Official Newcomer/DLC Speculation Discussion

[7NATOR]

People straight up hate Tracer, bringing up all sorts of unrelated topics and whining about the game itself. Also I highly doubt Sakurai is choosing characters purely based from their genders

Of course he isn't choosing them based of Gender, that would not be Wise

with that being said though, I said the Theory seems more based of Coincidence and stuff like that

As for Tracer, there may be people that don't like Overwatch or tracer in Smash, or even at all, but I think on here I think People are more open-minded, and even if they don't like the idea, they aren't just gonna start Hating Viciously or something like that

 

[Phoenix Douchebag]

If im beign honest the Soundtrack of Ultimate suffers heavily from "Quantity over Quality" issues. Did we need so many versions of the Mario theme, or the Zelda theme? Why is Sonic's music representation so **** when Sonic is god-tier soundtrack wise? Did we need another remix for Fourside and Magicant when the original ones already worked well and came back in this game? Where are the Strawberry Flower Pikmin songs? I could go on.

Are we lamenting about the glaring omissions in the soundtrack again? Cause if so, again, Warioware got robbed, and for being Nintendo's flagship rhythm game series, Rhythm Heaven doesn't have **** other than 3 tracks. Albeit, Blue Birds being one of them is great so I'll give them that.

Hey at least Wario Ware gets a stage while WARIO LAND GETS JACK **** WHERE IS MY WARIO LAND STAGE SAKURAI AND WHERE ARE MY WARIO LAND REMIXES. OUT OF THE WOODS FROM 3? CRESCENT MOON VILLAGE FROM 4? THE ENTIRE SOUNDTRACK OF SHAKE IT?

But the Wario Land spirits were nice though.

 

[ALongWistfulSquiggle]

Dragonborn looks like he belongs in a medieval film, he doesn't look like a video game character and the promotional trailers including him don't help shake off that feeling. Not only that, he wields a Sword, a shield and can cast magical attacks, pretty much like the Dragon Quest Hero. Sure they could make him use different types of weapons included in Skyrim like Byleth but not only do I not believe they would choose to do this and only make him use his Sword and Shield for consistency sake but what does he have that Hero, Byleth or even Link can't do already?

He can put a bucket on people's heads.

And yell really loud. I guess that's the more important one.

 

[SNEKeater]

SNEKeater Ah, someone else who appreciates the amazing soundtracks of Metroid. That's some top tier taste you got there, especially with the tracks you highlighted in your post. Love Quadraxis theme, definitely one of my all time favorite Nintendo bosses.

Yeah, Metroid gets done a terrible deal with music in Smash. Heck, the stages do to: The lack of a Prime stage in Smash is incredibly baffling to me when iconic locations like Chozo Ruins and Phendrana Drifts are just sitting there, begging to be used.

Instead, they always go for a lava or acid stage...Sigh...

Ah well, at least Ridley and DS are on the roster, lol.

Yeah. I guess Prime 4 will have a new stage in the next Smash game or something, assuming Prime 4 goes well which I guess will be the case.

Just hoping they choose a different kind of location if that's the case.

About the music, yeah, I really, really love Metroid music. Especially the Prime music, not gonna lie. I love that kind of music, and Metroid Prime compositions are incredibly original. Yamamoto is a genius. Now that I think about it, he's supposed to return for Prime 4 soundtrack, right?

I completely agree with you.
I know some of them are a bit too calm and don't really fit a fight, but they are too good to let them out! I mean... listen to this beauty:

This is one of the best if not the best "water level" theme ever made in a game, wih "Aquatic Ambience" from DKC!

And speaking of aquatic levels... why their themese are always so good? They're the reasons why I don't hate these levels!

I also thought of that track. It's super great. Didn't include that because it was too chill and I wanted to highlight some other songs. I also thought in putting the Chozo Ruins theme from the first Prime game or Gandrayda Battle theme.

Water level songs are usually pretty cool, you're right. Aquatic Ambience is another masterpiece.

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

It sucks how little Wario Land gets.

...The franchise clearly is WarioWare, so that does make some sense.

But really, they can do more. At this point, why not a stage and some music? Even slightly updating Wario to give him a few more moves. He's clearly based upon a very particular design, so revamping his moveset would also misrepresent what he's trying to convey. I would however like the idea of echoes/alternate characters with other movesets. Wario is a great example of where htis could work, having a Wario Land moveset. Link literally has two very different movesets with OOT and TP versions alone(though unlike Wario, those could be special Echoes). That'd be honestly a great thing to add to a future game. It's a lot of work, so I don't see it happening, unfortunately.

There's a ton of characters who could have very different movesets(and I don't mean Toon Ganondorf, who is nothing like regular Ganondorf either) while being the same person. Akin to Samus and Zero Suit Samus, but yeah. Another good example is Masked Link. And there's no doubt that BOTW is barely with the current Link and could easily have a full unique moveset on its own. I would've taken that while keeping TP Link(who is not honestly much different from OOT Link's moveset) as well. Cool way to use echoes, as moveset options~

 

[Phoenix Douchebag]

(WARNING, THE VIDEO CONTAINS LOUD NOISES AND STRONG LIGHTNING EFFECTS)

I've been thinking about it high and low, and I think that people who think Ryu is the most likely KT rep might want to look at this article (forgive the fact that it's in French).

I'm curious to see how off the rails speculation would go if Kasumi actually got in over Ryu. Imagine; it's another, in the Smash fanbase's terms, "literal who" beating out one of the most speculated characters in the history franchise. The aftermath would be hard to imagine.

Kasumi.

CERO:

Yeah no. after Mai Shiranui i don't see Kasumi as that likely. I mean outside of that issue, it would be like Kyo vs Terry, the former is the star of SNK's most well known property yet they went with the character that had seniority and was more popular: Terry Bogard, who debuted in Fatal Fury and became a KOF regular. I see Kasumi vs Ryu as a very similar thing. Kasumi's series is more popular, but Ryu is ****ing everywhere, inlcuding DOA where he is even a important character in the lore.

Yes, i know, DOA6 tried to tone it down, most notably by havign Kasumi's default costume beign a more conservative fighting outfit............and it went horribly. That game floped HARD, and while the downplaying of Fanservice isn't the main culpcrit here, it was one of the earliest controversies regarding the game, (only for it to have PR that was as BAD as "FUNCTION VS FUNCTION INFINITE") and only made worse due it competing with SCVI (which ironically seemed to embrace the fanservice, but i guess that doesn't becoming too distrancting when the franchise features ****ing Spawn and Haomaru)

Some people will say "DOA ISN'T JUST ABOUT THE FANSERVICE YOU IGNORANT CRETIN", but im not the one who made a spin-off SOLELY foucsed on the sex appeal of the female characters, and it says something when the ONE DOA game on the Switch isn't DOA6.......but the other one, you know the one, and im sure that one got far more attention than DOA6 has gotten thanks to controversy alone.

Even if the whole "Good Boys and Girls" is beign exxagerated, aside from the Kyo Vs Terry comparsion i made above to explaing why i see Ryu as a more likely choice, there's also Kasumi's Half-Sister, Ayane, who i see as a dark horse candidate for Koei Tecmo. She plays an important role in the Ninja Gaiden Games of recent console installments, she is really popular, and she is the one featured in......certain crossovers. So i wouldn't be surprised if a Min-Min situation happened with her.

EDIT: Crap im late to the party, somone already mentioned Ayane.

 

[Mushroomguy12]

oh gee, a character who brings in an entire new franchise into smash, or another xenoblade character. this is a tough one

I mean, as someone who likes both characters (Lloyd and Elma, not what I'm about to mention), you could literally say the exact same thing about a matchup like Bubsy vs Elma. I'll judge based on the individual character/franchise themselves. I like Lloyd because I like the series of Tales, but not just because it's a new franchise.

 

[Evil Trapezium]

How to tell someone didn't play the game 101. I'd list all the ridiculous stuff in Skyrim that makes it just as comical as MGS, but this image alone should do the job.

Okay? The game can be funny, I know about the arrow to the knee joke. That's not my point. My point is visual stuff like with Metal Gear Solid's exclamation mark, tripping over a banana, fighting ape escape monkeys. Stuff that you would see in a cartoon that can help visualise them in that realm and not look out of place.

 

[EricTheGamerman]

I know I've seen that folks are saying that Steve would be the major character of the pass and that we may not get other "big" characters alongside him. I only half agree.

Steve is absolutely huge- the largest, in fact. There's not really a viable argument that they could go bigger than him in terms of influence or size. That said, I do think there's space for a pick or two that could blow up the fanbase in terms of reaction. There's also the fact that while Steve is a major pick, it's not necessarily something that appeals to everybody. My guess is we're sure to get at least one more pick that at least attempts to knock socks off for not just the Smash fanbase specifically but everybody.

There's also the fact that while some of the series we commonly talk about are "big" topics, their relative size isn't as crazy. Devil May Cry, for example, isn't nearly the biggest series Capcom has. NieR, while not as commonly discussed, isn't all that large either. I'm uncertain of what Crash Bandicoot costs, but I would think that if Nintendo thought it'd be worth it, they'd go for it. Min Min didn't cost them anything, so who knows what they're gonna do next.

If Hayabusa really is in this pass, then that's another character that isn't necessarily huge.

Really I kinda think the "budget" thing is overblown. It doesn't mean I think they're packing things with 4 more SSS tier characters, but I don't think it's as though they're in dire straights with budgeting. If they want particular characters, they're gonna get them.

Just to expand on this, I think that Microsoft is one of the companies least likely to be charging a lot for their characters because they're very invested in making their IP more available to people as a whole. Ever since Phil Spencer took over the Xbox division, they've been willing to spend a lot more money to invest in the Xbox brand and have been far more open in their own business than ever. That's how we get New Super Lucky's Tale, Minecraft, Ori, and Cuphead on Switch, and then Steve and Banjo & Kazooie in Smash. Hell, take one look at how they're approaching this generation of gaming with Game Pass and you'll see Microsoft isn't afraid to operate at a smaller monetary gain for a practical gains in terms of people investing in their IPs and the entire Microsoft/Xbox ecosystem as a whole. I don't think there's any particular reason to think that Minecraft or Banjo-Kazooie were expensive licenses, especially with the current Microsoft who probably very actively wants these characters and their IPs to only gain more value.

Now Minecraft is already huge, but it's an IP they've been steadily building into a full franchise and not just a single title. Minecraft Dungeons represents the biggest departure into that realm of it as a mascot type franchise and I think Steve in Smash further expands upon that concept. Especially when you consider that Microsoft has said they aren't interested in a fighter of their own IPs specifically like Smash Bros, so there is no worries about competition there. Like for other developers, IPs individually are all they have, but for a massive hardware producer like Microsoft that also has tons of money already and can basically do whatever they want (See the purchase of Zenimax/Bethesda as further proof of this), I really doubt Minecraft was a SSS tier price tag despite it's size.

And honestly, price tag is the one of the only reasons I'd see Nintendo holding back on SSS tier characters would be because of price at a certain point, so I don't think it's unrealistic to say we might easily see another big one in this pass.

 

[GoodGrief741]

Okay? The game can be funny, I know about the arrow to the knee joke. That's not my point. My point is visual stuff like with Metal Gear Solid's exclamation mark, tripping over a banana, fighting ape escape monkeys. Stuff that you would see in a cartoon that can help visualise them in that realm and not look out of place.

If guards pratfalling and getting exclamation marks above their heads is all it takes for you to visualize the gritty war saga dealing with topics such as manipulation of information, deterrence as peace, and child soldiers as a cartoon, then I'm not sure why the game about the viking man who kills dragons is such a reach.

 

[SKX31]

It sucks how little Wario Land gets.

...The franchise clearly is WarioWare, so that does make some sense.

But really, they can do more. At this point, why not a stage and some music? Even slightly updating Wario to give him a few more moves. He's clearly based upon a very particular design, so revamping his moveset would also misrepresent what he's trying to convey. I would however like the idea of echoes/alternate characters with other movesets. Wario is a great example of where htis could work, having a Wario Land moveset. Link literally has two very different movesets with OOT and TP versions alone(though unlike Wario, those could be special Echoes). That'd be honestly a great thing to add to a future game. It's a lot of work, so I don't see it happening, unfortunately.

There's a ton of characters who could have very different movesets(and I don't mean Toon Ganondorf, who is nothing like regular Ganondorf either) while being the same person. Akin to Samus and Zero Suit Samus, but yeah. Another good example is Masked Link. And there's no doubt that BOTW is barely with the current Link and could easily have a full unique moveset on its own. I would've taken that while keeping TP Link(who is not honestly much different from OOT Link's moveset) as well. Cool way to use echoes, as moveset options~

TBF Wario does have some of his Land moves already in (Dash Attack, Nair, Grab, Down Throw, possibly Up Tilt) while World has Jab, Back Throw and partly B (Chomp) - possibly Up Smash and Up B too. That's... honestly not that bad IMHO, we're talking 7-10 moves that are (possibly) from those games (5-6 from Land, 3-5 from World). Ware doesn't actually dominate the moveset (Down Tilt, Pummel, partly Chomp, Bike, FS, possibly one of the Floor Attacks, for a grand total of 5-6 moves from Ware).

And a lot of the Land / World attacks are commonly used too, especially by good Wario players: Up Tilt and Nair are common combo starters / extenders, Dash Attack's a common kill confirm (Down Tilt -> Dash Attack is a solid KO confirm at a high %), Chomp is a good command grab (and one that counters a lot of stuff, including 's Wonderwing):

Etc.

Part of the problem, as I've opined in the past, is that he does not scream "HAVE A ROTTEN DAY!" when using Back Throw - which is the Wild Swing Ding from World. Not to mention the hyper-focus around the Ware series when it comes to other stuff... but that was going to probably take a backseat when there's an entirely different series to promote Wario with. Kinda like how Yoshi's stages are focused around the Yoshi games and not anything directly Mario-related. I do agree that there could be more Wario Land / World stuff in the game, but it's difficult to justify that to Nintendo execs sadly.

I do partly agree that he could use another look-over when his gameplan is very much centralized around Waft. Especially when Up Tilt / Nair can in some situations confirm into Waft. While a casual player might look at Waft and see something that doesn't fit Land / World, a lot of competitive players take issue with Waft because it is consistent enough to force a timer on the opponent. You do not want to be behind a Wario with Half-Charged Waft or above.

There are ways to deal with it though - not just replacin Waft, toning down its power a bit or its versatility too so it's not as centralized. Quick edit: And one could certainly add more Land / World mannerisms, like "HAVE A ROTTEN DAY!".

Edit: As an example, pro player Dabuz details his personal complaints about Waft specifically here, calling it "One of the worst mechanics ever".

 

[JamesDNaux]

I'm not sure why the game about the viking man who kills dragons is such a reach.

A viking man who can knock people over by shouting at them, go really fast by shouting, do a lot of things by shouting, really.
And as someone already said, this:

 

[CapitaineCrash]

If im beign honest the Soundtrack of Ultimate suffers heavily from "Quantity over Quality" issues. Did we need so many versions of the Mario theme, or the Zelda theme? Why is Sonic's music representation so **** when Sonic is god-tier soundtrack wise? Did we need another remix for Fourside and Magicant when the original ones already worked well and came back in this game? Where are the Strawberry Flower Pikmin songs? I could go on.

Also to add on this, the more music the game have, the more it's obvious when something's missing. I remember Brawl having a pretty much "perfect" soundtrack. Obviously there was some good song missing here and there, but nothing like extremely shocking. But now that we have more than 1000 songs, when something's missing it's like super obvious. And it's especially shocking when some franchises like Castlevania and Mega man can get more than 30 songs, but others like Metroid and Donkey kong are stuck at around 20. Games like Arms and Splatoon have almost their whole respective soundtrack, but Earthbound still can't get one battle theme?

 

[NonSpecificGuy]

Didn’t Skyrim’s developers leave the Giant Kill Launch in the game on purpose because they thought it was so funny?

 

[Professor Pumpkaboo]

Didn’t Skyrim’s developers leave the Giant Kill Launch in the game on purpose because they thought it was so funny?

TBF, im laughing at just a gif of it so it is pretty funny

 

[Guynamednelson]

oh gee, a character who brings in an entire new franchise into smash, or another xenoblade character. this is a tough one

I may be Mr. "please stop thinking Elma has a chance", but I don't think she shouldn't get in because she'd have the Monado symbol instead of something different.

 

[Scoliosis Jones]

Having not played Xenoblade Chronicles X, and while I do prefer brand new franchises, Elma is one of those first party newcomers that could essentially bring her own "world" with her. Even if she's not from a new franchise, the stage and music would be entirely new so...it's not like it's Reyn time or something.

 

[ALongWistfulSquiggle]

So one of my pipe-dream Smash picks is Rook from the Banner Saga. For those who don't know what that is, think Oregon Trail mixed with a tactical RPG based around Norse Mythology. Rook is just a middle-aged guy with a bow and an axe. Nothing really special about him. He's pushed into leading a caravan to get away from a scourge of monsters even though he has no real interest in doing so.

I know he doesn't have a chance, and that he would come across as a derivative of Link to a lot of people, but something about the guy really struck me as a cool potential addition. I think we all have picks we see as boring or interesting or feasible or impossible. And honestly, that's okay. We'll all be surprised by what happens precisely because we all think differently about these things, and differently from the devs at that. Usually, at least for me, the surprise is a positive one, as things thought strange or intrusive come to life and manage to fit anyway. Other things we think ought to happen unfortunately don't. Sometimes we never learn the reasons for those omissions, and sometimes the reasons match the concerns of fans who didn't think those picks were likely.

This is a big part of why I'm here. Discussion is enlightening. I can learn more about how other people see things while thinking about the possibilities for a game I've loved for a long time in the company of other people who love the same thing. I hope people have that same spirit, even if we don't all agree on what direction the DLC will take.

 

[NonSpecificGuy]

I honestly really thought the fact that Xenoblade X not getting any references at all aside from spirits may have been a pretty good sign for Elma showing up in FP1. The fact that we don’t have X music in the game at all is a crime and that’s without even taking into account how stunning Mira and New L.A. are. I think people underestimate just how much Elma would bring with her. Way more than Byleth at the very least. I’d probably say closer to what Min Min brought to the table.

 

[SharkLord]

I don't know very much about Skyrim, but it surely can't be any worse than Metroid, right? No cartoony elements whatsoever, cold isolationism, and everyone Samus has ever become emotionally close to is dead. If we can put buckets on people's heads and hear stories about how literally every guard was crippled by an arrow to the knee, Skyrim sounds that much goofier already.

 

[SKX31]

I don't know very much about Skyrim, but sit surely can't be any worse than Metroid, right? No cartoony elements whatsoever, cold isolationism, and everyone Samus has ever become emotionally close to is dead. If we can put buckets on people's heads and hear stories about how literally every guard was crippled by an arrow to the knee, Skyrim sounds that much goofier already.

Oh trust me. It can get extremely goofy. Especially via mods, because that is one of Skyrim's most iconic aspects.

For example: Exploding chickens. (Quick edit: the video has an age gate, Also, loud sound warning.)

 

[EricTheGamerman]

Also to add on this, the more music the game have, the more it's obvious when something's missing. I remember Brawl having a pretty much "perfect" soundtrack. Obviously there was some good song missing here and there, but nothing like extremely shocking. But now that we have more than 1000 songs, when something's missing it's like super obvious. And it's especially shocking when some franchises like Castlevania and Mega man can get more than 30 songs, but others like Metroid and Donkey kong are stuck at around 20. Games like Arms and Splatoon have almost their whole respective soundtrack, but Earthbound still can't get one battle theme?

There are some very noticeable absent tracks from a hole host of games, but that is going to happen with any game that has all these moving parts and that included Brawl back when there were even fewer franchises to manage. The music team has the same limitation as everyone else, time, and they also are bringing in their own biases with Sakurai even stating that he's willing to give them room to work on what they want to as well. Like I do truly understand how certain absences can really be felt and bemoan the lack of some of those awesome tracks, but Smash can never even get close to "perfect" representation for every franchise.

I mean ARMS has basically it's whole soundtrack but is still missing the jam for the Replays.

 

[PeridotGX]

So guys, I might be off my Rocker, but I actually had a Theory about FP2

Joker Paved the Way for most of the FP1 being 3rd party. It could have seemed that Min-Min would have done the same but Steve proved that Futile, but I think there is something Min-Min could Prove

That Most of the FP2 will be Women, and not because they are Women, but just by Coincidence

Min-Min is a Woman. Steve isn't a Woman, but Alex is one, and they've been using her Heavily in FP2 Promotion along with Steve.

This theory states that at least 2-3 of the Final Four Characters will be a Woman

Also This might seem like a Joke but Honestly, even I can't tell whether this is Serious theory or Joke Theory

Is this a "mostly-women" theory, or a "mostly not-male" theory, because there's a bit of a difference there. There's one very determined fighter that isn't either male or female that I'd like, and it's...

Spoiler

 

[Dr.DonPatch64]

Who thinks we're getting fighter #3 of the second fighters pass on ether January or February?

 

[Wigglerman]

Who thinks we're getting fighter #3 of the second fighters pass on ether January or February?

Seems the most logical. I figure we'll get potential info on the character before next year but it won't drop till jan at the earliest. Not unless Sakurai is a madman and wanted to push for a big Christmas character drop.

 

[GoodGrief741]

Who thinks we're getting fighter #3 of the second fighters pass on ether January or February?

I think pretty much everyone expects that.

 

[Faso115]

I can entertain an early reveal at the TGAs IF the character in question has some western appeal. But then again, Joker happened so anything is possible.

Oh who am i kidding, i only entertain a TGA reveal because that's the best shot of a Crash Bandicoot announcement for Smash this year.

 

[Idon]

Look, if the smash cross transitions into the "You're finally awake, eh?" intro, I'm closing the tab immediately.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

I always find it odd how much core gamers hate popular games.

 

[SharkLord]

I always find it odd how much core gamers hate popular games.

Vitriol scales relative to popularity.

 

[EricTheGamerman]

I'm still thinking that Crash Bandicoot has a pretty great shot at getting in as long as there are no specific Activision Blizzard issues preventing him from joining. There's just a lot of circumstances that would seemingly be in his favor as an option and Minecraft shows me that Nintendo is still willing to go for some of the larger icons when presented with the opportunity to bring some of them to Smash. This is going to be a bit of a longer essay than I've done on here in a while, so fair warning.

Crash obviously doesn't need any introduction at this point, but I think it's important to remind people that Crash as an IP has sold over 50 million units since its inception in 1996 and Crash was known as a titan of gaming alongside Mario in an era when Nintendo saw themselves lose a massive amount of market share to a brand new competitor after a hard fought generation against Sega. His legacy has always been a fairly set reality and it just takes one look at the N'Sane Trilogy and Team Racing Nitro-Fueled to realize just how much people once adored and are still willing to play Crash. Something I think people don't always consider as much is that Crash was one of the very rare Western developed video games to make an actual impact and find success in Japan, to the point where it was largely considered an anomaly of sorts which was investigated by a Stanford University student in a 2004 paper on the unique success Crash Bandicoot in Japan.

Speaking of, I think the overall timing and circumstances of Crash coming back to the limelight in 2017 with the N'Sane trilogy positions him as an excellent candidate to be in Nintendo's mind as they have negotiated DLC in the past couple years for Smash Ultimate. Anecdotally, I remember the hype behind Crash finally coming back and people were thrilled to see that Activision was finally going to do right by the Bandicoot after over a decade of wasting the potential coming out of the PS1 era. But beyond my anecdotal experience, in February 2019, Activision Blizzard revealed that the remake had sold 10 million copies across Xbox, PS4, and Switch, which demonstrated that Crash was once again a profitable IP that people were willing to replay and experience once again. I similarly experienced a ton of excitement in March 2018 when the N'Sane Trilogy was announced for Switch and saw people excited to play Crash on Switch. And once again, sales figures show a similar reality, the N' Sane Trilogy was second best selling third party Switch game in the US as of May 2019 according to NPD stats, only behind the quasi first party Mario + Rabbids (Keep in min that the NPD does not include all publishers, but it has long been a reliable snapshot of the games industry). Not only was the N'Sane Trilogy a huge success in the US, but the N'Sane Trilogy topped the UK sales charts for 8 consecutive weeks after the Switch version released in June 2018. Crash's big success was not limited to the N'Sane Trilogy though, as CTR: Nitro Fueled saw similarly impressive numbers with it best launch month in the history of the franchise according to the NPD in the US and
entered the charts well after release in the UK. While we don't have an exact figure of the sales of Nitro Fueled, a group of Redditors estimated the sales figures of the title at around 6 million copies sold.

Now, I bring up all of this sales data not because I think that sales data is the end all, be all of Smash, but to demonstrate that the previously dormant and thought dead Crash Bandicoot IP has quickly reasserted itself as a successful and relevant IP in the industry, providing Activision Blizzard with some excellent sales figures along the way and has particularly seemed to perform well on Nintendo consoles. Now, unfortunately, the Japanese title did not perform particularly well of the N'Sane Trilogy or Nitro Fueled, but I don't think that's enough to be a nail in the coffin. I think there's a very good chance Nintendo would have not only noticed the resurgence of Crash, but also noticed how particularly well the franchise did on Switch, beating out many other contemporary third party titles. As a franchise with a legacy and a character that has also pretty much immediately gained popularity as a Smash request (he more or less became a main stay of Ultimate speculation immediately since the Switch version of the N'Sane Trilogy was revealed in the same Direct that announced Ultimate in March 2018). The inclusion of Minecraft shows that Nintendo has also been paying attention to successful entities on their consoles and they've always been particularly conscious of these crossover events and how they relate to Smash. Crash would have taken off in 2018 as a Smash option, and that success would have largely been sustained into 2019 when characters were being chosen.

The only thing that leaves is the Activision Blizzard question, and I don't really see any reason why Activision Blizzard would be a hostile or unwilling partner to Nintendo over Crash. First off, Crash is an IP that Activision Blizzard has been investing a lot into these past few years to try to really win people back and convince them to give him another shot after a long absence and decade of misuse. Both Crash N'Sane Trilogy and CTR: Nitro Fueled launched at a reduced $39.99 in the US despite being full remakes from the ground up with additional content, and CTR even got almost a full year of post launch support from the company adding new content at no cost (though micro-transactions were included). For a company typically known to be as greedy and selfish as Activision Blizzard, that's a surprisingly easy to swallow price for these titles. And now they've even brought back Crash for Crash 4 in a move to clearly re-establish the series as a franchise. It really does seem like Activision Blizzard intends to build Crash back up and I wouldn't be surprised if they were very willing to let Crash into Smash as part of that plan.

Especially since Activision Blizzard and Nintendo seem to have been in a really solid relationship the past few years. Even in the Wii U era, they surprisingly put two COD games on the system and even were allowed to use Donkey Kong and Bowser with unique Amiibo for Skylanders in the Wii U version of Skylander Superchargers. Then in the Switch era, they've continued to be a pretty solid partner. Most of the Activision Blizzard titles released in the past few years aren't exactly easy to bring to Switch if feasible at all with the likes of COD, Sekiro, and Destiny 2 not making sense to bring over. But they've brought the Crash games, Spyro Reignited, and then also have worked very closely with Nintendo on the Switch version of Diablo III (remember this announcement video with Reggie?) and getting the opening slot of the September 2019 Direct with Overwatch and Overwatch 2 getting announced for Switch immediately afterwards as well. Crash 4 seems to be coming down the line as well, so it seems their support for Switch will continue.

Crash is clearly a character I support, otherwise I wouldn't make this huge write-up, but I also think there's a lot of compelling stuff that least makes Crash a very compelling candidate for Smash at this time. He may not be the craziest character from a mechanic standpoint, but that's proven to rarely be a huge issue for Sakurai and it's not like he doesn't have plenty of potential for Smash either. Now just felt like a nice time to write up my overall thoughts on Crash as a candidate for Smash Ultimate's DLC.

 

[MooMew64]

I always find it odd how much core gamers hate popular games.

I don't get it either.

It's also the same deal with games popular with kids. Like, I honestly don't know why that's a bad thing, but some people consider it a bad thing, I guess.

 

[Shroob]

Even though I doubt a TGA reveal, something to consider is, if we're going about 3 months per character now, then the pass will end in October, giving us 2 months before the December 2021 date, which was always just a placeholder date to begin with.


This year may very well be the last time a TGA reveal is possible, so while I don't exactly expect it, it's still possible(And if one does come, then we can probably bank on the pass ending long before December 2021).

 

[MooMew64]

Even though I doubt a TGA reveal, something to consider is, if we're going about 3 months per character now, then the pass will end in October, giving us 2 months before the December 2021 date, which was always just a placeholder date to begin with.


This year may very well be the last time a TGA reveal is possible, so while I don't exactly expect it, it's still possible(And if one does come, then we can probably bank on the pass ending long before December 2021).

I'm not banking on an October end date, personally. I don't think we'll go into the end of December either, though; I think an early to mid-November finale is what we'll be getting.

Also...Yeah, not betting on TGA. Last year's didn't fill me with a ton of confidence and TBH I think Joker only happened there in 2018 because it coincided with the game's launch.

 

[Mushroomguy12]

I always find it odd how much core gamers hate popular games.

People like being hipsters.

 

[chocolatejr9]

I always find it odd how much core gamers hate popular games.

Hmmm... let's test something.

That new Hades game. It's pretty popular, yeah? Especially on the Switch apparently. So... who wants it in Smash?

 

[Michael the Spikester]

Also...Yeah, not betting on TGA. Last year's didn't fill me with a ton of confidence and TBH I think Joker only happened there in 2018 because it coincided with the game's launch.

And even then his reveal there was a last-minute decision.

 

[SneakyLink]

On a TGA reveal, I'm not gonna watch this year, got bored last year (then again I got bored during 2018's show as well and didn't see Joker's reveal live). If one happens, one happens. If not, I'm banking on a February reveal/release.

On a lighter note, Sakurai's Pic of the Day:

pic.twitter.com/9UCtQ04X1D

— 桜井 政博 / Masahiro Sakurai (@Sora_Sakurai) October 11, 2020

And yes, this is from Smash.

 

[Shroob]

I really doubt a February release, if only because we'll hit over 100 days since Steve came out near the end of January. Steve you can rationalize as needing more work than your average character, but we hit like, 100 days since his launch around January 20th. Pushing it into Feb would be rough, if nothing else.

 

[Spongeboob]

I'm thinking of the idea of Jesse (from Minecraft Story Mode) being a Steve echo. He/she could be a more "traditional" alternative to Steve by having more fluid animations, speaking, and having an actual personality (albeit a generic one). It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm just throwing the idea out there.