I'll also throw my two cents in to the whole two more Fighter's Pass' of a characters for Ultimate. These are characters that I would love to see show up in Smash Ultimate and I think make some sense for inclusion in the game. I'm also not allowing myself to upgrade Assist Trophies (I will wait to see that happen on Sakurai's part... and I kind of think if that becomes possible, all of speculation will just be the same Isaac, Waluigi, Skull Kid, Krystal stuff we had from base game and that's a little boring to me haha... sorry Isaac) and I'm also requiring myself to include one first party character "per pass" in order to give those fans an option.
Fighter's Pass 1
#5 - Ryu Hayabusa: Koei Tecmo is the biggest Japanese company not in Smash, Koei Tecmo has worked incredibly closely with Nintendo these past few years, and Ryu Hayabusa is another NES era icon that also had a quite successful modern revival. He just makes a ton of sense.
Fighter's Pass 2
#1 - Geno: Pretty much the last of the old guard of speculation from the Brawl era at this point, and a character that Sakurai is personally interested in. He may be a very old and forgotten character to many people, but he has a loud fan base, Sakurai's love behind him, and just a lot of circumstances right now that are pointing potentially in his favor such as the Mii costume being missing. He's also my number one most requested personally, so he's here.
#2 - Rex/Pyra: Out of all the Nintendo first party IPs that could be advertised in Smash, I think Xenoblade makes the most sense with how much the game has turned into one of Nintendo's bigger IPs these past couple of years thanks to the success of XC2 and we're seeing XC: Definitive Edition on the horizon. In addition to becoming a bigger franchise, Sakurai seemed to express a desire to include them and people absolutely back them as a fan favorite. I see plenty of reason for them to finally make it in through DLC now that it's an option.
#3 - Doom Slayer*: Sakurai has acknowledged the importance of DOOM and John Carmack before, so that means it's on his radar. Bethesda seems to have a much closer relationship with Nintendo than anyone could have guessed they would have, much of that revolving around the DOOM series. We don't have a FPS representative in the game and he's very much a classic character that could represent another major part of gaming, though I think this comes with the caveat that Sakurai knows FPS games aren't huge in Japan.
#4 - Travis Touchdown: Suda 51 is perhaps one of the biggest presences in Japan without something in the game as well, so I think that alone puts him a good spot. Then you consider that Travis Strikes Again just came out this year, No More Heroes III is coming to Switch next year, and that Suda is actively pushing for Travis in Smash... and I think this finally happens. I'd love to see Suda's work get a big place in Smash personally and Travis would work really well.
#5 - Reimu (Touhou): Remember how I mentioned FPS games weren't huge in Japan, well, I think Reimu is the balancing character of this pass. I always consider Touhou to be the wildcard of Smash speculation. She's a more minor presence in the States, but in Japan, she seems huge, and huge parts of Japanese gaming I think still end up getting some amount of priority going into more DLC. I don't know a ton about her, but she would represent the SHUMP genre and a seemingly quite popular IP, so I've included her here (I also wanted to make sure I included a couple of female characters).
Fighter's Pass 3
#1 - Sora: He arguably speaks for himself, but I think that Sakurai is looking for another huge "bring down the house" type moment with Smash Ultiamte before everything is finished and I think the character with the best chance of doing that is Sora. Kingdom Hearts is huge and in somewhat of a comeback period now too. He's heavily requested pretty much everywhere, and it's another "Impossible dream" happening in Smash. I don't care too much about Sora personally, but I want this moment for Smash to happen and see Sakurai achieve the "impossible" once again.
#2 - Crash Bandicoot: Just a character on one hell of a comeback that was popular in Japan and in the West. People have instantly latched onto him this speculation cycle, and I think that attention will be noticed by Sakurai. He's another classic PS1 icon that goes along with Mario and Sonic, so I think he just makes a lot of sense as this character to further fill out this roster of platforming icons that represent gaming history.
#3 - Bandanna Dee: I needed another first party character for this pass, and Nintendo seems to constantly push Kirby at every opportunity they can. Bandanna Dee is just another big fan request character that also happens to work in Nintendo's favor of advertising major products. So, I think he finally happens in Smash.
#4 - Dante: Capcom is too big of a presence to ignore even if I'm not all that interested in their characters. I think given their stable of sold IPs, we just end up with at least one more by the end of Ultimate. Resident Evil arguably makes more sense as the bigger game and the genre not currently in Smash... but I just like Dante better for his crazy demeanor that could fit so well into Smash and Devil May Cry music would be excellent to include. So, I made a personal call, but this is more of a Capcom spot in general.
#5 - Shantae: Like I said, I really wanted to include another female character, and Shantae was arguably the one in the best position to join the roster outside of Jill Valentine and Reimu (or a potential Dixie Kong I guess). Indies seem to be getting more and more attention, so I could see her as the first Western Indie fighter to join the roster. That said, she's also the character I'm the least confident in and least invested in... so if we need a Bandai-Namco rep (which certainly seems possible if not likely), then they'll bump her off (though I prefer her to them).
*IF, and only IF, Halo comes to Switch, I think Doom Slayer gets swapped for Master Chief. It's the only other huge moment I can think of besides Sora that will just absolutely bring down the house of speculation and make for an awesome gaming crossover moment. If Halo comes to Switch, I see no reason for this not to happen (especially since I already accounted for Doom's western popularity with a much more focused Japanese pick in Reimu). And personally, I much prefer Halo and Chief to Doom and Doom Slayer.
