Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[superprincess]

Come on, why are we even entertaining the idea of a "One character per series!" roster. That's never happening.

Bowser may not be the protagonist of his series, but he's more recognizable than anyone who isn't Mario, Pikachu or Steve (debatably).

 

[dezeray112]

My top three most wanted Capcom characters are Zero, Guile, and Vega. Of those, I think Zero has by far the best chance. Guile would have a decent shot down the line but I don’t think he’s getting in before Chun-Li as the third Street Fighter rep. Vega has basically no chance since he’s a relatively minor character. I do think Zero has a lot going for him already having a presence in Smash as both an assist trophy and Mii costume.

Here is my top three most wanted Capcom characters:

1. Chun-Li
2. Someone from Resident Evil (between Jill or Leon)
3. Would love to see someone from the Darkstalkers franchise (even though the chances of that happening is slim.)

Bonus: Arthur, Edward Falcon, Strider Hiryu, Zero.

In a scale to 1 to 10 what are the chances we can get other Final Fantasy games music in the games like FF6, FF15 , FF8...? Without a fighter.

Maybe somewhere on the middle of the scale?

Will say coming from someone who is a long time fan of the music of Final Fantasy games, they do have plenty of iconic tracks in which my personal favourites are mostly from FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFX and FFX-2.

 

[DKing]

Jinx

Jinx is a sleeper pick. I m not really into LoL but Jinx is the mascot of LoL right?

 

[WeirdChillFever]

I've seen almost everyone make their own potential Smash 6 rosters on here, and I thought I'd try my hand at it. Here it is:

View attachment 394428

I know it's not really that great, but consider it my first attempt.

Gonna be interesting to see how Kong Samus plays.

 

[Will]

Come on, why are we even entertaining the idea of a "One character per series!" roster. That's never happening.

Because we can?
Because it’s fun?
Because we’re all losers, geeks, and/or dweebs with nothing better to do with our free time?

You’re in the speculation thread I honestly don’t know what kind of answer youre looking for

 

[Gengar84]

Jinx is a sleeper pick. I m not really into LoL but Jinx is the mascot of LoL right?

She’s definitely one of the major characters. I’m only familiar with the series through Arcane and spinoff games like Ruined King so I can’t say for sure if there’s one true face. I know Ahri, Yasuo and Vi are all pretty important characters as well. There’s probably others I’m missing but I feel like those are the top four if you take all media into consideration and not just the main game.

 

[smashkirby]

I've seen almost everyone make their own potential Smash 6 rosters on here, and I thought I'd try my hand at it. Here it is:

View attachment 394428

I know it's not really that great, but consider it my first attempt.

Ngl, if Smash was condemned to such a small roster for the next game and THIS was said roster?

While I'm bummed by no Ice Climbers, Mewtwo, Roy and Bowser Jr. (and the Koopalings)... Heck, I legit could live with this.

 

[Shinuto]

I've seen almost everyone make their own potential Smash 6 rosters on here, and I thought I'd try my hand at it. Here it is:

View attachment 394428

I know it's not really that great, but consider it my first attempt.

Its got Shantae, so I love it

 

[BritishGuy54]

The bigger question is that if they can bring Ryan Reynolds.

To be fair, imagining Deadpool in Smash would be kind of funny.

 

[Kirbeh]

Ah, sorry, I think I missed that part. It sounded like you were in favor of three extra Miis specifically, not three extra custom characters like the Miis. That makes more sense; With that in mind I was probably too harsh in my response.

Three customizable characters would be interesting, but I dunno how much customization we could afford for such series-specific archetypes. At that point we might as well get more alts and bring back custom specials for every character. But regardless, I can see the appeal of having a select few focused movesets instead of trying to cover every base in a single moveset. The weapons themselves are treated almost like fighting game characters, with their own ins and outs and unique gimmicks.

Personally, my favorite Monster Hunter concept is this one, where each special switches you to a simplified moveset with a different weapon. It's essentially a stance character, but it doesn't overload the moveset by cramming in three other entire movesets.

There was a problem fetching the tweet

Yeah, I remember this one. It really is impressive how "official" they managed to make it feel.

That said, I'd personally still prefer the multiple character route.

The biggest issue would probably be what weapon types to center the core move sets around, but like I said earlier, I think the bow and bowguns make for easy special move material without feeling intrusive to whatever "main" weapon they get paired with.

I feel like the Great Sword and Dual Blades are musts but deciding on a third is a bit tricker. I honestly think the Sword and Shield combo might be for the best if only because you could try incorporating the Lance and Gun Lance since those also come with a shield.

That and I think it strikes a good balance between a speedy DB hunter, a slow and heavy GS hunter and the S&S hunter being the balanced in between.

Given how tricky it can be to balance characters with custom moves though, I do think it'd probably be for the best to give them set moves. Though it would be nice if you could still have some limited customization options for their appearance and armor.

In a scale to 1 to 10 what are the chances we can get other Final Fantasy games music in the games like FF6, FF15 , FF8...? Without a fighter.

A Type-0 out of X-2.

 

[pitchfulprocessing]

Personally, my favorite Monster Hunter concept is this one, where each special switches you to a simplified moveset with a different weapon. It's essentially a stance character, but it doesn't overload the moveset by cramming in three other entire movesets.

There was a problem fetching the tweet

I've never seen this before. Watching it now, I have to say this has sold me more on the concept of a Monster Hunter as a playable character more than any of the other pitches I've seen since Ultimate have lol. Obviously the visuals go a long way there but I really like the ideas presented.

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

-snip-

Let's just agree to disagree here.
None of your arguments presented make any sort of logical sense to me, especially the whole "pragmatism" thing and we'd just be endlessly going in circles since we're not going to be seeing eye to eye.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

Oh so you want that okay here:
View attachment 394420
I still kept most of the important characters! But donkey and diddy now share a spot!
Ganondorf is now Ganon!
And avatar characters are gone!
Even Pikachu evolved!
And guess whos missing? Falcon punch man!
Heck i even replaced the Smash 4 3 thirdpartys with other similar characters!

The funny thing is my biggest objection to this roster is having Dixie paired with Kiddy. Numerous Nintendo IP's and third parties being utterly decimated from Smash on a scale that would outrage 99% of fans I can almost tolerate, but her being stuck with the toddler? It's a bridge too far.

 

[SharkLord]

Oh so you want that okay here:
View attachment 394420
I still kept most of the important characters! But donkey and diddy now share a spot!
Ganondorf is now Ganon!
And avatar characters are gone!
Even Pikachu evolved!
And guess whos missing? Falcon punch man!
Heck i even replaced the Smash 4 3 thirdpartys with other similar characters!

I don't want to dogpile, but... To be honest, a lot of this feels like changes for the sake of being different rather than adding popular or relevant characters. A lot of the cut veterans are genuinely popular; There's a reason they were added in the first place, and people would be bummed to see them go. I also don't see a reason to cut avatar characters when a lot of them are fairly popular and represent their game pretty well.

1. Peach is a massive loss, especially seeing as she got a game to herself in Showtime recently. It was a spinoff, yeah, but that's a lot more than many characters can ever hope for. Captain Toad's understandable, I suppose, seeing as both Captain Toad and regular Toad show up quite a bit, but I don't think they'd take priority over Peach
2. The Donkey Kong/Diddy Kong duo seem like a rather arbitrary way of squeezing in more Kongs; I think they'd work better separate. Dixie's understandable, but I don't think Kiddy would wow a lot of people, and either way King K. Rool would definitely be missed
3. Focusing on the Toon incarnations of Link and Zelda feels weird. Those designs were mainly for smaller handheld titles, and have kinda been phased out by the Switch era. They'd especially stick out next to normally proportioned Impa. Octorok would be a fun "what the hell" pick when backed up by more recognizeable characters, but with so many big names missing, he just sticks out like a sore thumb. I'm chill with Pig Ganon though, no complaints there
4. The Metroids could have an interesting evolution mechanic, but prioritizing a second mook fighter is a bit odd. With the Metroid I think that might need a bit of elaboration to securely sell me on it. That said, if you want to keep at least mook character around, I'd say go with the Metroid
5. I'm all for Bandana Dee, but no Meta Knight is a hard sell. Dark Matter's seen a decent amount of sendups over the years, but they haven't seen a starring role in over 20 years. I don't see a world where Meta Knight gets sacrificed for the nefarious evil eye.
6. Y'know what I'll let you have Raichu. He's cute. Like an electric teddy bear. The other three Pokemon seem to be fairly popular and could possibly stand on their own, but I dunno, I don't think they would be the top three choices for Pokemon overall. Arceus would certainly be interesting to see, at least.
7. Fire Emblem's pretty prolific nowadays; Only two fighters from the older games won't cut it. At the very least I'd expect something from Three Houses, which brought about the big newbie boom.
8. Tom Nook makes sense, but cutting both Villager AND Isabelle, less so. Those two are pretty consistently used as the face of Animal Crossing, and I really don't think they'll be cut.
9. Having some of the idols I can understand, but I really don't see any of them replacing the Inkling, especially when we get three newcomers. It also feels weird to have one idol from a duo but not the other, especially when we have two idols in here.
10. To make it brief, the replacement of Ness, Olimar, Min Min, Pac-Man, and especially Steve just feels like being different for the sake of it. Insisting on Classic Sonic over Modern Sonic, who is used significantly more often, is also pretty odd. Mega Man X, though, he's fine. MMX is quite popular in it's own right and I can see X show up instead of Mega Man, even if the OG Mega's more likely.

I've never seen this before. Watching it now, I have to say this has sold me more on the concept of a Monster Hunter as a playable character more than any of the other pitches I've seen since Ultimate have lol. Obviously the visuals go a long way there but I really like the ideas presented.

Yeah, it definitely helps to see something visualized. You can explain what a character does, but that doesn't necessarily explain how it's all gonna come together.

Yeah, I remember this one. It really is impressive how "official" they managed to make it feel.

That said, I'd personally still prefer the multiple character route.

The biggest issue would probably be what weapon types to center the core move sets around, but like I said earlier, I think the bow and bowguns make for easy special move material without feeling intrusive to whatever "main" weapon they get paired with.

I feel like the Great Sword and Dual Blades are musts but deciding on a third is a bit tricker. I honestly think the Sword and Shield combo might be for the best if only because you could try incorporating the Lance and Gun Lance since those also come with a shield.

That and I think it strikes a good balance between a speedy DB hunter, a slow and heavy GS hunter and the S&S hunter being the balanced in between.

Given how tricky it can be to balance characters with custom moves though, I do think it'd probably be for the best to give them set moves. Though it would be nice if you could still have some limited customization options for their appearance and armor.

I'd personally prefer a single Hunter with a select handful of weapons, but if I'm playing along and choosing three playable hunters... I'd choose Switch Axe (Axe Form), Switch Axe (Sword Form), and Switch Axe (Amped State)

Speaking seriously, the Greatsword is all but guaranteed. After that, I'd go out on a limb and say we should have a distinct Gunner weapon to represent the ranged weapons. The Bow might be the easiest to manage for that, since the Hunter swings their giant arrows like a spear for some attacks, and it might be easier to round out their whole kit than the Bowguns. After that? I think we have some free space. I dunno how popular the Dual Blades are, but they'd make sense, rounding out a Swift/Heavy/Zoner trio.

Alternatively, I'd suggest a mechanical weapon; They're not as omnipresent as Weapons That Are Just Really Friggin Big, but I think they make up a big part of Monster Hunter's identity of insane weapons used to fight insane monsters. The Gunlance would probably communicate that the best, being a giant Lance that is also a Gun and shoots explosions, sometimes shooting behind you to act as a makeshift rocket. I'd also support the Switch Axe just because I main it; Plus, it would be neat to see a character that doesn't change, but switches stances by changing the weapon. The Zero-Sum Elemental Discharge might need to be reworked a bit, since the Smash cast wouldn't be nearly big enough to be ridden like a bucking bronco, but it could still be reworked into a nasty command grab.

We could also have the Rise Longsword as a comically overpowered boss fight

 

[TheLamerGamer]

So... NoA retweeted an IGN post. So they went silent for ages for absolutely no reason. OK. Great.

 

[cashregister9]

So... NoA retweeted an IGN post. So they went silent for ages for absolutely no reason. OK. Great.

Over thinking Nintendo's tweet schedule

We are so back 🥹

 

[AreJay25]

So... NoA retweeted an IGN post. So they went silent for ages for absolutely no reason. OK. Great.

"Ah yes, IGN is hosting an event for Echoes of Wisdom, everyone. Please pay no attention to the article on their website talking about leaks for our new system."

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

Unrelated to the current stuff but something interesting

Freedom Wars was a Vita exclusive game partly developed by the Sony first-party Japan Studio and which was published by SIE themselves, it's an IP Sony owns. Apparently the director wanted to do a remaster, and was given permission by Sony to use the license and have it be published by Bandai Namco. It's notable because the game is coming to Switch, despite not coming to Xbox as a Sony first-party IP. I know people were speculating that Lego Horizon being on Switch was a demand by Lego, but this would indicate that Sony is willing to at least put some of their smaller IPs/older titles on Switch. So like, take that as you will.

I'm curious if this is on some level an acknowledgement of the current reality of the Japanese market and that the IP's best chance for sales back home is on the Switch. Even some money going to Nintendo from the Switch version would still be preferable to far less money going to Sony as the licensee if it were to (likely) undersell without a Switch port.

 

[ninjahmos]

If Mike Jones (StarTropics) ever got into Smash, I think a remix of Overworld/Dungeon might suit him.

 

[Dukefire]

With the Playstation and Xbox consoles being so far advanced in hardware and fewer games to follow, they have to start looking at alternatives to compensate and repair the damages. Plus, the questionable choices that led to games that aren't wanted and/or half-baked.

Of course, not exactly like the scenario of this spongebob clip.

 

[Guynamednelson]

With the Playstation and Xbox consoles being so far advanced in hardware

Not that people are actually making use of that so-far-advanced hardware. Even Astro Bot's main reason for being PS5 exclusive is that it makes use of the adaptive triggers and touchpad in the PS5's controller rather than its visuals.

 

[Jave]

Come on, why are we even entertaining the idea of a "One character per series!" roster. That's never happening.

Bowser may not be the protagonist of his series, but he's more recognizable than anyone who isn't Mario, Pikachu or Steve (debatably).

Because it's exactly that. Entertaining. You know, for fun.

I don't think anyone here legitimately believes the next Smash game (or ANY future Smash directed by Sakurai) is going to have such a massively downsized, restricted roster. In fact I'll say anything below 60 characters is downright unrealistic for a Base Roster.

But sometimes it's just fun to speculate or come up with crazy "What if" scenarios. If people want to come up with "One character per series" rosters, who am I to cut on their enjoyment?

 

[Dukefire]

Not that people are actually making use of that so-far-advanced hardware. Even Astro Bot's main reason for being PS5 exclusive is that it makes use of the adaptive triggers and touchpad in the PS5's controller rather than its visuals.

It could be also applied to Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart. As it was one of the games that followed with the PS5's launch.

 

[BritishGuy54]

With the Playstation and Xbox consoles being so far advanced in hardware and fewer games to follow, they have to start looking at alternatives to compensate and repair the damages. Plus, the questionable choices that led to games that aren't wanted and/or half-baked.

Of course, not exactly like the scenario of this spongebob clip.

Microsoft has already begun putting some of its games on other systems, such as PC, PS, and Switch.

I think Sony will continue bringing games to PC, but I doubt they bring some games to Switch unless something big happens, like Marvel forcing their hand or the PS6 tanks, both of which seem unlikely.

 

[Dukefire]

Microsoft has already begun putting some of its games on other systems, such as PC, PS, and Switch.

I think Sony will continue bringing games to PC, but I doubt they bring some games to Switch unless something big happens, like Marvel forcing their hand or the PS6 tanks, both of which seem unlikely.

True. Though, Ubisoft's situation looks worse compared to Sony and Microsoft.

 

[SharkLord]

Since we're posting a couple rosters, I might as well drop mine

My previous rosters were here, for reference:

-snip-

-snap-

But I wasn't that satisfied with it. Firstly, I had to cut a crapload of third-parties, since I was juggling veterans, Switch-era newcomers, and hotly requested newcomers. Second, because I wanted at least some third-party presence, I resorted to cheating and upped the roster count to 64. A 60-fighter roster was already pushing the suspension of disbelief for a game, and I really didn't want to go above that. And third, I just don't like how I arranged the roster, due to the awkward number I got when factoring in Echo Fighters.

So I started over again; Since I was preserving more veterans, I operated on the idea that series would only get three fighters initially (Not counting Echoes, who aren't counted as a full fighter); Some series were slated to get even less than that anyways, so I had some free spaces to work with. This also had the effect of massively downsizing the Mario, Pokemon, and Fire Emblem casts - The largest in Ultimate's roster - to only four unique fighters each, as well as trimming down the different iterations of Link and Zelda. I was also intending to primarily focus on first-parties, with third-parties being treated more as guest characters, at least for the base game. Even so, I had settled on a set of eight third-parties I was dead-set on keeping.

This led to a couple sacrifices that I wanted to keep around - Namely, Andy and Ayumi. Their games weren't blockbusters, but they represent the revival of old dormant IPs, and I wanted to represent that. Unfortunately, there just wasn't enough space, and those two weren't of the highest priority. I also genuinely forgot to add the Mii as a separate character, so let's pretend there's a more in-depth character creator off-screen that incorporates the Miis as a customization option.

Also the roster maker I was using was finicky as hell so I needed exactly ten Echo Fighters or else it wouldn't make a perfect rectangle. Specifically I worked in Blood Falcon and Sylux to hit that quota. They're literal roster filler. Point and laugh at them.

Honestly I'm pretty proud of how this turned out. I think I managed to find a good balance of veterans, Switch-era characters, longstanding requests, and third-parties; I also want to say I kept this roster somewhat realistic, while still having a couple fun but less likely choices to let it stand out. I'd write up a larger rundown of my choices, cuts, and reasoning, but I want to hear what everyone thinks of this. So, I'll post this here and respond to any questions as they come.

(Also since it might not be obvious: Zelda's supposed to draw from Echoes of Wisdom, but there wasn't a non-chibi image of Echoes Zelda that wouldn't stick out from the other Zelda characters; Pearl is present in Marina's moveset as an assist character; And Echo Fighters are given a bit more freedom in working in more unique attacks and specials, but are still at most semiclones)

 

[NintenRob]

Come on, why are we even entertaining the idea of a "One character per series!" roster. That's never happening.

Bowser may not be the protagonist of his series, but he's more recognizable than anyone who isn't Mario, Pikachu or Steve (debatably).

We need a Bowser game so he can be the sole rep of that series

Luigi has Luigi's Mansion
Peach has Showtime

Give Bowser his own game


(I wonder how many veterans you could bring back using loopholes like this)

 

[fogbadge]

We need a Bowser game so he can be the sole rep of that series

Luigi has Luigi's Mansion
Peach has Showtime

Give Bowser his own game


(I wonder how many veterans you could bring back using loopholes like this)

a for fun roster can have all the loopholes you can come up with

 

[HyperSomari64]

We need a Bowser game so he can be the sole rep of that series

Luigi has Luigi's Mansion
Peach has Showtime

Give Bowser his own game


(I wonder how many veterans you could bring back using loopholes like this)

Pull a Donkey Kong Country, and make the Bowser we all know and love into a senile, grumpy grand dad; while the new protagonist is his grandson.
And Bowser Jr. will be mysteriously absent

 

[SharkLord]

We need a Bowser game so he can be the sole rep of that series

Luigi has Luigi's Mansion
Peach has Showtime

Give Bowser his own game


(I wonder how many veterans you could bring back using loopholes like this)

Probably just the Mario cast, honestly. When building up my roster, I found Mario was the only series to actively count the subseries separately... Unless you count, like, Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe specifically, which I'd doubt. This also meant the greater Mario cast laughed at my self-imposed "three-to-four characters a series, plus Echoes" rule; Counting Yoshi, Donkey Kong, and Wario, I ended up with 11 unique Mario fighters, on top of being the only series above four unique reps. Bunch'a cheaters, I say

 

[ninjahmos]

I still think, if Snake makes it into the next game and they were to include both his MGS1 and MGS2 designs and the Tuxedo, Big Boss/Naked Snake (MGS3) would make a nice alt, and I'm not talking about that camo recolor of Solid Snake's suit.

 

[NintenRob]

Here's my roster that only uses one rep per franchise

-Super Mario
-Luigi's Mansion
-Showtime
-Mario & Luigi (he's totally the main character of this franchise)
-Mario Kart (she's on the title screen of the best selling game, that makes her the main character)
-Mario vs Donkey Kong
-(Donkey Kong Country, he's playable in more of them)
-Legend of Zelda
-Four Swords
-Hyrule Warriors
-Hyrule Historia
-Metroid
-The Baby YouTube poops
-Metroid Prime
-NintendoLand
-Kirby
-Dedede's Drum Dash
-Meta Knightmare
-Yoshi's Island
-Star Fox
-LylatWars
-Starlink: Battle for Atlus (our first third party
-Pokemon
-Detective Pikachu
-Pokemon: The Movie
-Pokemon Ranger
-Pokken
-Pokemon Unite
-Fire Emblem
-Super Smash Bros
-Gymshark
The rest-too boring to go over, assume you've been cut if you're not the main character

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

"Nintendo's probably staying silent because the Switch 2 is about to be revealed"

Nintendo after silence

There was a problem fetching the tweet

 

[AreJay25]

"Nintendo's probably staying silent because the Switch 2 is about to be revealed"

Nintendo after silence

There was a problem fetching the tweet

Ah, so this is the real Nintendo Direct of the month.

 

[SharkLord]

"Nintendo's probably staying silent because the Switch 2 is about to be revealed"

Nintendo after silence

There was a problem fetching the tweet

I dunno, maybe Nintendo thought shooting down PalWorld when it was at it's apex of surprise popularity would be bad optics and they wanted to wait until the backlash would be minimized. Or maybe the legal experts just took that long to sort through the files. Who knows.

All I can say about PalWorld is that I heard almost zero discussion about the game itself, just the "Pokemon with guns and slaves" controversy and the "bootleg Pokemon designs and probably traced models" controversy. It did great financially and generated a lot of debate, but once the initial drama died down I guess it just had nothing memorable

Ah, so this is the real Nintendo Direct of the month.

"Nintendo Ninjas sent Directly to your house"

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

View attachment 394436
I dunno, maybe Nintendo thought shooting down PalWorld when it was at it's apex of surprise popularity would be bad optics and they wanted to wait until the backlash would be minimized. Or maybe the legal experts just took that long to sort through the files. Who knows.

All I can say about PalWorld is that I heard almost zero discussion about the game itself, just the "Pokemon with guns and slaves" controversy and the "bootleg Pokemon designs and probably traced models" controversy. It did great financially and generated a lot of debate, but once the initial drama died down I guess it just had nothing memorable

"Nintendo Ninjas sent Directly to your house"

I'd imagine there was also a long process of going through what data and information they have to find which patents they believe are being infringed. Its not unlike how certain game companies will actually allow some fan games enough development if only to have even stronger evidence for an eventual cease and desist.

 

[Gorgonzales]

"Nintendo's probably staying silent because the Switch 2 is about to be revealed"

Nintendo after silence

There was a problem fetching the tweet

Reminds me of that one guy on this thread earlier this year that was trying to gas up the chances of Palworld content getting in Smash. Always thought the prospect was dumb but I guess now we've got a resounding "no".

 

[Kirbeh]

I guess it just had nothing memorable

Nah, it's a decent game in its own right, but it's basically Ark/Conan Exiles + (not) Pokémon. An odd combination that somehow works but it was always going to be more of a niche thing, People are still playing and it's still getting decently frequent updates. Things around it are quiet because:

• People who played it for a more Pokémon style experience, obviously didn't find what they were looking for and moved on.
• The initial drama, meme coverage and Pokémon comparisons have died down.
• Its appeal is niche, so there's a natural drop-off in player count after the former two factors.
• Mostly small content updates and fixes. No major additional content has been added yet to drum up further interest.

 

[Will]

Give Bowser his own game

Argue semantics with me all you want, this is a really good game with Bowser as a main character regardless of what counts as a “Bowser game”.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

Something I will say is that developers can be very specific about gameplay mechanics that are patented. If Bandai Namco can literally own having a mini game during a loading screen for a few years, then Nintendo having some very narrow gameplay interaction under lock and key that Palworld may have even inadvertently infringed on would not surprise me in the least. I'm not saying it's right, but especially in Japan it's something very strongly enforced.