I vote Steve he feels the most deserving
Master Chief is second, he has a lot of gaming history and was a huge staple in the gaming mascots of the 2000s and beyond era where big gaming mascots felt few and far between only really having him, Steve, Chell (Portal), and many Sony characters that obviously can’t be in Smash such as Rachet, Kratos, Sackboy, Jak, Sly, etc.
i’d Love for Master Chief to appear based on gaming history similar to Cloud or Snake, but I’m not holding my breath for a base pick, he feels more like DLC. It’d be cool to see him go against Samus and Snake, along with the potential Doom Guy.
Banjo would be 3rd, important, but more of a time period character rather than a big mascot. He feels like he represents the N64, granted I honestly believe Mario and Zelda represent better, but most see him as an N64 mascot. To me though, he doesn’t feel, well, special enough to have earned the title of a Smash character. He had two relatively big titles on one system then died after a 3rd entry and a few handheld titles no one remembers. Not many know him nowadays and really the cracks of the franchise and Rare itself are only shinning brighter each day with Yooka Laylee being held as an example that Banjo’s formula doesn’t work, at least not anymore. Really the only argument for Banjo I’ve seen is that he was once a Nintendo character, but that really doesn’t make him important to me. There are plenty of very big Nintendo characters easily more deserving of the title like Rayman who’s been a Nintendo centered franchise for around two decades now. I know he has fans and I hope they get their character, but he doesn’t feel unique or important enough to be a Smash character in my eyes.
As for Steve, what is there to say. His franchise is huge, bigger than the previous two in many ways.
Minecraft is one of the biggest gaming mile stones we’ve hit in the past decade. The game was one of if not the biggest indie success story in gaming history being huge for 3 years before the Microsoft buyout. It was a game that took a very niche genre being world builders and flipped it on its head over night, making it one of the biggest genres after its release. And most of all the game practically shaped gaming in this decade from the huge exposure indies are now getting from the YouTube communities (trend seekers) that were built from Minecraft, to the huge push for world builders or elements of it in recent titles, such as the building mechanics in the most popular game Fortnite (yes they admitted they looked at MC for this).
Minecraft has proved its worth in the gaming landscape, accomplishing so much in under 10 years, while still being huge and getting top sales even going into 2017 with the Nintendo Switch version. How many games can claim that the United Nations literally uses them for project planning.
I’ve seen some claim that Banjo is the reason we are talking about a Microsoft rep, but that really isn’t true. Minecraft was the first big collaboration between Nintendo and Microsoft in years as it was brought to the dying Wii U, then again for the Switch with crossplay between XBOX and Switch, something unheard of as usually console users can only play with people on their console or PC at best, but Minecraft is what got competing companies together. Verge also said MC content getting the ball rolling for a Microsoft rep.
I guess when I look at Smash characters, I think of it like this, are they iconic and have done enough to stand next to Mario, Sonic, Ryu, Pac-Man, and the gaming greats that basically anyone can recognize, even if its the franchise not the character. To me Steve is the one who most earned that position, he has accomplished and brought so much to gaming as a whole that he deserves his position. Master Chief is also up there for that reason, he was Microsoft’s mascot for a reason and he has done enough for first person shooters (being somewhat of the og multiplayer shooter) and even online play and the sci-fi part of gaming to earn his spot. Then Banjo, I don’t see it. While he’s not a bad character, he didn’t really do anything. He was just part of a genre that ultimately died after the next generation, while he died a generation before. Nothing he did really seemed to carry over to others as most just copied Mario or Sony’s more famous 3D platformers like Ratchet or Jak.
That’s just my opinion though. I’d personally want to see Minecraft get in the most as it was a big game for my generation and seems to continue that legacy going further. It’s also for gaming history purposes as Minecraft is a big franchises that has earned its place amongst Mario and the rest of the 3rd parties.
While I haven’t played Halo I respect its legacy and definitely want to see Master Chief join as one of the big icons from a rival company. Most of the big shooter franchises owe their popularity to Halo, like Destiny and even COD, so I’d love for it to be represented.
Banjo is one I’d accept to please fans, but not much else. I love 3D platformers, but I feel most owe more to Mario and Sony then Rare. I’ve never seen Banjo as a mascot for the genre, even going far as to say that even Spongebob has more of a presence in this genre than Banjo.