Masked Marauders - Skull Kid For Smash! Night of the Last Day.

[cybersai]

Someone also brought up this is the same way the kid on the moon sits while wearing Majora's Mask. It'd be another homage to the games that Sakurai is known for.

I think he's in the game unless proven otherwise (or if this whole Grinch leak itself is fake), by george, I think we got it.

 

[JoyStar]

Honestly, I have to wonder why people never consider the possibility that it might be both? Why does it have to be one or the other?

Granted, it probably is just the bike, but given how Mach Rider's bike normally looks and headlights would normally be closer to Mach Rider's chest, I don't think it could be entirely impossible for Mach Rider's bike to still actually be there, just with Skul Kid in front (maybe primarily accentuating Majora's Mask like when he first appears in his home game and in Hyrule Warriors).

Not sure how likely it is, but it could be possible. I'm still expecting him to be moe DLC at this point, but I wanted to throw that possibility out there regardless.

 

[Gyrom8]

I don't think Sakurai sees the Smash roster the same as much of the fanbase does. For him, it's not so much 'this series needs representation' but 'they would make a fun and original character' or 'they're easy clone material'. And I get that: the Smash roster shouldn't be about filling arbitrary quotas. But I don't think Skull Kid would be just filling an arbitrary quota, as he has the potential for a really unique moveset based around inflicting status effects.

Anyways, I haven't quite given up hope yet. He's not in the mural (or in Mach Rider's bike) and he probably isn't in the base game. But he could be DLC: the make-or-break factor is if he's a boss or not. For the reasons already outlined here, he doesn't make much sense as a boss. But it really depends on how they're doing Spirits mode bosses: if it's major series villains, then Skull Kid/Majora is probably second after Ganon (sorry Vaati), but until we see more bosses we can't be sure they're doing that. For all we know, it might just be iconic boss battles within the respective series. And there are so, so many more iconic boss battles in Zelda than Skull Kid's, which barely counts as one.

 

[Dan]

I like Skull Kid; I will be happy if he's in the game, but at the same time I have no bias toward him... regarding the banner, that is so him. There is no part of Mach's bike that resembles that; this is automatic.

Like someone was in a rush to highlight all the characters and that image has stuck.

 

[0007]

More evidence from /v/. This is just too much coincidence.

He's in, boys, we did it.

Even when ****ing with the color contrast you can't make orange out of that mishmash of green and pale yellow.

 

[KingZing]

Someone also brought up this is the same way the kid on the moon sits while wearing Majora's Mask. It'd be another homage to the games that Sakurai is known for.

I think he's in the game unless proven otherwise (or if this whole Grinch leak itself is fake), by george, I think we got it.

The more I look at it the more I see Majora's Mask. It certainly looks like it has spikes around, and those two big glowy circles don't really seem they are from Mach Rider's bike, he's clearly behind something. But is it even Mach Rider at all??

Now all I see is Skull Kid standing behind a Moon Child who is the one actually wearing Majora's Mask. That on top strongly resembles Skull Kid's hat.

Edit: Nah on second thought the one behind looks like Mach Rider.

 

[Dan]

If he's indeed there, this is really pushing base roster.

 

[AnOkayDM]

Yeah, if seven characters is way too many to expect for the amount of time we have left before release, how is adding another one any more realistic?

 

[JoyStar]

Honestly that was why I was iffy on believing the Grinch leak to begin with (and still am). As cool as that would be (7 or 8 new characters with a few I actually want), it does seem like a bit much. Especially when Sakurai said to not expect many newcomers since Everyone is Here was the top priority.

I'm considering the likely scenario in terms of character amounts to be somewhere between Box Theory and Grinch Theory.

 

[TheCJBrine]

Dawn of the First Day

72(?) Hours Remain

(Apparently insiders are teasing a Direct on the 1st)

 

[AnOkayDM]

Dawn of the First Day

72(?) Hours Remain

(Apparently insiders are teasing a Direct on the 1st)

Gonna need to see some sources for this, please!

 

[TheCJBrine]

Gonna need to see some sources for this, please!

(Not completely sure but)
https://www.resetera.com/threads/su...nge-of-the-heart.76864/page-344#post-14351480

Spawn Wave also apparently speculated Nov. 1st in their Spawn Cast stream, but idk.

Jon from GameXplain posted an otter, which he did before the original September Direct date, and then again before the rescheduled date:
https://twitter.com/JonComms/status/1056913636525043712

https://twitter.com/JonComms/status/1039633488411021312

https://twitter.com/JonComms/status/1035924394638491651

Jon also seems to have insider information based on his insane predictions in GameXplain discussion videos becoming truth.

 

[cybersai]

On the plus side, if the Grinch leak does happen to be fake...I guess it does give more possibility of Skull Kid being in? His Assist is still mysteriously absent and I don't think he's a boss. Sakurai would have had Skull Kid summon the moon and teleport away if he had no bigger plans for him.

The fact that Shadow's assist is missing all this time and people expect him to be playable and he's on the mural says a lot in itself. Many of the other missing assists are just for minor characters or items which would never be playable anyway.

 

[JoyStar]

I kind of wish they'd reveal a Direct on Halloween, if not for a surprise Skull Kid reveal then at least for Halloween.

Then again, November 1st is All Souls Day...

 

[Nintendo64isking]

i just really really want a direct, lets get some clarity on the issue, in a strange way even without Skull Kid, I want the leak to be real, some real good characters in the leak, especially Geno, Banjo and Mach Rider.

Let us hope that Skull Kid hasn't met a terrible fate in the long run though!

 

[JoyStar]

Honestly, no matter if Skull Kid's in or not, or if the Grinch leak is real or not.... I kind of want to see crossover fanworks with Mach Rider and Skull Kid now.

Someone on GameFaqs jokingly suggested a buddy-cop Netflix series kind of thing where Mach Rider and Skull Kid solve crimes together and I'd actually legit watch that. XD

(What the heck, I might fanfic that if I come up with a good enough plot, lol)

 

[_sneaK]

Maybe Sakurai doesn't see the game as a need to sufficiently represent certain franchises but I do feel like he would have heard the outcry for a Zelda newcomer.

 

[verysleepywolf]

Yeah, I kind of want the leaked banner to be real as well. This would hands down be the best cast of newcomers the franchise has ever seen. I can set aside my Skull Kid mania for this.

As for the way the "mask" looks in the banner, the eyes and the horns are not proportionate at all to look legit for me. But I will admit that it doesn't look entirely like a motorbike. I'm really interested in seeing the outcome of this and can't quite commit to either argument. It is colorless, it is weird placement for Skull Kid, and the proportions. But it's also a blurry picture.

 

[Dan]

Yeah, I kind of want the leaked banner to be real as well. This would hands down be the best cast of newcomers the franchise has ever seen. I can set aside my Skull Kid mania for this.

Yup; this game already has a better newcomer class than Smash 4.

 

[NintenRob]

This is so confusing, that moon children thing would make sense. But I don't want to get my hope up, compared to every other newcomer, he's so much less clearer. I admit there are other characters that are hard to make out like R.O.B. and Ridley. But R.O.B. is tiny with bland colours and Ridley is behind a lot of characters.


Skull Kid is implied to be in front of a character and has a lot of colours on him. Orange, green, brown, red, purple. It's just so odd. And that mask seems too big for what blotch of colour there is there.

 

[JoyStar]

This is so confusing, that moon children thing would make sense. But I don't want to get my hope up, compared to every other newcomer, he's so much less clearer. I admit there are other characters that are hard to make out like R.O.B. and Ridley. But R.O.B. is tiny with bland colours and Ridley is behind a lot of characters.


Skull Kid is implied to be in front of a character and has a lot of colours on him. Orange, green, brown, red, purple. It's just so odd. And that mask seems too big for what blotch of colour there is there.

To be honest, if Skull Kid existed in real life this is the exact sort of stunt I could see him pulling whether he made it in the roster or not. XD

 

[AnOkayDM]

He's less clear because he's not there. Pretty simple.

 

[NintenRob]

He's less clear because he's not there. Pretty simple.

But explain what is there though!!! There's nothing on the bike that would make those two bright spots!!! PLEASE!!! I want to know!!! WHATS CAUSING THE GREEN AND ORANGE!! and why does it look like the heart shaped mask.....

 

[AnOkayDM]

But explain what is there though!!! There's nothing on the bike that would make those two bright spots!!! PLEASE!!! I want to know!!! WHATS CAUSING THE GREEN AND ORANGE!! and why does it look like the heart shaped mask.....

I dunno, man. But is it really likely that everyone who saw this image picked out seven characters, the text version of this leak from September listed seven characters, and papagenos's source's source listed seven characters, and somehow all of them missed the magical eighth character? And that the fans of that character, who have the most reason to want to see him, are the ones claiming he's in the loudest, when every other source isn't listing him?

As I've said, I hope desperately to be wrong. But it doesn't pay to get your hopes up on paper thin chances like this one.

 

[verysleepywolf]

AnOkayDM yeah that's the healthiest approach here. This could all be a sick joke and we're getting Moon Child for smash lol.

 

[AnOkayDM]

Heh, that would be weird.

One thing I forgot, papagenos's source's source actually did mention one other character. But it was Incineroar, and they're confused by his lack of presence on this banner too. But they never mentioned Skull Kid.

 

[NintenRob]

Alright, I'm gonna try and get to the bottom of this myself

Spoiler

Now going off the assumption Skull Kid is not there, Mach Riders bike seems to be based on a different source material that the Mach Rider himself. Nothing on the bike would give off the colour or pattern seen

So I decided to take a closer look at his Melee trophy. And found something interesting

Now this appears to be on the wrong side of the bike, but something similar would account for the eyes.

As for the orange and green, maybe it's just the ground ground and some crystal covered in shadow.

 

[PhantomShab]

Just want to point out that there was a topic on 4chan where someone enhanced the pic in such a way that what looked like pupils started to show up in the "lights". Then someone else took an official artwork of Skull Kid and blurred it as hard as it was in the leak and the pupils actually disappeared in that too.

I dunno, man.

Well it would be nice if you could give us an alternative since you seem so absolutely sure it's not Skull Kid and all.

 

[verysleepywolf]

Pretending the shape is Skull Kid, you could actually view that blue curved line next to the mask's right eye as the curve of the tire, meaning the front of the bike isn't even oriented correctly for those to be headlights (because the "mask" is in front of the bike).

I looked into the furniture theory hard enough to believe it for a while, and now I'm succesfully tricking my eyes into thinking it's Skull Kid on the banner as well. Haha it really doesn't take much.

It would be a nice surprise if this banner leak was even real, but getting Skull Kid on top of everyone else in the picture would just be insane.

 

[AnOkayDM]

Well it would be nice if you could give us an alternative since you seem so absolutely sure it's not Skull Kid and all.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Burden of proof isn't on me. I'm denying it because it seems more logical to me. We have multiple sources backing up that it's these seven characters and no more, and you have to do ridiculous color manipulation to actually make his colors show up. The picture is a blurry mess, but even so, we can pick out all the other characters. Skull Kid isn't a drab character and this isn't a drab game, so if he's there, his colors and shape should pop more. Skull Kid being in it doesn't line up with any of the other information we've got. It could be the bike, in a way that won't make sense to us until we see it as intended. It could be anything. It could even be Skull Kid.

But it's probably not.

 

[cybersai]

Unless Sakurai drastically changed the design of the Mach Bike, which would seem odd for a retro NES character, there's no way those can headlights because no official design dating back to the NES has those lights there.

And yes all those brown/orangeish colors under the heart-shaped mask with spikes would have no reason to be there...if no character was there. Even a smeared/blurry pic would not create a bunch of false colors where nothing should show up there but the ground or the bottom of the bike

 

[PhantomShab]

We have multiple sources backing up that it's these seven characters and no more

And how reliable are these "sources"?

The picture is a blurry mess, but even so, we can pick out all the other characters.

Do you think anyone could point to Ridley if they've never seen the Smash banner at all before? Because he's basically invisible lol.

 

[cybersai]

Only other thing those colors could be is literal dirt from the tire splashing to the left (like you know how dirtbikes go through mud/ground it all splashes everywhere?), and it looks like the Mach Rider could be stopping short and the dirt/mud, etc. is kicked up to the left. Only other explanation if it isn't Skull Kid

 

[Cosine]

Here's more artist interpretations:

You can clearly tell Mach Rider is a little behind Inkling and Roy. That means if Skull Kid is not there, there's a gigantic gap between Inkling and Roy on the final mural for no reason. Every other spot on the mural is packed and crowded with characters, why would they leave this open? Just so you can see the bottom of mach riders bike?

Meanwhile all the colors and shape match with the Majora's Mask and Skull Kid sitting/floating in mid-air.

He's in, boys, we did it.

Also worth mentioning that the purple isn't the same color as Roy's cape

 

[cybersai]

Yeah, what looks like to be Tael there is strange as well. I want to know where that purple circle came from.

I think he's in, boys, we did it.

 

[AnOkayDM]

And how reliable are these "sources"?

Well, one of them predates this image by almost a month. You'll have to ask papagenos about the other, but he seems completely confident in them.

Do you think anyone could point to Ridley if they've never seen the Smash banner at all before? Because he's basically invisible lol.

As I already said, Ridley is more or less one color. Skull Kid is extremely colorful. His colors would pop more than Ridley's, especially if he's in the front and not hidden behind three other characters.

 

[TumblrFamous]

Literally the "eyes" are two different hues. I want Skull Kid in like the rest of y'all, and I'll be ecstatic if he's in, but for right now I'm chilling with what we know.

Honestly, all veterans returning, Ridley, K. Rool, Isabelle, a Peach clone, Chorus Kids, and Isaac? I'm set with this game rn. All I need is Sora and I'm golden.

 

[NintenRob]

Let's just ignore this then
Something similar to that gold and white engine thing could account for the eyes

 

[Cosine]

Let's just ignore this then
Something similar to that gold and white engine thing could account for the eyes

Wouldn't there only be one eye then?

 

[cybersai]

You wouldn't see those with the way the mach bike is positioned on the mural though