Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[Noipoi]

Bayo's fine. Barring extreme circumstances she'll definitely be in the next Smash.

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

Actually, there is one inconsequential thing I'd change.

Add a Swordfighter outfit for Shovel Knight with a music track for Strike the Earth! just like other indies got.

 

[Pupp135]

This is a fun hypothetical. So here's a question I just thought of; if there was one thing you could change about a past Smash game that would then carry over to all future Smash games, what would you change? Preferably character/stage/item related because those are easiest to envision.

I don’t know if this really counts, but the big thing that I could think of is having Zero Suit Samus separate from Samus from the start, so that there wouldn’t be a concern for an eventual split down the line.

 

[RileyXY1]

I don’t know if this really counts, but the big thing that I could think of is having Zero Suit Samus separate from Samus from the start, so that there wouldn’t be a concern for an eventual split down the line.

I can't see why Zero Suit Samus would even be picked as a separate entity from Samus from the beginning except as a promo pick for Zero Mission.

 

[CatTastic]

Okay guys, how do you feel about the fate of the Bayonetta franchise?

Before her inclusion during Smash 4's DLC, we had gotten...

• The original game's release for the X-Box 360 and PS3
• A port of the original game to the Wii U
• Bayonetta 2 for the Wii U

Between Smash 4 and Ultimate's release, we got...

• Switch ports of the first two games
• The announcement of Bayonetta 3 for the Switch

And after Ultimate, we got...

• The release of Bayonetta 3
• The reveal and release of Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon

This looks like a really healthy release schedule for a less popular IP like Bayonetta. It even got a spin off, which is a sign that IPs are healthy. But there's a lot of controversy and developmental issues that happened with Bayonetta 3. There's the whole ordeal with Bayonetta's voice actor and now one of her creator's has left Platinum entirely. Platinum as a whole is doing poorly with several releases making little money and having poor review scores. Even Bayonetta 3 is seen as a step down from the first two (though still good).

Is the Bayonetta franchise okay?

Why should it matter? I think you should enjoy whatever incarnations of Bayonetta that you like. With time, things get either better or worse.

I love the original generation of Pokémon and gen 2 but I like the original gen better. I can admit that there's some mon that I think are cool from the newer generations but as a whole, I'm not interested.

Bayonetta made history being one of the only M rated characters in Smash and as a controversial character, being sassy sexy lady.

I never knew how much of an impact she was until I read comments from people all over the internet.

You already have so much, even if her franchise declines, you were apart of her greatness and can still enjoy them anytime.

As for Smash, I'm sure she'll still be here but what do I know.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Why should it matter? I think you should enjoy whatever incarnations of Bayonetta that you like. With time, things get either better or worse.

I love the original generation of Pokémon and gen 2 but I like the original gen better. I can admit that there's some mon that I think are cool from the newer generations but as a whole, I'm not interested.

Bayonetta made history being one of the only M rated characters in Smash and as a controversial character, being sassy sexy lady.

I never knew how much of an impact she was until I read comments from people all over the internet.

You already have so much, even if her franchise declines, you were apart of her greatness and can still enjoy them anytime.

As for Smash, I'm sure she'll still be here but what do I know.

I think you're missing what I'm asking.

 

[Pupp135]

I can't see why Zero Suit Samus would even be picked as a separate entity from Samus from the beginning except as a promo pick for Zero Mission.

While the transformation gimmick was a big factor towards Zero Suit Samus’s inclusion, I could still see Sakurai considering her as she filled the martial artist archetype iirc, and I think that he believed that she was the most feasible Metroid fighter at the time, and depending on how Krystal’s priority would be affected in this scenario, no female newcomers would’ve made the cut if Zero Suit Samus was absent.

 

[Arcanir]

While the transformation gimmick was a big factor towards Zero Suit Samus’s inclusion, I could still see Sakurai considering her as she filled the martial artist archetype iirc, and I think that he believed that she was the most feasible Metroid fighter at the time, and depending on how Krystal’s priority would be affected in this scenario, no female newcomers would’ve made the cut if Zero Suit Samus was absent.

In retrospect, it's kind of funny that the transformation gimmick helped ZSS as it's probably the clunkiest implementation of the mechanic in the franchise. To use it you either needed to use the FS, which not only could be turned off but also required the player to get the Smash Ball, or use a very particular button press to activate it, which only could be used from Samus>ZSS and not the other way around. In a way they functionally were already their own characters since playing as both required more effort on the player's part to happen vs. Zelda/Sheik, PT, or the later Aegis duo, and as a result they probably shrugged off the Smash 4 split the most out of those characters.

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

While the transformation gimmick was a big factor towards Zero Suit Samus’s inclusion, I could still see Sakurai considering her as she filled the martial artist archetype iirc, and I think that he believed that she was the most feasible Metroid fighter at the time, and depending on how Krystal’s priority would be affected in this scenario, no female newcomers would’ve made the cut if Zero Suit Samus was absent.

His reasoning for adding ZSS was "more female characters" and "I wanted a Metroid newcomer". The transformation gimmick wasn't as big of a deal. This isn't like Zelda/Sheik or Pokemon Trainer, where it had a lot more merit at the time. But also they were easier to work with when splitting apart in context(Sheik wasn't in later games, you could still work with solo Charizard). ZSS simply worked really well as a standalone character and didn't even have an easy way to return into Samus too. So the split felt more natural than the others. It's at least faithful as to how the transformation works, but at the very least, changing back easily would've been nice.

 

[fogbadge]

Is the Bayonetta franchise okay?

with any luck platinum will take a break from it and make sequels to the wonderful 101 and astral chain

 

[Noipoi]

with any luck platinum will take a break from it and make sequels to the wonderful 101 and astral chain

Or the long awaited crossover, the 101 wonderful astral chains

 

[Capybara Gaming]

Actually, there is one inconsequential thing I'd change.

Add a Swordfighter outfit for Shovel Knight with a music track for Strike the Earth! just like other indies got.

I'd like to add onto this and say add an Undertale spirit event so all the indies represented with costumes could also have spirits

 

[Noipoi]

I'd like to add onto this and say add an Undertale spirit event so all the indies represented with costumes could also have spirits

To this day I'm surprised they didn't give Sans a spirit battle.

 

[Ivander]

To this day I'm surprised they didn't give Sans a spirit battle.

It's for the Undertale spirit set when they reveal Frisk as Character 4 of Fighters Pass 3. Cause, you know, Sans can't have a Spirit battle if he's the new character.

 

[KingofPhantoms]

If the Miis got a Sans Undertale costume, why didn't they also get a Sans Deltarune costume?

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

It's for the Undertale spirit set when they reveal Frisk as Character 4 of Fighters Pass 3. Cause, you know, Sans can't have a Spirit battle if he's the new character.

This reminds me some tried to push Frisk as inevitable because "Sans' costume was such a huge success that they had an extra 6th DLC in Vol. 2 for Undertale".

 

[Wonder Smash]

Okay guys, how do you feel about the fate of the Bayonetta franchise?

Before her inclusion during Smash 4's DLC, we had gotten...

• The original game's release for the X-Box 360 and PS3
• A port of the original game to the Wii U
• Bayonetta 2 for the Wii U

Between Smash 4 and Ultimate's release, we got...

• Switch ports of the first two games
• The announcement of Bayonetta 3 for the Switch

And after Ultimate, we got...

• The release of Bayonetta 3
• The reveal and release of Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon

This looks like a really healthy release schedule for a less popular IP like Bayonetta. It even got a spin off, which is a sign that IPs are healthy. But there's a lot of controversy and developmental issues that happened with Bayonetta 3. There's the whole ordeal with Bayonetta's voice actor and now one of her creator's has left Platinum entirely. Platinum as a whole is doing poorly with several releases making little money and having poor review scores. Even Bayonetta 3 is seen as a step down from the first two (though still good).

Is the Bayonetta franchise okay?

I think Bayonetta is just fine so far. As the long as the reception is still positive for the series overall, it should be in a healthy state.

 

[dream1ng]

Okay guys, how do you feel about the fate of the Bayonetta franchise?

Before her inclusion during Smash 4's DLC, we had gotten...

• The original game's release for the X-Box 360 and PS3
• A port of the original game to the Wii U
• Bayonetta 2 for the Wii U

Between Smash 4 and Ultimate's release, we got...

• Switch ports of the first two games
• The announcement of Bayonetta 3 for the Switch

And after Ultimate, we got...

• The release of Bayonetta 3
• The reveal and release of Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon

This looks like a really healthy release schedule for a less popular IP like Bayonetta. It even got a spin off, which is a sign that IPs are healthy. But there's a lot of controversy and developmental issues that happened with Bayonetta 3. There's the whole ordeal with Bayonetta's voice actor and now one of her creator's has left Platinum entirely. Platinum as a whole is doing poorly with several releases making little money and having poor review scores. Even Bayonetta 3 is seen as a step down from the first two (though still good).

Is the Bayonetta franchise okay?

The Bayonetta franchise should be ok as long as it's one of the only profitable IPs Platinum actually makes. Assuming it is profitable...

The bar is pretty low for the commercial performance of Platinum games, apart from IPs they have no real say in, like Nier and Metal Gear. If a game cracks 1 mil, that's pretty good for them. So both Bayo and Astral Chain will probably keep going, should their margins not falter too much.

The question is will Platinum be ok if their output is regularly disappointing commercially, and their successes, for the most part, aren't even that successful. That's why they were looking for investments and have changed their tune on a potential buyer.

Because if Platinum goes, neither Nintendo nor Sega would likely bother keeping the Bayo IP afloat.

 

[DarthEnderX]

It's so bizarre that Giygas has gotten pretty much nothing in Smash Bros outside of a couple of mentions in other characters' descriptions. Not even a spirit or a phase 2 of a Porky boss battle?

Mother final bosses got screwed across the board in Ultimate.

To this day I'm surprised they didn't give Sans a spirit battle.

He's just invincible for 10min.

 

[Wonder Smash]

This is a fun hypothetical. So here's a question I just thought of; if there was one thing you could change about a past Smash game that would then carry over to all future Smash games, what would you change? Preferably character/stage/item related because those are easiest to envision.

Before, I would have said I would merge Mushroom Kingdom with Mushroomy Kingdom; basically the NES look of the former and layout of the latter. Just to get the full feel of the NES Super Mario Bros. game.

Nowadays, I'm not so sure. I'm kinda satisfied with them being separate.

 

[Godzillathewonderdog]

His reasoning for adding ZSS was "more female characters" and "I wanted a Metroid newcomer".

If we get a bunch of cuts next game Zero Suit Samus just seems like an obvious choice based on the reasons she was added to begin with. The female cast has basically quadrupled since Brawl, and we got 2 new Metroid characters since then as well. Zero Suit Samus also hasn’t had anything substantial to do in the Metroid series since her debut. Also the whole point of Zero Suit Samus was to show players how weak she is without her power suit, she’s supposed to suck .

Just give Samus an alt that has her helmet off, so the people who want to see her face get to see her face. The people who want to see her body don’t deserve to see it

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

If we get a bunch of cuts next game Zero Suit Samus just seems like an obvious choice based on the reasons she was added to begin with. The female cast has basically quadrupled since Brawl, and we got 2 new Metroid characters since then as well. Zero Suit Samus also hasn’t had anything substantial to do in the Metroid series since her debut. Also the whole point of Zero Suit Samus was to show players how weak she is without her power suit, she’s supposed to suck .

Just give Samus an alt that has her helmet off, so the people who want to see her face get to see her face. The people who want to see her body don’t deserve to see it

It really doesn't though. She's a highly unique character and represents a completely different moveset from Samus. Getting more female characters does not invalidate her existence. She was added on her own merits too, not just cause of that alone. That's some of the core reasons he looked at her first. But if she didn't have a feasible moveset, she would've been gone by 4 during the split. She was instead giving a full slot instead of sharing a slot. Which always made more sense. She's also nowhere near as hard to make work or balance compared to Ridley, anyway, who was already difficult to make and required and all new model. Never mind that Zero Suit Samus was used as the base for Bayonetta's creation, meaning that making both of them together is actually a lot easier. None of the Metroid characters are "easy" to remove. They all are honestly really easy to return, though Ridley will always be the toughest one to work with. He's not similar to other characters, and his balance requires far more work.

That's also a godawful way to represent her entirely. Costumes are not a legitimate way to "replace" a previously playable character. That makes absolutely no sense. If she's gone, Samus would remain the same and stay helmeted anyway. At most, we could get a new Victory Animation showing her non-suit form... but at that point, why wouldn't they just reference her original Metroid bikini form? Which is actually what the classic Samus wore. Or, you know, not bother because that's just a massive way to be mean to the fanbase. Reducing a full character to a bare costume reference is even worse than just a costume. It would clearly do horribly with the fanbase, which is why it has no real chance of happening. Besides, helmetless Samus isn't a real reference to ZSS, as she was created significantly after Samus was taking after her helmet. It's just a reference to Metroid 1 and earlier games, where there's a ton of artwork. It's a stretch to even use that idea as well. It solves nothing.

Like, she's not a guaranteed return regardless(though pretty likely). But she isn't going to be cut easily either way. There's no real reason to cut her unless they're reducing the roster to barely more than one per franchise. And being she's, again, easier to work with because they have a similar character in Bayonetta(as they intentionally used similar assets, respectively). If it was, only Dark Samus would return other than Samus regardless. Simply due to ease. But yeah.

...I'm going to make one other comment; that slashed out sentence is really uncalled for and makes her sound like some piece of meat. It's fine if you don't like fanservice etc., but please refrain from comments like that. She's not a prize to be won. She's a powerful woman. In fact, that's part of why I like ZSS as her own character. It shows she's completely able to stand up on her own two feet and show the world it's not the armor that makes her strong. It's her own being. The armor is basically a different option, and in the lore, only doable because of her Chozo DNA and training. Her being strong without it heavily strengthens her characterization. Her redesign from the bikini is really nice because it feels more like a natural warrior, not a prize. She's athletic as well, making her costumes much more fitting, especially when they redesigned her body to be more reasonably proportional. I never liked the Brawl/4 design very much. While I could do without the Jet Heels too, they at least add to her combat abilities(and she always has heels on her armor by design. Though minorly in comparison. It's still clearly there to some degree, as there's a very visible indent into the boots themselves).

That's also why I think cutting her is silly. We have two unique sides of her, both canon-based, and really awesome. Now, we definitely need regular Samus to get some good buffs, because frankly, she's not very good in Smash(she was okay for a bit, but while her being a bit slower is fine on its own, due to armor weighing her down compared to ZSS not having any, the way it is is way overdone). Plus, as more games came in, she got new abilities, including unique combat ones that aren't just related to power-ups. This could be easily taken into account while not really overchanging her playstyle, just updating it(the way that makes it work well in Smash's design philosophy).

 

[osby]

Is the Bayonetta franchise okay?

I'll answer this with a resounding "probably".

Bayonetta games are definitely doing financially well so I can't see Platinum dropping the series. If anything Origins and 3 seem to set up more games in the future. They definitely lost some old fans but it's early to say if that's going to affect the future games negatively. That being said, Platinum's situation isn't the most promising so who knows?

While I'll admit Bayonetta 3 left me with mixed feelings, I'd like to think the franchise is going strong.

 

[MBRedboy31]

One thing that kinda frustrates me about the prospect of Sportsmates in Smash is that Nintendo Switch Sports has a large variety of outfits, hairstyles, glasses, and other accessories to choose from, plus the unique characters (squirrel, robot, shark, skeleton, burger, lollipop, soccer ball, bunny, panda, bird, etc.), but, in all likelihood, Smash would only have the most generic Sportsmates wearing the default outfits, since those are the ones featured in marketing. (The pink-haired girl here would likely be the main one on the CSS.)

It makes sense that they’d highlight the generic Sportsmates, too, given how obnoxious the system for unlocking cosmetics is (it takes nearly an entire year in real time, where you have to grind a bunch at least every three weeks, and other players on your system can’t even use your unlocked cosmetics!) but it’s still frustrating.

On a personal-want note, I really want the squirrel character as a skin. I think it might have better odds than the other unique characters due to the fact that it was the first unique character released and the only one revealed pre-release, but idk.

 

[Scrimblo Bimblo]

There's something about the sportsmates that rubs me off the wrong way. Their designs are so sterile, they look right out of a kids' movie. Nintendo characters usually have a slightly off-beat vibe, even the Miis and the more modern ones like the Inklings and the Arms cast. The sportsmates have none of that for some reason.
Maybe it's the eyes. I'm not sure.

That said, a 100% sports moveset would be fun so I kinda want them. Feels like the best opportunity to explore the concept.

 

[BuckleyTim]

I said it the last time sports mates were brought up, but dang it's amazing how hard Nintendo Switch Sports feels like Nintendo doing a live service for the.... Sake of doing a live service? Since there aren't even microtransactions it legit feels like the whole "lock all the cosmetics behind grind" aspect was just done because it somehow sounded nice rather than to bleed customers dry, which somehow feels worse in a way.

Mii Sports moveset was one of my more wanted smash things, but since this is clearly the only way we'll get it now... No thanks, not when we already have miis that I can actually customize in game to boot.

 

[CapitaineCrash]

His reasoning for adding ZSS was "more female characters" and "I wanted a Metroid newcomer".

His there even a source on that or you're just speculating? Because I can find no official information on why ZSS was add, but my guess is that since Metroid was absolutely huge at the time (between Melee and Brawl we got Prime, Prime 2, Prime hunters, Zero mission and Fusion) and Ridley was considered impossible at the time, he chose her, because there was pretty much no other choice from Metroid.

 

[Garteam]

I think the only way we'd get Sportsmate is if we got a ton of late-era Switch reps. We'd have to get the Ring Fit Adventurer, Octoling, Bandana Waddle Dee, Noah or Mio, a Gen 9 Pokemon, Tom Nook, Alear, and maybe a couple of more like Oatchi or Rauru.

I considered Sportsmate in the past because of how well Nintendo Switch Sports sold, but it was a very transient game. It just sort of came and went with little fanfare. It's not like Wii Sports, which was a massive phenomenon and is pretty fondly remembered to this day. It doesn't strike me as the type of game to get full, playable representation in Smash.

 

[HyperSomari64]

Never heard of 'em.

I know it's a joke. But if I also said Vectorman there, I would ragequit

 

[RileyXY1]

I think the only way we'd get Sportsmate is if we got a ton of late-era Switch reps. We'd have to get the Ring Fit Adventurer, Octoling, Bandana Waddle Dee, Noah or Mio, a Gen 9 Pokemon, Tom Nook, Alear, and maybe a couple of more like Oatchi or Rauru.

I considered Sportsmate in the past because of how well Nintendo Switch Sports sold, but it was a very transient game. It just sort of came and went with little fanfare. It's not like Wii Sports, which was a massive phenomenon and is pretty fondly remembered to this day. It doesn't strike me as the type of game to get full, playable representation in Smash.

This might happen if they go for Smash 4's philosophy for newcomers, as Smash 4 added a lot of characters from the late Wii and early 3DS era.

 

[Garteam]

This might happen if they go for Smash 4's philosophy for newcomers, as Smash 4 added a lot of characters from the late Wii and early 3DS era.

Ultimate departed pretty hard from that direction for its base game, though. Of the 7 unique newcomers (including Piranha Plant) added, only 3 were meant to represent software from the late Wii U/3DS era. That's also not considering how none of the vets that were brought back from Melee and Brawl had little to no connection to Nintendo's lineup for the Wii U/3DS.

My guess is that we'll get something like 3 to 4 characters added due to fan demand, 4 to 5 characters added to represent Switch games that released after Ultimate, 2 or 3 characters added because Sakurai has a cool vision for their moveset, and 1 or 2 characters added because they're general gaming juggernauts.

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

His there even a source on that or you're just speculating? Because I can find no official information on why ZSS was add, but my guess is that since Metroid was absolutely huge at the time (between Melee and Brawl we got Prime, Prime 2, Prime hunters, Zero mission and Fusion) and Ridley was considered impossible at the time, he chose her, because there was pretty much no other choice from Metroid.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2006/05/31/sakurais-smash-bros-update

In short:
Did he add Zero Suit Samus because he wanted a Metroid character? Yes.

Did he add Zero Suit Samus because she's female? No. But he was glad to have added her because of it.

Which is also reiterated in an older Famitsu when he talks details about Brawl's (base game) newcomers, the same one where Sakurai confirms Dixie was meant to be partnered with Diddy as well as Pokémon Trainer's original design concepts before settling for the three evolutionary stage system we got.

There he stated he wished there were more female characters in general.

 

[Perkilator]

I've just opened up a moveset creation thread in the SmashBoards creates sub-forum.

 

[Godzillathewonderdog]

...I'm going to make one other comment; that slashed out sentence is really uncalled for and makes her sound like some piece of meat. It's fine if you don't like fanservice etc., but please refrain from comments like that. She's not a prize to be won. She's a powerful woman. In fact, that's part of why I like ZSS as her own character. It shows she's completely able to stand up on her own two feet and show the world it's not the armor that makes her strong. It's her own being. The armor is basically a different option, and in the lore, only doable because of her Chozo DNA and training. Her being strong without it heavily strengthens her characterization. Her redesign from the bikini is really nice because it feels more like a natural warrior, not a prize. She's athletic as well, making her costumes much more fitting, especially when they redesigned her body to be more reasonably proportional. I never liked the Brawl/4 design very much. While I could do without the Jet Heels too, they at least add to her combat abilities(and she always has heels on her armor by design. Though minorly in comparison. It's still clearly there to some degree, as there's a very visible indent into the boots themselves).

That's also why I think cutting her is silly. We have two unique sides of her, both canon-based, and really awesome. Now, we definitely need regular Samus to get some good buffs, because frankly, she's not very good in Smash(she was okay for a bit, but while her being a bit slower is fine on its own, due to armor weighing her down compared to ZSS not having any, the way it is is way overdone). Plus, as more games came in, she got new abilities, including unique combat ones that aren't just related to power-ups. This could be easily taken into account while not really overchanging her playstyle, just updating it(the way that makes it work well in Smash's design philosophy).

I didn’t expect such a large response from you, but I mainly want to point out that I was making fun of people who objectify Samus, I know a large amount of her fans like her for legitimate reasons (me included), and I wasn’t trying to suggest otherwise. I have all those ****ing weirdos online acting like a freak talking about the main character from Stellar Blade or even real life women like Sydney Sweeney fresh in my brain, it’s those kind of people I had in mind when making that joke.

Samus is allowed to have sex appeal, my only problems with that design is that I think she should be more muscular, and I wish her hair was darker like in the first Metroid Prime. This is probably my favorite design of the character, and it’s from all the way back in the 90’s

Spoiler

Also I definitely did over exaggerate how likely she is to get cut, that said if they have to end up cutting like like 30 characters for the next game I wouldn’t be shocked if she was one of them.

 

[MBRedboy31]

The weirdest thing about Sportsmates IMO is that the Nintendo internet community tends to hate them, but, if you’ve played the game as much as I have (I, in fact, grinded the game for nearly a year to get all the weekly cosmetics,) it’s very clear that the game’s actual playerbase far prefers them over Miis. It’s likely a survivorship bias thing (“only people who like Sportsmates would still be playing the game, all the Mii fans left or didn’t buy it in the first place”) but still.

I‘m curious if Nintendo would be considering them far in advance for the next -Sports game they make. The speculation thus far is under the assumption that they are a one-off character, but that’s not known yet.

 

[Pupp135]

https://www.ign.com/articles/2006/05/31/sakurais-smash-bros-update

In short:
Did he add Zero Suit Samus because he wanted a Metroid character? Yes.

Did he add Zero Suit Samus because she's female? No. But he was glad to have added her because of it.

Which is also reiterated in an older Famitsu when he talks details about Brawl's (base game) newcomers, the same one where Sakurai confirms Dixie was meant to be partnered with Diddy as well as Pokémon Trainer's original design concepts before settling for the three evolutionary stage system we got.

There he stated he wished there were more female characters in general.

In addition to the information above, I also want to include something about the martial artist archetype.

 

[Louie G.]

I don't mind the "Sportsmate" designs and I recognize that they didn't outright replace Miis like people were afraid of, but even regardless of whether I like them or not they aren't really an enticing choice for Smash. Miis already efficiently fulfill the customization element (to a far higher degree) and outside of that the Sportsmates don't have much of an identity worth representing. They play sports, I guess. That's never been a very compelling basis for a moveset in my eyes, not for Miis or Waluigi or Daisy, etc, so it similarly does nothing for me here. Maybe if it was centralized on one specific sport, like a baseball oriented Power Pros character might be fun but that's another conversation.

Otherwise the Sportsmates are faceless avatars in a game that doesn't have quite the same striking visual identity as something like Animal Crossing or Minecraft. There just isn't a lot of incentive to pursue these guys outside of their original context, no compelling inspiration behind them or fresh gameplay mechanic worth carrying over. On paper, I think they're cute. In Smash they're redundant at best.

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

One difference with the Sportsmates and Waluigi is one is really only defined by Sports(at this time). They would actually make for a reasonable Sports moveset because that's actually what they do. Them being a faceless avatar doesn't mean much, as they aren't replacements for the Miis but more like a unique type of character for the Nintendo Sports series at best(unless it changes, which is always possible).

Something I also want to note about why Zero Suit Samus cannot work as a minor helmetless costume that I forgot; the entire design is from below the head. You can't represent that in any possible way just by Samus taking off her helmet. That's completely different from how the character is even remotely designed. The rare time we see that is more in reference to her bikini clothing in the earlier games. The Modern games make it clear that ZSS only really is a thing when Samus actually takes off the full Varia(and other upgraded) suit. It's a completely different context.

Also, I misremembered the context of why ZSS was added(the female character bit). My bad.

 

[Wonder Smash]

A question about the modding for Smash Ultimate; has anyone ever been able to mod new Spirit Battles for it?

 

[CapitaineCrash]

The weirdest thing about Sportsmates IMO is that the Nintendo internet community tends to hate them, but, if you’ve played the game as much as I have (I, in fact, grinded the game for nearly a year to get all the weekly cosmetics,) it’s very clear that the game’s actual playerbase far prefers them over Miis. It’s likely a survivorship bias thing (“only people who like Sportsmates would still be playing the game, all the Mii fans left or didn’t buy it in the first place”) but still.

I‘m curious if Nintendo would be considering them far in advance for the next -Sports game they make. The speculation thus far is under the assumption that they are a one-off character, but that’s not known yet.

I don't think Sportsmate are more popular than Miis, it just happen that in the game most of the unlockable outfits and accessories only works on Sportsmate so people will play them.