I’ll be honest, the Nintendo-sponsored HQ questions having Geno as a focal point basically confirms Geno for me. There’s no reason to have him as the focus of a sponsored question-answer than to prop him up. And why prop up an old forgotten character, getting him more in the public consciousness, unless there’s some content coming.
For those who don’t know, HQ is a mobile trivia game, and is not related to the rest of the non-mobile gaming industry in general. Nintendo sponsored some trivia questions and “Super Mario RPG” was the answer to “What game has a possessed doll as a playable character?” After the question, HQ gave the answer, adding that Geno was the name of the possessed doll.
Really the takeaway is not, “why did Nintendo choose Geno as sponsored trivia”, it’s “why did Nintendo choose Geno instead of picking any other trivia that they could have chosen”.
Further, under the paradigm that the trivia is SMRPG, why choose Geno over Mallow, Smithy, collecting the 7 stars to repair star road, Boshi, timed-hits, super jumps, Booster, Culex, etc—it’s because Geno is the most iconic non-Mario universe part of SMRPG, maybe second to the huge sword in Peach’s Castle.
I doubt this is all to sell another Geno Mii costume. Unless there’s instead a remake or rerelease of SMRPG coming, this means playable Geno in Smash.
Sorry to the detracters, I’m just super confident now and won’t believe he’s not in unless it’s 100% doubtlessly confirmed. But I don’t expect that, I expect Geno now. Now it’s just the waiting.