Official Newcomer/DLC Speculation Discussion

[PeridotGX]

hes in and y’all know it

Please, we all know the Gen 8 rep will be this specific Alcremie.

No others, just this one

 

[Scoliosis Jones]

In terms of predictions:

1) Some folks actually weren’t that off that mark in a general sense for Wave 1. Several folks actively predicted no upgrades of NPCs and a 3rd party/new pick driven pass. This was essentially correct. I myself did not get the picks themselves right, but I did suggest that the only 1st parties I felt were likely for Pass 1 were Three Houses (especially with no Spirit event), Pokémon (which got a spirit event) and Astral Chain (which got a spirit event).

2) It’s too early to really predict exactly who will be among the last 6, but I will stand by the concept of DLC based on precedent, which has shown mostly 3rd party or advertising picks. It isn’t to say it’s impossible to have a first party fav added right now, but it doesn’t line up with 99% of all DLC picks.

3) With ARMS, at least, it’s either Spring-Man or Min-Min if it’s a single character. I simply don’t see much of a reason for any other character to be the pick.

Eh, that’s about all I’ve got for now. Too much texting on my phone!

 

[Guynamednelson]

Please, we all know the Gen 8 rep will be this specific Alcremie.
View attachment 270843
No others, just this one

It won't even have any alts. You gotta deal with it when 8 people wanna play Alcremie.

 

[Cutie Gwen]

Please, we all know the Gen 8 rep will be this specific Alcremie.
View attachment 270843
No others, just this one

Finally, a character with less content than Cloud

 

[Knight Dude]

Actually I do gotta ask everyone here

How Confident are you guys in your predictions, or how right do you think you will be in the end?

I'm pretty sure we're gonna get a character from ARMS.

Nah, seriously, I'm not banking on any serious guesses right now. Even WHO the ARMS character isn't something I can say with 100% certainty. It really depends on what rule gets broken. The "No AT/Spirit" one or the "Main/Mascot first" one. Either way I'd be happy with Spring Man or Misango especially but most of ARMS' characters are pretty cool so I'm looking forward to seeing them.

Though I'm hoping it'll be multiple characters via the costumes like Hero and the Koopalings, since I think that'd make more people happy in the long run.

 

[ZenythSmash]

Wrong

I mean, if you actually feel Shadow would get major newcomer priorities over anybody else, i personally feel that's dire unlikely.
You got the series antagonist, it's deterogonist, and even its tritagonist and former rival, who Assist Trophy was a bit more developed than Shadow's even. As Sakurai already gone over how massive popularity won't gurantee an inclusion, he's definitely not hurdling over those characters as a major Newcomer.
There's even a big reason why people even bothered to rally him as a potiental Echo Fighter choice and Echo Fighters are usually just the last minute additions we get per release. At least some other than getting Sonic's "nothing but blue" costumes and recycled OST/vocals.

From Sonic The Fighters.

Understandable since Sakurai's history with arcade games probably made him more aware of that as reference point than Battle.

That and the fact Battle is still just a small piece of Sonic history, very small. Not only underperformed as a GBA Sonic title, but SEGA trying its best to rarely give it the attention fans really want from them. Gemerl, formerly Emerl, is still side lined to the comics, the lack of interest to expand of Battle's lore again thanks to certain "problem" that happened years ago, and haven't gotten anything cool like that Emerald Beach remix for years.

Coming from somebody who still play it religiously and want to inspire from it for future projects. Wish there was more games that played like Power Stone and Sonic Battle.

 

[DarthEnderX]

Waluigi has been incredibly popular. Reggie has been asked in interviews why Waluigi is not in Smash.

Oh, well if someone asked for him, he MUST be popular...

 

[Knight Dude]

In terms of predictions:

1) Some folks actually weren’t that off that mark in a general sense for Wave 1. Several folks actively predicted no upgrades of NPCs and a 3rd party/new pick driven pass. This was essentially correct. I myself did not get the picks themselves right, but I did suggest that the only 1st parties I felt were likely for Pass 1 were Three Houses (especially with no Spirit event), Pokémon (which got a spirit event) and Astral Chain (which got a spirit event).

2) It’s too early to really predict exactly who will be among the last 6, but I will stand by the concept of DLC based on precedent, which has shown mostly 3rd party or advertising picks. It isn’t to say it’s impossible to have a first party fav added right now, but it doesn’t line up with 99% of all DLC picks.

3) With ARMS, at least, it’s either Spring-Man or Min-Min if it’s a single character. I simply don’t see much of a reason for any other character to be the pick.

Eh, that’s about all I’ve got for now. Too much texting on my phone!

Yeah but "3rd party/New 1st party driven" is a bit of a vague guess. Outside of Banjo-Kazooie (which even then was heavily debated whether they'd go for the more relevant Minecraft) and Hero, who's files were leaked, not a ton of the characters were outright guessed by a huge chunk of people before their reveal. A few Joker fans, and we occasionally brought up SNK when discussing fighting game franchises, most of that attention was around Tekken and Mortal Kombat, at least from what I remember.

The closest to that would have been Byleth, though a few people, myself included figured they'd be a lock for Season 2 rather than ending Season 1.

 

[Erased member]

...But... Spring Man's ALREADY In The Game. lol:

 

[ZenythSmash]

...But... Spring Man's ALREADY In The Game. lol:
View attachment 270844

for an erased member, i wonder how in the heck you even posted in the first place...
that said, unless the ARMS fighter is acutally Min-Min or Max Brass, i don't think that matters at the moment

 

[Rie Sonomura]

for an erased member, i wonder how in the heck you even posted in the first place...
that said, unless the ARMS fighter is acutally Min-Min or Max Brass, i don't think that matters at the moment

only counts if it says Deleted Member

I do personally think it'll be Min Min though. popular character and also breaks a fan rule (Spirits instead of ATs)

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Yeah but "3rd party/New 1st party driven" is a bit of a vague guess. Outside of Banjo-Kazooie (which even then was heavily debated whether they'd go for the more relevant Minecraft) and Hero, who's files were leaked, not a ton of the characters were outright guessed by a huge chunk of people before their reveal. A few Joker fans, and we occasionally brought up SNK when discussing fighting game franchises, most of that attention was around Tekken and Mortal Kombat, at least from what I remember.

The closest to that would have been Byleth, though a few people, myself included figured they'd be a lock for Season 2 rather than ending Season 1.

I mean, can we get more specific than 'vague guesses' right now? All we can say is there'll be an ARMS rep, and even still that means either Springman for being the mascot, Min Min as the fan favorite, or a bunch of alts with stretchy arms. Or even a wildcard from one of the other 13 ARMS characters people don't look at much. I think it's likely a bunch of alts since they could have just come out and said who it was gonna be if it was just one, but maybe they like to see us question it.

All we have now is precedent, but that's not really too helpful. The first pass wasn't all fan favorites or promotional or reception or based on Nintendo history. Each character doesn't fit into one or more of those categories. We're likely to get a wild mix this time as well.

Even with the two you mentioned, we had loads of theories before: Tekken is super important to Namco (true) and Heihachi is one of their favorite characters (true) and Namco codevelops the game and has nothing but Pac Man (true). All good points, but... And I also remember the Mortal Kombat stuff came mostly from Ed Boon tweeting...but he loves to tweet random **** that everyone takes as a hint. How many "Rain Confirmed!" posts have people in the MK world collected? (Seriously though noobde, you done Kenshi bad, so bring him in for Kombat pack 2)

 

[N3ON]

...But... Spring Man's ALREADY In The Game. lol:
View attachment 270844

Can't believe no one's mentioned this yet

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

Can't believe no one's mentioned this yet

I know right? How could we have overlooked that?

Real talk though, would everyone be happy if they made it a point not to include the series mascots and most popular characters because of Spirits and such?

Coming from somebody who still play it religiously and want to inspire from it for future projects. Wish there was more games that played like Power Stone and Sonic Battle.

There are.

Problem: It's mostly shovelware.

 

[Knight Dude]

I mean, if you actually feel Shadow would get major newcomer priorities over anybody else, i personally feel that's dire unlikely.
You got the series antagonist, it's deterogonist, and even its tritagonist and former rival, who Assist Trophy was a bit more developed than Shadow's even. As Sakurai already gone over how massive popularity won't gurantee an inclusion, he's definitely not hurdling over those characters as a major Newcomer.
There's even a big reason why people even bothered to rally him as a potiental Echo Fighter choice and Echo Fighters are usually just the last minute additions we get per release. At least some other than getting Sonic's "nothing but blue" costumes and recycled OST/vocals.

To be fair, the argument has less to do with Shadow being the chosen character and more to do with saying that he'd only be Echo material, while Dixie Kong couldn't possibly work as one. Both could end up either way theoretically. Shadow's got some weird energy powers and some unique punches and kicks to mix things up. And Dixie can fly, shoot bubble gum instead of peanuts and could in general use her hair as a weapon of sorts.

I mean, can we get more specific than 'vague guesses' right now? All we can say is there'll be an ARMS rep, and even still that means either Springman for being the mascot, Min Min as the fan favorite, or a bunch of alts with stretchy arms. Or even a wildcard from one of the other 13 ARMS characters people don't look at much. I think it's likely a bunch of alts since they could have just come out and said who it was gonna be if it was just one, but maybe they like to see us question it.

All we have now is precedent, but that's not really too helpful. The first pass wasn't all fan favorites or promotional or reception or based on Nintendo history. Each character doesn't fit into one or more of those categories. We're likely to get a wild mix this time as well.

Even with the two you mentioned, we had loads of theories before: Tekken is super important to Namco (true) and Heihachi is one of their favorite characters (true) and Namco codevelops the game and has nothing but Pac Man (true). All good points, but... And I also remember the Mortal Kombat stuff came mostly from Ed Boon tweeting...but he loves to tweet random **** that everyone takes as a hint. How many "Rain Confirmed!" posts have people in the MK world collected? (Seriously though noobde, you done Kenshi bad, so bring him in for Kombat pack 2)

Oh I agree it'll be a mix of many things. I was generally saying many of the guesses for Season 1 were also mostly vague, aside from Byleth and sorta Banjo-Kazooie, or had some evidence leaked to get people seriously guessing. I would like to be able to say for sure Ryu Hayabusa is a lock, but I unfortunately can't.

For MK, it was talked about here a lot because MK's really popular in the west, and a handful of people want to see it happen, but it's always brought up the conversation of whether or not a sizable Japanese fanbase/impession is required for a character and whether or not Mortal Kombat's unique attributes can be implemented to Smash as well as it could, but with the violence toned down. I know Ed Boon posts a lot of stuff, but I don't think it had a ton of barring on our discussions here.

Tekken's popular and we know Heihachi was considered for the last game, so that alone is bound to leave a ton of discussion, much like the Chorus Kids, but to a larger extent cause Tekken's a more iconic series.

There's nothing wrong with said vague guesses though, the ones with some decent thought put behind them are more interesting to talk about overall.

 

[Guynamednelson]

...But... Spring Man's ALREADY In The Game. lol:
View attachment 270844

We have Challenger Pack 6 at home.

 

[SmashChu]

Nintendo is actively trying to make ARMS popular again, unlike with XC2.

The only thing Nintendo has done for ARMS is the free trial which they've also done for Splatoon 2. This idea that they added ARMS to make it popular is based on nothing.

Oh, well if someone asked for him, he MUST be popular...

Usually if mainstream journalist are asking about a character in Smash, they are popular. They are popular enough to be talked about outside of Smash Brothers circles. Waluigi not being in Smash was written about in the Washington Post.

To better explain why this matter, I think a big reason Banjo was able to happen was because Phil Spencer actively spoke about him and said they would be cool adding him. I'm sure the head of XBox is going to catch Nintendo's attention. Now, this wasn't the only reason, but ask yourself, how is the company going to figure out who is or isn't popular. There are so many characters that are discussed in various different places (here, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, 4Chan, any site that focuses on Nintendo ect). But I think something like new stories written about the character and being asked in interviews is more likely to resonate with Nintendo.

The biggest hurdle for Waluigi is being an assist trophy. Will they be willing to make an assist trophy a character. I can see them doing it for Waluigi as the resonses may be worth it for Nintendo. Waluigi being DLC would get a lot of attention, moreso than many other characters. I will say I think a Mario character is very likely even if its not Waluigi.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

So here's a question: what do you think'll happen to the Spirit battles?

Now that is in, it would have made sense for them to take over some already in the game, like the Nipper Plant battle, but they didn't. But there also was no "Piranha Plant" spirit in the game already.

Considering most of the likely ARMS candidates already have spirits, what will they do there? If Springman is in, will they just swap out the .png for Springtron and then give Springman a unique Fighter Spirit? Will they swap out the battles to include the ARMS character (unlikely)? Will we get the other ARMS characters as new Spirits? What will those battles be like?

 

[epicmartin7]

Here's some potential Fighter 6 Release Dates based on mathematical models of Amiibo Theory.

Don't take them seriously of course, but it is interesting nonetheless!

 

[chocolatejr9]

Here's some potential Fighter 6 Release Dates based on mathematical models of Amiibo Theory.
View attachment 270852
Don't take them seriously of course, but it is interesting nonetheless!

I don't know this theory, so could you explain why June 14th is most likely?

 

[Powerman293]

So here's a question: what do you think'll happen to the Spirit battles?

Now that is in, it would have made sense for them to take over some already in the game, like the Nipper Plant battle, but they didn't. But there also was no "Piranha Plant" spirit in the game already.

Considering most of the likely ARMS candidates already have spirits, what will they do there? If Springman is in, will they just swap out the .png for Springtron and then give Springman a unique Fighter Spirit? Will they swap out the battles to include the ARMS character (unlikely)? Will we get the other ARMS characters as new Spirits? What will those battles be like?

I think Plant is a special case where the effort of switching things back a few months after they finished the spirit battles for the base game didn't make sense. But for ARMs, it wouldn't surpise me if they replaced trhe battles.

 

[SKX31]

So here's a question: what do you think'll happen to the Spirit battles?

Now that is in, it would have made sense for them to take over some already in the game, like the Nipper Plant battle, but they didn't. But there also was no "Piranha Plant" spirit in the game already.

Considering most of the likely ARMS candidates already have spirits, what will they do there? If Springman is in, will they just swap out the .png for Springtron and then give Springman a unique Fighter Spirit? Will they swap out the battles to include the ARMS character (unlikely)? Will we get the other ARMS characters as new Spirits? What will those battles be like?

EDIT: Turns out I mistook the question, but I'm still expecting the old ARMS spirits to stay, and new ones to serve as the DLC Spirits.

I'm expecting the new ARMS Spirits to be of those not already in the game unless ARMS gets an Octoexpansion or ARMS 2. I'm not expecting Ribbon Girl, Twintelle etc. to be part of the DLC Spirit Board unless they get a new form considering they're already in the game.

The Challenger Pack's very likely to have 7+ Spirits (based on precedence, all previous Challenger Packs have 7+ Spirits each. have the least with 7 Spirits, the most with 11.). There are 5 ARMS spirits already in the game, so the rest of the cast could easily form the nucleus of the DLC Spirit Board.

 

[epicmartin7]

I don't know this theory, so could you explain why June 14th is most likely?

Basically, it's based on the notion that the release dates of amiibo waves and character releases are tied together. They're usually, on average, within 11 or 12 days from one another give or take. So because of that, I made a function to calculate potential release dates, with amiibo dates as the input.

Actually, there are three functions. All based on the three primary regions (JPN, NA and EU) since all regions have slight deviations in data.

For this prediction, using all possible change in days, I basically just calculated as much as I can using all three equations. I then graphed how many of those values repeated, and I got the graph you see there.

Again, I'd recommend not taking too much stock into it as it's not meant to be a magic 8-ball. However, it is a tool to aid predictions just for fun.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

So here's a question: what do you think'll happen to the Spirit battles?

Now that is in, it would have made sense for them to take over some already in the game, like the Nipper Plant battle, but they didn't. But there also was no "Piranha Plant" spirit in the game already.

Considering most of the likely ARMS candidates already have spirits, what will they do there? If Springman is in, will they just swap out the .png for Springtron and then give Springman a unique Fighter Spirit? Will they swap out the battles to include the ARMS character (unlikely)? Will we get the other ARMS characters as new Spirits? What will those battles be like?

Just rename the Spirit to include their origin game. I.e. if Elma gets in, rename her Spirit to “Elma (Xenoblade Chronicles X)”

 

[pupNapoleon]

Only a month left until the ARMS character reveal in June. So, was there any discussion on the ARMS character being a duo instead of solo something akin to Ice Climbers? Remember ARMS is not just a 1 vs 1 fighting game, it can also be a 2 vs 2 fighting game. If not here is my idea:

In ARMS, there is a game mode called Team Fight in which two ARMS characters are tethered to each other by either a green or orange thread. These two characters are limited in their movement and attacks depending on who their partner is. As such there is always conflicts in which the player have to worked with their partner in order to defeat the other team. Now, this game mode is hated in the ARMS community, but it can a another way for a potential gimmick for a ARMS character in Smash. A ARMS duo comes with six ARMS (three ARMS for each pair), their own special ability, and double the amount of attack distance. The disadvantage of the ARMS duo gimmick is they are tethered together and is restricted by their partner movement and/or maybe their partner attack interrupt the player's attack or grab animation, etc.

The reason for why a ARMS duo can happened is because last week, there was a Trails of Mana Spirit Event in which two characters can be treated as one Spirit. A ARMS duo can do the same thing as the Trails of Mana Spirits by being treating as one Spirit. Also, since Rex & Pyra is a possible Smash candidate, and they too are a another characters that could tethered to one or another. For context, in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, there is a concept called Driver & Blade. Basically, a Blade is a weapon-like being that share their ability/weapon toward their Driver, and the Driver is the only person that allows the Blade to manifest their ability/weapon. A Driver & Blade are tethered together, so when they fight together, they share the same fate. If Rex & Pyra could be tethered to one or another, then it isn't strange for a ARMS duo doing something similar.

Lastly, who are the ARMS duo:

Spoiler: From the Team Fight menu

Spoiler: From the official Nintendo ARMS page

The two ARMS screenshots

That would be very upsetting to me. Double battles exist in ARMS, but they are hardly the defining characterstic. I forgot that even existed in the game.
Does it make sense as a possibility? Technically.
Is it a mechanic that really has nothing to do with ARMS and misses the point of making ARMS 'dance as characters' in Smash? I believe so.

 

[Curious Villager]

...so based on everything you've posted on this topic over the last few days, it seems that you don't believe anyone should want someone in Smash unless they have an encyclopedic knowledge of video games. So what is the point when someone has given anybody the ability to want a character? How many games you you need to have played and enjoyed for that? Who is the authority who gives out that honor?

Please, what is the problem with someone wanting a character in Smash who has only played a few games? This is the kind of elitism that we saw when people were complaining about Steve in Smash: "Ugh, only kids like Minecraft, so Steve isn't a valid request. It's only for memes." It seems like gatekeeping. See also the arguments around Fortnite. I can guarantee that more people know about Fortnite than some obscure Nintendo character, even if they haven't played it.

Yes, I've got fewer names than most people in my list of "I recognize them" and even fewer in my "I want to see them." I'm very likely to not get anyone on my list. Does that not make them valid wishes since I'm not looking at the big names thrown around by PapaGenos or whoever on Youtube? I'm not making a speculative list. It's a wishlist. And heck, if someone else wants to put Shrek or Goku on their wishlist unironically, go ahead. I don't want them, but people are allowed to like what they like.


And when I was talking about how I thought my character would 'fit,' it wasn't anything about the aesthetics. I know he's too gritty/realistic for most people, who favor cartoony characters. I was talking about the gameplay: how would he interact with characters/mechanics/content already in the game. Why is that not something we're allowed to think about? Isn't that literally what people do when they try to come up with movesets and classic mode routes?

It seems like you're just trying to strawman a lot of what I'm saying, since it's easier to disregard someone who is like "Ugh, nobody deserves to be in Smash except for my obscure character!" instead of someone who is like "I'm not impressed so I won't buy this one. Congrats to the fans though, but it's not for me. I hope I'll get to see someone I like."

I can't sit here and say "I want to see character X from [looks up info] series Y since someone online said they're likely and cool." But sometimes, that's all that discussion here turns to.

I don't even have predictions. After Sm4sh speculation, Sm4sh DLC, Ultimate speculation, and Ultimate DLC 1, all I know is that Sakurai chooses what he wants. I can't even begin to predict him.

And, as I've pointed out, I really don't know much about too many series, so I can't reasonably speculate. All I can do is have a wishlist...and I know that I tend to leave empty handed.


Again, "I've never heard of it" may just mean "I've never heard of it." Either that or my mom's a liar - I just asked and she hadn't heard of it before. Wonder what else she's lied to me about...

Don't worry, you don't need a degree in "Yakuzalogy" or "Nier Automathematics" just because you want to see your most wanted in and your unfamiliar with the others.

Just be aware that you may potentially be getting more unexpected surprises than not when it comes to Smash inclusions and that we can't all be winners. Especially when you have a very unpredictable director like Masahiro Sakurai on the helm..

Heck the fighters pass might as well be a glorified lottery I suppose, you have a chance to win, but you probably won't....
Probably best to just sit back and see how things pan out, then get what you like, are familiar with or interests you.

That's just my two cents on that.

 

[Cosmic77]

I'm saying that it only applies to Spirits in the base game, and that DLC Spirits are still deconfirmations.

Maybe, maybe not.

In the case of Zacian and Zamazenta, the main reason why I'm not calling it quits just yet is because they along with the starters are the mascots of SwSh. If there's going to be a promotional Spirit event to tie in with any Pokemon Gen, the starters and the Legendaries are your best options.

Plus, they're a package deal. You can't add one and leave the other one out completely and expect people to not notice.

The only thing Nintendo has done for ARMS is the free trial which they've also done for Splatoon 2. This idea that they added ARMS to make it popular is based on nothing.

Well, I do think Nintendo has gone out of it's way to keep ARMS relevant all these years. Rather than just set it aside and move on to more popular franchises, they've never really stopped promoting it.

We'll never be able to prove it, but I'm sure a lot of people are thinking the same thing, which is Nintendo trying to immortalize ARMS by putting it in Smash and raising awareness of its existence.

 

[Evil Trapezium]

Real talk though, would everyone be happy if they made it a point not to include the series mascots and most popular characters because of Spirits and such?

"Springtron is the ARMS representative for Super Smash Bros Ultimate! We didn't include Springman because he is already an Assist Trophy! It wouldn't make any sense for him to be fighting himself *chuckles*"

So here's a question: what do you think'll happen to the Spirit battles?

Now that is in, it would have made sense for them to take over some already in the game, like the Nipper Plant battle, but they didn't. But there also was no "Piranha Plant" spirit in the game already.

Considering most of the likely ARMS candidates already have spirits, what will they do there? If Springman is in, will they just swap out the .png for Springtron and then give Springman a unique Fighter Spirit? Will they swap out the battles to include the ARMS character (unlikely)? Will we get the other ARMS characters as new Spirits? What will those battles be like?

I could see them updating the Springman spirit into Springtron and just make the Springman spirit into the fighter spirit. Much less effort involved than texturing the Springman assist trophy.

As for if any of the other ARMS characters get upgraded, I'd say that like with the Cuphead spirits, the upgraded ARMS character would replace whoever normally takes their spot if you own the character.

 

[Cosmic77]

So here's a question: what do you think'll happen to the Spirit battles?

Now that is in, it would have made sense for them to take over some already in the game, like the Nipper Plant battle, but they didn't. But there also was no "Piranha Plant" spirit in the game already.

Considering most of the likely ARMS candidates already have spirits, what will they do there? If Springman is in, will they just swap out the .png for Springtron and then give Springman a unique Fighter Spirit? Will they swap out the battles to include the ARMS character (unlikely)? Will we get the other ARMS characters as new Spirits? What will those battles be like?

I don't expect them to touch any of the existing Spirits aside from maybe updating the name to avoid confusion.

If Spring Man is the character, I just expect them to use different artwork such as the one below and title it "Spring Man (Fighter)"

 

[Guynamednelson]

It wouldn't make any sense for him to be fighting himself

*suspicious chrom noises*

 

[Souless_shadow]

I don't know this theory, so could you explain why June 14th is most likely?

Because its my birthday and I'm the most important person on the planet

 

[I.D.]

The only thing Nintendo has done for ARMS is the free trial which they've also done for Splatoon 2. This idea that they added ARMS to make it popular is based on nothing.

The promotion argument for why XB2 can't make it is extremely bizarre in general since you had people honestly thinking ARMS was a flop and a dead IP prior to the mini Direct, the promotion so far has only amounted to a one week trial, and the chances of announcing a hypothetical ARMS sequel alongside the ARMS character are looking pretty grim with no Direct in June.

 

[pinshadow]

I'm honestly floored people are still on the "What about the Spirits!" thing. We've already seen them change the names of other Spirits when characters of the same name got added in the Three Houses DLC. When they added Mewtwo and Lucas in Smash 4, they didn't do anything to change the trophies that were already there, there were just two different Mewtwo and Lucas trophies. Nintendo isn't going to say "Oh, we really wanted to add in Captain Rainbow but we can't because Sakurai put a spirit of him in the game already, darn." And I'm saying this as someone who's really not expecting more than two upgrades at most.

Fact is, in order for the ARMS character to not be an upgrade, Sakurai would have to not include either of the poster characters for the game, both of whom are decently popular, and also not include the 3 other spirits who happen to be easily the three most popular characters the game has. That's just not how Smash has ever picked characters. Its the equivalent of adding a Street Fighter character, and skipping over not only Ryu and Ken, but also Chun Li, Sakura, or Juri just to end up with someone like Guile, for the sole reason that "Oh those characters were PNG's in the game already"

 

[Cosmic77]

The promotion argument for why XB2 can't make it is extremely bizarre in general since you had people honestly thinking ARMS was a flop and a dead IP prior to the mini Direct, the promotion so far has only amounted to a one week trial, and the chances of announcing a hypothetical ARMS sequel alongside the ARMS character are looking pretty grim with no Direct in June.

This isn't the first time they've done a free trial though. I'm pretty sure they've had at least one every year ever since launch. They've also had Party Crashes until they ended last year.

Haven't really seen XC2 brought up that much after the DLC was all released. Last time Nintendo of America tweeted about it was in December 2018.

 

[kirbsmash]

Can june be here already...

 

[Michael the Spikester]

Can june be here already...

You sure you want June to come? Because now we have murder hornets to deal with.

I won't be surprised if June is the magnetic poles flipping or dragons emerging from underground and setting the world ablaze on fire.

 

[Scoliosis Jones]

I'm honestly floored people are still on the "What about the Spirits!" thing. We've already seen them change the names of other Spirits when characters of the same name got added in the Three Houses DLC. When they added Mewtwo and Lucas in Smash 4, they didn't do anything to change the trophies that were already there, there were just two different Mewtwo and Lucas trophies. Nintendo isn't going to say "Oh, we really wanted to add in Captain Rainbow but we can't because Sakurai put a spirit of him in the game already, darn." And I'm saying this as someone who's really not expecting more than two upgrades at most.

Fact is, in order for the ARMS character to not be an upgrade, Sakurai would have to not include either of the poster characters for the game, both of whom are decently popular, and also not include the 3 other spirits who happen to be easily the three most popular characters the game has. That's just not how Smash has ever picked characters. Its the equivalent of adding a Street Fighter character, and skipping over not only Ryu and Ken, but also Chun Li, Sakura, or Juri just to end up with someone like Guile, for the sole reason that "Oh those characters were PNG's in the game already"

I myself have made this very same argument.

The sticking point for me currently is simply that we’ve never, not once, had a series begin their playable history in Smash with a character other than the mascot, cover boy/girl, or protagonist. It just simply hasn’t happened.

Granted, we’ve also never gotten an Assist Trophy upgrade in the same game.

So basically, it comes down to two “rules” or “patterns” coming to a head here. The question becomes, “Why is more likely to break?” And I must say, I find the 30+ series starting with their lead character as a compelling pattern.

For all I know this comment could age poorly and we get Min-Min, but I, for now, am just unconvinced.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I'm honestly floored people are still on the "What about the Spirits!" thing. We've already seen them change the names of other Spirits when characters of the same name got added in the Three Houses DLC. When they added Mewtwo and Lucas in Smash 4, they didn't do anything to change the trophies that were already there, there were just two different Mewtwo and Lucas trophies. Nintendo isn't going to say "Oh, we really wanted to add in Captain Rainbow but we can't because Sakurai put a spirit of him in the game already, darn." And I'm saying this as someone who's really not expecting more than two upgrades at most.

Fact is, in order for the ARMS character to not be an upgrade, Sakurai would have to not include either of the poster characters for the game, both of whom are decently popular, and also not include the 3 other spirits who happen to be easily the three most popular characters the game has. That's just not how Smash has ever picked characters. Its the equivalent of adding a Street Fighter character, and skipping over not only Ryu and Ken, but also Chun Li, Sakura, or Juri just to end up with someone like Guile, for the sole reason that "Oh those characters were PNG's in the game already"

Don't get me wrong - I fully expect it'll be an upgrade. I'm betting on Springman with alts... or at least I would if I cared to gamble. If they end up picking an ARMS character who's not already in the game, that's just bizarre.

I was just wondering if they would change the battles. Cuphead shipped with two different battles depending on whether you bought the Mii costume or not, but Piranha plant didn't get subbed into any Spirit battles. None of the other DLC got replaced into old battles, but they did each get new Spirit battles with them. Now ARMS will come with Spirits, but what would that be like.

If we get Spring Man with a Min Min alt, would they swap out the Mii Spring Man in his battle and the Corrin in Min's for a character that now has the proper model? Or would they leave Corrin for Min Min and then get her to sub for a Spirit like Lola Pop only?

 

[pupNapoleon]

So here's a question: what do you think'll happen to the Spirit battles?

Now that is in, it would have made sense for them to take over some already in the game, like the Nipper Plant battle, but they didn't. But there also was no "Piranha Plant" spirit in the game already.

Considering most of the likely ARMS candidates already have spirits, what will they do there? If Springman is in, will they just swap out the .png for Springtron and then give Springman a unique Fighter Spirit? Will they swap out the battles to include the ARMS character (unlikely)? Will we get the other ARMS characters as new Spirits? What will those battles be like?

I've never gotten an answer to this...

If Chrom can be a character, a mii costume, and a final smash (in a world where a new final smash means it has to be a new, echo character)
... why does anyone think it matters if a character is a spirit?

It truly is baffling to me. Are people trying to find reasons to be unnecessarily skeptical?

 

[Droodle]

Arms in Smash.

2020 colorized.