Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

To an extent I wonder if the long as **** wait for Pikmin 4 kinda mythologised it to an extent and helped bring up some of the anticipation and marketing. Either way, Pikmin 4 didn't like blow the entire world away but it obviously did good, 3.5 mil is nothing to sneeze at, so it feels in a better position now.

Maybe, since Pikmin 4 being "near completion" was a meme in the general Nintendo sphere for a while.

It was just really nice seeing so many people on Twitter when the 1 and 2 rereleases came out saying "I'm playing Pikmin for the first time and these games are actually really good!" even if a lot of them did end up drowning their squads because they didn't realize only blues could swim lol

 

[DarthEnderX]

That's got me thinking: In Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, both have 10 bosses each (not counting tandem bosses like Master Hand & Crazy Hand or Galeem & Dharkon). Assuming the next game followed suit, which bosses would you pick?

1. Fury Bowser
2. Ganon
3. Mother Brain
4. Marx
5. Arceus
6. Eggman w/ Death Egg Robot
7. Dr. Wily w/ Wily Machine
8. Rathalos
9. Dracula
10. Safer∙Sephiroth

 

[Gorgonzales]

It was just really nice seeing so many people on Twitter when the 1 and 2 rereleases came out saying "I'm playing Pikmin for the first time and these games are actually really good!" even if a lot of them did end up drowning their squads because they didn't realize only blues could swim lol

See, I live for these kinds of moments in Pikmin games lol. It was awesome seeing people learn the rules of Pikmin 1 & 2 the hard way on social media.

I love Pikmin 4 but I wish it wasn't overly handholdy and treated the player like a toddler, with all the OP items and hints and constant pressure to rewind and whatnot. The player should learn through experience, not through the Rescue Corps scolding you and telling you to rewind from losing one (1) Pikmin.

Wish the game got an update to disable the obnoxious hints and that even more obnoxious autolock feature it forces on you. The controls are an objective downgrade from P3DX, it's absurd how hard they fumbled the bag there.

Well... there's always Pikmin 5, at least!

 

[Noipoi]

Well... there's always Pikmin 5, at least!

See you in 2033!

 

[BritishGuy54]

Part of me thinks we should have a dedicated thread for mock-up rosters for predictions and/or wish lists at this point. Nevertheless, I have come with yet another attempt(s) at a Smash 6 roster.

Each roster has two variations. One sorted by franchise, and the other sorted by fighter number. I’ve placed them in spoilers to people don’t have to look at them if they want to ignore them. I’ve also taken feedback from previous attempts to take time to improve.

Spoiler: Roster with 52 unique veterans

This is the bigger roster of the two, with 8 extra veterans. I wanted to ensure that the two scenarios could exist. And already, 30 unique faces got the boot. That’s how hard it is to cut characters.

A grand total of 13 unique newcomers are present, with 3 new echo fighters also joining (Funky Kong, Octoling, and Pneuma (I wanted an indulgence pick), who is just an extension of Pyra/Mythra).

I’ve also taken into account trends from previous games, which is why not every franchise is where it ‘should’ be in character count. It’s why some series have double dipped here and there.

I think the series that got it roughest here was Zelda. Half its roster got cut, and only Impa joined as a new face… and a Ganondorf rework. It’s less worse than it seems, is all I’m trying to say.

Overall, I think this roster is pretty optimistic. It keeps a bunch of the old, brings in a lot new, and while there’s a lack of third party content, it is a base game roster, so there’s no DLC yet…

Spoiler: Roster with 44 unique veterans

Cutting it even further sucked hard. I wanted to keep all newcomers, so I had to decide which veterans to cut. Original 12 believers, I am so sorry.

Robin nearly made it, but with the needs to allow echoes, plus the reduced roster size, I had to reduce Fire Emblem further.

This roster mainly deals with more serious cuts, if development is left short to prioritise newcomers. As the saying goes, ‘out with the old, in with the new’… in the most respectful way possible.

While I do prefer the previous roster, I’m open to this one if development resources end up strained and priority is given fully to newcomers.

Anyhow, that’s just a mock-up roster. I just thought it was a neat thought experiment.

 

[Louie G.]

Original 12 believers, I am so sorry.

Ness is not getting cut man, seriously. Not in a scenario like this. It’s especially a bit less defensible if you want to add two brand new Xenoblade characters on top… these series are arguably the same size. Mother’s presence in the game is too significant to handwave away like that - two characters, like four stages, lots of music, items, two ATs…. Losing all of that at once would be extremely arbitrary and unprecedented.

Realistically are we going to part ways with a series with this much content that can and has been brought back every game? Dismissing all that under the guise of “it’s old” is not giving it nearly enough significance or credit. Ness is demonstrably one of the most frequently played characters in the series and EB has only gotten more popular over time. Its absence would be deeply felt and this roster does not commit hard enough to a full scorched earth reboot to justify it. It’s just cutting a series with a massive footprint in Smash because it’s old.

I don’t wanna be too harsh about it and ignore the other ideas here, but I just need to set the record straight on that. If we’re getting a whole 44 characters back then Ness is one of them.

As for the rest, newcomers are decent. I respect the commitment to Rex but I really don’t think it’s going to happen - giving Xenoblade a whopping five characters (Pythra as two) also just makes any full series losses here sting a lot harder. Nook, Chun-Li are exciting and fall within my expectations too. Don’t think Alear is a necessity because Engage‘s success and lasting impact are not particularly strong on its own and the timing doesn’t feel optimal. I’d rather have Robin back.

 

[chocolatejr9]

DK still hasn’t fully recovered from when daddy Nintendo and mommy Rare split up

And with the recent Microsoft stuff, I wouldn't blame anybody for worrying about Rare's future as a company...

But hey! We can rest easy knowing that Nintendo owns what is undoubtedly the best Rare-era DKC character: Kiddy Kong.

#KiddyKong4Smash

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

Anyhow, that’s just a mock-up roster. I just thought it was a neat thought experiment.

I understand that this is like your opinion/experiment and stuff, but when both rosters have 3 DK characters, I'm really not sure why you removed K. Rool and added Funky? Like Funky is cool and all, but removing one of DK's primary antagonists for another Kong family member feels like if you removed Wolf and replaced him with Slippy.

I know you did remove Wolf on there, but just for example's sake.

 

[chinkuru]

That's got me thinking: In Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, both have 10 bosses each (not counting tandem bosses like Master Hand & Crazy Hand or Galeem & Dharkon). Assuming the next game followed suit, which bosses would you pick?

1. Master Hand
2. Ganon
3. Mother Brain Rex
4. Porky Minch
5. Liquid piloting Metal Gear Rex
6. Eggman piloting Death Egg Robot
7. Dr. Wily piloting Wily Machine
8. Hades
9. M. Bison
10. Safer Sephiroth

 

[SPEN18]

WarioWare has also seen two Switch releases (of more dubious success?)

Seems like Move It may not have done as well but Get it Together doing over a million is probably considered pretty respectable; remember these games are on a much smaller budget than a lot of other things that do about as well but with way higher cost.

Animal Crossing, Splatoon and Pikmin

Now on these ones.

Splatoon should definitely get something next game, though being newer with only three games to its name makes it more defensible for its playable roster to be smaller. I feel like 2-3 characters is fine for the immediate future, and then we can go from there in future games.

Pikmin has been around since 2001, but is still only on its fourth mainline game thanks to a long disappearance and only just now has broken into the multimil sales bracket. I think it's still kinda below the other franchises that have 3+ uniques, but could easily justify that long-awaited second unique rep.

And lastly, Animal Crossing only having two characters again would be pretty glaring. Of course it only has two right now pretty much due to being judged infeasible in Brawl and thus not getting a playable rep at all until Smash 4. It's been around since 2001 as well, and the per-game sales have gone bonkers. It could easily justify multiple new characters, and it's not like it has a small cast or lack of choices, either, if you look beyond the surface level "not a fighter" stereotypes.

So as far as the "under-repped" thing goes. Splatoon and Pikmin felt adequately represented to me at the time base Ult came out, but if they don't get anything new next time then I think they would start to be considered underrepped by a lot of fans (much especially Splatoon). Animal Crossing was already underrepped at the time of Ult IMO as it should have at least had Tom Nook, but as mentioned it kind of had the excuse of the late join time combined with limited newcomers in base Ult; however, as time goes on that excuse gets less and less effective.

 

[ninjahmos]

OK, hypothetical question:

If Sakurai ever decides to pass on the torch for the Smash series… do you think it could be handled well enough by the current Kirby director at HAL Laboratory?

 

[Louie G.]

On the topic, I would say it's really only Splatoon that feels "weird it only has this amount" given how important it is to Nintendo, but even that's sort of in hindsight, since Splatoon 1 was the only game the dev team had to base on for Ultimate, and that was a successful game relative to a dying console. I think it was Splatoon 2's massive success that really cemented the series and overtime catapulted it to one of Nintendo's core franchises. You could argue for Pikmin, but it's certainly much less consistent than Splatoon.

So as far as the "under-repped" thing goes. Splatoon and Pikmin felt adequately represented to me at the time base Ult came out, but if they don't get anything new next time then I think they would start to be considered underrepped by a lot of fans (much especially Splatoon). Animal Crossing was already underrepped at the time of Ult IMO as it should have at least had Tom Nook, but as mentioned it kind of had the excuse of the late join time combined with limited newcomers in base Ult; however, as time goes on that excuse gets less and less effective.

Yeah, I was thinking about this too. In Smash Ultimate, I don't think most of these series are underrepresented given the context of their inclusion and state of the series at the time. Splatoon was brand new, Pikmin had seen no new developments. Villager was only added last game, so getting one new Animal Crossing character feels like suitable growth especially given the restrictive space. As a snapshot of Nintendo in 2018, they got a fair shake.

Moving forward though, if Animal Crossing / Splatoon were to be neglected it would really stand out. Pikmin is more debatable simply because Olimar covers a lot of bases on his own and can probably get a Rookie skin to represent the new game... although at this point there's no representation for Rock, Ice or Glow Pikmin. So I think if Olimar isn't sufficiently updated and/or there's no new character, that's going to start to be felt. In any case, there are a handful of series around Pikmin's scale or smaller that have justified a second character by now so I'd say it's as good a time as any. Feels like the timing might be right.

Not that it's as simple as this or that series has x amount of characters so Pikmin needs another, just that having four fairly successful games under its belt seems like more than enough to warrant it if they felt so inclined, especially after its biggest success to date. Might be a similar situation to say, Palutena's addition after the popularity of Uprising if they wanted to add Oatchi off the momentum of Pikmin 4 (or something silly like a Bulborb).

 

[AreJay25]

OK, hypothetical question:

If Sakurai ever decides to pass on the torch for the Smash series… do you think it could be handled well enough by the current Kirby director at HAL Laboratory?

Kumazaki has been great in his role, but what makes Sakurai, well, Sakurai is his insane knowledge and understanding of all of these characters and franchises that he's given to work with. That's something that would need to be heavily considered; you can't just hand the position off to anyone, even if they've proven themselves to be a fantastic director in their own right.

 

[fogbadge]

Kumazaki has been great in his role, but what makes Sakurai, well, Sakurai is his insane knowledge and understanding of all of these characters and franchises that he's given to work with. That's something that would need to be heavily considered; you can't just hand the position off to anyone, even if they've proven themselves to be a fantastic director in their own right.

Actually sakurai is just insane

 

[chocolatejr9]

Actually sakurai is just insane

TBH, anybody who even TOUCHES the Smash speculation scene is doomed to a life of insanity. Imagine the things he saw in the Ballot...

 

[fogbadge]

TBH, anybody who even TOUCHES the Smash speculation scene is doomed to a life of insanity. Imagine the things he saw in the Ballot...

I do as it happens

 

[BritishGuy54]

Ness is not getting cut man, seriously. Not in a scenario like this. It’s especially a bit less defensible if you want to add two brand new Xenoblade characters on top… these series are arguably the same size. Mother’s presence in the game is too significant to handwave away like that - two characters, like four stages, lots of music, items, two ATs…. Losing all of that at once would be extremely arbitrary and unprecedented.

Realistically are we going to part ways with a series with this much content that can and has been brought back every game? Dismissing all that under the guise of “it’s old” is not giving it nearly enough significance or credit. Ness is demonstrably one of the most frequently played characters in the series and EB has only gotten more popular over time. Its absence would be deeply felt and this roster does not commit hard enough to a full scorched earth reboot to justify it. It’s just cutting a series with a massive footprint in Smash because it’s old.

I don’t wanna be too harsh about it and ignore the other ideas here, but I just need to set the record straight on that. If we’re getting a whole 44 characters back then Ness is one of them.

As for the rest, newcomers are decent. I respect the commitment to Rex but I really don’t think it’s going to happen - giving Xenoblade a whopping five characters (Pythra as two) also just makes any full series losses here sting a lot harder. Nook, Chun-Li are exciting and fall within my expectations too. Don’t think Alear is a necessity because Engage‘s success and lasting impact are not particularly strong on its own and the timing doesn’t feel optimal. I’d rather have Robin back.

Xenoblade is something I’m torn on. Do I rather want to indulge the fan demand for Rex after Ultimate ended? He got a new design, and I can see Sakurai looking at him as a potential second character, especially if what I believe is that proposals for a tag-team Noah/Mio moveset fall through.

On the other hand, Sakurai has been shown to relax on spoilers before. We saw this with Ultimate changing Shulk’s Final Smash. Perhaps next time, enough time has passed to let Pneuma have a playable role.

And then there’s just the really versatile position the Xenoblade series is currently in for new faces. Alvis as a Shulk echo, and N as a Noah echo are both scenarios I could also see occurring.

As for the second roster, I didn’t really want to cut all of the older picks. But when the roster gets down below half of all characters, sacrifices have to be made somewhere.

I understand that this is like your opinion/experiment and stuff, but when both rosters have 3 DK characters, I'm really not sure why you removed K. Rool and added Funky? Like Funky is cool and all, but removing one of DK's primary antagonists for another Kong family member feels like if you removed Wolf and replaced him with Slippy.

I know you did remove Wolf on there, but just for example's sake.

I just thought Funky would be a decent consolation pick for the DK series. He seems to be prime clone material, and while a lack of K. Rool can be felt, I didn’t want to completely gut the DK series of all representation.

Plus, he’s an echo for DK. Echoes are naturally going to be lower priority picks for characters who won’t get in otherwise.

Cuts are hard to think about, but K. Rool’s lack of presence in modern DK moved my hand to cut him first over say, Diddy.

Mainly, this roster deals with the changing times we’re living in when it comes to Nintendo. Once prominent faces are now not as big as they once were. New faces have joined the brawl, and that needed to be taken into account.

 

[Louie G.]

As for the second roster, I didn’t really want to cut all of the older picks. But when the roster gets down below half of all characters, sacrifices have to be made somewhere.

Yeah I understand that, I just don’t think this is a reasonable or realistic sacrifice.

Losing old series will especially not feel justified without the addition of new series - and Nintendo doesn’t have many of those right now. Most of the newcomers being from recurring IPs instead of introducing new universes puts a major damper on that. And cutting ARMS in the more conservative roster feels especially egregious if freshness is the goal. Ring Fit doesn’t carry on its own here.

A mainstay like Ness isn’t going to be expendable unless there’s a confident, massive shift in direction and Captain Falcon, Pit and Game & Watch sticking around means you’re not fully committed to it. Feels odd to single out Mother with that in mind - this is the only series in Smash with more than one character that you decided to do away with full stop. There’s no consistent reason for it.

 

[Will]

OK, hypothetical question:

If Sakurai ever decides to pass on the torch for the Smash series… do you think it could be handled well enough by the current Kirby director at HAL Laboratory?

Nah, you gotta hire a biiiiiiiig nerd. Otherwise we’re in the hands of Nintendo’s shareholders calling the shots like FP2.

 

[HyperSomari64]

Nah, you gotta hire a biiiiiiiig nerd. Otherwise we’re in the hands of Nintendo’s shareholders calling the shots like FP2.

Self-spamming from The Social Thread:

Which means...

Spoiler: this will (probably) SSB's new third party lineup (also a personal dream wishlist)

• Pac-Man (PAC-MAN)
• Kazuya Mishima (Tekken)
• Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy)
• Hero (Dragon Quest)
• Snake (Metal Gear)
• Simon Belmont (Castlevania)
• Ryu Hayabusa (Ninja Gaiden)
• Lu-Bu (Warriors)
• Danganronpa rep.
• Dark Souls rep.
• Gamera
• Necky the Fox (Famitsu)
• Dengeki Bunko rep.

I'm not sorry

 

[pitchfulprocessing]

OK, hypothetical question:

If Sakurai ever decides to pass on the torch for the Smash series… do you think it could be handled well enough by the current Kirby director at HAL Laboratory?

I would think the director would need to at the very least have significant experience with developing multiplayer-focused titles, and should ideally have experience with fighting games. Kumazaki was general director on Kirby Fighters 2, which is a fun game, but certainly way smaller in scope than Smash, and ultimately less technical no matter how you look at it. And then there's the obvious of having to deal with licensing and getting approval for every character to represent them well, Sakurai has a strong reputation.

I think that aspect of needing to be both familiar with many series to accurately represent them and get approval while also having experience with developing fighting games is one of the big reasons Sakurai hasn't had a successor. He's alluded to how they tried to get someone else to direct a Smash game, presumably Brawl, but it didn't go well and he had to come back, and now the series has too much of his identity in it, though obviously it's important to also recognise the rest of the dev team who tend to get ignored lol. Because Smash games have such tight development cycles and Sakurai is a contracted hire, he can't just train a protege either, so it's kind of a rock and a hard place.

 

[Gorgonzales]

Kumazaki has been great in his role, but what makes Sakurai, well, Sakurai is his insane knowledge and understanding of all of these characters and franchises that he's given to work with.

Yeah, because Sakurai is known for his deep understanding and glowing portrayals of characters such as Wario, Sonic, Ganondorf, and Olimar.

 

[Guynamednelson]

Yeah, because Sakurai is known for his deep understanding and glowing portrayals of characters such as Wario, Sonic, Ganondorf, and Olimar.

Fun fact: Fox and Captain Falcon are the only characters Sakurai was allowed full control over the portrayal of.

So the people in charge of Zelda are officially fine with Falcondorf, the ones in charge of Pikmin are fine with Silent Olimar, Sega is fine with , and the people in charge of Wario are fine with...the moveset acknowledging he can be gross, wacky, or tough.

 

[DarthEnderX]

1. Master Hand
2. Ganon
3. Mother Brain Rex
4. Porky Minch
5. Liquid piloting Metal Gear Rex
6. Eggman piloting Death Egg Robot
7. Dr. Wily piloting Wily Machine
8. Hades
9. M. Bison
10. Safer Sephiroth

Bison as a Boss instead of a Fighter makes no sense. But otherwise, great list.

 

[pitchfulprocessing]

I'm just reminded of how in Astro's Playroom, every single PlayStation IP featured was represented by an Astro Bot version of the main character or characters (or alternatively actual footage of the game being played), dressed in their clothes and with their distinct traits/weaponry, and how literally the only exception to this was FF7, which was just featured as the Buster Sword itself with no character to go along with it, and it makes me kinda surprised the Smash team managed to get Cloud in a full playable role as far back as 2015 lol.

 

[Wonder Smash]

OK, hypothetical question:

If Sakurai ever decides to pass on the torch for the Smash series… do you think it could be handled well enough by the current Kirby director at HAL Laboratory?

If the Kirby games themselves are anything to go by, then I say there's very good chance it could. I had a lot of fun playing Kirby Fighters 2, so I'd be more confident in him.

 

[Gorgonzales]

Fun fact: Fox and Captain Falcon are the only characters Sakurai was allowed full control over the portrayal of.

So the people in charge of Zelda are officially fine with Falcondorf, the ones in charge of Pikmin are fine with Silent Olimar, Sega is fine with , and the people in charge of Wario are fine with...the moveset acknowledging he can be gross, wacky, or tough.

Just because they're fine with it doesn't mean their interpretations can't be improved. Especially Sonic and Ganondorf who have objectively bad moveset design.

Anyways, Sakurai gets a lot right but the guy isn't perfect. One day he'll have to step down, and I can imagine that whoever ends up succeeding probably wouldn't inherently get as much of the series right as Sakurai does, but maybe at the same time this replacement could help cover those "blind spots" Sakurai has for certain characters/representation? I don't know, but he definitely should have an understudy/apprentice being trained right now to prepare for the future of the series.

 

[Guynamednelson]

Especially Sonic and Ganondorf who have objectively bad moveset design.

Oh I agree, if I liked Sonic's moveset I wouldn't sum it up with multiple blue circle emojis.

 

[Scrimblo Bimblo]

Olimar would be funnier with his voice, but maybe they didn't include it because the pikmin already vocalize and having him make noises on top of them would lead to too much audio clutter.
Banjo and Kazooie for example have most of their iconic voice lines, but they're heavily nerfed compared to the original games. Which is justified, those two are noisy as hell.
They have to take into consideration things like these too...

 

[Noipoi]

Sonic’s moveset is actually a reference to the bonus games in Sonic 3 & Knuckles

Just a buncha blue spheres

 

[Idon]

Fun fact: Fox and Captain Falcon are the only characters Sakurai was allowed full control over the portrayal of.

So the people in charge of Zelda are officially fine with Falcondorf, the ones in charge of Pikmin are fine with Silent Olimar, Sega is fine with , and the people in charge of Wario are fine with...the moveset acknowledging he can be gross, wacky, or tough.

The creators being fine with something is a completely different conversation from them actually being good portrayals.

You can look at literally any other bad adaptation and see how faulty this argument is. Just because Akira Toriyama allowed Dragonball Evolution does not mean that American Goku is a reasonable expectation for the character.

 

[Gorgonzales]

Olimar would be funnier with his voice, but maybe they didn't include it because the pikmin already vocalize and having him make noises on top of them would lead to too much audio clutter.
Banjo and Kazooie for example have most of their iconic voice lines, but they're heavily nerfed compared to the original games. Which is justified, those two are noisy as hell.
They have to take into consideration things like these too...

I don't get this mindset. Olimar's voice is deep enough that it wouldn't be an earsore to include it, especially since it would mainly be used for vocalizations that don't currently exist in his animation set like getting hit/launched. He could also vocalize when doing a move that doesn't use Pikmin, or a Pikmin move when he has zero Pikmin.

I doubt it would be any more grating than the anime characters screaming the names of their attacks every time they use them.

 

[Louie G.]

Obviously Sakurai can’t keep it up forever, but Sakurai’s blind spots will inevitably be replaced by someone else’s blind spots. Juggling this many characters and series is a near impossible task. Not to hand wave some of the current issues with the roster mind you, but I don’t think we’d be in better hands under someone else’s supervision.

If Sakurai steps down / when he physically cannot do this anymore, perhaps the optimal course of action is the directorial role becomes more of a shared task within a committee of people who can make up for one another’s lapses and operate under further supervision from Nintendo.

I don’t think this is inherently a good thing since it rids the series of much of its individual footprint, the whole game is unabashedly Sakurai’s own vision crossover or not. But that’s likely the sacrifice you have to make for stricter mandated authenticity. Personally that will be a sad day for me because I see Smash as Sakurai’s voice, and I think a lot will be missed without that voice. As a fan of Kirby and Kid Icarus my admiration for his direction goes past being able to throw a good party in Smash.

And with respect to Kumizaki, whose work I love, I can’t be confident in him taking over Smash because he just hasn’t displayed the knowledge or capability to direct and balance a fighting game. Not saying he couldn’t, but it’s not as simple as a 1:1 swap with Kirby directors. Sakurai has a deep love and understanding of fighting games and the greater span of gaming history (have you seen this man’s game collection) that makes him a good fit for this role independently. If Kumizaki matches some of that energy then sure, I’d happily welcome him. But it’s hard to make that call off Kirby alone.

 

[pitchfulprocessing]

I think what would make the most sense (from the perspective of someone living across the planet who doesn't know anything about the internal mechanics of Smash's development lol) is Sakurai having an assistant director on the next game which would allow it to essentially be a kind of training session for a protege when it comes to directing Smash, and to help remove some of Sakurai's identity from the series. Because Sakurai is a contracted hire, he only works with Nintendo for the duration of the contract for making Smash, and so only really has that time to find someone new who can fittingly replace him. He's said multiple times in interviews that he still enjoys making Smash and that he doesn't regret it, but that it would be best if it isn't as tied to him going forward.

Push comes to shove I'd imagine he'd take a solo directorial position if Nintendo asked and there wasn't an alternative, but with Ultimate as a starting point, it seems like the ideal time to find someone who can take an assistant role, alleviate the workload and identity problem, and take the reins for future series in a way more conducive to the fact that this series will inevitably keep going so long as it makes money and isn't so reliant on a dude in his 50s in general perception. Though obvs finding someone who can take that role would be a challenge even as an assistant director.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

The creators being fine with something is a completely different conversation from them actually being good portrayals.

You can look at literally any other bad adaptation and see how faulty this argument is. Just because Akira Toriyama allowed Dragonball Evolution does not mean that American Goku is a reasonable expectation for the character.

You mean that Goku isn't an arrogant brat who learns how to psychokinesis to impress a girl?


It actually took quite a while for me to figure out that movie was supposed to be about the Dragon Ball anime. I mean, it didn't help that I didn't know about the anime when I watched it and completely forgot about it afterward, but still. If you can mistake an adaptation for a completely separate franchise it's not a good adaptation.

I doubt it would be any more grating than the anime characters screaming the names of their attacks every time they use them.

"PK Fire!"
"AAAAAAH!"
Spin Dash/Charge noises

Yeah none of these bother me specifically, but I don't think a very deep, very quiet voice could even begin to compete with these examples in terms of annoying sound design. I'd say there's more of a risk of him being inaudible over the Pikmin noises.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

While we're talking sound effects here, can I mention that one of my biggest pet peeves in Smash is that Pac-Man doesn't make his arcade death sound when he gets Star KO'd? Genuinely my biggest irritation with any sound effects stuff in this game, even moreso when he DID make the sound when he gets KO'd in StreetSmash on Smash 3DS, but not in the actual game. And it's not like he's never done the sound before with that look, he makes the noise any time you die in games like Pac-Man World 2.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

I'm gonna be annoying and bring up Mega Man's presentation again. I don't think he needs to (or maybe should) be based off of his design in Mega Man 11, as Super Smash Bros.'s version of the character is fully committed to replicating the look of his sprite work, and Mega Man 11's isn't. However, it should be based on Mega Man 9 & 10 since they're sprite based games that use the character's current proportions. That and humanize his face a bit more. I actually like the exploration of Mega Man as a robot, but his face, and especially his eyes need to be able to emote more to convey...any sort of nuanced or exaggerated expression. He's a cartoon character, but he doesn't really emote like on in this game and instead seems pretty emotionless. He should also be voiced. This isn't a mute character.

This part is more of a pie in the sky idea, but with Mega Man 11 introducing transformations, I'd like to see them go harder with it in Super Smash Bros. You can't really do full costume changes due to pallet swaps, but you should be able to give him cool arm cannons for some of his attacks like they did for his up smash. Thing like creating Air Shooter with a propeller arm cannon or referencing the Cyber Sword Battle Chip for Flame Sword. It would be real neat.

 

[ninjahmos]

I think they should change one of Mega Man's taunts to his MVC taunt.

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

I'm gonna be annoying and bring up Mega Man's presentation again. I don't think he needs to (or maybe should) be based off of his design in Mega Man 11, as Super Smash Bros.'s version of the character is fully committed to replicating the look of his sprite work, and Mega Man 11's isn't. However, it should be based on Mega Man 9 & 10 since they're sprite based games that use the character's current proportions. That and humanize his face a bit more. I actually like the exploration of Mega Man as a robot, but his face, and especially his eyes need to be able to emote more to convey...any sort of nuanced or exaggerated expression. He's a cartoon character, but he doesn't really emote like on in this game and instead seems pretty emotionless. He should also be voiced. This isn't a mute character.

This part is more of a pie in the sky idea, but with Mega Man 11 introducing transformations, I'd like to see them go harder with it in Super Smash Bros. You can't really do full costume changes due to pallet swaps, but you should be able to give him cool arm cannons for some of his attacks like they did for his up smash. Thing like creating Air Shooter with a propeller arm cannon or referencing the Cyber Sword Battle Chip for Flame Sword. It would be real neat.

Honestly, there's a lot of things you could do with Mega Man to make him really cool - but I think you could absolutely take inspiration from Rock's characterisation in Mega Man 7 and Mega Man 8 to give him a bit more life, or better yet, from promotional materials and external media like Marvel vs. Capcom. Him being a robot is absolutely a cool thing to explore, but you can do it in so many cooler ways - whether it be his voice going through some kind of filter, keeping the glowing "screen eyes" from the Sm4sh reveal trailer, that kinda stuff.

Also, that'd be such a cool concept. Even though I can see why it might not be easy to do, it'd still be amazing to see partial transformations given he can sort of already do that - after all, he does partially transmute his hands into cannons and vice versa, and has certain attacks like Spark Shock that do something like that. Obviously going full Generator Rex wouldn't fit, but having more of that stuff in his animations overall would go unbelievably hard - especially for attacks like Flame Sword or Slash Claw.

It'd be awesome to see that kind of love and attention going into him, honestly. I sort of understand the appeal of wanting to recreate the sprites, but I genuinely think Mega Man was done so dirty in terms of characterisation.

 

[Wonder Smash]

I think they should change one of Mega Man's taunts to his MVC taunt.

Uuh...that taunt was annoying!