I mean sure the gameplay isn't my favorite either, but every game is different. If you don't like it you can surely play something different, not like it's gonna be fixed in a patch or something. At least it's balance is a hell lot better than the other titles, being able to feasibly play anybody for the most part is a very welcome change. Even if most of the characters feel samey in a lot of ways.
I can't speak to Ultimate's balance as I got fed up with it and stopped playing months ago, but I don't really see how a game with a 70+ character roster can possibly be balanced, and indeed from what I played that really isn't the case. Some characters are still using outdated kit from Smash 64/Melee that makes them borderline useless, while the DLC characters border on broken with their gimmicks. Sword characters all eat heavyweights alive, some characters are just stupidly overpowered for no real reason (like Pichu), and Sakurai's idea of "balancing" involves taking a move that sucks and making it do 999% damage and knockback. This what he considers an okay workaround.
I can't really give a good response for what you want as a "lasting" form of excitement. Remember when they put Alien vs Predator in Mortal Kombat X? Or how the TMNT are all in Injustice 2? Link in Soul Calibur 2? Geese in Tekken 7? Cloud in Smash for Wii U / 3DS?
These are all really cool guest character appearances, but what in the world do you want these game developers to do to make this excitement lasting? It's a fighting game, they are literally being added/absorbed to the roster. This is a fundamental flaw of downloadable content in a game.
This is part of the problem. Guest characters have become so prevalent, not just in Smash but in every fighting game, that they just kinda... stopped being exciting. Especially since the only real hyped "megastar" pick of the first DLC volume was Banjo, everyone else is relatively obscure in most regions. I'm just numb to every reveal now. The magic is gone for me. I haven't found any of the characters truly exciting since Bayonetta.
I'd have an easier time getting excited if they actually did more with the characters and let them interact with each other in various ways, and not just have them absorbed into the biomass. I have many ideas for what they could do but I don't think they'd ever do any of them. Part of it requires overhauling Smash's gameplay just a little bit, because let's face it, this series is stagnant. It hasn't had any major changes to its gameplay since the addition of side specials in Melee. And no, Final Smashes and FS meters do not count. They basically just amount to nothing more than a really powerful item. They are not game-changing mechanics, and they can be turned off.
I'm not a big fan of MK but I think the reason MK guest characters are so exciting is because they go the extra mile to give them lots of fanservice, they do as much as they possibly can with the properties they're given. Not just special dialogue with every character (which is commendable in itself), but also lots of gameplay variation, costumes, sometimes special content like stages. They do as much as they can to make it seem like these characters really are occupying the same world space.
What I'm reading here is that you want the characters to interact more, which yeah, I think everyone would agree is something they want. The nature of Smash Brothers doesn't really let you get to see the characters interact within the game itself. But seeing as the game was originally meant to be a kid playing with their toys, the game leaves it to you to get the characters to interact using features like taking pictures while pausing. And even if you think the game shouldn't force the player to play the game to make the characters appear to interact in a crossover, good applications of it can be very charming.
I don't really care about this "kid playing with toys" narrative they're going for. It amounts to nothing more than a really lame excuse as to why they're not doing any of this. And it's also contradicted by the actual attempts at a story in several of the games.
What they need here is not just conflict, but also banter. And I don't just mean characters quipping at each other, I mean they could also actually play up the interaction between different game worlds. Like maybe the reason Olimar is no longer a tiny bug man is because he was hungry and ate a piece of a mega mushroom from the Mario world that made him "giant". There's potential for lots of interesting things here, but they don't ever bother, and throw many excuses as to why. "Other developers might not want to play ball." Then do it with your own franchises. Or maybe show them good faith that you'll portray their characters well. "Oh, it would be too difficult/expensive." You're Nintendo, you're not some struggling ambitious indie dev, you have the resources to hire all the talent you need. "It's not what Smash fans are used to". Boohoo. This is the worst excuse of the bunch. It's honestly alarming that they don't ever evolve the series or even fix any problems with it and just keep adding new problems to it because they 'don't want to alienate fans who like things they way they are'.
Honestly the biggest problem is that, more often than not, it's the FANS creating and using all these garbage excuses for Nintendo. Nintendo never makes any official statements that these are the reasons why they can't do it. The real reason they don't do anything with Smash other than throw DLC bones to the wind is because they just want easy money.
IMO, it really sounds like you either want Smash to be in a different format that allows things like character intro lines or just a whole story mode so you can watch the characters interact (which i mean, we still at least have most of the fighter trailers which are still nice). Because you're just not going to get the same level of detail in any fighting game. Mortal Kombat 11 still lets you fatality family members and them not caring about brutally mutilating their loved ones. Why? Because it's a ****ing video game man. I don't get what you want out of it. The characters look like robots in those scenario because they literally are puppets you are controlling. At least within the context of smash, the franchise is meant to be a kid playing with toys anyways. Iunno how you explain Johnny Cage opening up his Daughter's rib cage with his barehands whilst making a The Shining reference. :U
I don't see what any of this has to do with what I said. Mortal Kombat is what it is, as I said, I don't like that series that much but I'm just commending them for how much fanservice they manage to put into it.
You don't get the same level of detail in any fighting game? Funny, Tekken 7 managed to make Akuma from Street Fighter an integral part of its story. Every game with guest characters has character trailers. With how prevalent guests are they are opening things up more so that they do more with them than just basic trailers.
and as for changing the way the game is, the fact that the characters can feel so disconnected from each other is a reason WHY they can add such a ludicrous amount of content. no need to bring back 60+ VAs to read 5 lines fighting this new character. That's just more money and headaches to work around for a team. The flexibility helps more content come out at a faster rate.
That's not really a "headache", they can do that quite easily, contracting VAs to come back and do a few extra lines is not at all an issue, it's always something planned for.
And this is part of the problem, they're more focused on quantity over quality. It's like how the Simpsons is still on the air after 3 decades despite losing all its quality after season 8. They're just doing it to say they can, to break records that no one else is claiming. It's a selling point for Smash even though a lot of it is chaff and actually hurts the game, preventing it from being a more focused, polished and refined game. Lots of these characters were redundant and didn't need to come back, they brought them back anyways, they added a bunch of new echo characters, some of which were highly requested newcomers, in lieu of giving them proper movesets because they had to make the content easy and quick to release. If I may paraphrase Hank Hill, I don't want them to do it fast, I want them to do it right.
The Mario characters are considered by Miyamoto to be a "troupe of actors" so I don't get why seeing them play a role given to them in a fighting game is weird. They adapt to the role the game provides for them, it's something they do in every game they are in.
He can believe what he wants. He's wrong. Just because Miyamoto says this doesn't make it true.
Mario characters are a worldwide phenomenon and have established personalities after decades of portrayals across various media. What he believes is irrelevant as it's no longer in his control. What Mario appears as to the public is what he actually is - it's the global audience that decides Mario's personality now, not Miyamoto. And anyone can tell you that his portrayal in Smash is peculiar and alien to the character, it's not what they're used to him being. Mario has never been an edgy warrior. In every multimedia portrayal of his, he is seen as sort of a "friendly uncle" type, the kind who regularly makes puns and dad jokes so lame you just have to laugh. This is not at all how he is portrayed in Smash. And you asked which character portrayals in Smash are wrong, I told you which ones are wrong. Nearly every one of them is wrong unless it's a franchise that Sakurai likes or had a hand in making.
The Donkey Kong characters are designed after the original DKC, where they are quite literally portrayed as animals. So I don't understand why it is weird to see King K. Rool also portrayed animalistic when the other characters are literally meant to act like animals too.
DKC portrays them as goofy cartoon animals, not realistic ones. They express themselves with goofy cartoon antics and exaggerated reactions to things going on around them. And K. Rool was never portrayed as an animal, he was always portrayed as a bizarre, fat despot type with a too-proud-of-himself personality.
Bowser probably still harkens a lot of inspiration from Super Mario 64, where he literally sounds like Godzilla (which im sure is actually in an interview somewhere that bowser takes after his 64 appearance).
and I'm sure Wario is a character you want to be tough money-hungry guy like Land games portray them but they went after what the developers themselves liken Wario to be, gross and wacky.
You do know he says he talks to the creators of characters when incorporating them, right? I don't think any character really gets given a whole new personality or something unless the character has no personality to speak from because they appeared once in a NES game.
like i would like donkey kong to say "ok" after spiking wario and when he dies he says "oh my god!", but its not like the way they are portrayed doesnt already make sense.
just because you'd prefer a character to act a certain way doesn't mean it is inherently bad or wrong
Again. You asked which characters have "incorrect" portrayals in Smash. I answered, and rather than accepting this, you simply handwaved it away and made excuses for why they're portrayed incorrectly. Everything you've said here is nothing but an excuse. The whole reason they have brands and brand identities is PRECISELY because we expect the characters to act a certain way, because that's what makes people say they can know the character. So when Smash throws all that out the window, you can make excuses for it all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that the characters have been totally altered and are therefore more unfamiliar than they should be. The Wario in Smash is not the Wario I know from the WL games. Same with Mario, Peach, DK and a whole bunch of other characters. They're completely alternate characters wearing skins that make them look like the same characters.