Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[pitchfulprocessing]

Something I've thought about before is that I've never actually seen a source on this. There are multiple interviews stating it was Advance Wars which caused Nintendo to finally give Fire Emblem a full localisation, but I've looked into it and I can't find any primary source stating Melee was a factor. The closest is this section from the UK's Official Nintendo Magazine, but the writer, Thomas East, doesn't appear to have any citation or source for it and doesn't have a role in Nintendo that would let him know it, and the Official Nintendo Magazine isn't approved every word over by Nintendo, evidently lol.

The one thing I can see is that Wikipedia cites Game Informer issue 277 as having a section on Fire Emblem which mentions it, but that issue is out of print and no scans/screenshots of it are available online, so would need to order a used copy just to check what it actually says. The Melee story would make sense, so I don't doubt it could be true, but it would be good to have an actual source for it, I could just be missing something obvious.

Incidentally, this is an old post, but in the wake of Game Informer's extremely unfortunate death, someone has uploaded all the issues properly to archive.org, so I can finally check this.

So yes, it seems like the idea that Melee helped Fire Emblem get localised is a myth. It's never brought up as an actual reason for the games being translated, and Maeda only says that Smash helped people who were familiar with the characters from Melee get interested in Fire Emblem proper, which is definitely true.

 

[Noipoi]

Man why isn't Starfy playable? He jumps, glides, spins and has a clam friend. He's perfect.

Having fun with Starfy 1! Too bad I can't understand a thing of what the characters are saying...

It’s definitely fishy, but I think he just doesn’t have the star power.

 

[Opossum]

Man why isn't Starfy playable? He jumps, glides, spins and has a clam friend. He's perfect.

Having fun with Starfy 1! Too bad I can't understand a thing of what the characters are saying...

I'm glad more people are starting to realize how good Starfy is lol.

It's sad too because he really is cursed by like the most unfortunate timing ever. If a new series came out and put out five titles in the span of like seven or eight years people would think it was a lock...but because NoA got cold feet over the series being "too Japanese" and chose not to localize the first four, and then spend WAY too much on the marketing of the fifth relative to its budget to the point it couldn't recover the cost, sealing its fate...it didn't end well.

And it's a damn shame because look at him. He's just a silly little guy.

 

[pitchfulprocessing]

Man why isn't Starfy playable? He jumps, glides, spins and has a clam friend. He's perfect.

Having fun with Starfy 1! Too bad I can't understand a thing of what the characters are saying...

The Starfy games are very charming and it's a shame they were never localised for such a silly reason. NOA made some really baffling decisions in the 2000s for what to localise and market, and I can't say I see the angle that the translation costs would be too much against the potential profit given the types of games they are.

In essence, Stafy, why did you even come here?! But that's part of his charm.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

Starfy isn't playable because he's the Goldeen of Assist Trophies. Far too weak to handle being a playable character.

 

[smashkirby]

I'd love an old character... like Shun or Dr. Bosconovich brought some interesting and quirky gameplay and I'd be hyped for a character with a one-handed wrist flip body slam move.

Funny you mention Dr. Bosconovitch, as I've had the idea to have R.O.B.'s creator, Professor Hector (with Hector's assistant, Professor Vector as an Alph-styled alt. skin) be playable in Smash via piloting a R.O.B.-like mech (if he's not fighting normally, that is).

 

[DarthEnderX]

Jin is the only decent one there.

And most of the time, not even him.

Guy still incited and conducted a world war. Granted, it was to draw out a demon so he could kill it. But it doesn't change the fact that soooo many people died because of it.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

If Heihachi gets any sort of move or action that could be reinterpreted as an up special in Tekken 8, how likely do you think Heihachi will be in the next game? If he is added, do you think he'll be a semi-clone of Kazuya with all the same normals and Electric Wind God Fist shenanigans, but no Devil Gene moves or would he be more unique than that?

 

[Opossum]

Starfy isn't playable because he's the Goldeen of Assist Trophies. Far too weak to handle being a playable character.

The amount of damage Starfy's Assist Trophy has done to his public perception is ridiculous.

We're talking about a character who got the moon blasted at him by an all-powerful kaiju, and threw it right back at him.

Twice.

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

So yes, it seems like the idea that Melee helped Fire Emblem get localised is a myth. It's never brought up as an actual reason for the games being translated, and Maeda only says that Smash helped people who were familiar with the characters from Melee get interested in Fire Emblem proper, which is definitely true.

So Melee had nothing to do with it....but characters.....that people outside Japan got introduced THROUGH MELEE.....did.


That's just saying Melee is the reason with extra steps.

 

[Wonder Smash]

And most of the time, not even him.

Guy still incited and conducted a world war. Granted, it was to draw out a demon so he could kill it. But it doesn't change the fact that soooo many people died because of it.

Yeah, even though Jin had his reasons, I think it's fair to say that what he did was far worse than anything Kazuya and Heihachi did.

It also doesn't help that it was all kinda for nothing in the end because he didn't even really kill Azazel anyway.

 

[Ivander]

So Melee had nothing to do with it....but characters.....that people outside Japan got introduced THROUGH MELEE.....did.


That's just saying Melee is the reason with extra steps.

Not really. Fire Emblem was not localized because of people's interest of Fire Emblem in Melee. It was localized for other reasons, the most noted one being Advance Wars success in America. Melee getting people interested in Fire Emblem was just something that benefitted them when Fire Emblem was localized to the West.
Basically, Fire Emblem was not localized outside of Japan because of Melee getting people interested, but Melee getting people interested in Fire Emblem did benefit it when it was localized. There is a clear difference there.

 

[Sucumbio]

Funny you mention Dr. Bosconovitch, as I've had the idea to have R.O.B.'s creator, Professor Hector (with Hector's assistant, Professor Vector as an Alph-styled alt. skin) be playable in Smash via piloting a R.O.B.-like mech (if he's not fighting normally, that is).

Nice! they should explore mounted mechanics more or beyond bowser Jr and we could get a slew of awesome characters.

 

[pitchfulprocessing]

So Melee had nothing to do with it....but characters.....that people outside Japan got introduced THROUGH MELEE.....did.


That's just saying Melee is the reason with extra steps.

I think "Melee helped encourage players who were familiar with the characters from Smash to try out Fire Emblem" as opposed to "Melee was one of the primary factors leading to Fire Emblem getting localised in the West" is a pretty important distinction, especially when the latter is what's currently documented on sites like Wikipedia. It's important to make sure that history is properly documented and not misconstrued.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

I'm glad more people are starting to realize how good Starfy is lol.

It's sad too because he really is cursed by like the most unfortunate timing ever. If a new series came out and put out five titles in the span of like seven or eight years people would think it was a lock...but because NoA got cold feet over the series being "too Japanese" and chose not to localize the first four, and then spend WAY too much on the marketing of the fifth relative to its budget to the point it couldn't recover the cost, sealing its fate...it didn't end well.

And it's a damn shame because look at him. He's just a silly little guy.

Frankly what's even more shocking to me is that he wasn't even localized for PAL regions, considering they still got games like Kuru Kuru Kururin (AKA why that game is able to be released in English and man I wish Starfy had that) and Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland.

Like why is Starfy "too Japanese" but not Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland lol

 

[Diddy Kong]

The whole Fire Emblem and Melee discussion is cute.

Roy was supposed to be introduced in Melee cause the first Fire Emblem game in the West was supposed to be Fire Emblem 6, the game Roy stars in. This is why his trophy for example has his game origin being stated as "future release". But Fire Emblem 6 is notoriously difficult, that's why Intelligent Systems opted to have Fire Emblem 7 be the first western release.

Which means that Fire Emblem being brought to the west was already planned before Melee's release.

 

[Gorgonzales]

The amount of damage Starfy's Assist Trophy has done to his public perception is ridiculous.

We're talking about a character who got the moon blasted at him by an all-powerful kaiju, and threw it right back at him.

Twice.
View attachment 393330

This section is the reason I could never beat this game as a kid.

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

The whole Fire Emblem and Melee discussion is cute.

Roy was supposed to be introduced in Melee cause the first Fire Emblem game in the West was supposed to be Fire Emblem 6, the game Roy stars in. This is why his trophy for example has his game origin being stated as "future release". But Fire Emblem 6 is notoriously difficult, that's why Intelligent Systems opted to have Fire Emblem 7 be the first western release.

View attachment 393333

Which means that Fire Emblem being brought to the west was already planned before Melee's release.

Except the "Future Release" bit only applies to the PAL version of the game, not NTSC.

And we know Roy (as well as Marth) was proposed to be scrapped in the Western release of Melee. Why would that be if Roy was MEANT to come to the West during Melee's development?

 

[Diddy Kong]

Except the "Future Release" bit only applies to the PAL version of the game, not NTSC.

And we know Roy (as well as Marth) was proposed to be scrapped in the Western release of Melee. Why would that be if Roy was MEANT to come to the West during Melee's development?

Oh yeah this also happened. Guess I remember this most cause I own the PAL version. Weird they wanted Marth and Roy cut though, but decided on this "future release" as Roy's source game comment. PAL was the last released version after all.

Weird I can't find the source quote anymore stating FE6 was meant to be localized. I only read about the workload of the same team translating the script for Sacred Stones, can't understand why that's the main reason.

 

[ninjahmos]

The amount of damage Starfy's Assist Trophy has done to his public perception is ridiculous.

We're talking about a character who got the moon blasted at him by an all-powerful kaiju, and threw it right back at him.

Twice.
View attachment 393330

Yeah, well…Smash's characterizations aren't always accurate to the games they're from.

Take Fire Emblem for example.

 

[Among Waddle Dees]

The amount of damage Starfy's Assist Trophy has done to his public perception is ridiculous.

We're talking about a character who got the moon blasted at him by an all-powerful kaiju, and threw it right back at him.

Twice.
View attachment 393330

Don't be foolish. He only did it once, the second time he got killed because he didn't mash hard enough.

 

[HyperSomari64]

Yeah, well…Smash's characterizations aren't always accurate to the games they're from.

Take Fire Emblem for example.

Smash's characterization in certain characters hasn't aged well, even if they are iconic.

 

[Louie G.]

The amount of damage Starfy's Assist Trophy has done to his public perception is ridiculous.

We're talking about a character who got the moon blasted at him by an all-powerful kaiju, and threw it right back at him.

Twice.
View attachment 393330

I played Legendary Starfy on DS when I was younger, and I made it all the way up to the Mashtooth fight's last phase. But this segment was destroying me, my finger speed was just not where it needed to be so I put the game down for probably months before I came back and finished it with ease later.

The only reason I was able to complete it at all was because I played Bowser's Inside Story, and that game also forced me to test my dexterity and mash the damn buttons for the final fight. Nowadays I'm sure I wouldn't have that problem lol, but at the time it felt like such a steep difficulty curve for a game that was otherwise so easygoing and simple. I really ought to play the other games now that they're on NSO, because I've meant to check them out for a long time.

 

[Opossum]

Yeah, well…Smash's characterizations aren't always accurate to the games they're from.

Take Fire Emblem for example.

I mean, in Fire Emblem's case the two characters with characterization issues are either due to the localizers (Lucina) or due to extremely specific and non-repeatable circumstances (Roy). Four of Starfy's five games were out before Brawl's release in Japan, and the issue is present in the Japanese version.

So this is a different issue entirely imo.

 

[fogbadge]

so what we're saying is we should combine the starfy and moon assist trophies?

 

[CannonStreak]

Regarding Starfy from the earlier talk, I do agree he could work as a fighter, and he is tougher than he seems.

I would like to hear him say, "I'll do it, I'm doing it!"

Wait a minute, he never says anything like that, does he?

 

[Stratos]

Just because some video games were only released in Japan, I don't think it means that characters from there will only be in the Japanese version of Super Smash Bros. games. For example, Marth would have been in the beginning only for the Japanese version of Super Smash Bros. Melee, while not in the West because Fire Emblem only existed in Japan at the time, but as is known, they put him in eventually. Even if a video game character we don't know when we see him in the Super Smash Bros. series we can of course look it up on the internet (which of course we all do all the time). In other words, it doesn't matter if some video games were only in Japan or only in the west, because any video game character can come as a playable character in any version of the Super Smash Bros. video games, although everything I wrote is something that was not necessary to write.

 

[RodNutTakin]

This is probably an extremely unpopular opinion, but if I had the chance, I would've added Starfy in Lucas's place for Brawl.
Come to think of it, it's kind of messed up that, not counting Zero Suit Samus (who I don't think will be around much longer if cuts come back), the only GBA debuts in the entire Smash series have been derivatives of other fighters. Roy has the excuse of being a last-minute bonus addition, but it's crazy that Lucas has consistently outprioritized several other GBA debuts like Advance Wars, Golden Sun, and Starfy (and also Rhythm Tengoku, but that game was a year away when Brawl's roster was finalized). All those other series continued past the GBA, some would have worldwide releases as well, and yet the Japanese-only intended conclusion to Itoi's series won out both for Brawl and for 3DS/Wii U.
I am aware that Sakurai didn't know Mother 3 was intended to be Japan-only back in late 2005, but I'd still imagine he would be aware that Itoi intended to move on from Mother after it was done.

 

[fogbadge]

This is probably an extremely unpopular opinion, but if I had the chance, I would've added Starfy in Lucas's place for Brawl.
Come to think of it, it's kind of messed up that, not counting Zero Suit Samus (who I don't think will be around much longer if cuts come back), the only GBA debuts in the entire Smash series have been derivatives of other fighters. Roy has the excuse of being a last-minute bonus addition, but it's crazy that Lucas has consistently outprioritized several other GBA debuts like Advance Wars, Golden Sun, and Starfy (and also Rhythm Tengoku, but that game was a year away when Brawl's roster was finalized). All those other series continued past the GBA, some would have worldwide releases as well, and yet the Japanese-only intended conclusion to Itoi's series won out both for Brawl and for 3DS/Wii U.
I am aware that Sakurai didn't know Mother 3 was intended to be Japan-only back in late 2005, but I'd still imagine he would be aware that Itoi intended to move on from Mother after it was done.

well first advance wars debuted on the nes so that doesn’t count here. second the earthbound series has had a larger impact on gaming as a whole be it directly or indirectly

 

[SPEN18]

This is probably an extremely unpopular opinion, but if I had the chance, I would've added Starfy in Lucas's place for Brawl.
Come to think of it, it's kind of messed up that, not counting Zero Suit Samus (who I don't think will be around much longer if cuts come back), the only GBA debuts in the entire Smash series have been derivatives of other fighters. Roy has the excuse of being a last-minute bonus addition, but it's crazy that Lucas has consistently outprioritized several other GBA debuts like Advance Wars, Golden Sun, and Starfy (and also Rhythm Tengoku, but that game was a year away when Brawl's roster was finalized). All those other series continued past the GBA, some would have worldwide releases as well, and yet the Japanese-only intended conclusion to Itoi's series won out both for Brawl and for 3DS/Wii U.
I am aware that Sakurai didn't know Mother 3 was intended to be Japan-only back in late 2005, but I'd still imagine he would be aware that Itoi intended to move on from Mother after it was done.

Unfortunately a big part of this is simply extremely suboptimal timing with Melee being too early for most GBA characters to be eligible and Brawl coming out too far after many characters'/series' periods of peak relevance. The Smash roster being much smaller in Brawl than it is now didn't help, either.

But yeah, it can be frustrating to see certain characters not given their dues by the community, or dismissed as unsalvageably obscure from some of the same crowds hailing the likes of Lucas or Roy as bona fide all stars.

That said, it's largely up to the fans to continue to draw attention to past victims of the bad timing bug. Thankfully, the likes of Golden Sun prove it possible to achieve that sort of community breakout, while some of the late-Switch revivals have offered at least a little bit of hope that a longstanding candidate could eventually return to the limelight.

 

[RodNutTakin]

Unfortunately a big part of this is simply extremely suboptimal timing with Melee being too early for most GBA characters to be eligible and Brawl coming out too far after many characters'/series' periods of peak relevance. The Smash roster being much smaller in Brawl than it is now didn't help, either.

But yeah, it can be frustrating to see certain characters not given their dues by the community, or dismissed as unsalvageably obscure from some of the same crowds hailing the likes of Lucas or Roy as bona fide all stars.

That said, it's largely up to the fans to continue to draw attention to past victims of the bad timing bug. Thankfully, the likes of Golden Sun prove it possible to achieve that sort of community breakout, while some of the late-Switch revivals have offered at least a little bit of hope that a longstanding candidate could eventually return to the limelight.

I wouldn't say Brawl was "too far" internally per se. Remember, the roster was finalized in late 2005. At the time, the last Starfy game released up to that point was only a year old, and 4 on the DS was likely in development. Advance Wars: Dual Strike was only out for a few months at that point as well. Though in fairness, Golden Sun's last installment was three years ago at that point in Japan (America got it a year later), and Dark Dawn was five years away.
I personally think it makes Lucas a bit more egregious, since that meant he was decided before his own game even came out, which historically has only otherwise happened with Fire Emblem and Pokemon characters. Between this and how we know he was planned as early as Melee, it very much reeks of Sakurai being ridiculously eager to have Lucas's game in his product.

 

[Undella2]

I wouldn't say Brawl was "too far" internally per se. Remember, the roster was finalized in late 2005. At the time, the last Starfy game released up to that point was only a year old, and 4 on the DS was likely in development. Advance Wars: Dual Strike was only out for a few months at that point as well. Though in fairness, Golden Sun's last installment was three years ago at that point in Japan (America got it a year later), and Dark Dawn was five years away.
I personally think it makes Lucas a bit more egregious, since that meant he was decided before his own game even came out, which historically has only otherwise happened with Fire Emblem and Pokemon characters. Between this and how we know he was planned as early as Melee, it very much reeks of Sakurai being ridiculously eager to have Lucas's game in his product.

Is Sakurai known to be/have been a large fan of the Earthbound/Mother series?

 

[Louie G.]

I personally think it makes Lucas a bit more egregious, since that meant he was decided before his own game even came out, which historically has only otherwise happened with Fire Emblem and Pokemon characters. Between this and how we know he was planned as early as Melee, it very much reeks of Sakurai being ridiculously eager to have Lucas's game in his product.

No offense, but does this even matter anymore? Mother 3 came out and it was a beloved game. Sakurai had enough confidence in Itoi to deliver a fantastic product and he did, so I don't see it as too valuable to harp on almost 20 years later. And doubly irrelevant to me that Mother didn't have a future after Mother 3, because I believe great games should be able to stand in their own right and Mother should not be punished for knowing when to quit. I think Starfy would have been cool and all but I just don't jive with the thought process here at all.

Not to mention Mother 3 had been in development for years, since minimally 1999, and a fair amount of footage had been released at this point. He wasn't exactly hedging his bets on an unknown project, Mother 3 had a presence for 6 years prior to the roster plan and I think it'd be hard to say they didn't know what they were dealing with by then. Plus... it was from HAL, Sakurai definitely had the inside scoop. The main reason Lucas was being considered for Melee was to replace Ness, and what we can surmise is that Mother was set to be treated like Pokemon and Fire Emblem but simply did not have the release window consistency.

Say what you will about like... Byleth as well, but Three Houses was a success too. Roy is maybe the most egregious example out of any of these because he's the only one who actually predates his game's release, but otherwise Sakurai has been pretty tactical with the way these kind of characters are implemented. I don't love it either, but it feels kind of useless to complain about now that the games came out to critical acclaim.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

While I do agree that it's odd that the GBA has been kinda rough for Smash characters, just having ZSS, Roy, and Lucas, Starfy wasn't exactly in a great position either. His third game had just come out and he wouldn't come stateside until 2009, but Mother 3 was coming off of Earthbound which did release in the states previously.

Sakurai has said he probably wouldn't have added Lucas if he knew Mother 3 wasn't coming to the West (I'm pretty sure at least, correct me if I'm wrong), so he probably assumed it would based on Earthbound being released in the West. On the other side, he had no reason to believe Starfy would come to the west any time soon in 2005 when his first THREE games didn't make the jump, so why would he add Starfy instead?

Don't get me wrong, love the little guy obviously, but he was in the same boat as Lucas but with literally no previous Western release to fall back on.

Also not sure what you'd add from it but the DS technically got it even worse since it only has Lucario and it's the second best selling game system of all time lol

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Honestly, I don't even think are bad choices for the GBA.

It's just that there should be a lot more GBA characters. The GBA was a time where so many new franchises found life. To have our only GBA characters be from already existing series is a bit sad. But, that's not a bad number honestly.

Aside from the NES and SNES and N64, who have dozens of characters, most recent consoles only have a handful of characters that debut from them.

GBA:
NGC:
DS:
Wii:
3DS:
Wii U:
Switch:

Most only have a few, and the 3DS has an almost unnatural amount.
The DS absolutely got it worst though. Poor is all alone and the DS is a hugely successful console. The Wii U may suffer a similar fate with but at least that console is widely known to be a failure.

 

[Arcanir]

A bit of a fun fact to add to Swamp's post: If you include character swap costumes then the Wii U and GBA's situation slightly improves as they get and respectively. The DS however still remains at one as Lucario is the only character, costume or not, that debuted on the console.

You know the DS' situation is dire if the Wii U is beating it.

 

[RodNutTakin]

Is Sakurai known to be/have been a large fan of the Earthbound/Mother series?

Obviously I can't make an aboslute answer since I haven't really researched the man on that end, but I'd say it would be a reasonable guess considering he used to work at the company that helped finish EarthBound back then. Of course, that honestly makes me realize how Ness could've easily been left behind if Smash was done by any other Nintendo devteam besides probably Game Freak or APE itself. Crazy, that.

No offense, but does this even matter anymore? Mother 3 came out and it was a beloved game. Sakurai had enough confidence in Itoi to deliver a fantastic product and he did, so I don't see it as too valuable to harp on almost 20 years later. And doubly irrelevant to me that Mother didn't have a future after Mother 3, because I believe great games should be able to stand in their own right and Mother should not be punished for knowing when to quit. I think Starfy would have been cool and all but I just don't jive with the thought process here at all.

Not to mention Mother 3 had been in development for years, since minimally 1999, and a fair amount of footage had been released at this point. He wasn't exactly hedging his bets on an unknown project, Mother 3 had a presence for 6 years prior to the roster plan and I think it'd be hard to say they didn't know what they were dealing with by then. Plus... it was from HAL, Sakurai definitely had the inside scoop. The main reason Lucas was being considered for Melee was to replace Ness, and what we can surmise is that Mother was set to be treated like Pokemon and Fire Emblem but simply did not have the release window consistency.

Say what you will about like... Byleth as well, but Three Houses was a success too. Roy is maybe the most egregious example out of any of these because he's the only one who actually predates his game's release, but otherwise Sakurai has been pretty tactical with the way these kind of characters are implemented. I don't love it either, but it feels kind of useless to complain about now that the games came out to critical acclaim.

Well, to be fair, my conversation started with me talking about what I would've done differently with Brawl. I get the angle of doing it to honor Itoi for wrapping up a series the way he wanted, I guess it just feels strange since Lucas is the odd one out amongst Smash's "picked before their game came out" lineup, being from a series that was still pretty underground back in the early 00s, compared to Fire Emblem, which was a consistent trucker in Japan, and...well, Pokemon. Though I do feel that I can still comment on how it was a bit strange that Sakurai was intending to outright replace Ness with him in Melee, since there is no indication that anyone else in 64 was also drafted to be cycled out for someone new. Not even Jigglypuff, who I could have seen being replaced with, say, Marill or Meowth.

While I do agree that it's odd that the GBA has been kinda rough for Smash characters, just having ZSS, Roy, and Lucas, Starfy wasn't exactly in a great position either. His third game had just come out and he wouldn't come stateside until 2009, but Mother 3 was coming off of Earthbound which did release in the states previously.

Sakurai has said he probably wouldn't have added Lucas if he knew Mother 3 wasn't coming to the West (I'm pretty sure at least, correct me if I'm wrong), so he probably assumed it would based on Earthbound being released in the West. On the other side, he had no reason to believe Starfy would come to the west any time soon in 2005 when his first THREE games didn't make the jump, so why would he add Starfy instead?

Don't get me wrong, love the little guy obviously, but he was in the same boat as Lucas but with literally no previous Western release to fall back on.

Also not sure what you'd add from it but the DS technically got it even worse since it only has Lucario and it's the second best selling game system of all time lol

I'll be honest, the "not in the West" factor does stink, but I have to concede that Brawl's scope with its roster probably played a major factor into it. If the game had, say, a cast of 45, I wonder if things would be different.
...now that I say that, I honestly wonder how different Brawl would've been without Subspace eating up resources and time. That's definitely a "what-if" I'd like to see someone explore.

 

[CannonStreak]

You know, speaking of, I would like to see western characters made by Nintendo be put into Smash alongside characters from Japan only, so they could fight each other, not that one is better than the other, but...

Give me my Mike Jones vs. Sukapon, god damnit!

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

Just out of curiocity, I tried to make a list of franchises that appeared on the Game Boy and it's sequels just to see how it shakes out for characters and here's what I came up with (Bold is, to my knowledge, a series debut):

Spoiler

Game Boy	Game Boy Color	Game Bow Advance
Pokémon	Super Mario	Super Mario
Kirby	The Legend of Zelda	Yoshi
Advance Wars	Pokémon	Magical Starsign
Super Mario	Wario Land/WarioWare	Earthbound
The Legend of Zelda	Card Hero	Golden Sun
Donkey Kong	Balloon Fight	Kururin
Sports	Donkey Kong	Kirby
F-1 Race	Game & Watch	Drill Dozer
Metroid		Advance Wars
Wario Land/WarioWare		Fire Emblem
Alleyway		Wario Land/WarioWare
Solar Striker		F-Zero
Balloon Fight		Donkey Kong
Radar Mission		Excitebike
Game & Watch		Ice Climber
Kid Icarus		Metroid
Mole Mania		Balloon Fight
Wave Race		Clu Clu Land
Yoshi		Kid Icarus
		Shin Onigashima
		Rhythm Heaven
		Custom Robo
		The Legendary Starfy

Obviously the big franchises (Pokémon, Kirby, Mario, etc.) got characters, and from day one. WarioWare is the only series that debuted on these consoles that got a character. Golden Sun, Kururin, Drill Dozer, and The Legendary Starfy all got Assist Trophies in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (likely because they were still fairly fresh), but Isaac and Starfy are the only characters that have stuck around till today, and Isaac was even cut once.

I'm not really sure I have any opinion on this. It's just interesting.

 

[DarthEnderX]

No offense, but does this even matter anymore? Mother 3 came out and it was a beloved game.

Not anymore, no. But it was a lame pick at the time. You can't get any more promotional than "game that isn't even out yet".

The GBA was a time where so many new franchises found life.

Is it? I mostly remember it as the "SNES remakes/throwback sequels" machine. And I loved it for that.