CopperKoopa
Smash Journeyman
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2014
- Messages
- 266
I think you are right on the money. And any of the choices for FP2 are going to follow a similar logic 100%Thank you! I'll wear it with pride!
Well it's actually less of a theory for Geno and more of an overall theory regarding the Fighter Pass choices.
You see I'm a bit of a hyper analyst, so I'm always trying to analyze the logic and reasoning behind certain decisions be they personal or business related (It's not hard to imagine that I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Nintendo in this aspect). I don't need to tell you all how Nintendo kind of work within a bubble, however that doesn't seem to be the case when it comes to the Fighter Pass choices. I always find myself coming back to Nintendo being the ones choosing the characters, of course we know at that Sakurai does have more control over whether they can work or not and which character from a specific game (like with Min Min).
It was a little after Min Min came out and I decided to take a step back and look at everything we've gotten so far that a thought occurred to me: Nintendo ACTIVELY chose these characters. Nintendo CHOSE Joker. Nintendo CHOSE Hero. Nintendo CHOSE Banjo. Nintendo CHOSE Terry. These are characters that when we look at the grand scheme of things, probably wouldn't entice casual Smash players or complete newcomers to the series as much as others. If they were trying to sell the Fighter Pass to as many people as possible, why go with some of these options? As happy as I was to get Banjo, he's sadly a largely irrelevant character nowadays that would really only appeal to the smash veterans who have wanted him since Melee. Why go through the effort for what might be very little return?
Then I had a theory, about the true purpose of the Fighter Pass and the logic Nintendo is using for character choices: demographics. They're not simply trying to entice players who already have the game to get the Fighter Pass, they're trying to use the Fighter Pass to appeal to specific or niche audiences to get the whole package. When you think about it, Ultimate really didn't need to do much to sell itself. It had already become a money printer for Nintendo at this point and it alone was going to sell Switch units. All Ultimate had to do to sell itself to us was say "Everyone is Here" plus more. Nintendo absolutely knew this, just like they absolutely know the demand for characters like Banjo (and in that regard Geno) and the core package already has so much that can appeal to just about everybody, the Fighter Pass is essentially cleanup.
This is where we come to the Fighter Pass characters and the demographics they appeal to:
Joker- Appeals to a very particular yet very dedicated JRPG fandom that while not as big as others, are VERY vocal about their love for a relatively niche series (not meant as any kind of disrespect, I myself have been a Persona fan since 3).
Hero- Appeals to a more old school, JRPG demographic mostly in Japan plus promotion for the Switch port of DQ11.
Banjo- Appeals to the longstanding Smash players that have actively wanted him since Melee and have been around for the era of the N64.
Terry- Appeals to the more dedicated arcade fighting game community as well as South American/Latino groups.
Byleth- Appeals to the same dedicated Fire Emblem fans who were upset at Chrom not getting into WiiU/3DS as well as cross promotion with that game.
Min Min-... uh... Arms stans? In all seriousness I think it's to appeal to the casual gamers that invested in the Switch early on and possibly to have a character represent their newest console generation.
It's with this theory in mind that it seems possible that the rest of the FP characters will appeal to other demographics that aren't as catered to in the base game. In fact if this crackpot theory of mine holds true, then it actually lines up a lot withFatmanonice predictions from a little while back, and this of course includes Geno: to appeal to one of the last long running character demands like Banjo was.
Other possible examples:
Crash- Appeals to old-school Playstation fans who were likely around during those console wars.
Master Chief/Doom Slayer- Appeals to FPS fans.
Man that was a lot, sorry if it's long-winded and rambly but I wanted to get it all out there. It's probably like how a described it, a crackpot theory, but I thought it was an interesting way to view what characters we could possibly see in the future.
Min Min appeals to early Switch adopters and pushes a new IP (as you suggested)
Then for who we SUSPECT...
Geno grabs the diehard longtime fans, like Banjo, but even more so since Geno is far more niche. Also ties into Mario 35th and the Mario fan community
Crash grabs people who grew up with PS and need that "fix" since Sonic and Mario don't speak to them and they maybe don't normally play Nintendo. Also hits the old console wars appeal Sonic hit in Brawl. Plus he wasn't in PS All Stars, so yet another "suck it, Sony" move on Nintendo's part
Dante or Hayabusa or a similar character would snag that same audience that supported Bayonetta, which is people who like their hardcore games and also may not typically play Smash. You get the benefit of the M rating appeal as well, with the headlinenl of "can you believe this mature character is fighting Pikachu?!" practically writing itself
Master Chief and Doom play into the above as well, but they also add FPS and PC/XBOX demos to the fold. Many, many people who may not have been interested before will definitely have their interest piqued
Waluigi of course gets the meme status, which is a little different from everyone else
I think that's all the characters we're expecting?
I knew it was from SMRPG I did play it on release after all
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