty of time to write out your stories. I want to turn this into a regular series of sorts, so it would take years to build up a sizable amount of content.
The other reason why you do not have to get your own stories ready immediately (you can write them gradually over the course of months) ties in with my future plans that I want to do after speculation and character support. Back in the summer of 2018, after the August 2018 Ultimate direct, I started thinking about all of the characters on Ultimate’s roster to which meant something me to personally. Initially thinking about it, it was 25 characters. However, over the course of three years, it expanded to 30 and then 40.
For all of these characters, they would each have a series of essays about them. The character in question would be the common “glue” between all of the essays.
Here is an example of what a series of essays would look like for a particular character as part of this project would look like, and how the character in question would serve as the “umbrella” to which all of the essays fall under.
Bowser Jr. will be a part of this 40 character series. Here are the series of essays that I would compose as part of the Bowser Jr. “set”:
- A review and analysis of Bowser’s Fury (Bowser Jr. is the co-protagonist of this title)
- A review and analysis Bowser Jr.’s Journey (Bowser Jr. is the main protagonist of this title)
- History and analysis of Bowser Jr.
- History and analysis of the Koopalings
- A look at the history of the animosity between the fanbases of Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings and how it was eventually healed
- An essay on multiple characters existing within the same slot as “palette swaps” (like it does for characters like Bowser Jr., Olimar, Hero, and Steve).
- An analysis, history, and breakdown of the ESRB leak in regards to Smash 4 (Bowser Jr. was among the final characters leaked for Smash 4’s base roster)
- A history of the very high competition that always existed between various fanbases for potential Mario newcomers going back to pre-Melee to the very present.
As can be seen, each character might very well have a novella about them.
As mentioned earlier, these are 40 characters on Ultimate’s legendary roster that have some sort of personal meaning to me. It will take a very, very long time for me to get through every single one of these characters, and it will likely take at least one decade.
All of the major roster leaks would be covered as part of this series, as well as many different parts of speculation history in general. This is a personal passion project of mine, and it will take a very, very long time to complete. I am uncertain even what sort of format these essays will take, or where I will even host them.
I know it is difficult for many to read a large piece, so I am contemplating perhaps the video format (it has been suggested by a few others as well to me). However, if it were to be a video format, it would take probably at least two years before my first videos would be published. In the case of a video format, I would also narrate the personal stories of others and try to something special for each of them (like put particular music tracks from that character’s title at particular points in the story as well as put up nice artwork of that particular character at various points in the video).
The Decline of The Smash Community
The other reason for “Everyone’s Stories” is to carve out a nice little niche for the Smash fanbase in general free from much of the toxicity that exists today for most online entertainment medium fanbases.
It is no secret that the old mainstays for roster speculation and character support like SmashBoards and GameFAQs have heavily declined in users and activity since the Smash 4 epoch. Much of the activity these days are now on “mega platforms” such as Reddit, Twitter, Discord, and Youtube. For most of these platforms, character support and speculation is mostly done through memes and ****posts. Your own voice and ideas are drowned out in the massive void.
The only one of these platforms where an individual can make a difference and have their own unique ideas and speculation heard is YouTube, but even there it only really matters if your own channel has a large following (at least 5,000 subscribers) and good luck getting to that number with today’s algorithms.
GameFAQs’s Smash circle has basically degenerated into a sort of 4chan-lite except with usernames in terms of aggressiveness and general nonsense. Aside from that there is only ResetEra and SmashBoards in terms of traditional Smash speculation left. For the former, the site is notorious for how authoritarian it is and how just overbearing and petty the mod team there is.
For SmashBoards though, the decline has been a result of a few different factors. One is that traffic has generally flowed out of dedicated forums onto the “mega cities”. Another is that different aspects to the fanbase now have there needs met elsewhere. For example, SmashBoards used to have lots of active discussion for each of the characters on a particular title’s roster, now these subforums are basically ghost towns. Competitive discussion in general used to be extremely active on the site, now it is simply relegated to a single thread.
Most of SmashBoards activity these days actually pertaining to Smash (or at least during the past two years) has only been the DLC/newcomer discussion thread and the old Geno thread (which was extremely active due to devious reasons). Other character support threads remained slow even for third party characters were deemed likely at particular points during the DLC epoch.
Another reason is due to the aggressiveness and meanness of some of the most prominent users on this site. More deflating for those have complained about this to me is that nothing has been done about this and is usually dismissed as being “oh that is just how XXXXX is.” This sort of “cool kids can say and do whatever they want” mentality chased away many people. The demoralization that many feel when their opinion was mocked by by a "clique" or "cool kids" was a sizeable factor for why many gradually left this site. Regardless of their level of prominence, users should not be allowed to be nasty and condescending towards others and their opinions.
In general, this is a problem seen on many smaller sized forums, not just SmashBoards, where there is an “in-group” and everyone else, which is part of the reason why many have retreated to Discord servers and or go into the “mega cities”.
In general, I hate to say this but I think much of internet discourse has been homogenized in a bad way. The megacities have become horrific echo chambers where people aggressively compete for the best way to accrue the most praise possible (this is especially evident on Reddit). On both Twitter and Reddit (and anonymous spaces like 4chan), there is horrific dehumanization of individuals whom do not share the same views as the rest of the “crowd”. Heterodox thinking is increasingly shunned and marginalized on most of the megacities.
In general, almost every space on the internet is incredibly toxic in one way or another. Many people who are in their 30’s now could have been natural leaders and been shepherds in online circles towards the younger cohorts and making positive environments. Instead, I have mostly been seeing stunted people in most entertainment fanbases regardless of their age or time spent in these spaces. ResetEra has most of its user base over 30, yet are notorious for being one of the most backbiting, authoritarian, close-minded spaces for game discussion on the internet.
I have no idea what went wrong and why things have just deteriorated as opposed to getting better. My thinking was that people would mature as they got older and just guide the younger cohorts. Instead many of the older cohorts got nastier, while the younger ones got largely absorbed into the maelstroms that are the megacities.
Also, another thing I am critical of is the “like” system. I am not sure anyone else has noticed, but I have never “liked” a post on SmashBoards. I always thought it encouraged group think, cliques, and in general was a lazy way to show that you enjoyed a person’s content. It does take work to write out that you had a positive opinion on someone’s written work, but at the same time it is far personal as your words are those made by your own intellect and personality. With a “like” it simply one among many. One person’s own individual voice means far more than many likes in my opinion.
Some General Advice to Speculators And Character Support Fanbases Going Forward
I would also like to bestow a few words of advice to those who continue speculating and doing character support for Smash in the years ahead. There have been quite a few disturbing trends I have seen exasperate over the past decade in relation to speculation and character support, namely massive group think, an incredible thirst for leaks no matter how dubious, support for a particular character becoming one’s own primary personal identity and social circle, and believing a “leak” simply because it has their character of choice as part of it.
One of the biggest pratfalls for many character fanbases is the tendency to believe a “leak” if their character of choice is a part of it. As we getting further and further into the future, very believable fake leaks will be more and more common.
A notorious example of this was the “Grinch leak” where a banner was made of a whole bunch of characters that were both highly desired by the Smash fanbase as well as seen as likely in general. To many people, it seemed very likely to be “real” due to the quality of it and amount of effort necessary to fake it.
There have also been instances where people have had credible information in the past but later started making up fake information in order to increase support of their character of choice (a particular example of this was with loz getting multiple details over Ultimate’s unveil correct, but then making up a bunch of fake information in order for Skull Kid to have a massive increase in support).
Overall, a very important piece of advice for any character fanbase going forward is to naturally be very skeptical of any “leaks”, especially if they happen to mention their character of choice as being a part of the roster. I have seen fake “leaks” increasingly become more and more elaborate, and I expect that trend to continue for the next Smash title.
Please be extremely skeptical and do not give any of your mental or emotional energy towards trying to validate these “leaks”.
I must also stress to avoid falling into manias. Character support is not a replacement for a social circle. I would also advise that your own personal history with a character (especially playing some sort of title heavily featuring them) is vastly preferable over you getting excited over a character because others are or because they seem “likely”. Beware the bandwagons.
Please overall, try to find your own individual voices, and do not be afraid to speak out even if it is an opinion that runs contrary to what everyone else is saying.
What Is Truly Important
I have been a part of the online Smash speculation and character support for over 20 years at this point. I am someone that has gone from day dreaming about Smash when characters like Bowser, Wario, Diddy Kong, and Ganondorf were not yet a part of the roster, to a point where now almost half of the newcomers for the latest Smash title are third-party characters.
I had many dreams and hopes dashed and realized over the course of these past 20 years. The realization of Ridley as a fighter for the roster alone took nearly 20 years to happen. It was amazing to have seen not just Roy return, but every single veteran in the history to the franchise as well. Ultimate in general seemed to have realized nearly all of my hopes and dreams for Smash as a series, even some minor ones.
With all of this being said though, I want to say that in the end, getting your favorite character as part of Smash’s roster, even a character you might spending over a decade hoping for, is not as lasting an elation as you might believe it to be.
I can definitely say it is still surreal to be controlling Ridley in Ultimate, and I am still very grateful that he somehow miraculously made the roster. However, over the course of these 20 years, the things that truly mattered to me where something even more pertinent to me going forward.
It is about the friends I have made during my time being involved in speculation and character support. Some of these individuals, I am hoping to have lifelong friendships with in particular. Meeting these people were truly some of the most fulfilling aspects of speculation, and eclipse even the satisfaction of my longest running Smash dreams becoming a reality.
I feel that building these friendships and meeting these people were the true “victory” of my time with Smash speculation and character support. There are also quite a few people that I met that I value as acquaintances and enjoy sharing my thoughts and ideas with. I am really hoping I can continue communication with these individuals even though I plan to no longer be involved in character support and roster speculation going forward.
It was truly a blessing to meet these people. I just want to say that is not the number of friends you might have, but rather the quality. Gaining good friends is very rare in today’s world, and I think I was very fortunate to have made the connections I did.
Conclusion
Ultimate was such a legendary title. It gave me so many of the long running dreams I had hoped for in regards to Smash but thought to be very unlikely or virtually impossible. While there are still a few things that I would like to see in Smash Bros. that did not happen with Ultimate, the game in general granted most of what I had wanted to see.
Ridley was a legendary addition to me, as was bringing back every single veteran in the history of the Super Smash Bros. franchise. Many other additions meant a lot to me as well such as most stages being brought back, Castlevania getting extensive representation, and Banjo-Kazooie happening. Through the Assist Trophies, Mii costumes, and spirits it seems almost every sort of Nintendo character and many third-party franchises in general got some sort of recognition or consolation prize.
In general, Ultimate was a landmark title for myself. It is one of the very few games I can recall from at least from the past ten years that actually lived up to and exceeded my expectations. Ultimate was the Smash title I had always been dreaming about that miraculously became a reality.
I still want to make contributions relating to Smash, but not necessarily the future of Smash if that makes sense. I have a desire to talk about the past and share just what I love about particular content that exists in Ultimate and from prior installments in general. I am not sure how much of an interest there is in this though. Even if I decide to follow through on doing it, it will likely take years before the first content I make for it is finished.
The other important thing I am hoping for is for people to contribute their own personal stories about a particular character on Ultimate’s roster that has a personal meaning to them. It could even be a personal story about a stage, Mii costume, Assist Trophy, or music track that has some sort of significant meaning to you as an individual. I really want to highlight these stories, as I feel in the future, that if there are significant cuts going from Ultimate to the next Smash title, that the conventional belief will be that all of the cuts were “merited” and that they did not much meaning to be a part of Ultimate’s roster in the first place. I doubt I will be able to make much of a dent in this kind of thinking, but I hope to give a platform to those who have something personal to share on some aspect of Ultimate.
I have been an extensive writer for Smash speculation for nearly 15 years now. I am not sure how influential my works pertaining to Smash roster speculation and character support have been during that time, but I hope that I was a good influence overall to these communities. Thank you to all that read my works all throughout the years, or those that only started reading them within the past few years, or even those that just started reading now.
As Sakurai said earlier this year, “Everything must come to an end at some point.” Ultimate was a very special title to me personally. It was the title I dreamed about but never thought it could ever happen. It gave me 95% of the things I wanted to see for Smash in general. In comparison to previous Smash titles that concluded, I feel extremely satisfied and content.
I would have liked to have seen Dixie Kong as part of Ultimate’s legendary roster, and the roster does not quite feel “complete” for me without her being a part of it, but I think for my OWN (as in me in particular) personal desires, Ultimate is as good as it is going to get. I could easily see the next title jettisoning many of the veterans and stages I am particularly attached to. However, I am still extremely happy with how Ultimate turned out, and it fulfilled so many seemingly “impossible” dreams I had.
However, above else, I met so many wonderful people over the course of this 20 year journey. My best friends I have now I met as a result of my time doing speculation and character support. That was the greatest blessing of all for this journey and easily eclipsed even Ultimate’s really special realization.
Thank you to all who actually read this essay in its entirety. If you want to inquire about Everyone’s Stories or have some sort of personal comment you wish to share in regards to any part of this essay, please feel free to send me a private message. I look forward to hearing just what stories are out there.
Thank you very much. I am looking forward to one day working on this next endeavor, and although it will probably take me years before I finally get content out relating to it, I am excited to work on something that talks about what we love about something that already exists in Smash not what we hope about one day ends up being included in it.
Ultimate was a legendary title in many ways, and I want to celebrate this title in the years to come even though successive Smash titles will probably eclipse Ultimate in ways outside of roster and stage count. However, it will not just be me talking about what was so special about Ultimate’s content. It will be all of you. I want to hear your voices and give a platform to them. Even if only a handful of you are interested in it, I would still like to pursue it.
This now ends my “farewell” essay to Smash roster speculation and character support. I wish you all the best. Thank you and farewell. This was both ultimate and special.
As I said, I implore anyone that reads this to share their thoughts via a personal message. I am curious to hear what you think. I apologize for the length. Thank you very much for your time and patience. I am blessed to have met the people here that I have. You have helped me grow in many ways, and I am grateful for what I have learned and experienced during my 20 years as a participant in Smash speculation. I hope those who continue on will similarly be blessed with friendship and personal growth, and that your personal Smash desires (or at least some of them) are fulfilled in the future.
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