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I'm slightly frustrated that Smash is never going to embrace the western side of gaming

NefariousShyGuy

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I understand that from the beginning, Sakurai stated that Smash will solely focus on celebrating the history of Japanese gaming. This has been made very clear throughout the games, since a lot of trophies/characters were Japanese exclusive until they debuted in the west through Smash Bros. So yeah, it's not like I didn't know that Smash mainly panders to the Japanese side of gaming...

But the thing that sorta frustrates me is that Sakurai has almost no desire to represent the west. The most we got so far is the Rayman trophies, but I'm pretty sure that's because Ubisoft already made the 3D models for the dev team anyway. Beyond that, there really is nothing that panders directly to the west. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Sakurai completely ignored ballot votes for characters that originated from the west.

I think the issue that's causing this is Japan's overall xenophobia. It's not that they hate foreigners, it's just that they're too afraid to work with them because of the language barrier and cultural differences. But anyway it's understandable why Sakurai does this since it's simpler and cheaper to contact a company residing in Tokyo and get cool art like this as a bonus.

But still, wouldn't it be cool if Smash wasn't so focused on Japan and tried representing gaming icons from around the world? They don't have to put someone like Master Chief in, but they still have the ability to approach a western company with a lot of Nintendo history if they really wanted to (coughRarecough).

I'm still very grateful for what I have in Smash, and no western icon can replace the likes of Mario, Sonic, Megaman, etc. I just wanted to express my slight frustration that Smash doesn't try to do more for us western fans.
 
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RIP|Merrick

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I'm pretty sure in some Japanese forums I recall the Smashers then largely could not recall or recognize the likes of Little Mac.
 

NefariousShyGuy

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If it was solely Japanese gaming, then we wouldn't have Diddy Kong or Little Mac in the game.
But those characters are still largely Japanese. Sure Diddy Kong is the only Smash character to have been completely developed outside of Japan, but he was simply an addition to a series that originated and was developed in Japan. Punch Out shares a similar case with Next Level Games being responsible for the reboot, but the original Punch Out was developed completely in Japan and there seems to be more representation for the original games than the reboot in Smash 4.

I'm not just talking about Japanese games that are very popular in the West, I'm talking about representation of more western specific games. Probably games that aren't too foreign to the Japanese. I thought Banjo & Kazooie would have been great since a lot of Japanese gamers know them.
 
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LunarWingCloud

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This just wrong. Even if the game is Japanese developed, you have to look where the influence is. The North American base for Smash and overseas base for Smash is actually FAR larger than the Japanese side, and they've sent out a lot of characters who have a lot of influence in the hearts and minds of gamers from those regions. Bayonetta was CERTAINLY not a fan favorite in Japan, she was very clearly picked due to overseas popularity. Cloud might have worldwide appeal, but a lot of that does come from his influence on the overseas markets and helping push Final Fantasy as a series to new heights there, where it was already strong in Japan. Little Mac and Diddy Kong as mentioned are VERY MUCH American fanservice. Dr. Mario returning was not really a Japanese-influenced decision, as he was a fan favorite from Melee here in the States above all else. Although Ike is from Fire Emblem, I doubt his return in Smash 4 was a decision based on the Japanese fanbase, because it's an undeniable fact Ike is absolutely ADORED here in the States as a Smash fighter, so I'm pretty sure he came back because of that. Mega Man being included might have pleased a lot of Japanese fans, too, but I'm sure he was equally as desired outside of Japan. Pac-Man too.

I understand where your point is coming from, but I just don't think you're seeing the bigger picture. It's not much to do with where the games were MADE. It's where their INFLUENCE is, THAT's what gaming is based on region, and I'll be damned if we don't acknowledge that there is some overlap in our preferences and that where there isn't overlap, fans on both ends were given characters to satisfy them.
 

Turrin

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Bayonetta was CERTAINLY not a fan favorite in Japan, she was very clearly picked due to overseas popularity.
This is a good point. Keep in mind Sakurai did say that Bayonetta won the ballot in Europe. Even if I agreed with the OP, so what if Sakurai did cater more to western players? What would even be different? As far as I know, pretty much all fighters in the game are quite popular in and out of Japan as it is.
 

Neerb

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As far as I know, pretty much all fighters in the game are quite popular in and out of Japan as it is.
There are literally 3 Japanese-exclusive characters in Smash: Roy, Lucas, and Corrin.

I know, I know, "But people like Roy and Lucas because they're in Smash!"

But just think about it. Roy was Melee, Lucas was Brawl, Corrin is 4. Every Smash Bros game after the original has had a character whose game was not available outside of Japan.

But hey, we get Diddy Kong, the only logical choice for a second DK rep, and Little Mac, a Japanese-made character whose popularity peaked in 1985, so it's all good?

I'm not saying this is J-Stars or anything, but when Final Fantasy and Bayonetta (called the "Worldwide winner," not just Europe) are considered the "western reps" for DLC, it's clear that we aren't close to being considered equals despite being the larger audience by an extremely large amount.
 

Dark Phazon

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It was all upto Sakurai...and he adds Bayonetta instead....sooo dissapointed i have 0 Respect for him as a developer and his choices i 100% dont agree with he is nothing but a bias and money milking mediocre delusional developer.

I bought so far Mewtwo (got free and early because i had both versions registered)
Lucas
Roy
Ryu
Cloud
All Stages.

Except Mario Maker.

And my DLC Purchasing stops there i dont want and would never purchase the new FE char or Bayonetta even if the were on discount for £1 each.
 

Radical Bones

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It was all upto Sakurai...and he adds Bayonetta instead....sooo dissapointed i have 0 Respect for him as a developer and his choices i 100% dont agree with he is nothing but a bias and money milking mediocre delusional developer.

I bought so far Mewtwo (got free and early because i had both versions registered)
Lucas
Roy
Ryu
Cloud
All Stages.

Except Mario Maker.

And my DLC Purchasing stops there i dont want and would never purchase the new FE char or Bayonetta even if the were on discount for £1 each.
You have 51 characters to choose from and the extra 7 DLC characters are optional.

Quit complaining.

'Bias and delusional', mate, you're talking about yourself more than you are Sakurai.
 

Dark Phazon

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You have 51 characters to choose from and the extra 7 DLC characters are optional.

Quit complaining.

'Bias and delusional', mate, you're talking about yourself more than you are Sakurai.
Whatever mate none of the chars intrest me even the slightest im really bored of playing as Ganon & DDD 24/7 im sick of it

Dont tell me who to like and play as this game has all the same not intresting boring characters were the hell are the villains? The heavyweights?

You cant tell me nothing.

I would rather have a bar of chocolate if its nice then a full box of ****** nasty out od date mouldy chocolate.

95% of the chars in the game are boring and stupid as hell ..

Well...back to destroying people as Ganon and DDD.

Too bad sakurai didnt add banjo hopefully he will retire hopefully.

Moderator Edit: Do not censor dodge.
 
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Turrin

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There are literally 3 Japanese-exclusive characters in Smash: Roy, Lucas, and Corrin.

I know, I know, "But people like Roy and Lucas because they're in Smash!"

But just think about it. Roy was Melee, Lucas was Brawl, Corrin is 4. Every Smash Bros game after the original has had a character whose game was not available outside of Japan.

But hey, we get Diddy Kong, the only logical choice for a second DK rep, and Little Mac, a Japanese-made character whose popularity peaked in 1985, so it's all good?

I'm not saying this is J-Stars or anything, but when Final Fantasy and Bayonetta (called the "Worldwide winner," not just Europe) are considered the "western reps" for DLC, it's clear that we aren't close to being considered equals despite being the larger audience by an extremely large amount.
True, I forgot about the Japan exclusives. The thing is, are you unhappy with them just for being Japan-only? I personally wouldn't be willing to trade any of those three for a Western representative, but that's just my opinion. If Marth and Roy weren't in Melee I'd have never been introduced to the FE series which is now my favorite series in gaming, period. Honestly, I just think getting mad over something like "Japanese vs. Western representation" is pointless - the only reason to get upset is because you want to. Nintendo is Japanese, and it's in charge. New characters are new characters, and I'm happy to have them no matter where they're from. I'd even go so far as to say I like the inclusion of characters unknown to me, as it introduces me to new series and games I'd never have known about.
 

McDizzle!

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Whatever mate none of the chars intrest me even the slightest im really bored of playing as Ganon & DDD 24/7 im sick of it

Dont tell me who to like and play as this game has all the same not intresting boring characters were the hell are the villains? The heavyweights?

You cant tell me nothing.

I would rather have a bar of chocolate if its nice then a full box of s.h.i.t.t.y nasty out od date mouldy chocolate.

95% of the chars in the game are boring and stupid as hell ..

Well...back to destroying people as Ganon and DDD.

Too bad sakurai didnt add banjo hopefully he will retire hopefully.
Just because Sakurai didn't cater to your every whim doesn't mean he is a delusional developer.

To be honest I was disappointed with the new characters too... but then I washed the salt out of my eyes and I realized they might be pretty fun to play. Don't hate on characters you haven't even tried playing.
 

Dark Phazon

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Just because Sakurai didn't cater to your every whim doesn't mean he is a delusional developer.

To be honest I was disappointed with the new characters too... but then I washed the salt out of my eyes and I realized they might be pretty fun to play. Don't hate on characters you haven't even tried playing.
Dude i despise there existence do you need to have sex with a obese overweight ugly chain smoking woman to know that you wont enjoy it?

I only play 2 chars anyway everyone else either sucks or is boring and weak...or both or all 3 !!
Its boring only playing as 2 chars u know...although i have no connection to Cloud he feel really good tbh.
 
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Xandercosm

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I understand that from the beginning, Sakurai stated that Smash will solely focus on celebrating the history of Japanese gaming. This has been made very clear throughout the games, since a lot of trophies/characters were Japanese exclusive until they debuted in the west through Smash Bros. So yeah, it's not like I didn't know that Smash mainly panders to the Japanese side of gaming...

But the thing that sorta frustrates me is that Sakurai has almost no desire to represent the west. The most we got so far is the Rayman trophies, but I'm pretty sure that's because Ubisoft already made the 3D models for the dev team anyway. Beyond that, there really is nothing that panders directly to the west. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Sakurai completely ignored ballot votes for characters that originated from the west.

I think the issue that's causing this is Japan's overall xenophobia. It's not that they hate foreigners, it's just that they're too afraid to work with them because of the language barrier and cultural differences. But anyway it's understandable why Sakurai does this since it's simpler and cheaper to contact a company residing in Tokyo and get cool art like this as a bonus.

But still, wouldn't it be cool if Smash wasn't so focused on Japan and tried representing gaming icons from around the world? They don't have to put someone like Master Chief in, but they still have the ability to approach a western company with a lot of Nintendo history if they really wanted to (coughRarecough).

I'm still very grateful for what I have in Smash, and no western icon can replace the likes of Mario, Sonic, Megaman, etc. I just wanted to express my slight frustration that Smash doesn't try to do more for us western fans.
I completely agree, sir. I remember when Smash was all Saturday morning cartoon characters. Now, it's bent to the will of the perverted Japanese with their sexist portrayals of women. But seriously, though, Japan has to be the most perverted culture on the planet.
 

Xermo

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We get it, banjo didn't make it in.

I'm honestly glad he doesn't outright cater directly to the western audience. People over here are far too entitled and attached to garbage characters. Would've certainly been fun to play as Steve and Master Chief, right guys.

Even then, were you even considering the effect of working with overseas companies on the game's development cycle pre-dlc? It's not like banjo was a shoe in if sakurai started development with the westerners in mind.

Dude i despise there existence do you need to have sex with a obese overweight ugly chain smoking woman to know that you wont enjoy it?

I only play 2 chars anyway everyone else either sucks or is boring and weak...or both or all 3 !!
Its boring only playing as 2 chars u know...although i have no connection to Cloud he feel really good tbh.
Man, this kid's a riot.
 
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HeavyLobster

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It was all upto Sakurai...and he adds Bayonetta instead....sooo dissapointed i have 0 Respect for him as a developer and his choices i 100% dont agree with he is nothing but a bias and money milking mediocre delusional developer.

I bought so far Mewtwo (got free and early because i had both versions registered)
Lucas
Roy
Ryu
Cloud
All Stages.

Except Mario Maker.

And my DLC Purchasing stops there i dont want and would never purchase the new FE char or Bayonetta even if the were on discount for £1 each.
Bayonetta won the Smash Ballot. Complain about the people who voted for her or didn't vote for the character you wanted.
 

FamilyTeam

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Dude i despise there existence do you need to have sex with a obese overweight ugly chain smoking woman to know that you wont enjoy it?

I only play 2 chars anyway everyone else either sucks or is boring and weak...or both or all 3 !!
Its boring only playing as 2 chars u know...although i have no connection to Cloud he feel really good tbh.
Have you ever tried to seriously play with all the characters, or are you just writing them off without ever playing with them because, supposedly,

do you need to have sex with a obese overweight ugly chain smoking woman to know that you wont enjoy it?
I don't think that salt of yours is letting you see the entire picture. I'm sad that we didn't get the Ice Climbers or Wolf back, but that's life, and you won't see me calling Sakurai an idiot because of that. Agree with their decisions or not, it's still their game.
Not 10 years ago, you were stuck with the game you bought on the stores. If you were lucky, it'd get an expansion back or two, but for the most part, that was your lot. It was nice that Smash got DLC support like it did.
Does that mean that we can't complain at Sakurai's decision? Of course it doesn't, in fact, complaining is important, we are the consumers, and they need to know what we like and what we don't. But don't go calling the newcomers garbage simply because you're not fond of them.
 

Phenomiracle

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What's hilarious about this is that Japanese fans are probably upset over what they see as under-representation for them.

I imagine the salt from the great randu of Nippon that Waddle Dee didn't make it is pretty immense.
 

TORNADO BUS DRIVER

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What's hilarious about this is that Japanese fans are probably upset over what they see as under-representation for them.

I imagine the salt from the great randu of Nippon that Waddle Dee didn't make it is pretty immense.
It's totally this to be quite honest, i would imagine that both sides of the coin feel that the other is getting all the attention. Smash is a celebration of all of gaming, not just one region.
 

Arcadenik

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We got plenty of new characters that are popular in the West... what about them?

:4bayonetta::4bowserjr::4cloud::4duckhunt::4littlemac::4megaman::4mii::4pacman::rosalina::4ryu::4villager::4wiifit:
 

Radical Bones

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Whatever mate none of the chars intrest me even the slightest im really bored of playing as Ganon & DDD 24/7 im sick of it

Dont tell me who to like and play as this game has all the same not intresting boring characters were the hell are the villains? The heavyweights?

You cant tell me nothing.

I would rather have a bar of chocolate if its nice then a full box of ****** nasty out od date mouldy chocolate.

95% of the chars in the game are boring and stupid as hell ..

Well...back to destroying people as Ganon and DDD.

Too bad sakurai didnt add banjo hopefully he will retire hopefully.

Moderator Edit: Do not censor dodge.
Whatever. Sell your copy then and stop complaining. He didn't make the game specifically for you. There are plenty of other fighting games you might enjoy more.

It's not Sakurai's problem you can't find fun within the game.
 

Foxus

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I understand that from the beginning, Sakurai stated that Smash will solely focus on celebrating the history of Japanese gaming. This has been made very clear throughout the games, since a lot of trophies/characters were Japanese exclusive until they debuted in the west through Smash Bros. So yeah, it's not like I didn't know that Smash mainly panders to the Japanese side of gaming...

But the thing that sorta frustrates me is that Sakurai has almost no desire to represent the west. The most we got so far is the Rayman trophies, but I'm pretty sure that's because Ubisoft already made the 3D models for the dev team anyway. Beyond that, there really is nothing that panders directly to the west. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Sakurai completely ignored ballot votes for characters that originated from the west.

I think the issue that's causing this is Japan's overall xenophobia. It's not that they hate foreigners, it's just that they're too afraid to work with them because of the language barrier and cultural differences. But anyway it's understandable why Sakurai does this since it's simpler and cheaper to contact a company residing in Tokyo and get cool art like this as a bonus.

But still, wouldn't it be cool if Smash wasn't so focused on Japan and tried representing gaming icons from around the world? They don't have to put someone like Master Chief in, but they still have the ability to approach a western company with a lot of Nintendo history if they really wanted to (coughRarecough).

I'm still very grateful for what I have in Smash, and no western icon can replace the likes of Mario, Sonic, Megaman, etc. I just wanted to express my slight frustration that Smash doesn't try to do more for us western fans.
The phobic part of your argument is a big, "if."

I feel your frustration. I never knew the core of Smash was going to revolve around Japanese gaming, so that's news to me, and the Western World should not be ignored, given how much we invest into Smash ourselves. Until Smash 4 came out, I had no idea there was a Megaman character. I do agree Smash should revolve around more a universal axis over just that of Japan.

If they keep putting in characters like Robin, its going to seem like a fighting scene out of some anime show (Robin's final smash already reminds me of a anime show).

EDIT: It would be interesting to see a American direct Smash, and have Smash be developed in America (part of the Western World), and see where things go from there.
 
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Khao

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Is it really that shocking that a Japanese company keeps adding a lot of Japanese characters to their game considering that it's mostly a compilation of their own characters?

There's really not all that many choices when it comes to western characters that have a history with Nintendo anyway. Banjo Kazooie is pretty much the only good choice, and welp, they didn't win the ballot.
 
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SuperNintendoDisney

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Dude, don't listen to all the noise you hear in this topic. You are absolutely justified to feel the way you do. There is not a single character in the game that was completely developed and created outside of Japan. Diddy Kong is the closet we will ever get, but even Diddy Kong was still guided by NCL in his creation. Either way, Diddy Kong is still a super popular character in Japan, so I fail to see how Diddy Kong is added to solely appeal to the west, when his popularity transcends culture.

Little Mac may have been a character with more western appeal than any other, but using him as an example doesn't refute what this person is saying. Little Mac still originated from Japan. There was a time when the most popular Japanese games were very western focus, since that is where the money was to be made. Look at the original Contra. It was made by they-who-shall-not-be-named, but it looks like an American company could have made it, its what everyone thought back in the eighties anyway.

Whats funny about this whole situation is that all those classic Japanese characters and franchises are more popular in the west than they are in Japan. Zelda, Star Fox, Metroid, F-Zero, Mega Man, Contra etc., all more popular in the states than Japan. In many cases, even Super Mario Bros. is more popular in America than it is in Japan, just take a peak at the sales for Super Mario Galaxy / Sunshine / 64 and some Mario Kart games. The only Nintendo properties that are probably more popular in Japan or equal in popularity are Fire Emblem and Xenoblade, both of which are minor franchises.

I understand this is a Japanese game from a Japanese developer, but Nintendo isn't just any developer. They are a global developer, meaning their games need to have global appeal. This topic is about adding a character completely developed in the west that originated outside of Japan. There is not a single character. We have Cloud and Bayonetta, two awesome choices, and two additions that prove any character can become a fighter. Why not add a character like Banjo-Kazooie? Crash? Both of which are still super popular in Japan

In essence, even adding a character created in Japan that might appeal more to western fans than Japanese fans, still doesn't truly count as adding a character that only appeals to the west, since that character was created in Japan in the first place and still has plenty of appeal to the Japanese regardless
 

Kink-Link5

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I bought so far
Lucas
Roy
Ryu
Cloud
All Stages.

Except Mario Maker.


And my DLC Purchasing stops there i dont want and would never purchase the new FE char or Bayonetta even if the were on discount for £1 each.
You spent more than half the price of a game for less than a tenth the content of one. Make whatever wasteful purchasing decisions you want, but don't do it while simultaneously snapping at the person you paid because your literally who aged milk N64 character didn't make it into Smash.
 

LancerStaff

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There's not a lot of good choices when it comes to western reps.

BK is a third party now but still very connected to Nintendo, but didn't win the ballot and otherwise wouldn't of been a good choice for DLC since he's obscure and not inherently "cool" like Ryu or Bayo is. BK's more of a character they'd include to begin with, like with WFT or ROB. Although I don't think it's impossible for them to appear in a later installment. K. Rool's in a similar boat but then DK's both connected to Mario and K. Rool's been MIA in DK for quite some time. Heck, might even be too big like Ridley is.

Like, with other third parties... Unless they wanted Master Chief for shear WTF factor, Steve from Minecraft is really the only one that'd make sense because it's crazy popular. The other indies are just too small and their popularity is quite limited to certain regions, and any other franchise seems too "anti-Nintendo" so to speak, even moreso then Snake or Bayo because at least they've got Japan's quirkyness.
 

Speculator

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Obviously they aren't going to add in characters completely unfamiliar to their domestic market. Diddy Kong is so far the only character with Western origins, and it's not like they had a choice since they let Rare handle Donkey Kong for fifteen years. This is also probably the reason there hasn't been a new Donkey Kong character despite the significance of the series.

It absolutely isn't xenophobia. It's more like Japanocentrism, the equivalents of which I'm sure we're all guilty of once in a while. Of course they weren't going to add Shovel Knight; how can they be expected to, when nobody on the dev team has played the game or even heard of him? Same to a lesser extreme with Banjo, Shantae and so on. They're far more likely to add characters that all regions can recognize, anime faces or not. It's not like Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy don't have worldwide appeal.
 

ShadowGuy1

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There are literally 3 Japanese-exclusive characters in Smash: Roy, Lucas, and Corrin.

I know, I know, "But people like Roy and Lucas because they're in Smash!"

But just think about it. Roy was Melee, Lucas was Brawl, Corrin is 4. Every Smash Bros game after the original has had a character whose game was not available outside of Japan.

But hey, we get Diddy Kong, the only logical choice for a second DK rep, and Little Mac, a Japanese-made character whose popularity peaked in 1985, so it's all good?

I'm not saying this is J-Stars or anything, but when Final Fantasy and Bayonetta (called the "Worldwide winner," not just Europe) are considered the "western reps" for DLC, it's clear that we aren't close to being considered equals despite being the larger audience by an extremely large amount.
Corrin will be in the west soon so that does not fit.
 

randy2dope

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Salt is bad for your heart guys. I feel 1000000% more satisfied with this roster over brawl . We got so much and the hypetrain had its longest ride to date. Just shut up and play the game or don't. I am now riding the POKKEN tournement train till spring now !
 

Yaki

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But those characters are still largely Japanese.
Little Mac and Duck Hunt have lower popularity in Japan, but more in America. While yes, adding an american developed character would be neat, its kind of extremely hard to have a fully american developed character be added, as (at least I think this is true) Nintendo really doesn't have any first or second party studios in countries that aren't japan, and adding a third party character takes a lot of bureaucracy to actually happen.
 

Foxus

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You know, the more I think about it, the more I've come to realize Cloud's inclusion was a huge endorsement deal for Sony. Granted, I've never played a single Final Fantasy game, so I don't know what the game is about.

I read that supposedly Bayonetta won from the poll results in Europe? (slice and dice women must be popular there). So its not all dealing exclusively with the desire of Japanese gamers. It's not necessarily the most mature to say someone is salty over this decision, as they have a reason to do so if they are not a FF fan.

I can't get it around my head how Wolf didn't make it. 1. The release of a new Star Fox game, 2. Would be a returning Brawl character along with Lucas and Charizard (good things come in threes). The timing couldn't have been better for Wolf's release.
 

Speculator

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Feb 2, 2013
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612
I can't get it around my head how Wolf didn't make it. 1. The release of a new Star Fox game, 2. Would be a returning Brawl character along with Lucas and Charizard (good things come in threes). The timing couldn't have been better for Wolf's release.
People weren't going to begrudgingly vote for Wolf because the timing makes sense from a marketing perspective. He just isn't a big deal to a lot of people - his appearances in Star Fox are really tiny, basically just boss fights. That, combined with sharing a basic moveset with two already-present Star Fox characters, and I can totally see why there wasn't as much appetite (outside of his Brawl fans) for him to come back from a consumer perspective.
 

Mr.Seven

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You know, the more I think about it, the more I've come to realize Cloud's inclusion was a huge endorsement deal for Sony. Granted, I've never played a single Final Fantasy game, so I don't know what the game is about.

None of the Final Fantasy games connect with each other. (Save for X and X-2; and the XII Series.) They're all different games under an umbrella title, like Fire Emblem. None really connect, but all have recurring things. I'd highly recommend playing most of them, as some are true classics. I'd personally recommend you going through Final Fantasy 6, 7, 9, and 10.

I can't get it around my head how Wolf didn't make it. 1. The release of a new Star Fox game, 2. Would be a returning Brawl character along with Lucas and Charizard (good things come in threes). The timing couldn't have been better for Wolf's release.
I think this more has to do with Nintendo's marketing more than anything. Right now, FE Fates has already come out in Japan and will soon be released overseas. Right now, Fates is all the buzz over at Nintendo, and frankly the more talked about game right now (at least from what I've seen during my time on the internet). So naturally, Nintendo wants to promote the very next upcoming game to maximize sales. (Shulk is in Smash after the surprising success of Xenoblade, and to promote Xenoblade X.) Nintendo is still a business, and the goal of a business is to make money.We aren't going to see the next Starfox game until who knows when next year, and isn't really high on Nintendo's priority list due to how little we've seen of it.

So yeah, the timing could still have been better for Wolf. If the release dates for Fates and Starfox Zero were reversed, we'd be seeing a lot more Starfox promotion and we would have seen either Wolf or a brand new Starfox rep instead of Corrin. Looking at this from a business standpoint, which do you think is the better moneymaker: Use Smash to promote the very next/just about complete game to maximize sales for the very next release, or to use Smash to promote a game that still has no real confirmed release date? The choice is pretty obvious when it comes to making profit.
 
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ShadowGuy1

Smash Lord
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Apr 19, 2015
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Ok, so what if lets say this roster had all Western Characters and like 2 Eastern primary characters. How would Japan feel? You have to realize that you get what you get. Bayonetta was number 1 ahead of wolf overall(Wolf is realizable/reasonable.) and other chars were just not. I personally think Sakurai made this roster the best and you also have to remember:Nothing is perfect!
 

Foxus

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None of the Final Fantasy games connect with each other. (Save for X and X-2; and the XII Series.) They're all different games under an umbrella title, like Fire Emblem. None really connect, but all have recurring things. I'd highly recommend playing most of them, as some are true classics. I'd personally recommend you going through Final Fantasy 6, 7, 9, and 10.



I think this more has to do with Nintendo's marketing more than anything. Right now, FE Fates has already come out in Japan and will soon be released overseas. Right now, Fates is all the buzz over at Nintendo, and frankly the more talked about game right now (at least from what I've seen during my time on the internet). So naturally, Nintendo wants to promote the very next upcoming game to maximize sales. (Shulk is in Smash after the surprising success of Xenoblade, and to promote Xenoblade X.) Nintendo is still a business, and the goal of a business is to make money.We aren't going to see the next Starfox game until who knows when next year, and isn't really high on Nintendo's priority list due to how little we've seen of it.

So yeah, the timing could still have been better for Wolf. If the release dates for Fates and Starfox Zero were reversed, we'd be seeing a lot more Starfox promotion and we would have seen either Wolf or a brand new Starfox rep instead of Corrin. Looking at this from a business standpoint, which do you think is the better moneymaker: Use Smash to promote the very next/just about complete game to maximize sales for the very next release, or to use Smash to promote a game that still has no real confirmed release date? The choice is pretty obvious when it comes to making profit.
I think SF Zero is going to be released in April, but I could be wrong. I thought that Xenoblade was Japan-exclsuive at first, like FE was. I think Xenoblade came out in 2012, around the time when development for Smash 4 was being thrown around. If the April date is legit, maybe Nintendo will push for a DLC character to promote the game, but that seems unlikely. It will have been 9-10 years since the last real Star Fox game (Assault), so its a pretty big deal, in comparison to the sequel of Xenoblade, which was only a 3-year difference.

Its weird how I find out about these franchises through Smash. I had completely forgotten about FE until Brawl came out (which is understandable due to FE being Japan-exclusive up to the year prior to Brawl's release).I didn't really got the nature of Marth or Roy when they first made their appearances in Melee the first time around.
 

Radical Bones

Soul King
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At the end of the day I think my biggest complaint is that as an Australian my country is not represented in Smash.

I mean, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger was a thing.

Why isn't Sakurai catering the game to make me feel good about being Australian?

He must be racist or something...
 

Foxus

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Just thought of something else, that reminds me of the Sony leaks that happened last year around this time. One of the leaks showed that Sony Pictures was going to possibly animate and produce a Mario film. Adding Ryu and Cloud, both not necessarily strangers to the Playstation legacy, possibly shows Sony and Nintendo coming close to working on something.
 

Erotic&Heretic

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I didn't read all the thread, but anyway...

Makes sense that a japanese developer puts japanese characters in it's own crossover. There's not so many huge Nintendo games that are not japanese, too.

My only ONLY complaint would be that the japanese point of view makes Advance Wars a small AT, despite being one huge nintendo serie. But as the AW games were not released in Japan, we have the "Famicom Wars" point of view.

About guests, it also make sense, as all of them are also HUGE icons.
 
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