Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[Wonder Smash]

Ah, I probably should have said "what is he doing right now in terms of making games". My bad.

He knew what you meant. He was just messing with you.

 

[CannonStreak]

He knew what you meant. He was just messing with you.

I know he was.

I just thought it could have been clearer.

But then again, maybe not.

 

[Guynamednelson]

I wonder what Sakurai is doing right now?

Well he can't be filming new videos for his YouTube channel, he said he's already filmed the finale.

That said I wonder how long those videos spend in post-production?

 

[Wonder Smash]

I know he was.

I just thought it could have been clearer.

But then again, maybe not.

You were clear enough. You already said in that same post if he was making a new game.

 

[CannonStreak]

You were clear enough. The next parts after that made sure of that.

I thought so. Thanks for that.

Anyway, just one more month before September happens when a Direct will come, or perhaps a Switch 2 reveal, maybe?

 

[smashkirby]

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.
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I know I've said it before, but I really am taken with your character choices here, especially the first-party ones. I mean, you don't hear too many folks talking about Pockle or Michael Anderson in the context of being playable in Smash, do you?

If I may say so, the Hornet and the Unicycle... well, if not for Fighters' Megamix, I can't say I would have imagined them being suggestions...

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.

I've honestly been of this mind ever since that interview regarding Mario Wonder (where the devs confirmed that they WEREN'T given a "hard-set" release date to aim for) and then looking at the likes of things like TotK, Xenoblade 3, and ESPECIALLY Metroid Prime 4.

I'll be honest, Smash getting more dev time is partially why I think the odds of EiH happening again... well, it isn't 0%. The next Smash Bros. being on a stronger console and whatnot? If they wanted to go for it, I can (at the very least) see every first-party character return, now that EVERYONE (even Young Link and Pichu) has 'updated' character data to work with.

As for third-parties, I imagine Ultimate's success has officially convinced them that Smash Bros. is a good investment in the long run.

Oooh, we're doing most wanted lists but visual? Okay, here's mine:

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Likelihoods may vary, I am open to questions

While I am curious about your choices, I don't mean that in a negative way. No joke, this would be my DREAM roster for Smash 6. Bonus points if the next Smash repeated 'Everyone Is Here... Again'.

I'm especially happy to see Mona and Yuka, as well as Lip, Prince Sable, and Chibi-Robo (the lattermost I feel, really could have used a roster spot in Smash 4).

I guess realistically in my mind it's probably more accurate to call them "Fossil Fighter" or something, but I imagine T-Rex being the main character and having Tricera (though Tricera's a bit more iffy since this trio doesn't have anything like a Team Skill for a Final Smash) and Ptera kind of act as summons for certain moves (for example, Ptera using Great Vortex/Blow Away for recovery) to symbolize the Attack Zone/Support Zone dynamic present in the original and Champions, though I definitely think T-Rex could also just carry the moveset himself if need be.

Fossil Fighters is an underrated DS game. It doesn't really have a shot for playable, but the T-Rex would be amazing as an assist.

Never expected us to seriously look at Fossil Fighters for significant content here. That said, I'd love to have Hunter (the main protagonist of the first Fossil Fighters game) as a playable character, though I'm certainly not opposed Dino and Dina or Jura and Tria.

All of that being said, what would you all think if Nibbles or (for whatever reason) Rosie (from the first game) suddenly got chosen as the playable Fossil Fighters rep?

If we ever get a Pilotwings character, I'm hoping we not only get music from Pilotwings 64, but also a remix of the SNES Hang Glider theme with elements of the 64 Hang Glider theme. And more music from the original game.

I know it's a tinfoil-hat theory, but lately I've been wondering... was Pilotwings 64 dealing with some sort of legal issues at Nintendo? I mean, in addition to PW64 not being acknowledged in Smash (in any meaningful way), the game was never re-released via Virtual Console until the Switch's N64 NSO service.

What's more, PW64 WAS released in Japan, so it doesn't even have the hurdle that StarTropics and Gumshoe have to deal with. Like, aside from the fact that no character from that game has appeared as a Trophy, Spirit, or even Sticker in Brawl... we haven't even gotten MUSIC from that game.

While I'd love for PW64's Gyrocopter theme to be a song, I'd even take 'Birdman' (arguably the most well-known Pilotwings song) as a sort-of "joke" music choice.