Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[Sucumbio]

Speaking of Leon Kennedy

Remember Snake's Final Smash in Brawl? Well my favorite level in RE4 is the sniper part where Ashley runs around and you snipe baddies trying to grab her. If he gets in I was imagining that level as his final smash lol

 

[Perkilator]

Was also updating my Signature

In the process I got carried away and made a list of my 33 most wanted First and Third party characters as well as a list of 11 non-game characters made just for ****s and giggles

So here is a silly thing inspired by Swamp's post, pick one character from each column and that is the set of newcomers for the next game.

Sure, I’ll bite.

1. Raven Beak
2. Oatchi
3. Shadow
4. Gholdengo
5. Phoenix Wright
6. Octoling
7. Funky Kong
8. Tetra
9. Crash
10. Officer Howard
11. 2B

 

[Arcanir]

Was also updating my Signature

In the process I got carried away and made a list of my 33 most wanted First and Third party characters as well as a list of 11 non-game characters made just for ****s and giggles

So here is a silly thing inspired by Swamp's post, pick one character from each column and that is the set of newcomers for the next game.

Raven Beak
King
Doc Louis
Gholdengo
Elma
Octoling
Ashley
Ammy
Crash
Undertale
Midna

 

[Laniv]

Was also updating my Signature

In the process I got carried away and made a list of my 33 most wanted First and Third party characters as well as a list of 11 non-game characters made just for ****s and giggles

So here is a silly thing inspired by Swamp's post, pick one character from each column and that is the set of newcomers for the next game.

Tiki
Oatchi
Doc Louis
Ayumi Tachibana
Elma
Pauline
Arle Nadja
Tetra
Yuka
Lip
Nikki

 

[Sucumbio]

So here is a silly thing inspired by Swamp's post, pick one character from each column and that is the set of newcomers for the next game.

Raven Beak
King
Takamaru
Gholdengo
Phoenix Wright
Wesker
Shantae
Tetra
Dante
Squid Sisters
Midna

Note: this is slightly different than if I just pick my top 11 mw from all these

 

[Slime Scholar]

So here is a silly thing inspired by Swamp's post, pick one character from each column and that is the set of newcomers for the next game.

there are too many columns where I’m undecided or have no opinion, but I just wanted to say that Strong Bad is such a brain-melting left-field choice that I can’t help but want him now.

 

[Laniv]

It's good to see so many people advocating for King Boo.

Anyways, not sure how relevant this is, but Nintendo's fiscal report for the quarter is in:

There was a problem fetching the tweet

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still the champ, ScarVio slowly creeps closer to Sword and Shield, and, considering this is for the fiscal quarter Q1, this means that Luigi's Mansion 2 HD has reached 1 million sales in very little time.

 

[Perkilator]

RE: Byleth
I've had this Byleth overhaul of mine on the back burner for a while now, but now I think I've crafted something serviceable that still takes advantage of his canon abilities.

Spoiler: Byleth overhaul

Intro: “Let the lesson begin!” Byleth appears from a Warp circle.

Stance/Idle 1: His battle stance from Three Houses.
Idle 2: Byleth twirls the Sword of the Creator into a backhanded grip while striking a pose. M!Byleth points the sword downward in a more dignified pose…
Idle 3: …while F!Byleth holds the sword in a more standard grip and energetic pose.

Notable Palette Swaps

1. Male
   • Default
   • Dimitri (blue)
   • Claude (yellow)
   • Jeralt (orange)
   • Seteth (navy blue)
   • Yuri (white)
   • Black Eagle colors (red)
   • Enlightened One (special costume)
2. Female
   • Default
   • Edelgard (red)
   • Sothis (purple)
   • Rhea (white)
   • Kronya (black)
   • Blue Lion colors (blue)
   • Golden Deer colors (yellow)
   • Enlightened One (special costume)

Walk: Based on his jog from Three Houses outside of combat.
Dash: His run from Three Houses during combat.
Damage: His damage animation from Three Houses
Jump: Similar to other sword lords’ jumps.
Crouch: Byleth kneels while making a thinking gesture.

Normal Attacks
Jab: Ruptured Heaven; two slashes with the Sword of the Creator, followed by a flurry of lashes in its whip form
Forward+A: A horizontal spin kick
Up+A: An uppercut with Byleth’s open hand
Down+A: A slide kick
Dash Attack: His running slash from Three Houses
Edge Attack: A low, outward slash while climbing up
Get-Up Attack: Byleth slashes on both sides of himself

Aerial Attacks
Air+A: Fire Spin; Byleth swings the Sword of the Creator; enveloped in fire, around his body
Air Forward+A: Fire Hazard; an axe kick enveloped in fire
Air Back + A: Ragnarok Kick; a reverse spin kick enveloped in fire
Air Up+A: Byleth flails the Sword of the Creator like an overhead whip
Air Down+A: Bolganone Kick; a dive kick enveloped in fire

Smash Attacks
Forward+A: Wrath Strike; an upward arcing slash that covers an overhead area
Up+A: Byleth flails the Sword of the Creator like an overhead whip
Down+A: Thunderclap; Byleth swings the Sword of the Creator, enveloped in electricity, on both sides downward

Grab Game
Grab: Byleth grabs the opponent with his open hand.
Pummel: A knee strike
Forwards+Throw: Byleth repels the opponent with light magic
Back+Throw: Byleth tosses the opponent away with the Sword of the Creator
Up+Throw: A 540 kick with both legs
Down+Throw: A body slam

Special Moves
B : Aura; Byleth summons three orbs of light around himself. They will eventually all home in on the nearest opponent, but Byleth can press B to shoot one orb of light at a time. If an opponent touches an orb of light before it fires off, that orb will disappear.
B + ←→ : Mystic Blow; Byleth envelops his foot in light magic and charges a kicking attack, with different effects on the ground and midair. On the ground, Byleth performs a backflip kick that launches him into the air. In midair, Byleth instead performs a flying kick that launches him forward.
B + ↑ : Ruptured Sky; Byleth thrusts the Sword of the Creator diagonally upward to extend its whip form. If it grabs an opponent, Byleth can either slam them into the ground (grounded version) or zip up to them and footstool them (aerial version).
B + ↓ : Windsweep; A circular slash that reflects projectiles. This also hurts any nearby opponents.

Final Smash: Sublime Ruptured Heaven; Byleth proclaims “Here’s something to believe in!” as he flails the Sword of the Creator in a large area around himself, pulling in nearby opponents, before finishing with a final circular slash.

Taunts
Up: “No hesitation!” Byleth swings the Sword of the Creator to his right leg, and puts his left fist to his chest while looking into the sky.
Side: “Stay focused!” Byleth brandishes the Sword of the Creator forward.
Down: “Another step forward.” Byleth swings the Sword of the Creator in its whip form around himself.

Winposes (Male)
1: “Each battle, a chance to grow.” Byleth plants the Sword of the Creator into the ground
2: “Such power dwells within?” Byleth raises his left hand to his chest while looking towards the sky.
3: “We must all do our part!” With the Sword of the Creator in its whip form, Byleth swings it around the front of his body in a circular motion.

Winposes (Female)
1: “Each battle, a chance to grow.” Byleth plants the Sword of the Creator into the ground.
2: “Allow me to demonstrate.” Byleth swings the Sword of the Creator outward before holding the sword behind her in a reverse grip.
3: “I'll use this power for the greater good!” With the Sword of the Creator in its whip form, Byleth swings the whip in front of herself twice before holding it vertically.

Applause: Byleth claps for the winner.
Icon: Falchion
Boxing Ring Title: Ashen Demon
Star K.O.: “My battle ends heeeere…!”
Victory Music: The Edge of Dawn (Instrumental)
Kirby Hat: Byleth’s hair; changes depending on which gender Byleth is.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

It's good to see so many people advocating for King Boo.

Anyways, not sure how relevant this is, but Nintendo's fiscal report for the quarter is in:

There was a problem fetching the tweet

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still the champ, ScarVio slowly creeps closer to Sword and Shield, and, considering this is for the fiscal quarter Q1, this means that Luigi's Mansion 2 HD has reached 1 million sales in very little time.

Extremely happy that TTYD seems to be doing well for its first quarter, considering it got close to eclipsing the lifetime sales of the original in one fiscal quarter.

 

[Noipoi]

Super stoked that TTYD seems to be doing well. We’re so back.

I’m also happy that S/V looks like it’ll sell more than Sw/Sh. Yes the game is super buggy and that’s a problem, but the game has concepts that if expanded upon and given enough time to be properly developed, could lead to some great Pokemon games.

I was a bit worried it would underperform and they’d just throw everything out. Now I just need them to polish their goddamn games. Hopefully their new hiring spree means they’ve learned something.

 

[Will]

I ain’t changing my signature, my **** is peak.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

In regards to voices, the fact that Olimar and Isabelle don't have their voices is frustrating.

 

[fogbadge]

In regards to voices, the fact that Olimar and Isabelle don't have their voices is frustrating.

yeah they should have their voices.

now that I think of it part of me was expecting the inklings to not have their voices in smash

 

[Noipoi]

yeah they should have their voices.

now that I think of it part of me was expecting the inklings to not have their voices in smash

Instead they make realistic squid noises

 

[ninjahmos]

In regards to voices, the fact that Olimar and Isabelle don't have their voices is frustrating.

Yeah, and DK and Bowser still sound like generic movie monsters. They should just use Takashi Nagasako's voice for DK and Kenny James' voice for Bowser.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

Man, I was thinking about how weird and cool that the new voices for are gonna sound in a potential next Smash game, and then I started thinking...
Are there any characters in Smash whose voices you would want to change/update or even add/remove?

I want consistency for the

Olimar and Isabelle have been mentioned already by others, plus Bowser, DK, and I'll throw in Diddy too (though weirdly I think K. Rool is all right in his current state for some reason, though if we change DK and Diddy we should probably change him too to be consistent).

I think my biggest character audio issue is genuinely still Pac-Man not making the arcade death noise when he gets Star KO'd.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

I can at least see DK, Diddy and K.Rool's voices as an artistic choice. Real(ish) animal noises works well enough for DKC.

But Bowser sounding like a monster when Bowser Jr. is allowed to have his own voice is jarring.

 

[Guynamednelson]

But Bowser sounding like a monster when Bowser Jr. is allowed to have his own voice is jarring.

It's even weirder when you think about how Smash strictly depicts Bowser as a monster in general outside of the Subspace cutscene where he pilots the Clown Car while escaping with Peach/Zelda's trophy, but his own son is sapient enough to know how to operate a vehicle that has a ton of hidden gadgets.

 

[ScrubReborn]

I think Bowser is jarring more because his voice clashes with their attempts to make Bowser resemble his canon self more. His animations now have him standing upright and his "beastier" moves have been replaced, and yet his voce is the same as when he was a Smash Godzilla. Crazy mismatch. It feels like they can't decide which Bowser they want.

I don't mind DK and Diddy because their animations still match their primal voices (plus ape DK feels way cooler to me in a fighting game context than canon DK's Scooby Doo soundin' ass. Reminds me of how he played in Jungle Beat). I was cool with Melee/Brawl Bowser for the same reason.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

I can agree that the DK characters are consistent at least, so they're less jarring than Bowser.

Kenny James's first role as Bowser was in 2005 in Strikers and he became the main Bowser voice after that and still does it today, so there's frankly no reason Bowser shouldn't have his actual voice by now when his primary voice actor has been doing it for nearly TWENTY YEARS.

You don't even have to remove everything, you can keep the Giga Bowser roar so it feels like Bowser sorta going primal or something, but everything else should be Kenny's portrayal.

 

[Noipoi]

Bowser just needs an overhaul. He’s stuck between his canon persona of a big, brash, sometimes bumbling tyrant and an animalistic beast.

Keep his moves the same, just make his animations more in line with Bowser as he’s portrayed these days. More boasting and acting like a bully, while getting flustered if things aren’t going his way.

And of course, the voice. Get those Kenny James sound clips in.

 

[HyperSomari64]

I'm still sad that Mega Man doesn't have his voice from the 11th game.

Granted, Mega Man 11 was released after Ultimate's deadline. At least there should've been a spirit event based on that game.

 

[Garteam]

It's good to see so many people advocating for King Boo.

Anyways, not sure how relevant this is, but Nintendo's fiscal report for the quarter is in:

There was a problem fetching the tweet

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still the champ, ScarVio slowly creeps closer to Sword and Shield, and, considering this is for the fiscal quarter Q1, this means that Luigi's Mansion 2 HD has reached 1 million sales in very little time.

Jesus Christ, almost 35 million copies of Ultimate sold? It's the third best-selling game on Nintendo's most successful console, outselling all of Pokemon's individual releases?

It is very difficult to really express just how successful Ultimate has been. It has likely surpassed even the most optimistically pie-in-the-sky estimates of how well Ultimate could do. I think the most impressive thing is that Ultimate just keeps going. In an era where most games acquire the vast majority of their sales in the first couple of weeks of release, Ultimate continues to sell millions almost 3 years after receiving substantive post-launch support and almost 6 years since launch. That's also not considering Ultimate's DLC sales, which Nintendo stated also surpassed expectations back in 2019.

I think there are two big takeaways from this success:
1. The next Smash is (likely) going to look a lot like Ultimate in terms of content. A lot of focus will be placed on making the core gameplay fast but accessible while having a large cast of veterans and fan requests. Single-player content and new faces designed to promote the late Switch era will take something of a backseat.

2. The next Smash is going to have a lot of resources put into it. Obviously, this will include an astronomical budget, but I wouldn't be surprised if this comes with additional dev time. Furukawa has stated modern games simply take more time to make, Smash has historically struggled to manifest Sakurai's vision in its entirety due to dev time constraints, and there's less pressure to get a new entry out when the previous one continues to hold people's attention. I could see Nintendo's greenlighting a 4-year development period for the next Smash in the interest of, say, doing "Everyone is Here!" again while having the time to develop a handful of additional newcomers and echoes that couldn't have been added previously. That's also not going into post-launch content, which could come at a more consistent rate for a longer period of time if development is structured to support this from the outset.

 

[Perkilator]

With how much munty Nintendo's been raking in, hopefully they can afford better online capabilities for the next console, especially if it allows the next Smash game to have rollback.

 

[AreJay25]

Bowser's portrayal throughout the series has been bizarre since the beginning.

Never forget that, instead of having him run like a normal character in Melee and Brawl, they opted to have him... move like a literal car. It took them two games to realize that "hey, maybe this is actually kinda weird?".

I'd like to think that maybe, juuuuust maybe they won't saddle him with the same outdated clips and personality traits in the next game, because at this point he barely feels like the character he's actually supposed to represent.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

Bowser's portrayal throughout the series has been bizarre since the beginning.

Never forget that, instead of having him run like a normal character in Melee and Brawl, they opted to have him... move like a literal car. It took them two games to realize that "hey, maybe this is actually kinda weird?".

I'd like to think that maybe, juuuuust maybe they won't saddle him with the same outdated clips and personality traits in the next game, because at this point he barely feels like the character he's actually supposed to represent.

I hope that the (imo) likely scenario of Mario/Luigi/Wario/Waluigi updating to be Kevin Afghani's portrayal will have them re-examine Bowser and realize "hey Bowser's had a voice actor for 20 years, why haven't we updated his voice yet?"

 

[SPEN18]

I think there are two big takeaways from this success:
1. The next Smash is (likely) going to look a lot like Ultimate in terms of content. A lot of focus will be placed on making the core gameplay fast but accessible while having a large cast of veterans and fan requests. Single-player content and new faces designed to promote the late Switch era will take something of a backseat.

2. The next Smash is going to have a lot of resources put into it. Obviously, this will include an astronomical budget, but I wouldn't be surprised if this comes with additional dev time. Furukawa has stated modern games simply take more time to make, Smash has historically struggled to manifest Sakurai's vision in its entirety due to dev time constraints, and there's less pressure to get a new entry out when the previous one continues to hold people's attention. I could see Nintendo's greenlighting a 4-year development period for the next Smash in the interest of, say, doing "Everyone is Here!" again while having the time to develop a handful of additional newcomers and echoes that couldn't have been added previously. That's also not going into post-launch content, which could come at a more consistent rate for a longer period of time if development is structured to support this from the outset.

I don't know about some of this; amping up the single player and ushering in new faces are two of the most failsafe and robust ways of setting the next game apart from its predecessors and selling it as an all-new experience. It would be a major blunder to skimp on those next time, especially both of them.

Ult doing really well doesn't mean the next game is going to follow so closely in its footsteps, especially when the circumstances are not as optimal for porting over old content. We've already detailed many times over the specific set of such circumstances under which Ult could even happen the first time.

It's not outlandish to suggest that Smash's recent success may have earned the team a little more leeway in budget and time, but IF there is a significant increase in those departments, I'd sooner think it'd be to ensure the next game has enough new goodies to keep people coming back for more than near-100% preservation of Ult's content.

Basically, they're not going to expend an exorbitant amount of additional resources just to put out something that is in essence the same as Ult. Given that I agree that the core gameplay and the large-roster paradigm will remain generally intact, they're going to need a litter of relatively smaller hooks to effectively portray the game as worth buying standalone, be those from newcomer playstyles, new modes of play, less massive gameplay adjustments, graphics/presentation, or etcetera.

 

[Borskaboska]

Never forget that, instead of having him run like a normal character in Melee and Brawl, they opted to have him... move like a literal car. It took them two games to realize that "hey, maybe this is actually kinda weird?".

Hey, I loved Bowser's Invisible Skateboard.

 

[Kirby Dragons]

I did this a while ago. Obviously varying degrees of realism here. It was hard for me to come up with 16 characters though. So my true hope for Smash 6 is just for a varied and interesting newcomer roster.

 

[Gorgonzales]

View attachment 393118

I did this a while ago. Obviously varying degrees of realism here. It was hard for me to come up with 16 characters though. So my true hope for Smash 6 is just for a varied and interesting newcomer roster.

mfw I'm offstage thinking the Gargantuar main can't do much to me but suddenly his imp recharges

(but for real though, quite possibly the biggest-brain PvZ pick I've seen)

 

[ninjahmos]

I may or may not have said this before, but if Snake makes it into the next Smash game, I hope they add in his MGS1 design as well as his MGS2 design. And the Tuxedo.

 

[CannonStreak]

I may or may not have said this before, but if Snake makes it into the next Smash game, I hope they add in his MGS1 design as well as his MGS2 design. And the Tuxedo.

With the tuxedo, and Snake being spy-like to a partial or complete degree, that could be the closest we'll get to getting James Bond in Smash, since James was considered for Melee if I recall correctly.

Just give Snake a gun and we're all set!

 

[DKing]

However from my own roster, if any of these many characters come in the next Super Smash Bros. game, that's when I'll change my roster and maybe replace them with others. I also know that some of these characters on this roster are unknown to almost anyone.
View attachment 393095

Still happy to see Saki mentioned.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Let's talk about the new stages that Ultimate has given us. There weren't a lot. There were definitely less new stages than characters. But while the new characters were near universally seen as high quality, the stages are a bit more mixed.

How do you feel about them? For the record, the new stages in Ultimate are...

• Small Battlefield
• New Donk City Hall
• Great Plateau Tower
• Moray Towers
• Dracula's Castle
• Mementos
• Yggdrasil's Alter
• Spiral Mountain
• King of Fighters Stadium
• Gareg Mach Monastery
• Spring Stadium
• Minecraft World
• Northern Cave
• Cloud Sea of Alrest
• Mishima Dojo
• Hollow Bastion

Some of my various thoughts.

• I appreciate the less focus on crazy sizes and wacky hazards. Not to say these stages don't have hazards, but they're not as ridiculous as Great Cave Offensive or 75m.
• Stage cameos have been a big goal for the team. Out of these new stages, only Small Battlefield and Northern Cave don't have a cameo from a character or two. This is neither good nor bad, but it is interesting.
• I appreciate the additions of newer competitive stages like Small Battlefield, Northen Cave and Hollow Bastion. It's great for the health of the game. But I am getting sick of stages that are similar to Smashville or Pokemon Stadium. They're an objective good, but when I want to play casually, I generally don't pick them.
• The new stages in the vanilla Ultimate... are kind of boring. New Donk City is as bland as they come, even with the Pauline gimmick. Great Plateau Tower fares much better and has a unique layout. I like Moray Towers more than most people (in both Splatoon and Smash), but its a bit lifeless for a Splatoon stage. Dracula's Castle is pretty much perfect for what I expect. It's stylish, has a unique layout and is visually interesting.
• The DLC stages are much more interesting. Out of the first pass, the only real dud I think if Spiral Mountain. Making people sick aside, its just... weird. I don't know if making the titular spiral mountain spin was a good idea. I don't even think you would need to add platforms to make it interesting. Just making the mountain by itself could have worked.
• The second pass has what I consider objectively good stages. None of them are so intrusive that they spoil the fun and they're all visually interesting enough that even competitive stages say fresh. I'm actually going to praise Spring Stadium and Cloud Sea of Alrest for having explicit gimmicks that are constantly changing the match, yet are so simple that they just flow into the game.
• Some personal favorites of mine are Dracula's Castle, King of Fighters Stadium, Spring Stadium, Northern Cave and Cloud Sea of Alrest. Spiral Mountain and New Donk City Hall would be stages I feel are lacking.

 

[Noipoi]

Let's talk about the new stages that Ultimate has given us. There weren't a lot. There were definitely less new stages than characters. But while the new characters were near universally seen as high quality, the stages are a bit more mixed.

How do you feel about them? For the record, the new stages in Ultimate are...

• Small Battlefield
• New Donk City Hall
• Great Plateau Tower
• Moray Towers
• Dracula's Castle
• Mementos
• Yggdrasil's Alter
• Spiral Mountain
• King of Fighters Stadium
• Gareg Mach Monastery
• Spring Stadium
• Minecraft World
• Northern Cave
• Cloud Sea of Alrest
• Mishima Dojo
• Hollow Bastion

Some of my various thoughts.

• I appreciate the less focus on crazy sizes and wacky hazards. Not to say these stages don't have hazards, but they're not as ridiculous as Great Cave Offensive or 75m.
• Stage cameos have been a big goal for the team. Out of these new stages, only Small Battlefield and Northern Cave don't have a cameo from a character or two. This is neither good nor bad, but it is interesting.
• I appreciate the additions of newer competitive stages like Small Battlefield, Northen Cave and Hollow Bastion. It's great for the health of the game. But I am getting sick of stages that are similar to Smashville or Pokemon Stadium. They're an objective good, but when I want to play casually, I generally don't pick them.
• The new stages in the vanilla Ultimate... are kind of boring. New Donk City is as bland as they come, even with the Pauline gimmick. Great Plateau Tower fares much better and has a unique layout. I like Moray Towers more than most people (in both Splatoon and Smash), but its a bit lifeless for a Splatoon stage. Dracula's Castle is pretty much perfect for what I expect. It's stylish, has a unique layout and is visually interesting.
• The DLC stages are much more interesting. Out of the first pass, the only real dud I think if Spiral Mountain. Making people sick aside, its just... weird. I don't know if making the titular spiral mountain spin was a good idea. I don't even think you would need to add platforms to make it interesting. Just making the mountain by itself could have worked.
• The second pass has what I consider objectively good stages. None of them are so intrusive that they spoil the fun and they're all visually interesting enough that even competitive stages say fresh. I'm actually going to praise Spring Stadium and Cloud Sea of Alrest for having explicit gimmicks that are constantly changing the match, yet are so simple that they just flow into the game.
• Some personal favorites of mine are Dracula's Castle, King of Fighters Stadium, Spring Stadium, Northern Cave and Cloud Sea of Alrest. Spiral Mountain and New Donk City Hall would be stages I feel are lacking.

I like how they somehow managed to implement the Odyssey mission of collecting all the band members into the actual New Donk City stage. It’s kinda genius, and I want more stuff like that.

 

[Gorgonzales]

Let's talk about the new stages that Ultimate has given us. There weren't a lot. There were definitely less new stages than characters. But while the new characters were near universally seen as high quality, the stages are a bit more mixed.

How do you feel about them? For the record, the new stages in Ultimate are...

• Small Battlefield
• New Donk City Hall
• Great Plateau Tower
• Moray Towers
• Dracula's Castle
• Mementos
• Yggdrasil's Alter
• Spiral Mountain
• King of Fighters Stadium
• Gareg Mach Monastery
• Spring Stadium
• Minecraft World
• Northern Cave
• Cloud Sea of Alrest
• Mishima Dojo
• Hollow Bastion

Some of my various thoughts.

• I appreciate the less focus on crazy sizes and wacky hazards. Not to say these stages don't have hazards, but they're not as ridiculous as Great Cave Offensive or 75m.
• Stage cameos have been a big goal for the team. Out of these new stages, only Small Battlefield and Northern Cave don't have a cameo from a character or two. This is neither good nor bad, but it is interesting.
• I appreciate the additions of newer competitive stages like Small Battlefield, Northen Cave and Hollow Bastion. It's great for the health of the game. But I am getting sick of stages that are similar to Smashville or Pokemon Stadium. They're an objective good, but when I want to play casually, I generally don't pick them.
• The new stages in the vanilla Ultimate... are kind of boring. New Donk City is as bland as they come, even with the Pauline gimmick. Great Plateau Tower fares much better and has a unique layout. I like Moray Towers more than most people (in both Splatoon and Smash), but its a bit lifeless for a Splatoon stage. Dracula's Castle is pretty much perfect for what I expect. It's stylish, has a unique layout and is visually interesting.
• The DLC stages are much more interesting. Out of the first pass, the only real dud I think if Spiral Mountain. Making people sick aside, its just... weird. I don't know if making the titular spiral mountain spin was a good idea. I don't even think you would need to add platforms to make it interesting. Just making the mountain by itself could have worked.
• The second pass has what I consider objectively good stages. None of them are so intrusive that they spoil the fun and they're all visually interesting enough that even competitive stages say fresh. I'm actually going to praise Spring Stadium and Cloud Sea of Alrest for having explicit gimmicks that are constantly changing the match, yet are so simple that they just flow into the game.
• Some personal favorites of mine are Dracula's Castle, King of Fighters Stadium, Spring Stadium, Northern Cave and Cloud Sea of Alrest. Spiral Mountain and New Donk City Hall would be stages I feel are lacking.

Unpopular opinion but I absolutely love the spinning on Spiral Mountain and think it's a brilliant way of incorporating the Z-Axis from a 3D Collectathon into a 2D platform fighter, making great use of Spiral Mountain's shape. It also makes the stage feel like some sort of insane carnival ride and I just love the chaotic visuals of it when it gets going.

The character cameos from the original Banjo-Kazooie are the cherry on top, especially with how they can appear all over the place. It's the only Smash stage that makes a very conscious use of 3D space and it's really fascinating to me.

Spiral Mountain is a great stage and I will die on this spiral-shaped hill.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

I like how they somehow managed to implement the Odyssey mission of collecting all the band members into the actual New Donk City stage. It’s kinda genius, and I want more stuff like that.

My biggest problem is that this doesn't happen if the music isn't two of the over one hundred Mario tracks.

It's so uncommon, it almost doesn't exist.

 

[Perkilator]

Let's talk about the new stages that Ultimate has given us. There weren't a lot. There were definitely less new stages than characters. But while the new characters were near universally seen as high quality, the stages are a bit more mixed.

How do you feel about them? For the record, the new stages in Ultimate are...

• Small Battlefield
• New Donk City Hall
• Great Plateau Tower
• Moray Towers
• Dracula's Castle
• Mementos
• Yggdrasil's Alter
• Spiral Mountain
• King of Fighters Stadium
• Gareg Mach Monastery
• Spring Stadium
• Minecraft World
• Northern Cave
• Cloud Sea of Alrest
• Mishima Dojo
• Hollow Bastion

• Small Battlefield...I'm sorry, but that's just pointless to me, especially since making the Pokémon Stadium stages hazardless is basically the same thing. I personally would've preferred skins for Battlefield, Big Battlefield and Final Destination based on their incarnations from previous Smash games.
• New Donk and Great Plateau are okay, but the former is definitely too reliant on Jump Up Super Star to be fully enjoyable
• Dracula's Castle is definitely the best of the base game's few new stages. It's nice and small, and the gimmick of hitting the candles to spawn items is pretty fun, too.
• Mementos is also fun, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the one time I was fighting Lucas and he got hit by the train.
• Cloud Sea of Alrest is also not that fun to me, mostly because of how small it is to the point of feeling cramped
• In general, I appreciate Ultimate going for smaller, more compact stages while giving them unique elements. That's pretty much the standard I'd like to see set for new stages in the future.

 

[robot067]

Always love some good wishlist posting. I actually had a hard time picking 16 different characters. When I think of my 'most wanted' characters I only usually consider Noah/Mio, Isaac, and Dee since those are the only ones I can actually see happening lol.

Vaati would be my #1 pick for a Zelda rep but I'd be hyped for any potential pick. Also, I made this using this site.

Was also updating my Signature

In the process I got carried away and made a list of my 33 most wanted First and Third party characters as well as a list of 11 non-game characters made just for ****s and giggles

So here is a silly thing inspired by Swamp's post, pick one character from each column and that is the set of newcomers for the next game.

Ooooh this was tough. I'll say Raven Beak, Sami, Noah and Mio, Sol Badguy, Phoenix Wright, Reimu, Vivian, Susie, Darth Vader, Frisk, Jotaro

Let's talk about the new stages that Ultimate has given us. There weren't a lot. There were definitely less new stages than characters. But while the new characters were near universally seen as high quality, the stages are a bit more mixed.

How do you feel about them? For the record, the new stages in Ultimate are...

• Small Battlefield
• New Donk City Hall
• Great Plateau Tower
• Moray Towers
• Dracula's Castle
• Mementos
• Yggdrasil's Alter
• Spiral Mountain
• King of Fighters Stadium
• Gareg Mach Monastery
• Spring Stadium
• Minecraft World
• Northern Cave
• Cloud Sea of Alrest
• Mishima Dojo
• Hollow Bastion

Some of my various thoughts.

• I appreciate the less focus on crazy sizes and wacky hazards. Not to say these stages don't have hazards, but they're not as ridiculous as Great Cave Offensive or 75m.
• Stage cameos have been a big goal for the team. Out of these new stages, only Small Battlefield and Northern Cave don't have a cameo from a character or two. This is neither good nor bad, but it is interesting.
• I appreciate the additions of newer competitive stages like Small Battlefield, Northen Cave and Hollow Bastion. It's great for the health of the game. But I am getting sick of stages that are similar to Smashville or Pokemon Stadium. They're an objective good, but when I want to play casually, I generally don't pick them.
• The new stages in the vanilla Ultimate... are kind of boring. New Donk City is as bland as they come, even with the Pauline gimmick. Great Plateau Tower fares much better and has a unique layout. I like Moray Towers more than most people (in both Splatoon and Smash), but its a bit lifeless for a Splatoon stage. Dracula's Castle is pretty much perfect for what I expect. It's stylish, has a unique layout and is visually interesting.
• The DLC stages are much more interesting. Out of the first pass, the only real dud I think if Spiral Mountain. Making people sick aside, its just... weird. I don't know if making the titular spiral mountain spin was a good idea. I don't even think you would need to add platforms to make it interesting. Just making the mountain by itself could have worked.
• The second pass has what I consider objectively good stages. None of them are so intrusive that they spoil the fun and they're all visually interesting enough that even competitive stages say fresh. I'm actually going to praise Spring Stadium and Cloud Sea of Alrest for having explicit gimmicks that are constantly changing the match, yet are so simple that they just flow into the game.
• Some personal favorites of mine are Dracula's Castle, King of Fighters Stadium, Spring Stadium, Northern Cave and Cloud Sea of Alrest. Spiral Mountain and New Donk City Hall would be stages I feel are lacking.

Minecraft World is so cool. The randomized layout is very unique (while managing to avoid jank) and I'd love to see more stages like it in the future. My favorite is probably Mementos though. The moment in Joker's direct where they show off the Persona 3 form is genuinely one of the hypest moments in any smash direct for me. I pretty much always pick Mass Destruction when playing on it. Hollow Bastion is really nice too, and I'm glad it's actually seen some love in competitive play. I love Animal Crossing music but I am so sick of hearing it in tournaments XD

The base game stages are pretty underwhelming in comparison to what we got for DLC. The Great Plateau has a beautiful background but the stage itself is pretty boring. There are so many cooler areas in BOTW they could have gone with. Moray Towers is the best I think. It has a unique layout and hitting people above you is always a blast.

 

[Noipoi]

People have these great big wishlists and that’s awesome

Meanwhile I’m just sitting over here with three guys