Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

You know, thinking about Pokemon now, it does kinda feel like we're hitting a state like Smash 4 had where everyone was between a couple of Gen 5 picks, but then Greninja's trailer happened after X and Y had been out for like 6 months?

Like we're picking Gen 9 Pokemon (myself included because Ogerpon my beloved little silly) but Gen 10 is gonna come out in 2026 for the series' 30th anniversary and we'll get a trailer for the new Pokemon like half a year later or something because time is a flat circle lmao

 

[Opossum]

I don't know if this is practical, but I honestly think a Pokémon specific ballot for Smash would be an interesting idea to gauge the broader interest for selections. Yeah, you'd have trolls voting for MissingNo and/or old schoolers rallying to get someone from Gen 1 or 2. However, even with that, seeing what Nintendo/Sakurai could practically do with what the fans went with would be fascinating.

Me summoning 14 million unnamed Sawsbuck voters to get my favorite Pokémon in Smash.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

Last time I've seen Eevee get talked about, a lot of people were kinda like "yeah but how would they do their gimmick", and I think I've got the answer: Evoboost. Based off of the Z-Move Extreme Evoboost, Eevee would be able to channel the powers from some of the Eevolutions, making it a stance character that can inherit the speed of Jolteon, the defensive capabilities of Vaporeon, or the...um...well Flareon never really accomplished anything but I think it was supposed to be a bruiser which works with the idea. You could also not Evoboost for a more all-rounder playstyle. Basically, it'd be Shulk, but the Monado Arts change your special moves.

This is more of a pie in the sky idea, but you could add the other Eeveloutions by having you select with Evoboosts you want when selecting the character (kinda like how Miis work), or if you kept to just the original three, you could add an EXP mechanic that allowed you to truely evolve into one of the three with attributes that go even harder into their respective archetypes, and then you could also include the Eeveelutions separately as Echo Fighters of sorts.

 

[osby]

I don't know if this is practical, but I honestly think a Pokémon specific ballot for Smash would be an interesting idea to gauge the broader interest for selections. Yeah, you'd have trolls voting for MissingNo and/or old schoolers rallying to get someone from Gen 1 or 2. However, even with that, seeing what Nintendo/Sakurai could practically do with what the fans went with would be fascinating.

Finally, we can get our second 2D fighter after so many years:

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

Me summoning 14 million unnamed Sawsbuck voters to get my favorite Pokémon in Smash.

If we got Sawsbuck out of it I would not be upset.

My vote would have to go to Growlithe though. Not that it would do anything, but it's my favorite, so why not?

 

[Noipoi]

I will lead a campaign for Noivern.

All 12 of us will make a difference.

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

I don't know if this is practical, but I honestly think a Pokémon specific ballot for Smash would be an interesting idea to gauge the broader interest for selections. Yeah, you'd have trolls voting for MissingNo and/or old schoolers rallying to get someone from Gen 1 or 2. However, even with that, seeing what Nintendo/Sakurai could practically do with what the fans went with would be fascinating.

If that ever happened, the winner would be deadass

I'm not kidding.

 

[Slime Scholar]

Pokemon aren’t created equally. Some of them are just destined for greater things.

They had already decided Ash would get a Froakie before X and Y had released, and Greninja was surely already in development for Smash 4 by then. It’s not just Smash giving starter Pokemon preferential treatment. They’re designed to be more popular, more important, more merchandisable.

 

[Laniv]

I don't know if this is practical, but I honestly think a Pokémon specific ballot for Smash would be an interesting idea to gauge the broader interest for selections. Yeah, you'd have trolls voting for MissingNo and/or old schoolers rallying to get someone from Gen 1 or 2. However, even with that, seeing what Nintendo/Sakurai could practically do with what the fans went with would be fascinating.

Me and the other eight Scrafty supporters getting up to support Scrafty for Smash 6 (we are going to get swept by Moonblast):

 

[SharkLord]

Wouldn't be too sure.
It's likely Smash 6 releases around 2027 if the Switch 2 is 2025 (Wii was 2006 and Brawl 2008, WiiU was 2012 and 4 was 2014), thus making a FE game released in 2026 too early to get a character base game, Engage rep has not missed the boat in any way at all.

Engage was a 2023 release, so the next FE would likely be 2025, not 2026. And for what it's worth, the Switch 2 was apparently delayed to shore up launch titles, so it's entirely possible Smash 6 just started development and would end up a late 2026 release. And either way, we know fighters like Greninja and Byleth were selected in advance to roughly coincide with their games' releases, so the next FE fighter could easily follow the same path

 

[Swamp Sensei]

I would really love another Legendary or non fully evolved Pokemon included. We haven't gotten a new one of those since Melee/Brawl respectively.

 

[pitchfulprocessing]

I don't know if this is practical, but I honestly think a Pokémon specific ballot for Smash would be an interesting idea to gauge the broader interest for selections. Yeah, you'd have trolls voting for MissingNo and/or old schoolers rallying to get someone from Gen 1 or 2. However, even with that, seeing what Nintendo/Sakurai could practically do with what the fans went with would be fascinating.

I don't know why everybody is pretending like their picks have a shot. If this poll was open to the Japanese fanbase, we already know who would win.

 

[Noipoi]

I would really love another Legendary or non fully evolved Pokemon included. We haven't gotten a new one of those since Melee/Brawl respectively.

Koraidon and/or Miraidon would be rad

 

[HyperSomari64]

I don't know why everybody is pretending like their picks have a shot. If this poll was open to the Japanese fanbase, we already know who would win.

Wario x3 should be proud of this (They doesn't like that Pikachu is the brand mascot)

 

[fogbadge]

I don't know why everybody is pretending like their picks have a shot. If this poll was open to the Japanese fanbase, we already know who would win.

id take it

 

[pitchfulprocessing]

If it were up to me I would just add who I like and who I think would be fun. If it all worked for a moveset, I would pick Rayquaza or Zygarde because they're cool. I think Meloetta could have a fun stance-music gimmick and I like their design. Magearna is one of my favourites and would be very cool as well, make their song Ballet Mecanique. My favourite Pokemon overall is Smeargle who could be neat.

Also, I think Missingno would be cool. Obviously there's a million reasons that would never happen, but like, why not. Glitches are an important part of game history as well and Missingno is pretty much perfectly built to have a cool aesthetic and moveset.

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

I don't know why everybody is pretending like their picks have a shot. If this poll was open to the Japanese fanbase, we already know who would win.

If that ever happened, the winner would be deadass

I'm not kidding.

I've been Magnetpilled for some time now.

 

[DarthEnderX]

I don't know if this is practical, but I honestly think a Pokémon specific ballot for Smash would be an interesting idea to gauge the broader interest for selections. Yeah, you'd have trolls voting for MissingNo and/or old schoolers rallying to get someone from Gen 1 or 2.

I'd be more concerned with Pokemon fanboys rallying around a new Trainer character and trying to suck up 3 character slots.

I will lead a campaign for Noivern.

I love Noivern, but when it comes to flappy-armed Dragons, he can't compete with Garchomp.

 

[Kirbeh]

I'd like more non-starter Pokemon but I can't say I agree with the starter fatigue/hate. The fact that they're starters doesn't negate the merits they have as individual Pokemon.

With Gen 9 in particular, I'd be perfectly fine with Meowscarada tbh. There's plenty of moveset potential there using they're typing and magician motif.

I'm admittedly, also not particularly interested in Tinkaton and Gholdengo who get thrown around a lot as the alternatives. I'd personally go for Ogrepon, Armarouge or Ceruledge. If less common/conventional body types/shapes are on the table I'd add Cetitan and Houndstone to that list.

And that's still before going into the Paradox Pokemon.

 

[Scrimblo Bimblo]

Missingno is the coolest Pokémon I've ever had.
Too bad when he reached LV. 74 he evolved into Pidgey LV. 2.

 

[Ivander]

I would be fine with Meowscarada, Tinkaton and Gholdengo. Ogerpon and Ceruledge would be cool to see. Would've liked to have seen Zacien if Gen 8 got a Pokemon. Personal Pokemon pick would either be Scizor, Chandelure or Galvantula.

 

[Pupp135]

Oh yeah, wanted to mentioned I went back and revised this
View attachment 390031
Mainly I just wanted to go back and revise the ordering, since the previous one ended up a bit funky. While I was at it, I realized that Greninja was super popular and probably not someone I should risk cutting, and that the Sprigatito line was the new face of the Pokemon anime, so I reasoned they'd probably be the designated ScVi rep. It's sad to see Dracovish and Tinkaton go, but I feel this makes Pokemon's representation stronger overall.

Pokemon has been the biggest headache in making this roster, because A: All the Pokemon added have been pretty popular representatives of their generation (Short of Jigglypuff and Pichu, and even Jiggly has some defenders for being part of the OG 12), and B: The self-imposed five fighters limit (Minus Echoes) meant someone had to go regardless, so something had to give. It doesn't help that I've been kinda out of Pokemon lately, so I've been trying to remember exactly which Pokemon are the super duper marketable popular ones again

I’ll make my own attempt at a 50 fighter pure reboot, so I’ll try to minimize SSB history as my rationale when choosing fighters:

Spoiler: Roster

Mario, Luigi, Peach (Daisy echo), Yoshi, Bowser, Wario, Ashley, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Olimar
Link, Zelda, Ganondorf, Impa, Marth (Lucina echo), Byleth, Alear, Shulk, Aegis, Samus
Villager, Isabelle, Tom Nook, Kirby, Bandana Waddle Dee, King Dedede, Meta Knight, Ness, Captain Falcon, Fox
Pikachu, Charizard, Mewtwo, Lucario, Tinkaton, Min Min, Ring Fit Trainee, Little Mac, Pit, Isaac
Inkling (Octoling echo), DJ Octavio, Ice Climbers, Pac-Man, Sonic, Cloud, Sora, Steve, Mii
Reasons
I’m treating this as a pure reboot, so I think it’s harder to justify Yoshi with his own franchise.
I think Wario Ware is popular enough to bring in Ashley.
While the triforce would honestly work well enough here, I added Impa as the five fighter limit severely restricts Mario, and I can’t really use Sheik or a child Link here, and Impa would be based on Age of Calmity.
Villager and Isabelle are in Mario Kart 8 DX, and Tom Nook is also prominent.
DJ Octavio provides an antagonist.
Pikachu, Charizard, and a promotional pokemon feel kind of mandated. The only other thing that I’d want is a Pokemon Trainer, but I’ll assume a fully fledged trainer is not allowed, so Red will cheer Pikachu in the background. If extra fighters were allowed, they’d probably be Mewtwo and Lucario, with Mewtwo probably being the larger priority.
The worst case scenario for Kirby is that we lose Meta Knight, and Bandana Waddle Dee is added given that the latter seems to be the player two character.
Fire Emblem is complicated in a pure reboot scenario, but I’ll have Byleth and Alear here, and Byleth would be a sword/magic hybrid fighter. For the last fighters, I was conflicted between Marth and Chrom, and Marth barely wins out here.
In terms of Xenoblade, Shulk and Aegis are perfect as they are with both the Monado and transformation gimmicks. I guess you could argue for Noah or Mio, but Cross/Elma is missing too, so I’m fine leaving Noah/Mio out.
Ridley is absent as he’s not in Dread, and SSB is being kept to a minimum here.
I don’t think there’s much to say about Pikmin.
ARMS and Ring Fit Adventure are the Switch’s biggest original games.
At this point, I’m probably must going to either further supplement some franchises or bring in some obscure ones. In terms of the obscure ones, Punch Out!!, Kid Icarus, F-Zero, Star Fox, and Mother were the most prominent ones. I think that Ice Climbers and Isaac are cool ideas from a fighting game stand point, so they join as additional deep cuts.
For third parties, this is really just a cross of what I‘d want and what Nintendo would want. While the 7 remasters were Playstation exclusive, they do have older Final Fantasy games on the Switch.

In terms of new pokemon, I’m fine if they keep with starter pokemon regardless of the typing, and it’d also be cool if they picked a non-starter like Tinkaton or a prior gen pokemon like Gengar, Eevee, Scizor, or Garchomp, and if I’m playing favorites, then Mew and Misdreavus.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

If we're talking personal picks, then my favorite Pokemon is Breloom, so make of that what you will.

But yeah, I'm feeling Meowscarada, Ogerpon, or a Gen 10 Pokemon we don't know yet.

 

[Gengar84]

It’s not entirely the fact that they’re starters that I’m not excited about but more that modern starter designs just don’t appeal to me much in general. I feel like starters are often some of the worst offenders of Pokemon that are too literal in their inspiration and most end up feeling more like mascots than creatures in my opinion. If there was a starter that just happened to be one of my favorites from the gen, I’d be more than happy to have them in Smash. Meowscarada’s close and it might just barely make my top 10 Gen 9 favorites but there are others I like more. I’ll still take it or another in its family since I do like it.

My top favorites for this Gen are: Lokix, Ceruledge, Great Tusk, Koraidon, Miraidon, Iron Thorns, Ogrepon, Meowscarada and Annihalape.

Some of my other top overall favorites are: Gengar, Electabuzz, Kabutops, Sneasel, Houndoom, Gligar, Zangoose, Seviper, Deoxys A, Gliscor, Toxicroak, Garchomp, Cofagrigus, Zoroark/H Zoroark, Kyurem, Clawitzer, Noivern, Malamar, Golisopod, MN Lycanroc, Orbeetle, Toxtricity, Corviknight, and Sneasler.

Any of those would be awesome (plus a bunch more I like but didn’t list).

 

[SharkLord]

I’ll make my own attempt at a 50 fighter pure reboot, so I’ll try to minimize SSB history as my rationale when choosing fighters:

Spoiler: Roster

Mario, Luigi, Peach (Daisy echo), Yoshi, Bowser, Wario, Ashley, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Olimar
Link, Zelda, Ganondorf, Impa, Marth (Lucina echo), Byleth, Alear, Shulk, Aegis, Samus
Villager, Isabelle, Tom Nook, Kirby, Bandana Waddle Dee, King Dedede, Meta Knight, Ness, Captain Falcon, Fox
Pikachu, Charizard, Mewtwo, Lucario, Tinkaton, Min Min, Ring Fit Trainee, Little Mac, Pit, Isaac
Inkling (Octoling echo), DJ Octavio, Ice Climbers, Pac-Man, Sonic, Cloud, Sora, Steve, Mii
Reasons
I’m treating this as a pure reboot, so I think it’s harder to justify Yoshi with his own franchise.
I think Wario Ware is popular enough to bring in Ashley.
While the triforce would honestly work well enough here, I added Impa as the five fighter limit severely restricts Mario, and I can’t really use Sheik or a child Link here, and Impa would be based on Age of Calmity.
Villager and Isabelle are in Mario Kart 8 DX, and Tom Nook is also prominent.
DJ Octavio provides an antagonist.
Pikachu, Charizard, and a promotional pokemon feel kind of mandated. The only other thing that I’d want is a Pokemon Trainer, but I’ll assume a fully fledged trainer is not allowed, so Red will cheer Pikachu in the background. If extra fighters were allowed, they’d probably be Mewtwo and Lucario, with Mewtwo probably being the larger priority.
The worst case scenario for Kirby is that we lose Meta Knight, and Bandana Waddle Dee is added given that the latter seems to be the player two character.
Fire Emblem is complicated in a pure reboot scenario, but I’ll have Byleth and Alear here, and Byleth would be a sword/magic hybrid fighter. For the last fighters, I was conflicted between Marth and Chrom, and Marth barely wins out here.
In terms of Xenoblade, Shulk and Aegis are perfect as they are with both the Monado and transformation gimmicks. I guess you could argue for Noah or Mio, but Cross/Elma is missing too, so I’m fine leaving Noah/Mio out.
Ridley is absent as he’s not in Dread, and SSB is being kept to a minimum here.
I don’t think there’s much to say about Pikmin.
ARMS and Ring Fit Adventure are the Switch’s biggest original games.
At this point, I’m probably must going to either further supplement some franchises or bring in some obscure ones. In terms of the obscure ones, Punch Out!!, Kid Icarus, F-Zero, Star Fox, and Mother were the most prominent ones. I think that Ice Climbers and Isaac are cool ideas from a fighting game stand point, so they join as additional deep cuts.
For third parties, this is really just a cross of what I‘d want and what Nintendo would want. While the 7 remasters were Playstation exclusive, they do have older Final Fantasy games on the Switch.

In terms of new pokemon, I’m fine if they keep with starter pokemon regardless of the typing, and it’d also be cool if they picked a non-starter like Tinkaton or a prior gen pokemon like Gengar, Eevee, Scizor, or Garchomp, and if I’m playing favorites, then Mew and Misdreavus.

Hmm... FE with just three guys seems kinda iffy, especially when Kirby gets to squeeze in four fighters (And I say this as a Kirby fan). Ike especially is super popular and would be a pretty heavy loss. And I don't want to be the swordfighter snob, but it feels like there is a bit of overlap - Byleth would be distinct enough Alear has a similar build and sword as Marth. I suppose you could rationalize it as Alear representing other characters through Emblems, but I don't really like shoving someone into another character's moveset to cover more "representation" with less slots. I'd suggest at least one non-swordfighter to balance things out a bit, either swapped with Byleth or Alear or just alongside them

For what it's worth, XC3 is a more recent release than XCX and is counted as a "main" installment, on top of selling over a million copies. I wouldn't discount them just because Elma isn't there either.

No Ridley is a bummer, but your reasoning is understandable. I'd at least advocate for Raven Beak, since he's a popular villain who also uses Chozo Armor, meaning he could at least use Samus as a basis for his kit (Though he'd most likely be a semi/pseudoclone at worst, with similar tools but a much different execution), but I get it, 50 characters is a tight squeeze.

No Capcom seems harsh - I know that being able to negotiate for a third-party doesn't mean they have the time to develop them, but Mega Man is a classic and Monster Hunter Rise sold super well on the Switch, so I'd be genuinely shocked if Capcom didn't at least get someone.

That said I won't give you too much crap because I tried it myself, and I can confirm that limiting yourself to 50 characters is rough, especially when you have to pick and choose from all the veterans in Ultimate. I cracked and added an extra ten slots just to give myself more freedom, so I respect you for sticking with the hard 50-character limit. I'll also commend you for Ashley and DJ Octavio; Not super commonly predicted or requested, but they have a solid enough support base and could lend themselves to some pretty fun movesets. Also shoutouts to adding Isaac in the Switch era as a throwback

 

[fogbadge]

Hmm... FE with just three guys seems kinda iffy, especially when Kirby gets to squeeze in four fighters (And I say this as a Kirby fan).

in fairness kirby has done better the FE over all

 

[Deleted member]

Engage was a 2023 release, so the next FE would likely be 2025, not 2026. And for what it's worth, the Switch 2 was apparently delayed to shore up launch titles, so it's entirely possible Smash 6 just started development and would end up a late 2026 release. And either way, we know fighters like Greninja and Byleth were selected in advance to roughly coincide with their games' releases, so the next FE fighter could easily follow the same path

Why would the next FE be 2025 and not 2026? I think a 3 year gap is more likely.
If Smash 6 is a new game and they plan to release it in late 2026, i think it's been in dev since 2023 at least, they need as much time as possible to bring back as much veterans as possible in the base game, they'll definitely have Smash 6 cooking for an extra year, not the usual 2 year dev period.

 

[SharkLord]

Why would the next FE be 2025 and not 2026? I think a 3 year gap is more likely.
If Smash 6 is a new game and they plan to release it in late 2026, i think it's been in dev since 2023 at least, they need as much time as possible to bring back as much veterans as possible in the base game, they'll definitely have Smash 6 cooking for an extra year, not the usual 2 year dev period.

...Because FE has a consistent pattern of two-year releases, which I mentioned in my original post? I don't want to be rude but I'm pretty sure we established that already.

Ever since the Shadow Dragon, FE's had a pretty consistent two-year release cycle. As Opossum mentioned, the only exception was Awakening-to-Fates due to juggling three separate games instead of the usual one, and Three Houses-to-Engage, which we know would've been a 2021 release had it not been for COVID

I can't say if they're going to bring back as many veterans as possible because we haven't seen what Smash 6 will look like yet, but even Ultimate only took two years to develop, albeit springing directly off of Smash 4. For what it's worth Brawl took some extra months to polish everything up, but it wasn't an entire year's extension. I won't say that's impossible, but previous Smash games have consistently been around 2-ish years and that's what I'm using as a reference point

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

I think that would be super cool...though I just realized that Eevee would probably win by virtue of being the only one with mascot status that isn't actually in the game (and is omega popular in its own right too).

Even so it would give us Eevee, and that would be super cool.

Realtalk? Gengar would easily beat out Eevee on any poll.

It typically does.

 

[fogbadge]

Realtalk? Gengar would easily beat out Eevee on any poll.

It typically does.

that is true. i memory serves he won both a poll to get a mega evolution and to be added to tekken. although in those cases certain other pokemon were out of the running

 

[Noipoi]

that is true. i memory serves he won both a poll to get a mega evolution and to be added to tekken. although in those cases certain other pokemon were out of the running

Did Gengar really win a poll to get a mega evolution? I don’t recall that.

Because Mega Gengar was introduced in X/Y, which was also the introduction of the mega evolution mechanic itself. So it had to have been planned for the game before any of us even knew what it was.

 

[Schnee117]

Why would the next FE be 2025 and not 2026? I think a 3 year gap is more likely.

Engage was a January release (and it was basically sat on for a few years) so even an extended dev period could still feasibly land in 2025. We're pretty much due a new FE game announcement any time now because of that.

 

[Wonder Smash]

Ah yes! Back to Pokemon again. lol

Back when I was watching the anime series, I always thought it would have been cool to see Yoshi make some kind of cameo in the series. I can imagine Ash finding Yoshi and mistaking it for a Pokemon at first.

 

[Noipoi]

Weren’t there some heavy rumors about a FE remake coming up?

I bet that’ll be a first year Switch 2 game.

 

[fogbadge]

Did Gengar really win a poll to get a mega evolution? I don’t recall that.

Because Mega Gengar was introduced in X/Y, which was also the introduction of the mega evolution mechanic itself. So it had to have been planned for the game before any of us even knew what it was.

like I said: if memory serves. I can very easily be misremembering

 

[pitchfulprocessing]

Nintendo tends to sit on fully completed titles for a while in general so they can release them at the right time and maintain a steady flow of releases, which is sort of how they maintain the illusion of not taking too long to develop games.

When they don't announce a title only when it's close to release and instead just when the project first begins, you get Metroid Prime 4 lol.

 

[Noipoi]

like I said: if memory serves. I can very easily be misremembering

Alright, just making sure I have all my info straight.

I'm the resident Pokemon master, I gotta stay on top of this stuff

 

[Deleted member]

even Ultimate only took two years to develop, albeit springing directly off of Smash 4.

Which is weird because Smash 4 base had more new stuff and brand new character models than Ult base and it also took 2 years lol.

 

[BritishGuy54]

Which is weird because Smash 4 base had more new stuff and brand new character models than Ult base and it also took 2 years lol.

They had to bring every previously cut veteran and stage back for Ultimate. Everyone is Here, and how soon Ultimate came after Smash 4 had a cost on new content.

 

[Scrimblo Bimblo]

I can't see the appeal of Eevee as a Smash fighter past being a cute fox/doggo.
I think it would be cool if its moves transform it into a different evolution, like down B is Flareon shooting a pillar of fire and grab/throws are Umbreon because dark types are mean, etc. etc., making Eevee essentially a shapeshifter.

But de-evolution is not a thing in Pokémon games, so this concept wouldn't work.
However on the other hand, Eevee without its evolutions is very plain, by design.
I'm sure there's some ways to ignore them, but at the end of the day the different evolutions are the trait that really makes the character unique, and it's the one thing that can't be represented through a Smash moveset unless you rewrite the original series' rules.
So I don't know, I think that Eevee is in a very weird place when it comes to Smash.