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

[MattX20]

The page number leads the way for jokes related to the convenience stores of the same name

 

[Enigma735]

Not to rain on the parade (it's a fun letter regardless) but that sounds like a very generic PR response. Basically, they tell everyone that they are aware of the fan demand.

Edit: not sure why SB quoted the wrong post...

Very true. I don't think this letter is 100% evidence that Geno is getting in for sure, but it at least proves Nintendo is aware of the demand and they would love to see him included, which I often hear from people that Nintendo supposedly doesn't care nor want him

 

[Qeomash]

The page number leads the way for jokes related to the convenience stores of the same name

Oh, man. When do those ads change? They might actually be relevant again if ARMs is dropping early to mid June.

 

[MamaLuigi123456]

On the topic of bonus characters, as much as I would like them I'm just going to assume that Fighters Pass 2 is the last DLC we're getting. I'm already a dedicated Geno supporter, don't really need my expectations rising higher than they already have.

 

[HudU]

To think that less than a month we could get a smash reveal. I really hope they don't post pone it. I really want some new Nintendo news. (Also Im REALLY excited for Paper Mario, but I wish we had more to expect)

I think if Geno gets in, the stage will be some variant of Bowser's Castle pierced by Exor. Forest Maze might be associated with Geno but I think the castle with the animated sword sticking out is the more iconic location of the game as a whole. A forest stage would feel a bit boring by comparison I think.

I was thinking that, and that's true, but what I had in mind was maybe a stage that flies throughout the MRPG map, or maybe, the factory where all the clone enemies are. They could be stage hazards, or even mini boss fights similar to Dracula in the Castlevania map. Just some wishful thinking, idk.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

I think if Geno gets in, the stage will be some variant of Bowser's Castle pierced by Exor. Forest Maze might be associated with Geno but I think the castle with the animated sword sticking out is the more iconic location of the game as a whole. A forest stage would feel a bit boring by comparison I think.

While I would like finally getting a Bowser's Castle stage...

I think an old school Mushroom Kingdom stage (as in where Peach's Castle is) might be what they go for if Geno is chosen.

 

[SpiritOfRuin]

See I think if they're doing bonuses that they both make more sense as one. But I do think Waluigi realistically has very little to contribute to a challenger pack compared to others. Like imagine if we get Waluigi in the pass and Hyabusa is a bonus. We would get a Waluigi pinball stage, yet another Mario themed spirit board filled with alternate versions of characters already present in the game, and more tracks to add to the already overflowing pile of Mario music. Meanwhile Ninja Gaiden gets 2 songs, no stage, and no spirit board. Does that really make any logical sense to anyone here?

Yeah I agree. This is part of what I'm getting at. I would love to have Geno and Waluigi as playable characters more than Ryu H for example, but I'd rather have the former be bonuses despite my preference and the latter be a full part of the pass so that more content from an entirely new franchise could come to Smash. My main point was just that it's extremely hypocritical to try to justify Geno as part of the pass but Waluigi as no more than a bonus. Waluigi would be a character from an already decently well represented side of the Mario universe (Mario Kart stage, Mario miis, Mario spirits, some Mario spinoff music) while Geno would be a character from a barely represented part of the Mario universe (2 SMRPG spirits, some random small RPG stuff like a few songs and spirits). I do understand the distinction, but I guess I still see them both about as likely as a bonus character opposed to part of the pass.

So I do think you're right that Geno could bring more "new" things to Smash even just from SMRPG or by extension other Mario RPGs, but I think Waluigi could also be a blanket "Nintendo" rep and bring basically whatever with him too. Waluigi's main issue would be spirits and to a lesser extent Mii costumes. People are blowing stage as an issue WAY out of proportion. Waluigi Pinball, a sports themed stage, or a Mario party stage would all be good fun and probably more interesting than many others because of mechanics they could bring. There is still so much music from Mario not in Smash so that is a total non-issue (heck he could even bring RPG music even though he's not in the RPGs because he's a Mario character). Mii costumes are more of a stretch but the announcer guy from Mario Party could be a hat, the soccer gear from strikers could be a costume, tennis player sword fighter, etc. It's actually not that hard to come up with stuff. Spirits is where the issue gets compounded which is why I mentioned that Waluigi could also be a "Mr Nintendo" rep because if characters can come with unrelated miis then why not spirits which are much less important anyway?

Basically, yes I agree Geno and Waluigi aren't in the same position and Geno has more technically new stuff to pull from but I think we are in no position to argue that any character should be no more than a bonus since Geno is still a Mario character at the end of the day and Waluigi could still bring post SMRPG RPG stuff like I said since he's still a Mario character and I'm firmly of that opinion especially when not that long ago we were all saying Geno's only chance was as a bonus fighter (raise your hand if you remember this). At the end of the day they're still both Mario characters representing underrepresented Mario spinoffs in Smash (RPGs are clearly represented to an even lesser degree though). I will make this argument though: Waluigi is argued to be the face of all these Mario spinoffs and honestly I just disagree with this at a fundamental level. Waluigi just happens to basically be the last hope to actually properly represent Mario spinoffs in Smash since the other Mario characters in Smash don't. Whereas Geno is actually from the very first Mario RPG and is a main character in said game driving the story. He's like the grandaddy of Mario RPGs while Waluigi is the forgotten Mario spinoff guy that gets the hand-me-downs other Mario characters chose not to use in their Smash debuts (yes I do realize that rhymed thank you).

But for all I care they can put both those boys in the pass and I'll be happy cuz I actually like those characters. I don't actively support Waluigi though and I'm not going to go crazy if he gets in Smash like I will if Geno does. I just think it's silly to argue that another character makes more sense as a bonus and I guess that stems primarily from the fact that I still remember very well when this thread was firmly of the belief that Geno could only make it into Smash as a bonus character and this wasn't just one or two people having this opinion this was the opinion used to shoot down all other opinions here for a good while. I'm pretty sure you were here around that time Sigran so you should know what I'm talking about. My how far we've come huh? Anyway I understand where people are coming from (which should be clear by how I laid these thoughts out) and to an extent I agree that Geno would make more sense than Waluigi as part of the pass, but since either character could easily be either part of the pass or bonus based on the hurdles they face and their own merits, I see them on about an equal playing field. It's hard to take Waluigi seriously but I think we should in terms of him as a contender for Smash.

Joscar is also right that we don't necessarily know what bonus characters would come with, so who knows? If there are bonuses it only increases Geno's chances so I'm totally cool with it. I just hope that Porky ends up being a bonus too for one of my friends. Also, I don't even know why I'm still talking. I'm pretty sure I could have made these points in like 2 sentences and I don't even care that much because I believe both characters could also just as easily be parts of the pass and I really hope that Geno is and gets all the stuff that I feel like he deserves and as much as I like Waluigi I just don't care if he gets into Smash because I find him uninspiring moveset-wise. I guess I just disagree that Waluigi could be no more than a bonus character and don't like seeing that argument because that's what people (even this thread) used to say about Geno who is my most wanted. There I just summed it up in one sentence. It's all about feelings man. I hope you all enjoyed my therapy session featuring me Dr Professor SpiritOfRuin in a lesson in metacognition and meta-emotion.

 

[Vector Victor]

I'm curious with how the echo fighters impact the character select limit since they are coded to be stacked if desired. Are they less of a strain on the screen than 'permanent' slots?

And if a hardware update is needed to stop the game from crashing due to too many slots on the CSS, would that have to be a big undertaking by developers?

 

[YsDisciple]

So... if anyone's interested, thought I might share GameXplain's latest video analysis on Paper Mario: The Origami King. Dunno but, it's looking promising really.

 

[Spatulo]

Do we have evidence that the crash is a hardware limitation? Cause that’s a much bigger deal if it’s the case. I was under the assumption that the crash was due to a programmed fault state, basically “if character select screen count > Number, kill everything”. But if it’s the HARDWARE, then there’s literally nothing that can be done because, for the uninformed, the hardware would be the physical Switch itself, and idk what they could do about that

 

[Rie Sonomura]

Do we have evidence that the crash is a hardware limitation? Cause that’s a much bigger deal if it’s the case. I was under the assumption that the crash was due to a programmed fault state, basically “if character select screen count > Number, kill everything”. But if it’s the HARDWARE, then there’s literally nothing that can be done because, for the uninformed, the hardware would be the physical Switch itself, and idk what they could do about that

Idk if it is tied to hardware or not actually. Just that thanks to a modder’s experimentation, the CSS in Smash can only hold 91 slots (incl. Miis and Random) without crashing

WOULD hardware affect that? I don’t know

 

[TriggerX]

Do we have evidence that the crash is a hardware limitation? Cause that’s a much bigger deal if it’s the case. I was under the assumption that the crash was due to a programmed fault state, basically “if character select screen count > Number, kill everything”. But if it’s the HARDWARE, then there’s literally nothing that can be done because, for the uninformed, the hardware would be the physical Switch itself, and idk what they could do about that

Code can be changed.
I doubt the slots are limited at all, that would be weird.
If anything modders are probably just missing something, maybe another string of code is causing some kind of conflict with another.

Hardware limitiations don’t make much sense either, unless the switch only allows each game to take up a finite amount of space.

Overall just because modders can’t do it, I wouldn’t assume that the official developers can’t.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

Code can be changed.
I doubt the slots are limited at all, that would be weird.
If anything modders are probably just missing something, maybe another string of code is causing some kind of conflict with another.

Hardware limitiations don’t make much sense either, unless the switch only allows each game to take up a finite amount of space.

Overall just because modders can’t do it, I wouldn’t assume that the official developers can’t.

I do know the 3DS only allowed games to take up a certain amount of max space, which is why 3DS and Wii U’s DLC was short lived (and that the Wii U was dying, but more so the 3DS game storage limit)

 

[Firox]

Not to rain on the parade (it's a fun letter regardless) but that sounds like a very generic PR response. Basically, they tell everyone that they are aware of the fan demand.

I have to agree with you on this. While the letter definitely sounds positive, it only acknowledges Geno's demand. It doesn't offer even a vague assurance that's he's coming. More like a "we'd be happy for you if he makes it" (fingers crossed). Granted, they could just be playing coy, but I think it's still too early to break out the fine champagne.

EDIT: On the upside, at least we know for sure that Nintendo knows how in-demand Geno is.

 

[TriggerX]

I have to agree with you on this. While the letter definitely sounds positive, it only acknowledges Geno's demand. It doesn't offer even a vague assurance that's he's coming. More like a "we'd be happy for you if he makes it" (fingers crossed). Granted, they could just be playing coy, but I think it's still too early to break out the fine champagne.

It really just all depends, but you never know.
I’ve worked for multiple companies where emails like this would be received and responded to, but don’t necessarily go to anybody important. If this were received by like a customer service department, it’s possible that employee responded and just went on to the next email.
But you really never know, some employees do go above and beyond to get these type of messages in the right hands.

 

[PatPrime]

I found a hilarious sprite animation based off Mario RPG I wanted to share. One instance of a curse word but that's it. This guy's Twitter has more parts

Star piece 1 pic.twitter.com/uazeUoSMOj

— Damage (@Damage5146) May 10, 2020

Edit: The video won't play on my end on this site for some reason, so just go on Twitter itself.

 

[Firox]

I found a hilarious sprite animation based off Mario RPG I wanted to share. One instance of a curse word but that's it. This guy's Twitter has more parts

Star piece 1 pic.twitter.com/uazeUoSMOj

— Damage (@Damage5146) May 10, 2020

Edit: The video won't play on my end on this site for some reason, so just go on Twitter itself.

"I leave you alone for one minute and you go and murder a guy."

Poor Mallow....

 

[MattX20]

Is there any topic regarding Geno we haven't discussed yet?

 

[Springwood Slasher]

so with the announcement of Paper Mario - how does this reshape everyone’s expectations for a port of Super Mario RPG down the line?

It seems odd that Mario RPG still hasn’t been rereleased to this day, and to my quick approximation, remains the only Mario title not rereleased physically from the SNES era aside from like...Mario Paint.

Does anyone here ever expect the game to be rereleased physically one day? If not on Switch, on future consoles perhaps? Any thoughts?

 

[Let Geno Smash]

so with the announcement of Paper Mario - how does this reshape everyone’s expectations for a port of Super Mario RPG down the line?

It seems odd that Mario RPG still hasn’t been rereleased to this day, and to my quick approximation, remains the only Mario title not rereleased physically from the SNES era aside from like...Mario Paint.

Does anyone here ever expect the game to be rereleased physically one day? If not on Switch, on future consoles perhaps? Any thoughts?

You are forgeting Mario and wario

 

[Heoj]

so with the announcement of Paper Mario - how does this reshape everyone’s expectations for a port of Super Mario RPG down the line?

It seems odd that Mario RPG still hasn’t been rereleased to this day, and to my quick approximation, remains the only Mario title not rereleased physically from the SNES era aside from like...Mario Paint.

Does anyone here ever expect the game to be rereleased physically one day? If not on Switch, on future consoles perhaps? Any thoughts?

after papaer mario origami king i think the most likely outcome here is super mario rpg released on the snes online along with geno revealed in smash. I dont really see a smrpg remake/sequel happening anywhere near a paper mario game

 

[Firox]

Is there any topic regarding Geno we haven't discussed yet?

How about what Geno's moveset would be like if he got into Smash? Wait.

How about what Geno would look like as a girl? Wait.

Oh, how about Geno's favorite dessert? Wait.

Ummm, if Geno were a kink, what would his fetish be? BAM!

 

[Springwood Slasher]

after papaer mario origami king i think the most likely outcome here is super mario released on the snes online along with geno revealed in smash. I dont really see a smrpg remake/sequel happening anywhere near a paper mario game

right, this is what I was thinking too. The games share too many common features, thus it would be at least a few years before Nintendo would even consider releasing another Mario game in that genre. So I’m thinking this will likely mean we will never get a physical remaster/port of Mario RPG on Switch.

(Or as you said, have Mario RPG released on NSO)

 

[Fatmanonice]

Two comments on ongoing topics:

-Whether the character slot limit is a hardware or software limitation is irrelevant; the key takeaway is that it's not a quick fix because modders probably would have figured it out already if it was something simple. Either way, Sakurai said that this was the last season so the motivation to tweak it is probably non-existent. Unless Sakurai has a total change of heart and isn't burned out on all the Corona bull****, we're getting ten more DLC characters at most, meaning no more than 4 extras if they feel generous enough to do it.

-I think my friend really was onto something about third parties having a huge amount of say when third party characters are revealed. In the scope of the history of Smash at E3, 6 of the 6 since 2006 that had character reveals had a third party reveal. Snake, Megaman, Pac-Man, Ryu, Snake kicking off "Everyone is Deer", and Hero AND Banjo. Last year was actually pretty significant because it was the first time in Smash history that two entirely unique third party characters were revealed in the same presentation. The plans for E3 2020 were likely to not back down from that, especially with strong evidence that 6 was originally going to be a Spring Direct reveal. This said, expecting 6, 7, and 8 during the upcoming Smash presentation isn't unreasonable at all because E3 2020 was probably going to always have two third reveals anyways.

 

[MattX20]

Two comments on ongoing topics:

-Whether the character slot limit is a hardware or software limitation is irrelevant; the key takeaway is that it's not a quick fix because modders probably would have figured it out already if it was something simple. Either way, Sakurai said that this was the last season so the motivation to tweak it is probably non-existent. Unless Sakurai has a total change of heart and isn't burned out on all the Corona bull****, we're getting ten more DLC characters at most, meaning no more than 4 extras if they feel generous enough to do it.

-I think my friend really was onto something about third parties having a huge amount of say when third party characters are revealed. In the scope of the history of Smash at E3, 6 of the 6 since 2006 that had character reveals had a third party reveal. Snake, Megaman, Pac-Man, Ryu, Snake kicking off "Everyone is Deer", and Hero AND Banjo. Last year was actually pretty significant because it was the first time in Smash history that two entirely unique third party characters were revealed in the same presentation. The plans for E3 2020 were likely to not back down from that, especially with strong evidence that 6 was originally going to be a Spring Direct reveal. This said, expecting 6, 7, and 8 during the upcoming Smash presentation isn't unreasonable at all because E3 2020 was probably going to always have two third reveals anyways.

Well, we'll see if the 3 character theory is correct when the Smash Direct airs. At bare minimum, we're all but guaranteed two

 

[Tree Gelbman]

Wait. It's been a while. There's a Smash Direct?

Is this confirmed?

 

[Fatmanonice]

Wait. It's been a while. There's a Smash Direct?

Is this confirmed?

Not confirmed but super likely at this point:

-Sakurai has already stated that 6 would be revealed in June meaning that the reveal was already hard scheduled, something extremely unlikely for a shadowdrop.

-Mounting evidence that Nintendo just decided to liquidate the Spring, E3, and Mario 35th anniversary presentations and spread them out as shadow drops over the summer, supportive Smash news at E3 2020 was probably always going to be its own presentation.

-Every third party character addition has a lot of pomp to their addition meaning virtually all have come in presentations. Sonic in Brawl is the one exception but he still got a trailer which none of the other newcomers except those revealed at E3 2006 got.

 

[Polarthief]

I still believe in the realm of possibility that we may just get a very long Sakurai video instead. Consider it an "impromptu Smash Direct"; I also do believe we could get a normal Smash Direct too though, so it's Schrödinger's Smash Direct to me at this point.

 

[Let Geno Smash]

Not confirmed but super likely at this point:

-Sakurai has already stated that 6 would be revealed in June meaning that the reveal was already hard scheduled, something extremely unlikely for a shadowdrop.

-Mounting evidence that Nintendo just decided to liquidate the Spring, E3, and Mario 35th anniversary presentations and spread them out as shadow drops over the summer, supportive Smash news at E3 2020 was probably always going to be its own presentation.

-Every third party character addition has a lot of pomp to their addition meaning virtually all have come in presentations. Sonic in Brawl is the one exception but he still got a trailer which none of the other newcomers except those revealed at E3 2006 got.

And also in the sales reports that came out in early May, he said that the ARMS character is still scheduled for June, if had to delay they would have already said

 

[Rie Sonomura]

I still believe in the realm of possibility that we may just get a very long Sakurai video instead. Consider it an "impromptu Smash Direct"; I also do believe we could get a normal Smash Direct too though, so it's Schrödinger's Smash Direct to me at this point.

So like Joker’s video that had his full trailer, move set breakdown, and the stage builder and VR mode?

 

[a random user]

Code can be changed.
I doubt the slots are limited at all, that would be weird.
If anything modders are probably just missing something, maybe another string of code is causing some kind of conflict with another.

Hardware limitiations don’t make much sense either, unless the switch only allows each game to take up a finite amount of space.

Overall just because modders can’t do it, I wouldn’t assume that the official developers can’t.

given how much Nintendo hates moding, its possible that they had an idea of how much dlc they planed to make, then set that as a cap, so after all the dlc is done, the game crashes just to stop people from adding more(project M), they could always raise this number but the crashing is likely intentional as it would never happen under "normal" conditions

 

[Polarthief]

So like Joker’s video that had his full trailer, move set breakdown, and the stage builder and VR mode?

- Reveal+breakdown ("history" of ARMS plus the moveset of the character(s)) of the ARMS rep. If it's a Smash Direct, the breakdown will come in a Sakurai video following the direct, similar to how Banjo-Kazooie's Sakurai video followed the September direct last year.
^ Everyone can agree this is guaranteed, unless FP2 is suddenly not gonna have Sakurai breakdowns.

- Mii costume wave #6 alongside the release of the ARMS rep since it'll likely release the same week. If Cacodemon is revealed here, DG officially deconfirmed, but CacoMallow credibility way further up.
^ This too.

- ABG chance of a #7 reveal.
^ Most agree with this. Some think it's a "possibility", but honestly, it's all but officially confirmed. If they have bonus characters, it's even moreso a guarantee because 25% of their time is already gone and they'll only be showing off 1 of 6 FP characters, and then have bonuses on top of that? There's no way; that'd be even worse spread out than the Smash Directs were, leaving just Kencineroar at the end.

- Lower, but still possible chances of #8/at least 1 bonus outside of #7. If a Smash Direct, chances of this is way more likely. If a Sakurai video, not as high but still possible. I'm expecting 3+ in a Smash Direct and 2+ in a Sakurai video.
^ Some agree with this, but this is where people really start deviating. I'm on the side of likely 3+, but I totally get if people aren't expecting more than 2.

- Anything additional they wanted to show off, though I doubt they have much/anything since Sakurai did mention stuff past DLC characters was on hold due to 'rona.
^ I think most everyone will agree with this considering Sakurai himself did say stuff besides characters is pretty much on hold.

 

[axel_]

I just realized that I never shared my final pre-June predictions. And I mean it when I say final, if I post another prediction before June's big reveal then I want you guys to slap me.

Min Min - There's no reason that it couldn't be her. She's easily ARMS's most popular character, she keeps the core of ARMS intact with very little changes, if it was Spring Man and/or Ribbon Girl they would've said so already, and the "Hero v2" idea is really dumb.

Geno - Come on, you've probably been in this thread hundreds of times. Do I really need to list off reasons for Geno?

Crash or Doomguy - It seems like a general consensus that we'll get more than one Western character in the pass, one of which will be a new company being added. It really boils down to these two, as their parent company's relationship to Nintendo is the strongest.
Personally I'm leaning heavily towards Doomguy because of Cacomallow and the success of Doom's efforts to be more well-known in Japan. I really haven't seen anything but flimsy hearsay about Crash.

Sol Badguy - Arc System Works became a really big industry player thanks to the critical reception of Dragon Ball FighterZ. So the shock from the Kunio-kun Spirit Event wasn't from Kunio-kun actually getting representation in Smash, but the fact that ArcSys was actually getting involved in Smash.
If this pass is gonna end up anything like our last one, I think Sol would be another Hero in terms of reasons for Nintendo to add them (promote GG Strive and build interest for the series on the Switch, represent a legacy series that isn't as popular with Smash fans, and give Sakurai something else to nerd out about.)

Rayman - Ubisoft's been really weird with Smash as of late. And I mean it, they've been REALLY weird. Even after all this time, there's still a significant lack of Rayman content that should be in that just... isn't. (Rayman's initial Spirit being alone after Smash 4 had him with Globox and Barbara, Rabbits + Mario Spirits, but no normal Rabbids Spirit.) The last link I shared is especially interesting because this is the most that's happened with Rayman since Brawlhalla, which was almost three years ago (****, we're getting old fast.)
Leading back into what I said with Doomguy/Crash, I think one of the two possible Western characters will be from a new partner. I think instead of Microsoft, like most of the people here think, the returning partner would be Ubisoft. Again, it's weird that they're as active as they have been with Smash lately and this mainly started with the AC and Rabbids Mii Costumes that showed up with Byleth, which tells me the most clearly that Nintendo and Ubisoft are inexplicably still working together on Smash.

Rex - ugh...
Yeah, I really don't want Rex. But with ARMS and Xenoblade 2 getting the same treatment in the beginning of Ultimate and Sakurai in interviews describing them in the same situation, it would be weird for ARMS to get more love from Nintendo than the more successful game. With the remake, Xenoblade is still one of Nintendo's biggest series right now, and just like Hero and Byleth (possibly Fighter 6 too if we get ARMS 2: Return of Jafar) I think they'd want to shill their game with a popular/expected Smash character.

 

[MattX20]

I just realized that I never shared my final pre-June predictions. And I mean it when I say final, if I post another prediction before June's big reveal then I want you guys to slap me.

View attachment 272051

Min Min - There's no reason that it couldn't be her. She's easily ARMS's most popular character, she keeps the core of ARMS intact with very little changes, if it was Spring Man and/or Ribbon Girl they would've said so already, and the "Hero v2" idea is really dumb.

Geno - Come on, you've probably been in this thread hundreds of times. Do I really need to list off reasons for Geno?

Crash or Doomguy - It seems like a general consensus that we'll get more than one Western character in the pass, one of which will be a new company being added. It really boils down to these two, as their parent company's relationship to Nintendo is the strongest.
Personally I'm leaning heavily towards Doomguy because of Cacomallow and the success of Doom's efforts to be more well-known in Japan. I really haven't seen anything but flimsy hearsay about Crash.

Sol Badguy - Arc System Works became a really big industry player thanks to the critical reception of Dragon Ball FighterZ. So the shock from the Kunio-kun Spirit Event wasn't from Kunio-kun actually getting representation in Smash, but the fact that ArcSys was actually getting involved in Smash.
If this pass is gonna end up anything like our last one, I think Sol would be another Hero in terms of reasons for Nintendo to add them (promote GG Strive and build interest for the series on the Switch, represent a legacy series that isn't as popular with Smash fans, and give Sakurai something else to nerd out about.)

Rayman - Ubisoft's been really weird with Smash as of late. And I mean it, they've been REALLY weird. Even after all this time, there's still a significant lack of Rayman content that should be in that just... isn't. (Rayman's initial Spirit being alone after Smash 4 had him with Globox and Barbara, Rabbits + Mario Spirits, but no normal Rabbids Spirit.) The last link I shared is especially interesting because this is the most that's happened with Rayman since Brawlhalla, which was almost three years ago (****, we're getting old fast.)
Leading back into what I said with Doomguy/Crash, I think one of the two possible Western characters will be from a new partner. I think instead of Microsoft, like most of the people here think, the returning partner would be Ubisoft. Again, it's weird that they're as active as they have been with Smash lately and this mainly started with the AC and Rabbids Mii Costumes that showed up with Byleth, which tells me the most clearly that Nintendo and Ubisoft are inexplicably still working together on Smash.

Rex - ugh...
Yeah, I really don't want Rex. But with ARMS and Xenoblade 2 getting the same treatment in the beginning of Ultimate and Sakurai in interviews describing them in the same situation, it would be weird for ARMS to get more love from Nintendo than the more successful game. With the remake, Xenoblade is still one of Nintendo's biggest series right now, and just like Hero and Byleth (possibly Fighter 6 too if we get ARMS 2: Return of Jafar) I think they'd want to shill their game with a popular/expected Smash character.

These all seem like fairly plausible picks

 

[Springwood Slasher]

It just occurred to me - is anybody here really savvy with making complicated point ranking systems? It would be cool for all of us to submit our predictions for FP2 and then have points assigned for who gets the characters correct as well as guessing the correct orders of the characters.

and of course, being the Geno thread, our star boy is worth double the amount of points as other characters

the prize could be: Bragging rights???

 

[Sigran101]

I just realized that I never shared my final pre-June predictions. And I mean it when I say final, if I post another prediction before June's big reveal then I want you guys to slap me.

View attachment 272051

Min Min - There's no reason that it couldn't be her. She's easily ARMS's most popular character, she keeps the core of ARMS intact with very little changes, if it was Spring Man and/or Ribbon Girl they would've said so already, and the "Hero v2" idea is really dumb.

Geno - Come on, you've probably been in this thread hundreds of times. Do I really need to list off reasons for Geno?

Crash or Doomguy - It seems like a general consensus that we'll get more than one Western character in the pass, one of which will be a new company being added. It really boils down to these two, as their parent company's relationship to Nintendo is the strongest.
Personally I'm leaning heavily towards Doomguy because of Cacomallow and the success of Doom's efforts to be more well-known in Japan. I really haven't seen anything but flimsy hearsay about Crash.

Sol Badguy - Arc System Works became a really big industry player thanks to the critical reception of Dragon Ball FighterZ. So the shock from the Kunio-kun Spirit Event wasn't from Kunio-kun actually getting representation in Smash, but the fact that ArcSys was actually getting involved in Smash.
If this pass is gonna end up anything like our last one, I think Sol would be another Hero in terms of reasons for Nintendo to add them (promote GG Strive and build interest for the series on the Switch, represent a legacy series that isn't as popular with Smash fans, and give Sakurai something else to nerd out about.)

Rayman - Ubisoft's been really weird with Smash as of late. And I mean it, they've been REALLY weird. Even after all this time, there's still a significant lack of Rayman content that should be in that just... isn't. (Rayman's initial Spirit being alone after Smash 4 had him with Globox and Barbara, Rabbits + Mario Spirits, but no normal Rabbids Spirit.) The last link I shared is especially interesting because this is the most that's happened with Rayman since Brawlhalla, which was almost three years ago (****, we're getting old fast.)
Leading back into what I said with Doomguy/Crash, I think one of the two possible Western characters will be from a new partner. I think instead of Microsoft, like most of the people here think, the returning partner would be Ubisoft. Again, it's weird that they're as active as they have been with Smash lately and this mainly started with the AC and Rabbids Mii Costumes that showed up with Byleth, which tells me the most clearly that Nintendo and Ubisoft are inexplicably still working together on Smash.

Rex - ugh...
Yeah, I really don't want Rex. But with ARMS and Xenoblade 2 getting the same treatment in the beginning of Ultimate and Sakurai in interviews describing them in the same situation, it would be weird for ARMS to get more love from Nintendo than the more successful game. With the remake, Xenoblade is still one of Nintendo's biggest series right now, and just like Hero and Byleth (possibly Fighter 6 too if we get ARMS 2: Return of Jafar) I think they'd want to shill their game with a popular/expected Smash character.

This is a really solid guess. I personally would swap Sol for Lloyd/Heihachi, but other than that I can totally get behind this prediction.

 

[Firox]

- Reveal+breakdown ("history" of ARMS plus the moveset of the character(s)) of the ARMS rep. If it's a Smash Direct, the breakdown will come in a Sakurai video following the direct, similar to how Banjo-Kazooie's Sakurai video followed the September direct last year.
^ Everyone can agree this is guaranteed, unless FP2 is suddenly not gonna have Sakurai breakdowns.

- Mii costume wave #6 alongside the release of the ARMS rep since it'll likely release the same week. If Cacodemon is revealed here, DG officially deconfirmed, but CacoMallow credibility way further up.
^ This too.

- ABG chance of a #7 reveal.
^ Most agree with this. Some think it's a "possibility", but honestly, it's all but officially confirmed. If they have bonus characters, it's even moreso a guarantee because 25% of their time is already gone and they'll only be showing off 1 of 6 FP characters, and then have bonuses on top of that? There's no way; that'd be even worse spread out than the Smash Directs were, leaving just Kencineroar at the end.

- Lower, but still possible chances of #8/at least 1 bonus outside of #7. If a Smash Direct, chances of this is way more likely. If a Sakurai video, not as high but still possible. I'm expecting 3+ in a Smash Direct and 2+ in a Sakurai video.
^ Some agree with this, but this is where people really start deviating. I'm on the side of likely 3+, but I totally get if people aren't expecting more than 2.

- Anything additional they wanted to show off, though I doubt they have much/anything since Sakurai did mention stuff past DLC characters was on hold due to 'rona.
^ I think most everyone will agree with this considering Sakurai himself did say stuff besides characters is pretty much on hold.

I totally think you're right about the Sakurai breakdown and the next costume wave. I honestly think we've got about a 50/50 chance of also seeing fighter #7, but I'll be utterly blown away if we actually see a teaser for #8. Given the snail's pace of this fighter's pass, I think a triple reveal is quite the long shot. Sure hope I end up surprised.

 

[PatPrime]

I just realized that I never shared my final pre-June predictions. And I mean it when I say final, if I post another prediction before June's big reveal then I want you guys to slap me.

View attachment 272051

Min Min - There's no reason that it couldn't be her. She's easily ARMS's most popular character, she keeps the core of ARMS intact with very little changes, if it was Spring Man and/or Ribbon Girl they would've said so already, and the "Hero v2" idea is really dumb.

Geno - Come on, you've probably been in this thread hundreds of times. Do I really need to list off reasons for Geno?

Crash or Doomguy - It seems like a general consensus that we'll get more than one Western character in the pass, one of which will be a new company being added. It really boils down to these two, as their parent company's relationship to Nintendo is the strongest.
Personally I'm leaning heavily towards Doomguy because of Cacomallow and the success of Doom's efforts to be more well-known in Japan. I really haven't seen anything but flimsy hearsay about Crash.

Sol Badguy - Arc System Works became a really big industry player thanks to the critical reception of Dragon Ball FighterZ. So the shock from the Kunio-kun Spirit Event wasn't from Kunio-kun actually getting representation in Smash, but the fact that ArcSys was actually getting involved in Smash.
If this pass is gonna end up anything like our last one, I think Sol would be another Hero in terms of reasons for Nintendo to add them (promote GG Strive and build interest for the series on the Switch, represent a legacy series that isn't as popular with Smash fans, and give Sakurai something else to nerd out about.)

Rayman - Ubisoft's been really weird with Smash as of late. And I mean it, they've been REALLY weird. Even after all this time, there's still a significant lack of Rayman content that should be in that just... isn't. (Rayman's initial Spirit being alone after Smash 4 had him with Globox and Barbara, Rabbits + Mario Spirits, but no normal Rabbids Spirit.) The last link I shared is especially interesting because this is the most that's happened with Rayman since Brawlhalla, which was almost three years ago (****, we're getting old fast.)
Leading back into what I said with Doomguy/Crash, I think one of the two possible Western characters will be from a new partner. I think instead of Microsoft, like most of the people here think, the returning partner would be Ubisoft. Again, it's weird that they're as active as they have been with Smash lately and this mainly started with the AC and Rabbids Mii Costumes that showed up with Byleth, which tells me the most clearly that Nintendo and Ubisoft are inexplicably still working together on Smash.

Rex - ugh...
Yeah, I really don't want Rex. But with ARMS and Xenoblade 2 getting the same treatment in the beginning of Ultimate and Sakurai in interviews describing them in the same situation, it would be weird for ARMS to get more love from Nintendo than the more successful game. With the remake, Xenoblade is still one of Nintendo's biggest series right now, and just like Hero and Byleth (possibly Fighter 6 too if we get ARMS 2: Return of Jafar) I think they'd want to shill their game with a popular/expected Smash character.

This is the Geno thread but with Rayman, there are some trademarks that are similar to Banjo's and we don't know what they're for other than Ubisoft is licensing the Rayman ip to a third party that could be for merch or a game company. Look up Rayman for Smash on Twitter or go on the Rayman thread if you're interested in more details but yeah, lots of weird things going on with Ubisoft and it's all pretty recent.

Solid list overall. Don't care for Sol or Rex but all I need is Rayman, Crash, or Doomguy and I will be freakin set.

Oh yeah, Geno would be cool, too.

 

[axel_]

This is a really solid guess. I personally would swap Sol for Lloyd/Heihachi, but other than that I can totally get behind this prediction.

If Sol doesn't happen then yeah, Heihachi is my next guess. Just like Rayman, the amount of absence for Tekken content in a game co-produced by Bandai Namco is really odd, especially when Virtua Fighter, a game that SEGA has left rotting in the dirt ever since VF5, has gotten way more.

 

[QQS]

I started to show some Geno love on Twitter also, if you wanna check & follow.

Been a Geno fan since 1996 but active on this forum only since August 2019. Just started some activity on Twitter before our mega potential reveal in June.

Geno joins the party!