Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[HyperSomari64]

Smash 64 is the ape ancestor, and Ultimate is the Homosapiens. A simple analogy
(Sorry if that sounds stupid)

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

MK is a big fighting game in the west, Japan is kinda familiar with some MK characters that appear in injustice and the movie of Mortal kombat. Like you said the ban could be factor against them to put an MK character in smash but I hope it's not the case.

I'm just not sure how the legal implications work, because I feel like they could maybe get away with a Mii Costume if they did the whole "Super Smash Bros. X Scorpion" thing or whoever they'd use for it, but to add a playable character with a trailer, multiple collectibles, music, and the series they're from being referenced all over the place, if it's still banned in Japan I don't know if they'd be allowed to, since the series they're from is banned, and it might be more trouble than it's worth to jump all the legal hurdles.

And this is besides my personal feelings that an MK character in Smash's environment would be devoid of most things that make Mortal Kombat different, since you can't do things like fatalities or x-ray attacks or anything like that. They could probably come up with SOMETHING, I just dunno how much it would really feel like Mortal Kombat I guess, personally.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Imagine if we just start getting lower tier Japanese franchises ala King of fighters instead lmao.

Like Digimon, Klonoa, Super robot wars, Tales Of, Ace Attorney. It would be funny to watch people complain about weeb garbage infesting Nintendo.

I don't think we can count Tales of as lower tier. It's one of Namco's flagship titles.

 

[Wonder Smash]

I think the next Smash will have a few more western characters. At this point most of the really big japanese stuff is already in Smash, like the only ones that I think really feel missing are Capcom's biggest hits and Dark Souls/Elden Ring/From Software's works in general.
On the other front you have Doom, Halo, Mortal Kombat, Assassin's Creed, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, GTA, Red Dead Redemption, Crash, Bioshock... Those are all really big franchises that would bring a ton of attention to their inclusion in Smash. Then there's slightly less popular stuff that still resonates with Nintendo fans and would be well received, like Rayman or the rest of Rare's catalogue. And that's not even counting the indie sphere. Undertale, Hollow Knight, Shantae... Those games are popular.

It just feels like a natural evolution.

While they can add characters from Western series like some of the ones you mentioned (I'd rather leave out GTA, though), there are still plenty of characters from major Japanese series that can still be added too.

There are still series from Koei Tecmo like Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive, and Dynasty Warriors.

Then there's also series from Arc System Works, like Guilty Gear, River City, and Double Dragon. In fact, the beat'em up genre hasn't been represented in Smash yet and I think that's where River City and Double Dragon comes in.

Of course, there's also Nihon Falcom, a company that has nothing in Smash, yet has two highly significant franchises in the RPG genre, namely Ys and Dragon Slayer (or Trails).

Then there's also series like Shin Megami Tensei, Phantasy Star, Like A Dragon, Soul Calibur, and SNK games

They can still add more western characters, maybe even more than last time but as far as major Japanese characters, they're nowhere near close running out of them.

 

[Scrimblo Bimblo]

Imagine if we just start getting lower tier Japanese franchises ala King of fighters instead lmao.

Like Digimon, Klonoa, Super robot wars, Tales Of, Ace Attorney. It would be funny to watch people complain about weeb garbage infesting Nintendo.

They'll probably do a bit of both.

 

[pitchfulprocessing]

I would say Elden Ring, Monster Hunter, and Resident Evil in that order, Elden Ring as the largest, are the three biggest Japanese IPs not yet playable (and are viable), and from there there's plenty of smaller but still prominent IP like Yakuza, Tales Of, Nier, etc, so more than enough to fill out a roster and DLC even ignoring double dipping. Though if Smash continues with third-parties at its current rate then I definitely imagine there will be a few more Western third parties as well, especially looking at the mii costumes.

 

[Godzillathewonderdog]

I hope Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster becomes a big success, and the series becomes one of Capcom’s most prominent and profitable again, then maybe Frank West will have a chance of being playable in Smash.

Dead Rising might just be my favorite game ever. I want this so bad.

 

[ninjahmos]

Speaking of Namco, I still kinda wanna see either The Prince or The King from Katamari get into Smash. Just imagine hearing music from Katamari Damacy and We Love Katamari in Smash…

But also…Nightmare.

 

[Garteam]

I think the next Smash will have a few more western characters. At this point most of the really big japanese stuff is already in Smash, like the only ones that I think really feel missing are Capcom's biggest hits and Dark Souls/Elden Ring/From Software's works in general.
On the other front you have Doom, Halo, Mortal Kombat, Assassin's Creed, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, GTA, Red Dead Redemption, Crash, Bioshock... Those are all really big franchises that would bring a ton of attention to their inclusion in Smash. Then there's slightly less popular stuff that still resonates with Nintendo fans and would be well received, like Rayman or the rest of Rare's catalogue. And that's not even counting the indie sphere. Undertale, Hollow Knight, Shantae... Those games are popular.

It just feels like a natural evolution.

There are still a lot of major Namco, Sega, Square and Capcom IPs. They could go on mostly Japanese stuff for a while without dipping into the obscure stuff.

Why not both?

Japanese companies are a lot easier to work with due to the absence of a language barrier. However, it is true that Smash already represents a lot of the big fish in this arena. Resident Evil and Monster Hunter are the only Japanese franchises with 100+ million sales not in Smash, while Yazuka and Dark Souls have enough modern releases and notability to be considered “big gets” in the west. That being said, there are franchises that are a bit more obscure in the west but have a strong Japanese presence and/or legacy (Bomberman, Puyo Puyo, SamSho, etc.) and a lot of the bigger Japanese franchises in Smash have the potential to get another fighter (Sonic, Street Fighter, Mega Man, etc.).

Alternatively, Western third parties are basically unexplored in Smash outside of Banjo and Steve. At the very least, Crash and Doom Slayer seem to be perfectly positioned as future DLC for the next Smash due to their high fan-demand, historical importance, and modern relevance (well, maybe not for Crash anymore). However, the language barrier makes getting these characters in Smash a much more difficult task and some of the bigger Western third parties could be contentious (e.g. Jonesy or CJ).

My guess is we’ll get more third parties next Smash (counting both the base game and DLC), with 2 to 4 supporting characters from series already in the game, 2 to 4 smaller Japanese series, 1 to 2 major Japanese series, and 2 to 3 western series.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

This may not necessarily play the biggest factor in Smash, but it is also worth noting Japanese third parties are more willing to put ports of their stuff on Switch (and likely the Switch 2) than many of their Western counterparts which might play a factor in overall promotion. Yes, you have exceptions like iD software doing the recent Doom titles and Capcom not really going big with their AAA releases on the Switch. However, even the latter company knows series like Monster Hunter will get a lot of its sales back home on Nintendo consoles and mid-level titles die a death in the Japanese market unless there's a Switch version.

If the aim of some third party fighter is promotion of games and maintaining relationships with third parties, there's a strong incentive to do so with companies with titles that best benefit both sides, which very often is your Capcom's, Konami's, Square Enix's, Namco's, and so forth.

 

[CardiganBoy]

The recent announcement of Samurai Jack in Multiversus makes me realize that Smash missed the chance to have Takamaru as the Samurai-type fighter and also the proper retro rep that Ultimate is missing.

 

[dream1ng]

This may not necessarily play the biggest factor in Smash, but it is also worth noting Japanese third parties are more willing to put ports of their stuff on Switch (and likely the Switch 2) than many of their Western counterparts which might play a factor in overall promotion. Yes, you have exceptions like iD software doing the recent Doom titles and Capcom not really going big with their AAA releases on the Switch. However, even the latter company knows series like Monster Hunter will get a lot of its sales back home on Nintendo consoles and mid-level titles die a death in the Japanese market unless there's a Switch version.

If the aim of some third party fighter is promotion of games and maintaining relationships with third parties, there's a strong investment to do so with companies with titles that best benefit both sides, which very often is your Capcom's, Konami's, Square Enix's, Namco's, and so forth.

I'm not sure how true this is. ABK put Crash, Diablo and Overwatch, Ubisoft put Rayman and Assassin's Creed, Bethesda put a whole bunch of stuff, Epic has put Fortnite, 2K has put Borderlands and BioShock, WB put Mortal Kombat and the Arkham games, Cd Projekt Red put Witcher, and MS has put a decent amount of stuff for still being a rival. Even Valve put Portal and Rockstar put Red Dead and the GTA collection, ****ty as it is. Hell, even EA put Apex.

That's pretty good. Meanwhile Sega won't put Yakuza/LaD, Namco has shockingly poor support re: Tekken, SC, the actual new Tales games, anything past Dark Souls 1, and Capcom and Square, while overall strong supporters (now, at least), are still fairly hit or miss with the AAA stuff.

Though I do think Capcom is waiting and will remedy this on Switch 2 with stuff like DMC5 and SF6.

 

[Garteam]

I also ended up randomly finding a Darkstalkers pop-up shop in America-Mura in Osaka. It made me just want Morrigan in Smash that much more, but it also had a small section of goods devoted to Street Fighter Alpha and Capcom’s more obscure arcade output like Saturday Night Slam Masters. That’s kind of how I picture a Morrigan fighter pack to go, primarily being about Darkstalkers but also musically including Capcom’s entire arcade output.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

I also ended up randomly finding a Darkstalkers pop-up shop randomly in America-Mura in Osaka. It made me just want Morrigan in Smash that much more, but it also had a small section of goods devoted to Street Fighter Alpha and Capcom’s more obscure arcade output like Saturday Night Slam Masters. That’s kind of how I picture a Morrigan fighter pack to go, primarily being about Darkstalkers but also musically including Capcom’s entire arcade output.

That might a really solid opportunity to at least get some Final Fight elements like music in Smash. I'd be really cool to get some things from 2 & 3 given how much they've been forgotten due to being SNES originals rather than arcade ports.

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

I also ended up randomly finding a Darkstalkers pop-up shop randomly in America-Mura in Osaka. It made me just want Morrigan in Smash that much more, but it also had a small section of goods devoted to Street Fighter Alpha and Capcom’s more obscure arcade output like Saturday Night Slam Masters. That’s kind of how I picture a Morrigan fighter pack to go, primarily being about Darkstalkers but also musically including Capcom’s entire arcade output.

I honestly feel like this would be a great way to handle it, but I can't help but chuckle to myself because I know for a fact she'd be like borderline Bayonetta tier (given the Darkstalkers series is so well known for its target combos, I can't imagine they'd not include those as a built-in element of her kit, and that's not even getting into character-specific elements like her dash.) Morrigan would undeniably be pretty cool though

But yeah, it'd be really cool to see more varied representation like this for a variety of things, Capcom's arcade output included. (Honestly, this applies for numerous companies - it's still kind of wild to me that SEGA's wider representation is so limited given how many bangers they have in their catalogue for things like music, even if you don't delve into characters or stages.)

 

[DKing]

The recent announcement of Samurai Jack in Multiversus makes me realize that Smash missed the chance to have Takamaru as the Samurai-type fighter and also the proper retro rep that Ultimate is missing.

You are so right. It would be cool to have the fourth famicom characters of 1986: Link,Samus,Pit an Takamaru fighting together.

Square

I feel square put a decent amount of stuff.

 

[RileyXY1]

Why not both?

Japanese companies are a lot easier to work with due to the absence of a language barrier. However, it is true that Smash already represents a lot of the big fish in this arena. Resident Evil and Monster Hunter are the only Japanese franchises with 100+ million sales not in Smash, while Yazuka and Dark Souls have enough modern releases and notability to be considered “big gets” in the west. That being said, there are franchises that are a bit more obscure in the west but have a strong Japanese presence and/or legacy (Bomberman, Puyo Puyo, SamSho, etc.) and a lot of the bigger Japanese franchises in Smash have the potential to get another fighter (Sonic, Street Fighter, Mega Man, etc.).

Alternatively, Western third parties are basically unexplored in Smash outside of Banjo and Steve. At the very least, Crash and Doom Slayer seem to be perfectly positioned as future DLC for the next Smash due to their high fan-demand, historical importance, and modern relevance (well, maybe not for Crash anymore). However, the language barrier makes getting these characters in Smash a much more difficult task and some of the bigger Western third parties could be contentious (e.g. Jonesy or CJ).

My guess is we’ll get more third parties next Smash (counting both the base game and DLC), with 2 to 4 supporting characters from series already in the game, 2 to 4 smaller Japanese series, 1 to 2 major Japanese series, and 2 to 3 western series.

I highly doubt Doom will get a character.

 

[SPEN18]

So the Nintendo World Championships NES Edition recently released; let's take a look at the list of featured games:

Balloon Fight
Donkey Kong
Excitebike
Ice Climber
Kid Icarus
Kirby's Adventure
Metroid
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
The Legend of Zelda
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Most of these are pretty well-represented in Smash and on the roster in particular. The one that kind of sticks out, though, is Excitebike (and Balloon Fight, but at least that has a stage and is referenced quite overtly by Villager). Clearly it wouldn't be appropriate to twist this into some outlandish theory about Excitebike being added to Smash, but it's one more example of this game getting highlighted alongside the best of its gen's best.

Aside from that, what else sticks out to you in this lineup of NES classics? (despite being required to lean towards games apt for challenge/speedrun type stuff)

 

[Wonder Smash]

Why not both?

Japanese companies are a lot easier to work with due to the absence of a language barrier. However, it is true that Smash already represents a lot of the big fish in this arena. Resident Evil and Monster Hunter are the only Japanese franchises with 100+ million sales not in Smash, while Yazuka and Dark Souls have enough modern releases and notability to be considered “big gets” in the west. That being said, there are franchises that are a bit more obscure in the west but have a strong Japanese presence and/or legacy (Bomberman, Puyo Puyo, SamSho, etc.) and a lot of the bigger Japanese franchises in Smash have the potential to get another fighter (Sonic, Street Fighter, Mega Man, etc.).

Alternatively, Western third parties are basically unexplored in Smash outside of Banjo and Steve. At the very least, Crash and Doom Slayer seem to be perfectly positioned as future DLC for the next Smash due to their high fan-demand, historical importance, and modern relevance (well, maybe not for Crash anymore). However, the language barrier makes getting these characters in Smash a much more difficult task and some of the bigger Western third parties could be contentious (e.g. Jonesy or CJ).

My guess is we’ll get more third parties next Smash (counting both the base game and DLC), with 2 to 4 supporting characters from series already in the game, 2 to 4 smaller Japanese series, 1 to 2 major Japanese series, and 2 to 3 western series.

Yeah, I too can picture Crash and Doom Slayer getting in the next game.

 

[DKing]

Aside from that, what else sticks out to you in this lineup of NES classics? (despite being required to lean towards games apt for challenge/speedrun type stuff)

The classic Balloon Fight.

 

[Hadokeyblade]

I also ended up randomly finding a Darkstalkers pop-up shop randomly in America-Mura in Osaka. It made me just want Morrigan in Smash that much more, but it also had a small section of goods devoted to Street Fighter Alpha and Capcom’s more obscure arcade output like Saturday Night Slam Masters. That’s kind of how I picture a Morrigan fighter pack to go, primarily being about Darkstalkers but also musically including Capcom’s entire arcade output.

That sounds like a cool ida.

You could also hypothetically do that with Chun Li as well if were being honest.

It's established that most of Capcom's old game output exists in a shared Marvel comics style universe with the most obvious connections being with Street fighter, Final Fight and Rival Schools, but it also extends to stuff like Strider, Captain Commando, Saturdaynight slammasters and possibly even Darkstalkers.

 

[Louie G.]

The one that kind of sticks out, though, is Excitebike (and Balloon Fight, but at least that has a stage and is referenced quite overtly by Villager). Clearly it wouldn't be appropriate to twist this into some outlandish theory about Excitebike being added to Smash, but it's one more example of this game getting highlighted alongside the best of its gen's best.

Every time this happens has me gearing up a little more for the possibility of more Excitebike content in Smash. It kinda makes me confident that it is the number one “canonized” classic NES title to lack any form of meaningful, concrete representation. I’ve really turned around on this over the last year or so.

Once upon a time we had an Assist Trophy. Now we don’t have that anymore. I feel like at least a stage is in order, similar to Mario Kart. But I’m definitely of the opinion that if Sakurai decides to go for another “retro” pull that Excitebiker just seems like by far the most practical choice. Or at the very least I feel like such an impactful game and, furthermore, respectably sized series is owed more attention than it currently has.

But outside of this arbitrary assessment of significance or completion sake, it would just be really fun and unique to explore. I suppose there’s some overlap with Wario here if you want to be a stickler, like with Villager and Balloon Fight, but I feel like that is a far more loose connection and would hardly be the first overlap like that. I’d like to believe one move doesn’t render this kind of character completely redundant. Wario can’t do BMX tricks or anything.

 

[DarthEnderX]

It's established that most of Capcom's old game output exists in a shared Marvel comics style universe with the most obvious connections being with Street fighter, Final Fight and Rival Schools, but it also extends to stuff like Strider, Captain Commando, Saturdaynight slammasters and possibly even Darkstalkers.

I don't believe there's any confirmed connection between the Street Fighter and Darkstalkers universes. And even SF/Strider is only implied, not confirmed.

 

[pitchfulprocessing]

Darkstalkers and Street Fighter share a universe in the UDON comics, but in the games it wouldn't really work because they're both set in modern times, DS is vaguely sometime in the 80s.

Morrigan would be impossible but I would love her, she'd be a really interesting variant on a shoto even just on the basis of translating air fireball mechanics to Smash, and Darkstalkers has this great cartoony animation that I think you could do a lot with. Morrigan is just as much goofy as she is seductive, her moves involve her making magic jetpacks and missiles after all.

 

[toonito]

Darkstalkers and Street Fighter share a universe in the UDON comics, but in the games it wouldn't really work because they're both set in modern times, DS is vaguely sometime in the 80s.

Morrigan would be impossible but I would love her, she'd be a really interesting variant on a shoto even just on the basis of translating air fireball mechanics to Smash, and Darkstalkers has this great cartoony animation that I think you could do a lot with. Morrigan is just as much goofy as she is seductive, her moves involve her making magic jetpacks and missiles after all.

I wouldnt mind seeing Morrigan in Smash but on one quirky condition: one of her alts must be the original Darkstalkers 2D sprite lol

 

[Perkilator]

Y’know, I wanna say “screw it, the next Smash should reveal every DLC character in whatever DLC pass they do” but I’m also concerned about the potential fan backlash and red tape surrounding those characters.

 

[Among Waddle Dees]

Y’know, I wanna say “screw it, the next Smash should reveal every DLC character in whatever DLC pass they do” but I’m also concerned about the potential fan backlash and red tape surrounding those characters.

I would prefer it that way, presuming the characters are set in stone like they were in Ultimate. Unless there's some ability for them to at least consider fan demand along the way, the fans don't really benefit from keeping characters they paid for a mystery until the last moment. If they don't like the characters, the consensus could turn it into an arguable waste of money.
Not that they'll ever actually reveal the DLC like that, developers love stirring up hype for something they've already decided. Ultimate's "Everyone is Here" unfortunately remains one of the only generous mass confirmations they've ever done.

 

[Shinuto]

How do you think they reveal the next Smash, with smash 4 they revealed it with Villager and Ultimate with Inkling

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

I would prefer it that way, presuming the characters are set in stone like they were in Ultimate. Unless there's some ability for them to at least consider fan demand along the way, the fans don't really benefit from keeping characters they paid for a mystery until the last moment. If they don't like the characters, the consensus could turn it into an arguable waste of money.
Not that they'll ever actually reveal the DLC like that, developers love stirring up hype for something they've already decided. Ultimate's "Everyone is Here" unfortunately remains one of the only generous mass confirmations they've ever done.

I dunno, a lot of fighting games have been starting to reveal their whole passes. Street Fighter 6 revealed their season 2, Guilty Gear Strive revealed its season 4, Mortal Kombat 1 revealed its first season a while back...I think Tekken 8 is the only major one not to at this point (IIRC there's only one more character to reveal anyway).

Now, Super Smash Bros. probably isn't going to follow suit. These reveals are a part of the identity of the game and I doubt Nintendo is going to risk losing that. Not sure the community would have it any other way either.

 

[Shinuto]

I would prefer it that way, presuming the characters are set in stone like they were in Ultimate. Unless there's some ability for them to at least consider fan demand along the way, the fans don't really benefit from keeping characters they paid for a mystery until the last moment. If they don't like the characters, the consensus could turn it into an arguable waste of money.
Not that they'll ever actually reveal the DLC like that, developers love stirring up hype for something they've already decided. Ultimate's "Everyone is Here" unfortunately remains one of the only generous mass confirmations they've ever done.

Screw that I love the build up of each new reveal. Don't Netflix dump all the new dlc characters on me.

 

[BritishGuy54]

Re: West VS East

I don’t think Smash will delve too heavily in third parties from the west. Microsoft and Ubisoft are the only ones I can see getting full characters, and I think more effort would be put into retaining as many third parties from Ultimate, be it in the base roster, and more so in DLC.

In general, I can see Smash 6 taking a step back from what Ultimate did, with much more roster space, and much more new faces for existing Nintendo series this time around.

All I’m saying is that we’ll see less third party companies overall, but we’ll also see some third party series double-dip, such as Sonic, or Street Fighter.

 

[Gengar84]

Re: West VS East

I don’t think Smash will delve too heavily in third parties from the west. Microsoft and Ubisoft are the only ones I can see getting full characters, and I think more effort would be put into retaining as many third parties from Ultimate, be it in the base roster, and more so in DLC.

In general, I can see Smash 6 taking a step back from what Ultimate did, with much more roster space, and much more new faces for existing Nintendo series this time around.

All I’m saying is that we’ll see less third party companies overall, but we’ll also see some third party series double-dip, such as Sonic, or Street Fighter.

I have no idea what’s going to happen in the future and there’s a good chance you’re right but I’m personally hoping for the opposite. I love Nintendo and it’s my favorite gaming company but I’ve become a big fan of the whole “celebration of gaming” direction the past two games have gone. I’d still like to see a good amount of first party characters, but as time goes on and we get most of them I’d be excited for, my preferences lean more towards third party.

I think expanding the roster with more western characters would really help with that general gaming celebration theme. There are tons of western characters that would be awesome in Smash. The same is true for Japanese characters too but I’d like to see a somewhat more balanced approach moving forward.

 

[Hadokeyblade]

I don't believe there's any confirmed connection between the Street Fighter and Darkstalkers universes. And even SF/Strider is only implied, not confirmed.

Implied nothing, Street fighter 5 has a character named Zeku who is confirmed to be the first person in this universe with the name Strider, which carries on into the future until eventually reaching Strider Hiryu.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

It's established that most of Capcom's old game output exists in a shared Marvel comics style universe with the most obvious connections being with Street fighter, Final Fight and Rival Schools, but it also extends to stuff like Strider, Captain Commando, Saturdaynight slammasters and possibly even Darkstalkers.

I was going to say that Darkstalkers wouldn't quite fit since supernatural monsters don't really seem to exist, but then I remembered Necalli and Oni...

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

I don't believe there's any confirmed connection between the Street Fighter and Darkstalkers universes. And even SF/Strider is only implied, not confirmed.

Not to "um actually" or anything like that, but apparently there may be a (very loose) basis for the SF and Darkstalkers connection;

Ken's stage in Alpha 2, which features cameo easter egg appearances from a wide variety of Capcom characters. The Darkstalkers here are specifically Morrigan, Felicia, Lord Raptor, and then both Lei-Lei and Mai-Ling (Hsien-Ko), but they're mostly in human form, hence the dubious canonicity.

It also contains Biff Slamkovich and Victor Ortega from Saturday Night Slam Masters, Hiryu from Strider, Ginzu and the Captain from Captain Commando, Linn Kurosawa from Alien vs. Predator, the Unknown Soldiers from Forgotten Worlds, and Pure from Capcom World 2, so... yeah, canonicity is dubious. Lol.

Then again, I do think there's a possibility of a connection, given the Darkstalkers' whole thing is keeping hidden from humanity for their own reasons - and it's not like supernatural monsters would feel out of place in the setting given the existence of things like the concept of Chi, characters like Oni and Necalli, and even a "supernatural monster" of sorts in the form of SFV Nash? That's just speculation, though.

 

[RouffWestie]

How do you think they reveal the next Smash, with smash 4 they revealed it with Villager and Ultimate with Inkling

Just go back to Brawl style, four reasonable and expected1st party newcomers then a guest character that wasn't on anyone's radar

 

[Hadokeyblade]

Blanka is mentioned in Felicia's arcade ending.


It could be any Blanka but the name is there

 

[DarthEnderX]

Implied nothing, Street fighter 5 has a character named Zeku who is confirmed to be the first person in this universe with the name Strider,

No. It doesn't.

In SF5 Zeku is considering forming a new ninja organization. And has a scene of him considering several possible names for them.

But he doesn't actually create the organization, or decide on a name. And he never calls himself Strider.

So yes, implied.

Ken's stage in Alpha 2, which features cameo easter egg appearances from a wide variety of Capcom characters. The Darkstalkers here are specifically Morrigan, Felicia, Lord Raptor, and then both Lei-Lei and Mai-Ling (Hsien-Ko), but they're mostly in human form, hence the dubious canonicity.

Except those AREN'T those characters. It's a costume party where the guests are dressed like Capcom characters.

Unless you think Captain Commando and Strider somehow time traveled from the distant future to attend Ken's party.

One of the character guides in SF5 even confirms that Captain Commando is a video game in the SF universe.

 

[KneeOfJustice99]

Except those AREN'T those characters. It's a costume party where the guests are dressed like Capcom characters.

Unless you think Captain Commando and Strider somehow time traveled from the distant future to attend Ken's party.

One of the character guides in SF5 even confirms that Captain Commando is a video game in the SF universe.

I don't actually think the Captain, Ginzu, or Hiryu came back from the future or anything like that, I just felt it'd be an interesting and related tidbit. The idea of the attendees being deliberately dressed like Capcom characters isn't something I've heard before, though! That's an interesting thought.

I was under the impression that Captain Commando was set in the future of Final Fight, though? Though, that might just be a misconception. I didn't know about that character guide thing, that sounds pretty cool

 

[Wonder Smash]

Implied nothing, Street fighter 5 has a character named Zeku who is confirmed to be the first person in this universe with the name Strider, which carries on into the future until eventually reaching Strider Hiryu.

He mentioned Strider as one of the possible names for his future ninja organization. It is never confirmed that that's what it ended up becoming.

Zeku overall is nothing more than a homage to Strider Hiryu.