Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[Perkilator]

Last row - Purple-haired girl I don't know the name of, Waluigi, Dixie, Crash, and Pauline.

Second row: Chun-Li, Dixie, Crash, Marina (idk if it's the one from Mischief Makers or Splatoon, but bonus if it's the latter), and Estelle.

1. The purple haired girl is Athena Asamiya from Psycho Soldier / King of Fighters
2. By Marina, I mean from Splatoon (I added ft. Pearl Drone)

 

[Gorgonzales]

Alear​	Aigis​	Ayumi Tachibana​	Alucard​	Bandana Waddle Dee​
Chun-Li​	Dixie Kong​	Crash Bandicoot​	Marina ft. Pearl Drone​	Estelle Bright​
Meowscarada​	Kratos​	FREE SPACE​	Lloyd Irving​	Noah & Mio​
Nakoruru​	Oatchi​	Shadow the Hedgehog​	Raven Beak​	Shantae​
Ring Fit Trainee​	Sol Badguy​	Tom Nook​	Master Chief​	Waluigi​

Diagonally this way: /

Oatchi and Bandana Dee are my main two picks. Marina's just a neat bonus. I could care less about Ring Fit but I guess I'd take her over Wii Fit.

If I can pick someone for the Free Space it'd be Waluigi, and if the Free Space character can't be someone already present on the board then I'd pick Funky Kong.

 

[cashregister9]

I guess another reason to expect so many cuts is the assumption that the Switch 2 will be backwards compatible with Switch 1 games, meaning Ultimate will still be playable on the Switch 2, meaning any characters who get cut in the next Smash game will still be playable in Ultimate.

This made me decide to do a bingo card of my own. Out of the characters I picked for my card, which line would you pick?

Alear​	Aigis​	Ayumi Tachibana​	Alucard​	Bandana Waddle Dee​
Chun-Li​	Dixie Kong​	Crash Bandicoot​	Marina ft. Pearl Drone​	Estelle Bright​
Meowscarada​	Kratos​	FREE SPACE​	Lloyd Irving​	Noah & Mio​
Nakoruru​	Oatchi​	Shadow the Hedgehog​	Raven Beak​	Shantae​
Ring Fit Trainee​	Sol Badguy​	Tom Nook​	Master Chief​	Waluigi​

Either the BWD column or the Chun-li Row

Both have great options but I currently am leaning towards the BWD column.

 

[ninjahmos]

I guess another reason to expect so many cuts is the assumption that the Switch 2 will be backwards compatible with Switch 1 games, meaning Ultimate will still be playable on the Switch 2, meaning any characters who get cut in the next Smash game will still be playable in Ultimate.

This made me decide to do a bingo card of my own. Out of the characters I picked for my card, which line would you pick?

Alear​	Aigis​	Ayumi Tachibana​	Alucard​	Bandana Waddle Dee​
Chun-Li​	Dixie Kong​	Crash Bandicoot​	Marina ft. Pearl Drone​	Estelle Bright​
Meowscarada​	Kratos​	FREE SPACE​	Lloyd Irving​	Noah & Mio​
Nakoruru​	Oatchi​	Shadow the Hedgehog​	Raven Beak​	Shantae​
Ring Fit Trainee​	Sol Badguy​	Tom Nook​	Master Chief​	Waluigi​

Chun-Li to Estelle Bright.

 

[SPEN18]

I'm saying that criticizing the decision to do EiH because they could have made something else in its place is not only unfair without knowing what that "something else" might have been, but it's also useless.

Okay, but how am I supposed to constructively criticize without talking about alternatives? Obviously the level of specificity I can use is restricted because we only know so much about what else exactly would have been possible. But that doesn't mean we can't make educated guesses and inferences based on whatever information is available to us. If anything is unfair, it's sticking resolutely to this idea that EiH is an absolute perfection that negates any purpose of considering other possibilities.

The game has series record amounts of content in stages, items, modes and a gigantic amount of single player collectibles.
So... What was the sacrifice?

Also I don't recall Sakurai ever being that dramatic about Everyone is Here. He sure never said that doing that prevented other aspects of the game to shine.

This is just repeating largely the same thing at this point, but anything we got in Ult could have still happened without EiH. So pointing out the large amount of content in Ult doesn't negate what I'm saying. I don't think anyone could argue that Ult had exactly the right content and no changes could have possibly improved anything.

As for Sakurai's statements on EiH, here's an example (there are others but I only have so much time to dig them up rn):

"I think that “Everyone is here!” is something that won’t be repeated. Anything is possible, of course, so I can’t rule anything out entirely, but I still think this won’t happen again.

For starters, bringing back every fighter drastically increases the cost of development. Merely attempting to do this requires a lot of time, personnel, and money. Even something that looks like a simple port has a huge number of manhours behind it. Moreover, in the case of Smash, we can’t simply create whatever we want. I have to receive approval from the original creators of the characters, and I need to reflect their feedback. If this feedback differs from the direction we’ve taken with a character in Smash, then it’s our job to reconcile this disparity no matter how much time or energy it takes. Contractual agreements and other legal issues can also make development exceedingly difficult. In reality, it was quite a challenge to bring every fighter back, and I barely made it work. Frankly, it almost didn’t happen."

“Smash is Special” COMPLETE Translation

Sakurai’s FULL remarks on him returning to work on Smash, initial project plan and why the series is so ‘special’.

sourcegaming.info

Just to be clear, he doesn't say EiH prevented other aspects of the game from excelling, and obviously he would never say exactly that whether it were true or not. And to be doubly clear, I never intended to say that he said that either, just that it took a ton of sacrifice and effort to make it happen, which is exceedingly clear, and you can infer pretty easily that they could have done something more than worthwhile with the huge portion of resources that went into specifically doing EiH as the top priority.

 

[DarthEnderX]

This made me decide to do a bingo card of my own. Out of the characters I picked for my card, which line would you pick?

Checkmate.

 

[waddledeeonredyoshi]

Finally created a roster I'm fairly satisfied with.. Tried to keep it semi-realistic while still really leaning in to wishlist territory. I'm not confident in every decision and it definitely won't please everybody but this is as wild as I can expect Smash to go. 100 characters counting PKMN trainer and Pyra/Mythra each as one. 80 base. 20 DLC.

Notes:
-Realistically the new game will most likely have some promo picks like a new Pokemon, FE lord and Nioh+thatonecharacterIforgotthenameof but I don't keep up w the new games in those series and I'm not interested in any of them so they ain't on the list
-Shiek will likely be here to stay, I know, but I really just prefered having fresh faces
-ZSS will probably stay too but if it were up to me I'd give all her voice clips to regular Samus and give her an alt with her helmet removed,
-Captain Toad nearly made the list but I saw how pitiful the Zelda rep ended up being so he got swapped out for Skull Kid
-Off the Hook is really just Marina & Pearl-Drone, based on their Side Order roles
-Doc Louis was considered but I just can't expect Punch-Out to gain more than it already has.
-A Toby Fox character in the base game since he should be fairly easy to work with. Papyrus in particular isn't the likeliest option but c'mon, he's always been my favorite.
-All Square owned characters as DLC cause I don't have much faith otherwise
-I considered cutting Kazuya out altogether due to his high skill-ceiling but I didn't believe Tekken deserved to lose most of its representation.
-Arle nearly made it as DLC but I ended up swapping her out for Chun Li since I can't imagine us going a whole game without another big name Fighting game newcomer. Sorry puzzle fandom..
-I heavily considered Doomslayer, Freeman and Chief as big western FPS reps and none of them made it lol. My hands are tied.
-Plant and Monokuma honestly don't warrant their spots over a lot characters but whatever, I think they're funny

Since the tiermaker I used had hundreds of characters I also chose some new ATs/Costumes while I was at it. Many of these can be interchangable.

Spoiler

 

[DKing]

Finally created a roster I'm fairly satisfied with.. Tried to keep it semi-realistic while still really leaning in to wishlist territory. I'm not confident in every decision and it definitely won't please everybody but this is as wild as I can expect Smash to go. 100 characters counting PKMN trainer and Pyra/Mythra each as one. 80 base. 20 DLC.

View attachment 394570
Notes:
-Realistically the new game will most likely have some promo picks like a new Pokemon, FE lord and Nioh+thatonecharacterIforgotthenameof but I don't keep up w the new games in those series and I'm not interested in any of them so they ain't on the list
-Shiek will likely be here to stay, I know, but I really just prefered having fresh faces
-ZSS will probably stay too but if it were up to me I'd give all her voice clips to regular Samus and give her an alt with her helmet removed,
-Captain Toad nearly made the list but I saw how pitiful the Zelda rep ended up being so he got swapped out for Skull Kid
-Off the Hook is really just Marina & Pearl-Drone, based on their Side Order roles
-Doc Louis was considered but I just can't expect Punch-Out to gain more than it already has.
-A Toby Fox character in the base game since he should be fairly easy to work with. Papyrus in particular isn't the likeliest option but c'mon, he's always been my favorite.
-All Square owned characters as DLC cause I don't have much faith otherwise
-I considered cutting Kazuya out altogether due to his high skill-ceiling but I didn't believe Tekken deserved to lose most of its representation.
-Arle nearly made it as DLC but I ended up swapping her out for Chun Li since I can't imagine us going a whole game without another big name Fighting game newcomer. Sorry puzzle fandom..
-I heavily considered Doomslayer, Freeman and Chief as big western FPS reps and none of them made it lol. My hands are tied.
-Plant and Monokuma honestly don't warrant their spots over a lot characters but whatever, I think they're funny

Since the tiermaker I used had hundreds of characters I also chose some new ATs/Costumes while I was at it. Many of these can be interchangable.

Spoiler

View attachment 394568

I could see Ice Climbers and R.O.B make the cut in base roster.

 

[pitchfulprocessing]

I think the most fitting representation for Monokuma would be an Assist Trophy where he shows up, covers the entire middle of the screen, and begins loudly rambling about how playing Smash Bros makes you a celebrity but that celebrities are terrible people so you must be an awful person too.

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

I'm fresh on a Danganronpa kick now that I finally played THH for myself and am doing side stuff before starting the second game, so I'd gladly take Monokuma or anyone else that makes sense.

 

[Noipoi]

The coolest thing they could do with Monokuma is giving every character a unique execution as his final smash.

I understand that’s way too much work though. Maybe a generic “Smash Bros” execution is more feasible?

 

[Nabbitfan730]

8 hours people! Strap in.

On that note, as much as i hated the latter of Ultimate Speculation from 2020 onwards, I do feel miss the early 2018 to 2019 of speculation. Lot more healthy, the excitement was high without ballooning crazy proportions, the content towards Smash was new and fresh.

Good Times

 

[CannonStreak]

8 hours people! Strap in.

On that note, as much as i hated the latter of Ultimate Speculation from 2020 onwards, I do feel miss the early 2018 to 2019 of speculation. Lot more healthy, the excitement was high without ballooning crazy proportions, the content towards Smash was new and fresh.

Good Times

Except for that Grinch leak. Gee, that tore many people apart.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

The coolest thing they could do with Monokuma is giving every character a unique execution as his final smash.

I understand that’s way too much work though. Maybe a generic “Smash Bros” execution is more feasible?

I always figured if it was the same for everyone (the most likely scenario), it'd either be Blast Off! from the opening of the first game (the uses Monokuma uses against the old Headmaster, though it might be a bit too similar to Olimar's), After-School Lesson, or the final one, The Ultimate Punishment, though that one's like a minute and a half long in the original game, so that one would either have to move at light speed, or more likely it wouldn't get used lol

 

[DarthEnderX]

Finally created a roster I'm fairly satisfied with..

'busa approved.

8 hours people! Strap in.

Jesus. That reminds me of the guy that spends 4 hours explaining the plot of Kingdom Hearts or One Piece.

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

I always figured if it was the same for everyone (the most likely scenario), it'd either be Blast Off! from the opening of the first game (the uses Monokuma uses against the old Headmaster, though it might be a bit too similar to Olimar's), After-School Lesson, or the final one, The Ultimate Punishment, though that one's like a minute and a half long in the original game, so that one would either have to move at light speed, or more likely it wouldn't get used lol

Blast Off seems to be the safest one to be universal out of the options from THH since you can just cram more than one opponent inside the rocket if you need to and keep them obscured.
And since it's the very first one we see, also holds some significance.

 

[pitchfulprocessing]

8 hours people! Strap in.

On that note, as much as i hated the latter of Ultimate Speculation from 2020 onwards, I do feel miss the early 2018 to 2019 of speculation. Lot more healthy, the excitement was high without ballooning crazy proportions, the content towards Smash was new and fresh.

Good Times

I watched this video when it came out, it's great, really nostalgic and thorough lol.


On the topic of Monokuma, I wonder how much an inclusion of him in Smash would spoil. I think you could get away with not revealing the big twist with him in the moveset or anything related, but it would be kinda fun to have

Spoiler

Junko's different personalities as taunts lol.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

Blast Off seems to be the safest one to be universal out of the options from THH since you can just cram more than one opponent inside the rocket if you need to and keep them obscured.
And since it's the very first one we see, also holds some significance.

True, but I always felt like After-School Lesson would be a good one too since it's an incredibly relevant one to the main characters.

It'd have to be sped up a bit obviously, but I also randomly thought of a little flavor of changing the blackboard Monokuma has in that one to something basic and Smash-relevant like "[Picture of Smash Ball] + 100% = KO" and I thought that was a fun little addition in my head since I figure it'd be one of the ones that automatically KO's over 100% lol

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

I watched this video when it came out, it's great, really nostalgic and thorough lol.


On the topic of Monokuma, I wonder how much an inclusion of him in Smash would spoil. I think you could get away with not revealing the big twist with him in the moveset or anything related, but it would be kinda fun to have

Spoiler

Junko's different personalities as taunts lol.

Junko is kind of an open secret at this point.

Hell, before we had the "someone from ARMS" announcement for Challenger Pack 6, she and Monokuma were part of a fake leak.

True, but I always felt like After-School Lesson would be a good one too since it's an incredibly relevant one to the main characters.

It'd have to be sped up a bit obviously, but I also randomly thought of a little flavor of changing the blackboard Monokuma has in that one to something basic and Smash-relevant like "[Picture of Smash Ball] + 100% = KO" and I thought that was a fun little addition in my head since I figure it'd be one of the ones that automatically KO's over 100% lol

I mean, fair. Could just have them all stunned like shield broken on the conveyer belt as it goes towards the crusher.

I just find Blast Off more fitting in a Smash context given the object of Smash is to send opponents "blasting off".

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

I mean, fair. Could just have them all stunned like shield broken on the conveyer belt as it goes towards the crusher.

I just find Blast Off more fitting in a Smash context given the object of Smash is to send opponents "blasting off".

That's fair, I feel like I'm just thinking about the flavor a lot and how Blast Off is kinda similar to End of Day except you're putting the opponent in the rocket instead lol

Like in my head I imagine the Final Smash starts with Monokuma hitting the Punishment Button, catching an opponent in the area of effect around it. They're dizzy like a shield break as the conveyor moves, with Monokuma showing up with his blackboard with either what I mentioned before or some kind of generic taunting message.

The character caught gets hit by the crusher. If the hit leaves them under 100%, they get launched down into the trapdoor with Monokuma looking angry about it, cutting back to the battle and bouncing the opponent off of the stage, sorta like Ridley's does I think. If they're over 100%, they explode like if they hit a Danger Zone and Monokuma laughs before cutting back to the battle.

I dunno, I just like the idea of it mostly lol

 

[Swamp Sensei]

So, if Sonic were to get a second character, who do you think it would be?

Eggman? Shadow? Tails? Knuckles? Amy?

 

[CannonStreak]

So, if Sonic were to get a second character, who do you think it would be?

Eggman? Shadow? Tails? Knuckles? Amy?

I would go with Tails or Eggman, Eggman more so. I like Shadow, but I feel he is kind of overrated as far as being a phayable character in Smash Bros. goes.

 

[Perkilator]

So, if Sonic were to get a second character, who do you think it would be?

Eggman? Shadow? Tails? Knuckles? Amy?

Year of Shadow 2024 fully sold me on the idea of Shadow as a fully unique fighter.

 

[HyperSomari64]

So, if Sonic were to get a second character, who do you think it would be?

Eggman? Shadow? Tails? Knuckles? Amy?

GUN General from Sonic Adventure 2

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

That's fair, I feel like I'm just thinking about the flavor a lot and how Blast Off is kinda similar to End of Day except you're putting the opponent in the rocket instead lol

Like in my head I imagine the Final Smash starts with Monokuma hitting the Punishment Button, catching an opponent in the area of effect around it. They're dizzy like a shield break as the conveyor moves, with Monokuma showing up with his blackboard with either what I mentioned before or some kind of generic taunting message.

The character caught gets hit by the crusher. If the hit leaves them under 100%, they get launched down into the trapdoor with Monokuma looking angry about it, cutting back to the battle and bouncing the opponent off of the stage, sorta like Ridley's does I think. If they're over 100%, they explode like if they hit a Danger Zone and Monokuma laughs before cutting back to the battle.

I dunno, I just like the idea of it mostly lol

Would the failure include Alter Ego or no to save on time?

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

Would the failure include Alter Ego or no to save on time?

Probably not I figure, both to save on time and because like they're still getting hit by the crusher, it's just launching them through the trapdoor instead of killing them lol

 

[Noipoi]

So, if Sonic were to get a second character, who do you think it would be?

Eggman? Shadow? Tails? Knuckles? Amy?

Probably Shadow.

 

[AreJay25]

So, if Sonic were to get a second character, who do you think it would be?

Eggman? Shadow? Tails? Knuckles? Amy?

A couple of years ago, I would have said Tails.

Now I can't imagine it being anyone but Shadow lol. It helps that he's been a popular Smash request in general, but his popularity within the series itself just can't be underestimated at this point. He's not getting a new game, a web series, a manga AND a movie all within the same year just for the hell of it.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

So, if Sonic were to get a second character, who do you think it would be?

Eggman? Shadow? Tails? Knuckles? Amy?

With how much they're pushing it this year specifically I'd have to say Shadow if anybody, but aside from him, I'd like to see Eggman, even though I think Tails would be more likely lol

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

but his popularity within the series itself just can't be underestimated at this point.

I actually have a frame of reference from being at the Sonic Symphony last night.

A lot of Shadow-themed memorabilia was among the crowd and there were relatively more uproars whenever something Shadow related was featured.

There was even a Maria in the row in front of us lol.

 

[Arcanir]

So, if Sonic were to get a second character, who do you think it would be?

Eggman? Shadow? Tails? Knuckles? Amy?

I'll join the Chorus and say Shadow as well. He's grown to become a major mainstay in the franchise, often being given high billing. Offhand, he has the movie focused on him along with the teaser in the second, he got the DLC in Forces, he's getting the upcoming Generation expansion, his presence in both the Prime and Boom shows were hyped up, and so on. Popularity-wise, he typically places second to Sonic such as this older Sega poll (fourth poll from the bottom). As a character, he's definitely the standout among the cast and the one I think both Sakurai and Sega would choose.

 

[Mikegamer0608]

I would go with Tails or Eggman, Eggman more so. I like Shadow, but I feel he is kind of overrated as far as being a phayable character in Smash Bros. goes.

Definitely Shadow for me but I do think Tails deserves that spot as well. I see Eggman as a Boss controlling the Death Egg.

 

[Louie G.]

So, if Sonic were to get a second character, who do you think it would be?

My gut has been saying Tails for a long time now so I’ll probably stick with that. He fits comfortably between being easy enough to develop off Sonic’s base while having a clear hook with his helicopter tails and flight ability. And in respect to crossover appeal, framing it as finally being able to duke it out as Sonic and Tails vs Mario and Luigi is a good sell.

I also just think Smash has a compulsion to give priority toward sidekicks and secondary protagonists. And I might even argue Tails’ demand for Smash predates everyone else’s since people were cooking up rumors about him being in as far back as Melee. Unfortunately the push for Eggman started quite a bit later but anyone out of Tails / Knuckles / Shadow was getting serious talk back in the Brawl days and absolutely would have some sort of Ballot showing.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Shadow, though. I’m just choosing to stick to my guns for now. My favorite is Knuckles but he's kind of the third wheel.

 

[ninjahmos]

So, if Sonic were to get a second character, who do you think it would be?

Eggman? Shadow? Tails? Knuckles? Amy?

I would like to see Tails and Knuckles (maybe even Eggman), but it's probably gonna be Shadow.

 

[Gorgonzales]

So, if Sonic were to get a second character, who do you think it would be?

Eggman? Shadow? Tails? Knuckles? Amy?

I want Eggman, but realistically all of these are fair game except for probably Amy.

 

[SharkLord]

Hey guys I'm back. Went to see the Sonic Symphony. It was friggin' awesome. Since it's the Fearless Year of Shadow half of everyone had Shadow merch on. I think I might've seen more Shadow stuff than Sonic stuff in the audience actually.

Uuuuuuh if I'm gotta tie this to Smash Bros, I think Shadow should be playable and we should have more Sonic music.

Oh yeah that roster I posted a few days ago, I didn't have my computer on hand so I couldn't respond. Probably too late but I suppose I should address the responses I got.

Not to focus on the negatives off the bat, but it's hard not to feel burnt at Little Mac's absence when we have so many series getting a VERY healthy bump. Kid Icarus now has four characters (two clones, I know) and that's a series in pretty much exactly the same boat (Punch-Out is actually bigger). Xenoblade has four characters - and yes, I know it's a more active series, but again we're talking about a series of three games of which Punch-Out is comparably sized and of similar commercial success. It's upsetting to see him tossed to the side and lumped in with, presumably, the "retro" fighters instead of looking at his series for what it is. He's a very popular character, both in terms of initial demand and player engagement, and the series can certainly sustain at least one character on the roster if such a generous precedent is being dealt toward smaller series already.

On the bright side though, I'm glad to see K. Rool return and the addition of Marina makes me happy. And I like the addition of Edelgard over Byleth, even if I don't think it's especially likely to happen. Pretty glaring concern here is shrinking Pokemon down this heavily, I can't see us dipping below five characters at bare minimum. But I agree with the decision to prioritize Greninja.

Oh, I also don't like Ryu being absent at all. Cutting all three of the fighting game boys feels like a mistake.

Firstly, thanks for responding. I know rosters like mine are dime a dozen at this point and I understand that not everyone feels like analyzing all these sixty-odd characters and typing up a response, so any feedback I get is appreciated.

Regarding Little Mac, the roster I had was basically a fusion of two previous rosters; One that was heavily Switch-centric, and one inspired by the results of Swamp's poll, where I added in the top ten of the results. That also inspired me to keep Palutena; While Kid Icarus didn't have any characters in the top ten, it still got three characters in the top 20, which is pretty impressive for a dormant series. I wasn't factoring Echoes into the final count, so I thought it'd be fine to keep Dark Pit and throw in Medusa. For Xenoblade, it's been a pretty consistent and active series in the Switch era, even if it's not a mega-blockbuster like Mario or Animal Crossing, on top of Noah and Mio being dual protagonists, so I thought it'd be fine to throw in both.

To address Little Mac himself, Punch-Out hasn't seen any recent releases, nor did it get anyone in the top 20 of the poll, so it just... Didn't register on my radar. To be honest, I didn't realize Little Mac was actually that popular. You also raise a good point in that Punch-Out is now the only series to lose all it's playable representation, short of the designated retro characters, which is pretty damn glaring. Glaring enough i might just go back and redo the bottom part of the roster, honestly. If I were to swap someone for Little Mac, it'd probably be Palutena, Krystal, or Mio, but I don't really want to scrap anyone either. This is what i get for the hard 60 fighter limit, I suppose...

On that topic, yeah, there's a lot of big third-party losses. If I kept every third-party and added more on top of that, there would likely be a big crunch on first-parties, and I wanted the roster to be mainly Nintendo-centric. But even so, after SSBU, scrapping any third-parties will be pretty noticeable loss; I'd especially want to keep Terry, but there's only so much room. It's probably unrealistic to expect such a level of DLC, but in my ideal world I imagined there would be some "welcome back" DLC passes that bring back third-parties and throw in a newcomer on top of it to make up for their absence in base game - Ryu's back, AND Chun-Li comes with him. Simon's back, AND Alucard's joining too. Again, I really doubt Nintendo would push for that much DLC, especially if we want to represent new series as well, but it would be pretty cool.

For Pokemon, yeah, no, we're not getting that many cuts. That's entirely because of my self-imposed "four full fighters a series' limit; In any other scenario, I'd probably add another newcomer and keep Mewtwo and/or Charizard, if not the whole starter trio. But it's tough trying to balance that many series with only 60 slots, and I wanted to allow space for characters from smaller series. Even with the cheats in Mario's subseries, the cast of WarioWare and Donkey Kong usually don't cross over into the mainline Mario series, and are definitively treated as separate series in Smash proper. No other series has spinoffs treated as separate series, and so there were no other cheats I could pull off in the same way.

With King K. Rool, my earlier rosters had him cut, but K. Rool was a really massive request, wasn't he? I thought people would be sad to see him go. For Marina, the idols seemed pretty dang popular, and they all had a single favorite weapon that I thought could be a neat contrast to Inkling's walking arsenal moveset. Plus, it would be fun seeing a usual non-combatant throwing down. And with Edelgard, she's the most popular 3H Lord to my knowledge, with the added bonus of being a non-sword user and a villain (Depending on the route and who you ask, granted, but still).

 

[Hadokeyblade]

So, if Sonic were to get a second character, who do you think it would be?

Eggman? Shadow? Tails? Knuckles? Amy?

If Shadow doesnt show up in the next smash i will be convinced the devs arent that interested in Sonic

 

[Laniv]

So, if Sonic were to get a second character, who do you think it would be?

Eggman? Shadow? Tails? Knuckles? Amy?

In terms of likelihood, Shadow is the clear frontrunner. He's an immensely popular character for starters (is he still the second most popular character in the series?), he's been pushed really hard recently (Year of Shadow and is soon to be a movie star) and he's an easy Echo to make.

In terms of who I would choose? Tails, because he's my favorite Sonic character. That, and Mario and Luigi vs. Sonic and Tails is a really good hook.

in my dream scenario, the answer is all of them getting in

 

[cashregister9]

So, if Sonic were to get a second character, who do you think it would be?

Eggman? Shadow? Tails? Knuckles? Amy?

Ideal scenario is multiple unique characters in one game

but what I think may happen is either Shadow, Eggman or Tails and then Metal Sonic (or shadow if he doesn't get in) as an echo if we get really lucky.

 

[RodNutTakin]

Edited a quote I forgot to delete out, apologies for the ghost notif I have caused.

So, if Sonic were to get a second character, who do you think it would be?

Eggman? Shadow? Tails? Knuckles? Amy?

I put Shadow on my prediction roster for good reasons as some of the other replies have already stated.
If SSB6's DLC cycle lasts much longer than Ultimate's (I'm talking like 4 or 5 Fighter Passes' worth of newcomers), then I'd say Eggman has good chances as well.