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

[cybersai]

I do like the idea of a October/Halloween reveal for Skull Kid.

Problem is I'm 90% sure that Incineroar will be the next reveal, Pokemon will be hyped up ahead of the new games release, and now I think Dixie has a strong chance to be a semi-clone like Isabelle so she'll have a debut too. I don't know how many new characters not counting echoes would be revealed in one direct

 

[The Legendary Beast]

Halloween reveal would be awesome!

Spoiler

 

[Nazyrus]

I do like the idea of a October/Halloween reveal for Skull Kid.

Problem is I'm 90% sure that Incineroar will be the next reveal, Pokemon will be hyped up ahead of the new games release, and now I think Dixie has a strong chance to be a semi-clone like Isabelle so she'll have a debut too. I don't know how many new characters not counting echoes would be revealed in one direct

hmm or maybe both skull kid and incineroar? iirc, nintendo switch 6.0.0 got leaked icons for the classic controlers and they have yet to talk about the SNES ones, which yes, were also an icon…so they gotta still talk about those games, maybe a regular direct once again next month and that way we can have both pkmn stuff and smash stuff related… dunno really, but it could go that way too i believe. Either way, whenever the next smash direct is, it's gonna have a lot more than just one reveal, that's for damn sure

 

[Xigger]

I'm really glad to see the tides are shifting for Skull Kid and other fighters. All of our observed rules on who's viable are being redefined in favour of fan favorites!

 

[UserKev]

Last page had some sick arguments and made things a lot more interesting. Still tho, my hope goes through the rest of you. Its like Skull Kid is already not in the game for me. I don't exactly expect him anymore but a Halloween month Smash direct is a strong indicator, even possibly being aimed at US time.

 

[NintenRob]

On the topic of Pokemon.

I could see it going either way. They're sort of bank and forth on how the treat Pokemon Trainer, so from one perspective it has 7 characters, which is still less than Mario. And 8 is imo the perfect number for a franchise to have

But other the hand, it has 9 characters, and another would give it an absurd 10. First to reach double digit.

We also don't have a gen7 stage, but I don't think that matters much when there are plenty of other Pokemon stages.

 

[verysleepywolf]

Don't give up hope so quickly, Isabelle was far more appropriate to show after Hokkaido and clearly they had a week to assemble what was a really charming, but inexpensive trailer. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't even ready to announce AC just yet, since there was nothing to show of the game, but it made sense to combine the 2019 tease with Isabelle and give fans more to chew on.

Isabelle doesn't deconfirm Skull Kid AT ALL.

 

[Dr Bones]

Also lets look at some facts
as I was watching the direct I was starting to think less and less that SK (or Geno or Isaac for that matter). This was a very kid friendly direct showing off a lot of titles that wouldn't appeal to a portion of smash fans. Imagine the tonal shift of "fun party games for the whole family!" to "This cursed child possessed by a hexed mask is coming to smash!" The big 4 are highly request but also quite niche and don't have the mass appeal Isabelle does, plus they wanted to line it up with the animal crossing reveal.

On another note it is quickly coming apparent that Vergeben is legitimate. I've always thought he was but now i'm almost taking his word as fact. that being said expect Ken, the Gen 7 rep, and the SE rep(maybe Geno). I was reading on reddit that there is one more character not accounted for by Vergeben that he has no info on(that he's shared) and that's if he's got the roster number confirmed. While I think that Isaac and a Rhythm Heaven are very likely, neither have gotten any real clues (save for the DK laying in front of the TV mimicking Karate Joe) as to their incursion.

TL;DR: SK was never meant to be in this direct and there is still hope.

 

[Nazyrus]

Also lets look at some facts
as I was watching the direct I was starting to think less and less that SK (or Geno or Isaac for that matter). This was a very kid friendly direct showing off a lot of titles that wouldn't appeal to a portion of smash fans. Imagine the tonal shift of "fun party games for the whole family!" to "This cursed child possessed by a hexed mask is coming to smash!" The big 4 are highly request but also quite niche and don't have the mass appeal Isabelle does, plus they wanted to line it up with the animal crossing reveal.

On another note it is quickly coming apparent that Vergeben is legitimate. I've always thought he was but now i'm almost taking his word as fact. that being said expect Ken, the Gen 7 rep, and the SE rep(maybe Geno). I was reading on reddit that there is one more character not accounted for by Vergeben that he has no info on(that he's shared) and that's if he's got the roster number confirmed. While I think that Isaac and a Rhythm Heaven are very likely, neither have gotten any real clues (save for the DK laying in front of the TV mimicking Karate Joe) as to their incursion.

TL;DR: SK was never meant to be in this direct and there is still hope.

Yeah we still got october and november, and one of those two will have a smash direct for sure, things will be nuts to push the marketing even more for the game coming a few weeks later. They are definitely gonna go in and better than Smash 4, not the opposite.

 

[0007]

I saw this image and it cheered me up a bit.

Spoiler

There are only 2 remaining first party Mii Costumes that haven't been confirmed...

 

[LetterO]

A bit late, but here I am to support Skull Kid!

 

[NintenRob]

There's a theory going around suggesting there is only 2 characters left, 1 echo and 1 unique new character.

And echo is very likely Ken with a possibility of Ms. Pac-Man.

But only one unique character really scares me. Skull Kid has the most reason out of anyone. But yikes.

 

[LetterO]

There's a theory going around suggesting there is only 2 characters left, 1 echo and 1 unique new character.

And echo is very likely Ken with a possibility of Ms. Pac-Man.

But only one unique character really scares me. Skull Kid has the most reason out of anyone. But yikes.

I'll just see what happens, but I'm not going to be relying on boxart as a hint or leak.

 

[ThoughtfulWanderer]

There's a theory going around suggesting there is only 2 characters left, 1 echo and 1 unique new character.

And echo is very likely Ken with a possibility of Ms. Pac-Man.

But only one unique character really scares me. Skull Kid has the most reason out of anyone. But yikes.

The boxart? Not a chance. There is still at least one more Smash direct to come with modes like Spirits left to talk about, and remember that Sakurai announced five characters in the August direct alone.

Besides, no way with how secretive they're being for this game that they'd let a box show how many characters are left. That's about as silly as assuming the website's "slots" are indicative of anything. It's more likely a placeholder box design than anything.

 

[0007]

There's a theory going around suggesting there is only 2 characters left, 1 echo and 1 unique new character.

And echo is very likely Ken with a possibility of Ms. Pac-Man.

But only one unique character really scares me. Skull Kid has the most reason out of anyone. But yikes.

Source? That claim seems totally unfounded, and by the way Skull Kid does not have the most reason out of anyone to be the next newcomer. If there were only one more unique character in the base game, it would be a Gen 7 Pokemon rep. There's never been a Smash game that doesn't introduce a new Pokemon.

 

[NintenRob]

Source? That claim seems totally unfounded, and by the way Skull Kid does not have the most reason out of anyone to be the next newcomer. If there were only one more unique character in the base game, it would be a Gen 7 Pokemon rep. There's never been a Smash game that doesn't introduce a new Pokemon.

Prior to Smash 4, every game had introduced a Zelda newcomer yet nothing yet it still get anything in that game

I could see them skipping the Pokemon simply because it just got 3 veterans back.

And there's a lot more demand for a new Zelda character. Probably the franchise with most demand for a new character


EDIT: Theory here
https://smashboards.com/threads/bas...-ken-one-final-newcomer.458449/#post-22431356

 

[0007]

Prior to Smash 4, every game had introduced a Zelda newcomer yet nothing yet it still get anything in that game

I could see them skipping the Pokemon simply because it just got 3 veterans back.

Pokemon is way more popular and important than Zelda, and the nature of Pokemon characters (new gens introduce new fan favorite characters) vs Zelda ones (the only reoccurring ones are Zelda, Link, and Ganondorf with the newer characters not being as famous as new Pokemon) means that adding a new Pokemon every game is much more likely. Gamefreak also uses Smash to market Pokemon and has a vested interest in suggesting new Pokemon to Sakurai.

In addition, I could easily see Sakurai looking at Young Link and feeling like his addition to Ultimate makes for a good enough "newcomer".

If you're not expecting a new Pokemon newcomer, even not considering Vergeben's very credible track record, you're selectively thinking and not being honest with yourself.

 

[NintenRob]

Pokemon is way more popular and important than Zelda, and the nature of Pokemon characters (new gens introduce new fan favorite characters) vs Zelda ones (the only reoccurring ones are Zelda, Link, and Ganondorf with the newer characters not being as famous as new Pokemon) means that adding a new Pokemon every game is much more likely. Gamefreak also uses Smash to market Pokemon and has a vested interest in suggesting new Pokemon to Sakurai.

In addition, I could easily see Sakurai looking at Young Link and feeling like his addition to Ultimate makes for a good enough "newcomer".

If you're not expecting a new Pokemon newcomer, even not considering Vergeben's very credible track record, you're selectively thinking and not being honest with yourself.

Yes Pokemon is a much bigger franchise, which is why it currently has 9 characters while Zelda is at 6. It's like saying any smaller franchise isn't going to get a character because of bigger franchises.

And yeah, I don't buy Verg at all. He's incompatible with the box and is pointlessly vague.


We haven't even gotten a Gen 7 stage.

I've been sceptical on any new Pokemon ever since the reveal of EVERYONE IS here.

 

[0007]

It's like saying any smaller franchise isn't going to get a character because of bigger franchises.

That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that it's logical to believe that Pokemon will get at least one new character every game. There could be a new Zelda rep, too, but not at the expense of a Pokemon rep.

And yeah, I don't buy Verg at all. He's incompatible with the box and is pointlessly vague.

He's not pointlessly vague, he only feels comfortable on revealing things he absolutely knows to be true. (Unlike loz18, lol, he deleted his twitter. I can't believe I ever took him seriously) That's why verg has never been wrong. Just because he didn't mention K. Rool doesn't mean he's wrong. He has stated he doesn't know all of the characters. He'd only be wrong if he explicitly said K. Rool would NOT be in the game, but he never commented on K Rool.

The box is entirely not credible. You really think Nintendo would leak the number of remaining newcomers so obviously with a placeholder box that's photoshopped?

Spoiler

 

[NintenRob]

Pokemon has already received 3 additional characters that weren't in the last game, that alone in enough to believe it might not get a character.


And Nintendo wouldn't intentionally reveal characters, hence why it has two black spots where Isabelle and the other unique character would be, but I doubt the people in charge of sharing this would realize people would be able to figure out the pattern and put together that there's an echo on the other side.

It's way more believable than verg who has always had a very shaky track record. I don't really believe anything he's said past the initial reveal, add on top of that he mentioned Minecraft with no evidence there is Minecraft content, especially weird since we've likely seen every stage. And that would be Odd to have something like that from a completely different company only for a boss or assist trophy

 

[0007]

verg who has always had a very shaky track record.

I want to know your definition of "credible", then.

 

[NintenRob]

I want to know your definition of "credible", then.

Look at his past, the Smash community is the only one that seems to give any attention because he's been laughably wrong on other games.

And this discussion is becoming less and less about Skull Kid and nothing positive can come from it. So let's drop it

 

[Demonfunds]

God I hope that theory turns out to be bull****.

 

[ActualGarbage]

If they can move around and add characters to the fat panorama art then they can definitely add some to the box. Just squish it a little and add another row, it won't even look that bad.

 

[NintenRob]

I'm kinda back and forth on the box now.

Because it occurred, the blank spaces might just be that, Blank spaces. They're not meant to placeholders, they're just not having all the characters on it, the people doing the box might not have even known Isabelle was playable due to it. If it was just placeholder, couldn't they have easily added Isabelle to it? It's already just a digital image.

 

[Xevious 1]

There's a theory going around suggesting there is only 2 characters left, 1 echo and 1 unique new character.

And echo is very likely Ken with a possibility of Ms. Pac-Man.

But only one unique character really scares me. Skull Kid has the most reason out of anyone. But yikes.

I don't buy that at all. I think there at least 4-5 newcomers left and 5 echoes. It is a similar situation to the "gaps" on the panorama, they can make space when new characters get revealed.

 

[Geassguy]

This sums up a lot of my thoughts on the "box leak"

 

[Cosmic77]

I don't buy that at all. I think there at least 4-5 newcomers left and 5 echoes. It is a similar situation to the "gaps" on the panorama, they can make space when new characters get revealed.

Expecting 8-10 characters is more than a little unrealistic at this point. Best-case scenario, we get three more unique newcomers. One in October, and two in November during the final Smash Direct. As for Echoes, I wouldn't expect any more than three as well.


On the topic of Skull Kid, I'm gonna be honest - he's in a very tight spot. Even if the boxart thing is false, Isabelle took away one of those coveted spots. Unless we get a perfect scenario of Geno + Skull Kid + Gen VII rep, someone's not gonna make the cut. I don't know who would be least likely out of the three, but my money is on a Pokemon being the most likely pick. Doesn't necessarily have to be Incineroar, but I'd genuinely be suprised if Pokemon didn't get a double reveal of a Su/Mo remix (Pokemon doesn't have a track on the site yet) and a Gen VII Pokemon.

 

[AnOkayDM]

We need to brace ourselves for the very real possibility that this box thing is true. It's tough to believe that they would let this slip so early, but it's certainly not impossible. Personally, I've begun to accept that we might have knowledge of the full roster at this point, and that Skull Kid isn't on it. I'd love to be wrong, but I think it's a possibility that the worst has happened and our boy is a boss.

I urge everyone else to start making peace with that now. That way, if it gets confirmed, it hurts less than it would if it had been a surprise, and if he ends up playable, it's a pleasant surprise.

If this is the final roster, it's still a good one.

 

[Kensho]

En

We need to brace ourselves for the very real possibility that this box thing is true. It's tough to believe that they would let this slip so early, but it's certainly not impossible. Personally, I've begun to accept that we might have knowledge of the full roster at this point, and that Skull Kid isn't on it. I'd love to be wrong, but I think it's a possibility that the worst has happened and our boy is a boss.

I urge everyone else to start making peace with that now. That way, if it gets confirmed, it hurts less than it would if it had been a surprise, and if he ends up playable, it's a pleasant surprise.

If this is the final roster, it's still a good one.

The box leak is the stupidest thing I've heard about smash ultimate speculation since "103 stages is final".

Do you really think so little of Sakurai that he would just share the final design of the freaking box with the perfect space left to know who's left? Wtf?

Everyone who says Vergeben is not reliable has never read his posts and the videogame news that accompany the leaks. He is legit, he has sources, that doesn't mean his sources always have the final info or the full picture, but it's obvious he does have them.

And since I believe this sources, even if it means SK chances are smaller, we are still getting a square rep, Ken and a Pokemon. Bye Box theory. Seriously, how did we get from saying a full esrb leak is fake to deciding on unreleased not final merchandise Photoshop?


Edit: not to mention having 2 characters left to show when we are barely on the halfway point of smash marketing prerelease is nonsense

 

[Spatman]

I believe in the box theory as I didn't believe 103 stages was real (but now I changed my mind about it) and I didn't believe the wallpaper artwork was definitive

I hope in the dlcs, tho

ps: until now I didn't 100% believe in Vergeben, but now I can't see how he could mess just the last one character after having leaked all the others


edit: for people that say that we still are at half of cycle of marketing prerelease: well, remember tho that Sakurai said we will know all the characters before the release of the game. If the box of the bundle will picture all the characters (the most likely thing of course) it mean we will know all characters before 11/02.
And it has many sense in order to avoid final leaks. Moreover in every smash cycle the most hyping characters were revealed in the first half and the bottom at the end

of course it's still possible that some characters won't be pictured in the box or they will be pictured in another place rather than the side we don't see at this moment. But it would be a very weird choice the first case, a less weird but still unusual choice in the latter

 

[TreeBranch]

En

The box leak is the stupidest thing I've heard about smash ultimate speculation since "103 stages is final".

Do you really think so little of Sakurai that he would just share the final design of the freaking box with the perfect space left to know who's left? Wtf?

Everyone who says Vergeben is not reliable has never read his posts and the videogame news that accompany the leaks. He is legit, he has sources, that doesn't mean his sources always have the final info or the full picture, but it's obvious he does have them.

And since I believe this sources, even if it means SK chances are smaller, we are still getting a square rep, Ken and a Pokemon. Bye Box theory. Seriously, how did we get from saying a full esrb leak is fake to deciding on unreleased not final merchandise Photoshop?

I completely agree. I doubt the people making the box even know the final newcomers.
We've gotta stay hopeful for Skull Kid. He has a lot going for him right now. Isabelle taking a spot just shows that not every character will be ballot based, which in my opinion, is a great thing for Skull Kid. His support for smash only really started drumming up recently, but as with Isabelle, he's just a popular character in general. She's also an upgraded assist and costume, so that's something.

 

[AnOkayDM]

I wasn't expecting that post to be popular, but I've been saying since early on to get ready to accept that he might not be in. This is just a reminder in light of what may or may not be accurate information.

That being said, a few things:
-Sakurai is not some godlike figure, even if this board wants to believe he is. He's just a guy, and I've been part of the Smash community long enough to realize that he doesn't make everyone happy all the time.
-He also does not necessarily have control over what Nintendo chooses to do with its marketing. He didn't reveal that box, Nintendo did. It's not on the Smash website or his Twitter.
-It is absolutely, one hundred percent possible that 103 stages is the final total, especially considering he doubled down on "a hundred if we exclude Battlefield, Big Battlefield, and Final Destination." Especially if this is also true.

It might not be accurate, but nothing bad ever came from lowering your expectations. That's all.

 

[Kensho]

I believe in the box theory as I didn't believe 103 stages was real (but now I changed my mind about it) and I didn't believe the wallpaper artwork was definitive

I hope in the dlcs, tho

ps: until now I didn't 100% believe in Vergeben, but now I can't see how he could mess just the last one character after having leaked all the others


edit: for people that say that we still are at half of cycle of marketing prerelease: well, remember tho that Sakurai said we will know all the characters before the release of the game. If the box of the bundle will picture all the characters (the most likely thing of course) it mean we will know all characters before 11/02.
And it has many sense in order to avoid final leaks. Moreover in every smash cycle the most hyping characters were revealed in the first half and the bottom at the end

of course it's still possible that some characters won't be pictured in the box or they will be pictured in another place rather than the side we don't see at this moment. But it would be a very weird choice the first case, a less weird but still unusual choice in the latter

Isn't the box that has the characters the one that comes out December 7th? I think it says to include a physical version of the game. But yeah, if it did come out a month before then for sure it wouldn't have them all printed on it.

 

[TheCJBrine]

This box theory may end up being true...

Well, even if Skull Kid is a boss or something else, I'll be adamant on supporting him for DLC anyway, as well as the next game. Hopefully, they'll host another Ballot.

 

[GoodGrief741]

I wasn't expecting that post to be popular, but I've been saying since early on to get ready to accept that he might not be in. This is just a reminder in light of what may or may not be accurate information.

That being said, a few things:
-Sakurai is not some godlike figure, even if this board wants to believe he is. He's just a guy, and I've been part of the Smash community long enough to realize that he doesn't make everyone happy all the time.
-He also does not necessarily have control over what Nintendo chooses to do with its marketing. He didn't reveal that box, Nintendo did. It's not on the Smash website or his Twitter.
-It is absolutely, one hundred percent possible that 103 stages is the final total, especially considering he doubled down on "a hundred if we exclude Battlefield, Big Battlefield, and Final Destination." Especially if this is also true.

It might not be accurate, but nothing bad ever came from lowering your expectations. That's all.

Nintendo and Sakurai wouldn’t let the marketing team get ahold of the full character list this far ahead, so yeah, he’s pretty much got control on what does and doesn’t let people know.

 

[OptimisticStrifer]

Wanna hear my impression of the Smash Speculation Community?

 

[PhantomShab]

If Skull Kid doesn't end up being playable can we all finally come to agree, when you consider the series' treament when it comes to Smash, that Sakurai really doesn't give a **** about Zelda?

 

[TheCJBrine]

If Skull Kid doesn't end up being playable can we all finally come to agree, when you consider the series' treament when it comes to Smash, that Sakurai really doesn't give a **** about Zelda?

"Okay so we got Ganondorf, Zelda, wait...two Zeldas? ...and THREE LINKS?!"

Skull Kid, Impa, and Tingle for DLC.

 

[MasterOfKnees]

If Skull Kid doesn't end up being playable can we all finally come to agree, when you consider the series' treament when it comes to Smash, that Sakurai really doesn't give a **** about Zelda?

I think he does, in every other facet than playable characters the series is very well represented, but as always the support for a Zelda character being scattered between so many different characters means that there's never really any one character from it knocking on his door. Even if Skull Kid should miss out on the base game he at least has the platform to get there now, people just have to keep pushing for him regardless of whether he's in or not.