Geno (♥♪!?): Return of the Starsend Savior

[MissingGlitch]

Yeah SMH Freddy Fazbear is obviously the Pizza rep.

"Freddy Fazbear shocks the competition!"

In an unprecedented move, Sakurai makes a triple character. Freddy Fazbear, The Noid, and Pizza Tower Guy.

 

[Deleted member]

In an unprecedented move, Sakurai makes a triple character. Freddy Fazbear, The Noid, and Pizza Tower Guy.

Like, as some kind of hideous amalgamation or are they like... Pizzamon Trainer?

 

[MissingGlitch]

Like, as some kind of hideous amalgamation or are they like... Pizzamon Trainer?

Yes, yes, and yes.

 

[Spatulo]

Yes, yes, and yes.

It’s all three together and they horrifically morph into each other

 

[Dynamic Worlok]

Yeah SMH Freddy Fazbear is obviously the Pizza rep.

"Freddy Fazbear shocks the competition!"

The sad part is that people will actually think this. Because everything sakurai says or does has to tie back to smash, somehow. I can see it now "sakurai talked about pizza in the latest famitsu column. So... Fnaf confirmed for smash?"

 

[ColtonS25]

Lol this thread has been, uhhh, pretty interesting lately.

Meming is the final stage of speculation. After which, this thread will collapse in on itself and proceed to explode, taking SmashBoards with it. Speculation threads were never meant to survive this long.

Only Sakurai can save us now.

 

[Deleted member]

Meming is the final stage of speculation. After which, this thread will collapse in on itself and proceed to explode, taking SmashBoards with it. Speculation threads were never meant to survive this long.

Only Sakurai can save us now.

A fitting death for such a large star.

 

[SSGuy]

Peppino and the Noise in Smash would be too good. From slamming cheese bois to Smashing triple A fools

 

[ForsakenM]

Did someone say Mario and Luigi without their mustaches?
View attachment 249806

Why does this remind me of Leisure Suit Larry?

 

[RingJ5]

Do you really think Nintendo said "ok Sakurai you have to pick a rep that belongs to Microsoft"? "Hey Sakurai, you know what company everyone knows? SNK."? Dragon Quest, again, is the safest bet in the list that Nintendo said "this is what we're doing" and Sakurai ran with it to the extreme, especially since we have shaky evidence that Dragon Quest might have been intended to be base game content. Everything else doesn't add up as a Nintendo pick.

A long time ago I said that the most likely scenario is that Nintendo had (and likely still has) a focus group for Smash DLC and I still believe that's the case. It makes more sense than an exhaustive list or Sakurai getting an email with a name in it and deciding if he likes it. A team of people probably did at least a year's worth of research on gaming trends and compiled either a list of franchises or genres, and maybe from that they created a list of characters, from which Sakurai chose. RPGs are kind of on the comeback, retro is in, fighting games, or more generally, esports are growing by the day. What other trends would a focus group (read: soulless cash grabbing suits) notice?


[X] Doubt

Not that it isn't possible, but given Fatman's commentary on insiders and my own personal feelings about them, "stop guessing lol" is a subtle "you'll absolutely never get this character and I wouldn't tell you even if you did". If Fighter 5 is any character commonly speculated, I'll be floored.

Yeah, I absolutely do think that. It’s the best way to reconcile “Nintendo picked the DLC” with the existence of Joker and Terry, because rights are a legitimate factor. If there was some sort of focus test in play, we would 100% already know about it thanks to how rabid the leak scene is.

SNK was absolutely a play towards South America, which has a pretty notable Smash scene, and any Microsoft character is a huge deal that would turn everyone’s heads to begin with, no matter which of the three they chose.

Also, as for rights, I honestly think that multi-company discussions and deals for these “archetypes” I’m theorizing may have actually come first, with Sakurai’s specific selection second. It makes more sense than a scenario like “Hey, Sakurai, can Sora work?” “Absolutely. Can you get him?” “...Well, we can try, we honestly don’t know yet.” which would inevitably come up if Nintendo was going character-first.

 

[Deleted member]

If there was some sort of focus test in play, we would 100% already know about it thanks to how rabid the leak scene is.

You mean like how we would absolutely know whether or not the Mallowdemon leak is real or not because some insider somewhere would have the answers? Presumably, the people leaking information to insiders are not people like Doug Bowser, Reggie, or the ghost of Iwata - the people who would know every decision in a game's development. They're rank and file PR workers or maybe sometimes programmers or testers, who have connections within the company and can worm some information out of someone and then subtly get it to an insider. This is why the leaks that turn out to be real are often just short blurbs like the name of a game that's coming out, or a character who's getting added to Smash, and not every Mii costume, spirit, and music track the character is coming with. If people are going to risk their jobs or their connections within their company, they're not going to do it to say "so yeah there was like a focus group or something on the DLC selection", they're doing it to get news out that there's something big and tangible coming.

 

[Convoy]

pic.twitter.com/0yBLPfEUXm

— Pizza Tower (@PizzaTowergame) November 27, 2019

Yeah, I'm thinking they're in.

The Noid incoming.

Yeah SMH Freddy Fazbear is obviously the Pizza rep.

"Freddy Fazbear shocks the competition!"

You're all wrong, the pizza rep is clearly Spider-Man

 

[I.D.]

SNK was absolutely a play towards South America, which has a pretty notable Smash scene

If that was the case we would have Iori instead of Terry.

 

[RingJ5]

You mean like how we would absolutely know whether or not the Mallowdemon leak is real or not because some insider somewhere would have the answers? Presumably, the people leaking information to insiders are not people like Doug Bowser, Reggie, or the ghost of Iwata - the people who would know every decision in a game's development. They're rank and file PR workers or maybe sometimes programmers or testers, who have connections within the company and can worm some information out of someone and then subtly get it to an insider. This is why the leaks that turn out to be real are often just short blurbs like the name of a game that's coming out, or a character who's getting added to Smash, and not every Mii costume, spirit, and music track the character is coming with. If people are going to risk their jobs or their connections within their company, they're not going to do it to say "so yeah there was like a focus group or something on the DLC selection", they're doing it to get news out that there's something big and tangible coming.

No, I think you missed my point: If that focus group happened, we would already know every single last name on it because it would only take a single person of said focus group breaking for anything from a small cash bribe or just the general want to get the info out there. “Nintendo presented a bunch of potential DLC names to a focus group, here they are” is practically a megaton compared to some of the stuff that this scene has gone wild over in the past.

As for the Mii Costume leak, we already know they’re not #5 and #6 thanks to insiders, which is actually quite a lot.

If that was the case we would have Iori instead of Terry.

My entire point is that Nintendo most likely chose the companies while Sakurai chose the characters, so Terry still lined up well and good there.

 

[Organization XIII]

SNK was absolutely a play towards South America,

This right here is just internet group think. There's very little reason Nintendo or Sakurai would go out of it's way for South America looking at the rest of the pass. Now if you look at the world's largest consumers of gaming you get Mexico and Brazil at 11th and 12th respectively and then a smattering of countries after that. Sounds big enough to matter until you realize basically every country 3rd through 10th is European so why would they cater to that small group when it is more profitable to appeal to Europe first. And while we are on that subject what sense does it make to start with Joker a character that appealed to no region strongly first when it would have made more sense to start of with Hero or Banjo to appeal to some of the strongest gaming markets first? No, Terry was likely here because SNK's and Fatal Fury legacy and a touch of Sakurai's love. The appeal in South America or whatever is likely tangental and just the fanbase looking for explanations outside the obvious.

 

[catsforlife1]

No, I think you missed my point: If that focus group happened, we would already know every single last name on it because it would only take a single person of said focus group breaking for anything from a small cash bribe or just the general want to get the info out there. “Nintendo presented a bunch of potential DLC names to a focus group, here they are” is practically a megaton compared to some of the stuff that this scene has gone wild over in the past.

As for the Mii Costume leak, we already know they’re not #5 and #6 thanks to insiders, which is actually quite a lot.

Actually they only said neither Geno or doom was 5. They did not say anything about 6

 

[Deleted member]

No, I think you missed my point: If that focus group happened, we would already know every single last name on it because it would only take a single person of said focus group breaking for anything from a small cash bribe or just the general want to get the info out there. “Nintendo presented a bunch of potential DLC names to a focus group, here they are” is practically a megaton compared to some of the stuff that this scene has gone wild over in the past.

As for the Mii Costume leak, we already know they’re not #5 and #6 thanks to insiders, which is actually quite a lot.

A small cash bribe to break NDA and be in the deepest ****? Like, probably hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, and being completely barred from the industry? Their entire lifestyle would be ruined, all for the love of telling some randy on the internet the important details of how they arrived at the DLC characters? This theoretical focus group is made up of businessmen, not gamers, the kind of people who arrive at their conclusions by crunching sales figures all day, not reading /v/ and Smashboards to figure out what's hip with the young'uns. They're not going to give up their likely massive salary for internet street cred.

And you're right, that would be a megaton. That's why it never happens.

 

[SpiritOfRuin]

Not quite caught up to the thread yet but excited to see that Fatman has a Nightmare theory! Also can't wait to see what the **** Sakurai is going to order from McDonalds already!

 

[I.D.]

My entire point is that Nintendo most likely chose the companies while Sakurai chose the characters, so Terry still lined up well and good there.

But it's not like SNK as a whole is popular in South America, it's mostly King of Fighters. What if Sakurai went and picked Marco from Metal Slug? There goes Nintendo's strategy of appealing to South Americans. If Nintendo wanted to appeal so badly to them I don't see why they can't tell him "Look, we want Iori or Kyo from the King of Fighters. Call SNK". If they are going as far as restricting him to a very select group of companies why stop there and not just tell him which characters they want?

 

[catsforlife1]

I’m would not mind the nightmare theory. Also Fatmanonice can’t wait for that Geno post. I know it’s going to be amazing

 

[MisterMike]

So you've seen Baby Mallow, but are you guys ready for... BABY GENO?!

Spoiler

 

[RetrogamerMax]

I wonder if we’re sleeping on the chance that FP5 could actually be an indie character?

-Piles of AAA third parties have seemingly been deconfirmed.

-It would be consistent with Reggie’s initial comments about characters from new franchises/that we wouldn’t expect.

-It’s plausible that a “list” developed by Nintendo would include some characters from indie developers they’ve worked closely with in recent years.

-It also seems plausible that Sakurai would like an indie character pick. As some have argued in the past, Smash isn’t just a celebration of Nintendo characters anymore...It has turned into a celebration of video games (with an emphasis on Nintendo). Putting in a character that stands on the work and legacy of independent developers would be very consistent with that vision for the game.

-Remember that, when it was initially planned, the Fighter’s Pass was going to be the only DLC we were getting for Smash. This is one of the reasons why “Thank You Theory” has a lot of legitimacy. Echoing my previous point a bit...Couldn’t an indie character also satisfy the Thank You Theory? Nintendo has enjoyed a very healthy relationship with independent developers, and they’re impact on video game culture has been very significant.

What do you guys think? If it does turn out to be indie, who do you think it might be? My personal pick is The Knight from Hollow Knight.

I think if we are getting a Indie rep it's going to be Shantae, especially for the fact that Shovel Knight and Sans are out if you count Assist Trophies and Mii costumes as deconfirmations.

Edit: Anyone seen Fatmanonice ? I wanted to ask him something in private.

 

[Firox]

Like, as some kind of hideous amalgamation or are they like... Pizzamon Trainer?

More like Ice Climbers, but....you know....****tier.

 

[Deleted member]

So you've seen Baby Mallow, but are you guys ready for... BABY GENO?!

Spoiler

View attachment 249854

funny, I thought this was baby Geno

Spoiler

 

[super88cloud]

Meming is the final stage of speculation. After which, this thread will collapse in on itself and proceed to explode, taking SmashBoards with it. Speculation threads were never meant to survive this long.

Only Sakurai can save us now.

Well, we ain´t have no clues for the next dlc. There´s no new nicknames for the dlc in the code like Brave,Jack,Paku,buddy. We´re in the middle of space madness, All characters speculated get shot down pretty quickly instead.

 

[Franco Geno]

Not quite caught up to the thread yet but excited to see that Fatman has a Nightmare theory! Also can't wait to see what the **** Sakurai is going to order from McDonalds already!

Oh boy! he sure is hungry

 

[Deleted member]

Well, we ain´t have no clues for the next dlc. There´s no new nicknames for the dlc in the code like Brave,Jack,Paku,buddy. We´re in the middle of space madness, All characters speculated get shot down pretty quickly instead.

Speaking of the codenames, most of them make sense, but then Terry gets Dolly.

I mean, what?

 

[RingJ5]

Actually they only said neither Geno or doom was 5. They did not say anything about 6

“5 and 6”, so they as a group cannot be that since neither is #5. They can only be #6 and #7 at the earliest.

This right here is just internet group think. There's very little reason Nintendo or Sakurai would go out of it's way for South America looking at the rest of the pass. Now if you look at the world's largest consumers of gaming you get Mexico and Brazil at 11th and 12th respectively and then a smattering of countries after that. Sounds big enough to matter until you realize basically every country 3rd through 10th is European so why would they cater to that small group when it is more profitable to appeal to Europe first. And while we are on that subject what sense does it make to start with Joker a character that appealed to no region strongly first when it would have made more sense to start of with Hero or Banjo to appeal to some of the strongest gaming markets first? No, Terry was likely here because SNK's and Fatal Fury legacy and a touch of Sakurai's love. The appeal in South America or whatever is likely tangental and just the fanbase looking for explanations outside the obvious.

Smash literally does have a particularly notable scene in South America, though. I know this is a weird metric to use, but it’s to the point where the undisputed best players of the last two games hail from there, and you can’t exactly be the best off of Nintendo’s horrible excuse for online, you need a really strong local scene to train off of.

Also, Nintendo were the ones to start off with Joker, specifically asking Sakurai to reveal him at the TGAs.

But it's not like SNK as a whole is popular in South America, it's mostly King of Fighters. What if Sakurai went and picked Marco from Metal Slug? There goes Nintendo's strategy of appealing to South Americans. If Nintendo wanted to appeal so badly to them I don't see why they can't tell him "Look, we want Iori or Kyo from the King of Fighters. Call SNK". If they are going as far as restricting him to a very select group of companies why stop there and not just tell him which characters they want?

Because Heihachi.

We know for a fact that Sakurai tried to make Heihachi into a fun Smash character, but it didn’t work out. Sakurai bring given freedom in that sense to choose the specific character from the company that Nintendo negotiated the overall rights for is a very easy way to prevent that scenario from reoccurring.

A small cash bribe to break NDA and be in the deepest ****? Like, probably hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, and being completely barred from the industry? Their entire lifestyle would be ruined, all for the love of telling some randy on the internet the important details of how they arrived at the DLC characters? This theoretical focus group is made up of businessmen, not gamers, the kind of people who arrive at their conclusions by crunching sales figures all day, not reading /v/ and Smashboards to figure out what's hip with the young'uns. They're not going to give up their likely massive salary for internet street cred.

And you're right, that would be a megaton. That's why it never happens.

I don’t think you quite understand how focus groups work? It would literally be a wash to pursue legal action because you have, like, 10-20 people that you all gave the info to all denying that they did anything with it. You’d either have to have some sort of very unenforceable NDA where if one of the group breaks they take legal action on everybody, or give every single person a slightly different list as a safety measure, defeating the point of a “group”.

 

[ActualGarbage]

Speaking of the codenames, most of them make sense, but then Terry gets Dolly.

I mean, what?

He got Dolly cause he's just so gosh darn cute.

 

[MisterMike]

So I was perusing KnowYourMeme just now and I found this little image that you guys might get a kick out of: This one guy decided to take a look back at old forum posts during the Brawl days in an attempt to piece together what the fanbase was like around that time, and I'm not gonna lie, this was pretty spot-on.
EDIT: Image quality went to hell, here's a direct link.
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/661/190/21f.jpg

 

[Deleted member]

I don’t think you quite understand how focus groups work? It would literally be a wash to pursue legal action because you have, like, 10-20 people that you all gave the info to all denying that they did anything with it. You’d either have to have some sort of very unenforceable NDA where if one of the group breaks they take legal action on everybody, or give every single person a slightly different list as a safety measure, defeating the point of a “group”.

I could see an NDA where if one of the group talks the rest get in trouble. Also I'm not saying they were given the info, I'm saying they created the info. Anyway, how is it any less believable than like, a list of characters? Or even a list of 5 characters or 5 companies that Sakurai had to pick from? That info would just as easily get out.

The biggest problem with thinking it would be a wash to pursue legal action is the fact that The Pokemon Company hired private investigators to track down the leakers of Sword and Shield. The legal action isn't necessarily to recoup losses, if there even are any provable losses, but to make a statement and to instill fear. Even then, assuming the SwSh leaker is some factory worker, he has nowhere near as much to lose as a group of what I am assuming are career bean counters who would prefer not to be blacklisted from their profession for the rest of their days.

 

[MissingGlitch]

Speaking of the codenames, most of them make sense, but then Terry gets Dolly.

I mean, what?

I could just imagine this thread if that code name got leaked early and then us finding out it was for Terry instead.

 

[super88cloud]

Speaking of the codenames, most of them make sense, but then Terry gets Dolly.

I mean, what?

Pretty smart, make it obscure and nonsensical

 

[OffBi]

I could just imagine this thread if that code name got leaked early and then us finding out it was for Terry instead.

Tell me about it.

 

[Spatulo]

Speaking of the codenames, most of them make sense, but then Terry gets Dolly.

I mean, what?

I think I heard that it’s a pun based off how his name is pronounced in Japan
Bo-gar-do (cause Japanese)
Te-rry/lly (cause Japanese)
dolly

 

[super88cloud]

So I was perusing KnowYourMeme just now and I found this little image that you guys might get a kick out of: This one guy decided to take a look back at old forum posts during the Brawl days in an attempt to piece together what the fanbase was like around that time, and I'm not gonna lie, this was pretty spot-on.

Spoiler: Spoiler'd for size

View attachment 249861

Bad resolution image ain't great for reading,but I remember those times. Seems pretty accurate to memory.
Just the tons of fake roster that flew around. Fun times, no crazy weird fat geno cursed humour

 

[Deleted member]

I think I heard that it’s a pun based off how his name is pronounced in Japan
Bo-gar-do (cause Japanese)
Te-rry/lly (cause Japanese)
dolly

I... guess? When compared to the kind of deep reference Aresene being codenamed "Doyle" is, a cheap pun that only barely makes sense in one language because of a difference in regional dialect feels kind of not accurate.

 

[Vector Victor]

I could just imagine this thread if that code name got leaked early and then us finding out it was for Terry instead.

Code name dolly.
90s character
Uses a blue color for his character profile.
Has a star symbol.

I mean, come on. If this was leaked as listed above, how can anyone not assume it was Geno? Even the detractors would be hard pressed to claim it was referring to someone else. This would literally be a 'Jiggypuff seen from above' situation. It's almost like the universe itself is trolling.

Only the star makes sense since Terry uses that symbol in his home game. Blue is random as he uses multiple colors, but Ted makes more sense due to his hat. Dolly is so bizarre that it's like calling Duck Hunt 'Grass.'

 

[RingJ5]

I could see an NDA where if one of the group talks the rest get in trouble. Also I'm not saying they were given the info, I'm saying they created the info. Anyway, how is it any less believable than like, a list of characters? Or even a list of 5 characters or 5 companies that Sakurai had to pick from? That info would just as easily get out.

The biggest problem with thinking it would be a wash to pursue legal action is the fact that The Pokemon Company hired private investigators to track down the leakers of Sword and Shield. The legal action isn't necessarily to recoup losses, if there even are any provable losses, but to make a statement and to instill fear. Even then, assuming the SwSh leaker is some factory worker, he has nowhere near as much to lose as a group of what I am assuming are career bean counters who would prefer not to be blacklisted from their profession for the rest of their days.

That NDA would be entirely unenforceable and would never hold up in any court, and “leaking info for a video game” is not enough to blacklist anyone from any profession except for... well, games, and a focus group solely comprised of people that work for game companies kind of defeats the point. Someone working for, like, an air conditioning company or a convenience store is in no danger of losing their job because they leaked Smash, Nintendo isn’t the mafia.

Basically, this is my main issue with the focus group idea compared to the other possibilities: Why would Nintendo give a bunch of extra people that kind of information? For a good test, you’d need a sizable group, and each one you add is just another liability unless you have some special, actually-enforceable way of tracking the specific leaker out of like 20-50 people at least. With how secretive Nintendo is about Smash, none of that adds up.

 

[Spatulo]

I... guess? When compared to the kind of deep reference Aresene being codenamed "Doyle" is, a cheap pun that only barely makes sense in one language because of a difference in regional dialect feels kind of not accurate.

SmashWiki has it under “Trivia” for Terry so it’s basically a fact right?