Funnily enough, I could see Boom-Boom acting as a semi-clone of Bowser. Most moves are surprising fits, just replace any claw swipes with punches. So Up Tilt uses the same arc, but becomes a backhand punch, Forward Air is also the same arc but with a closed fist for an overhead punch. Despite his stubby legs, I could still even see him doing Bowser's Back Air and Drop Kick F-Smash. There are a handful of moves that would probably need to be changed like Up Air and the throws but in most cases most of Bowser's normals work pretty well.
For specials, again, I could see Boom-Boom keeping Bowser's Up and Down Specials, just with different names and adjusted properties. (Boom Bomb for Down B writes itself imo.) Up Special would be adjusted into a faster single hit move so that he could get a multi-hit via his signature lariat spin on neutral special (also ironically being similar to Mario Tornado in that regard). Lastly, Side Special would be his other signature move, his little arm flailing charge which I could see as being a forward moving armored attack.
I am aware that he can literally sprout wings to replace his arms in some boss battles, but I honestly always hated how that looks, nor does it mesh well with the rest of the move set design imo.
Pom-Pom would definitely need to be different. I think it'd be neat if they leaned into her moves from 3D World with the shuriken and teleporting.
Thing is, until you shared your ideas? The only thing I ever thought Boom-Boom would have in common with Bowser was Whirling Fortress, and even THEN, I remembered how the Koopalings actually came up with that move first, NOT Boom-Boom. With all that said, it WOULD be interesting to see Boom-Boom be so versatile. If anything, it makes me think of him as a "more flexible" Smash 64-Donkey Kong in some ways.
As for Pom-Pom? Ngl, as insane as it might sound... I honestly think she could borrow some elements from Sheik. Such as her nimble nature and Vanish special move. Maybe even Bouncing Fish too.
Yeah, I chose Chase and Elaine specifically because they're the player characters in Let's Go, so there's a natural association there.
There are still some Pokémon who I think shouldn't/wouldn't have partner trainers like
(shouldn't for being a legendary) or
(wouldn't for lack of closely associated trainers,) but overall, I would want a few different trainers per Pokémon.
No, I understand. To be honest, there IS a part of me that wonders if Smash might look to replace Red and Leaf with Chase and Elaine. I mean, I REALLY doubt it would happen, but it's interesting to think about.
I don't know why, but the first thing that came to mind from this idea was
in SFxT
While I can't say I share your interest/enthusiasm for Hector/Vector, I would like a proper mech pilot at some point. I mean, I guess Jr. and the Koopalings count but I'm thinking more along the lines of Tron Bonne.
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It's funny, Pac-Man in S.F. x Tekken is also what always comes to my mind when I think about Professor Hector joining Smash via piloting a R.O.B.-like mech.
Ironically enough, I also think about the likes of Tekken's Dr. Bosconovitch when it comes to the idea of Hector fighting on foot. Although, I'm pretty sure Hector hasn't exactly given us a reason to think he'd be THAT much of a joke fighter...
Oh, don't get me wrong, I'd still want the OG design to be included, but I'd also want to see them try their hand at a new design, maybe even something like Jin for a more sci-fi look.
I also don't know if I'd describe his fit as future-punk, it just feels like 90s protag design to me, regardless of the intended setting.
Oh, fair point. Still, I'm a bit surprised. I didn't think that this kind of fashion statement was THAT common in the 90's (let alone the idea that Michael and Terry had such shockingly similar clothing choices). Learn something new everyday, huh?
If you don't mind me asking, what do you Michael
should look like, if he were to ever get the Brawl-Pit treatment?
Can't say I like this one quite as much as your Lark move set, for a few reasons. First of which, making him an even more extreme version of Mac... does not sound appealing at all. Even with the drawbacks, it doesn't make him any less volatile or any more balanced.
Everything else, just kind of feels so far removed from UC that I have trouble seeing it as UC. This feels even more drastic than Pit's redesign back in Brawl imo. Not that I'm against a modernization of the character but this direction seems to completely lack the slightly goofy, cartoonish nature of the og UC.
The beat 'em up influence is kind of interesting but at that point I'd be asking why we didn't get Axel or Cody instead.
When you put things like that, I suppose I did sort of lean into the 'street fighter' vibe of the character TOO heavily. Still though, I sort of thought I was keeping to the wacky nature of the OG game by keeping things like Urban Champ dropping potted plants on opponents and tossing manhole covers at them.
Hard to say honestly. I feel like if they did do an Urban Champion Mii costume it'd just be the outfit though. It'd probably be up to players to pick a close enough hair style and adjust the color.
When it comes to the design of an actual character though, I've got to go with something that's more inspired by the sprite. Honestly not a fan of the box art interpretation of the character. I'd still want them to lean more into the cartoon looking angle but probably a bit taller, with less chibi proportions. The box art depiction looks like a confused kid to me, the sprite reads better as a guy willingly getting into street fights.
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Interesting that you say this, as one Melee-themed video I came across some time ago gave me a pretty good idea as to what Urban Champ might look like in 3D, being faithful to the OG NES sprite and whatnot (18:00-18:06).
IMO, this is probably what I'd want U.C. to look like if he had ever managed join Smash Bros. as early as Melee.
I haven't checked in on SSF2 in ages. I didn't even know they'd added an Urban Champ stage. Guess I have some catching up to do there.
Like I said earlier though, I'm not sure I quite find the appeal in turning UC into a "hyper-realistic" setting. I'd rather they try to keep it within it's more cartoony roots while actual beat 'em up series like Streets of Rage, Final Fight or River City take the role of repping their genre.
I'm not against a modern take on Urban Champion as a beat 'em up mind you, but this is a case where I'd like to see that realized as a game first. I fully admit a part of that is a preference for stuff like SoR or Final fight getting in first. I can't say I wouldn't be a little upset if they skipped out on so many existing classic beat 'em up characters to pull in Urban Champion and make him play just like them.
Going back to his design for a bit though, I guess if you were trying make a more realistic, beat 'em up style look, the blonde version might end up looking something like Mike from Battle Clash funnily enough.
Yeah, the SSF2 devs have definitely been busy. Urban Champion is a hidden stage, but I legit forget HOW to unlock it...
I do understand your preference to have Urban Champ be repped as an 'NES classic' than something hyper-realistic like Wrecking Crew though. With that said, U.C. being remade as a beat 'em up definitely would be something I'd like to see myself. Despite everything I'd described for my take on the character earlier, I wouldn't imagine things being THAT hyper-realistic, but I can see them making it out to be a mix of a typical fighting game and what Final Fight gave us.
Regarding his blond-haired design though, it's kind of taking me for a loop to think about how similar he might look to Michael Anderson...
What, Charging STARS? I don't know if that's a particularly good fit for Lark but I don't think you should feel like a few standard physical attacks are out of place on him or most any character's move set really. It is a fighting game after all.
Well, for what it's worth? I wouldn't go too crazy on the visuals of Lark potentially setting himself aflame to perform the attack, but I really do still think there's something that can be made there. At worst, if such a move really wouldn't look "right" on Lark? Perhaps it would look more 'right' on Goose, given his 'Evel Knievel' daredevil motif and all.
One gimmicky idea I think could be potentially interesting for Urban Champion is if a few of his attacks (maybe forward tilt and down tilt, maybe also forward smash) increase in hitstun at high percents instead of increasing in knockback. So, at middling percents they start to force the opponent to tech, and at high percent when used at the ledge they have enough hitstun to make the opponent fall a decent distance below the ledge. Forward smash would kill outright off the bottom of the screen if you knock the opponent offstage with it at high enough percent, since it’d just have THAT much hitstun. It’s based on the way the enemies roll back after being hit in Urban Champion, and being able to kill with it feels very fitting given how he usually finishes off his opponents by punching them into manholes. It’d have to temporarily modify the enemy‘s falling speed as well, though, or else it’d be too lethal against fastfallers and useless against floaties. There’ll also need to be a limit to how many times an enemy can be hit with this in a row to prevent potential infinites, especially in doubles.
Another quirk I’m thinking about is if he’d have a very fast initial dash, but his actual dash is the same speed as his walk, so you have to foxtrot. I’m imagining him having a kind of exaggeratedly bouncy fighting stance so him hopping around but not being able to properly run sounds interesting.
Certainly some interesting concepts for Urban Champ you got here! If you don't mind me asking, would Urban Champ sort of be the opposite of Little Mac on the ground in some sense, then?
I'm all with you.
Neither of his cover arts has the same charisma of his ingame sprite:
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About his moves, his down B could lifting a manhole to use it as a shield and to create a hole trap for the opponents.
Okay, I have to admit... having Urban Champ use a manhole as a shield is definitely more creative than my idea of him tossing it like a frisbee at opponents.
I have thought that the Hockey Players from NES Ice Hockey would be good Ice Climbers echoes.
Can't say I haven't considered something similar for these three, but if you don't mind me asking... do you think Smash Bros. might want to lean into their possible strength more than having them be cryomancers like Popo and Nana?
