Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[Noipoi]

Dr. Mario gets no respect.

The man’s a doctor, damn it! He got his degree by watching House and Scrubs and E.R.

 

[Gorgonzales]

Dr. Mario gets no respect.

The man’s a doctor, damn it! He got his degree by watching House and Scrubs and E.R.

Brightly colored pills! They'll cure all your ills!

 

[Guynamednelson]

Brightly colored pills! They'll cure all your ills!

But just as long as you got the fever or the chills.

 

[Diddy Kong]

Tbh I still wouldn't be shocked if Dr. Mario snuck his way into another base roster just like he did in Smash 4 lol

Like the only game Doc has actually missed since his debut is Brawl, so I can't exactly count him out like that lol

Yeah I realised that too. Smash 4 is especially his strongest case. But seeing as we might get substantial cuts this time and priorities have to be made....

I can still very easily envision him in because of the low development costs

 

[Gengar84]

But just as long as you got the fever or the chills.

I miss Brentalfloss. I loved his Dr. Wily song collab with the Megas.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

Yeah I realised that too. Smash 4 is especially his strongest case. But seeing as we might get substantial cuts this time and priorities have to be made....

I can still very easily envision him in because of the low development costs

Yeah, Doc for me is kinda like a Jigglypuff scenario. Not quite the same since he's not one of the original 12, but like Puff has had higher priority than Mewtwo twice, and Doc was higher priority than characters like Wolf in 4, so I can't count him out in all good faith lol

 

[RileyXY1]

Yeah, Doc for me is kinda like a Jigglypuff scenario. Not quite the same since he's not one of the original 12, but like Puff has had higher priority than Mewtwo twice, and Doc was higher priority than characters like Wolf in 4, so I can't count him out in all good faith lol

Although in Smash 4 Dr. Mario was a special case because he was originally intended to be an alternate costume before he became his own separate character, and the same is true for Dark Pit and Lucina.

 

[Gengar84]

I still say Doc would have made a lot more sense as a costume from the start. It would feel weird demoting him now because people expect him to play a certain way.

 

[Guynamednelson]

It would feel weird demoting him now because people expect him to play a certain way.

That's literally how Sakurai felt when he was considering making Doc a Mario costume during Smash 4's development.

And that was just from Doc being separate in Melee, where they forgot to actually give Doc most of his drawbacks so he just ended up being Mario but better.

 

[Ivander]

So apparently this year had the most NSO updates beating out last year by one. And the amount of NSO updates have been getting noticeably bigger after last year, with both last year and this year having the most updates since 2019.

It's definitely nice that NSO updates have been happening more frequently, especially with some 3rd Parties being generous. But it does make you wonder why some of the more prominent games haven't come out on NSO yet, like Super Smash Bros, Diddy Kong Racing, DK64, DK94 and whatnot.

 

[Louie G.]

Even though I can't really justify bringing Dr. Mario back, I had an epiphany recently that I'd absolutely love if he somehow channeled the classic Yoichi Kotabe styled 2D Dr. Mario art and they made him a cute little guy. Would kinda defeat the purpose of him being a clone, but I guess it'd be more like Toon Link lol.

There would be absolutely no reason to do this, and they probably never would. But it was just a vision I randomly had the other day... lean harder into giving him a flavor unique to the Dr. Mario games. At this rate I'd much rather just have a real puzzle game character like Arle or Lip instead of working toward decloning Dr. Mario further, but under the condition they somehow did want to keep him I think he could really shine if they wanted.

 

[ScrubReborn]

I wouldn't totally count out Doc either, dude's a sneaky knight. But that's not stable. All evidence suggests he was, and still is, one of the lowest priority characters; the fact he's had difficulty making it in even when there were only like ~5~ cuts per game is telling. Even in Smash 4 he benefitted from Sak developing him first as an alt; he's prolly never gonna make him a alt again, so Doc can't cheat the system anymore.

And as much as the possible cuts are, well, grossly exaggerated by some, there's still likely gon be more cuts in Smash 6 than before. If Doc already struggles in the current system, even turning the heat up a lil would be devastating. Even among the newcomers and returning cut veterans, most offer more—unique movesets, new series, popularity, or all of the above, hard to see him getting priority over them, especially on the first party side. Every new addition pushes him further down.

His best shot is again, as cheap roster filler when they inevitably run out of time for unique characters, but this ties to the above - with every clone back + new ones, there's lots of competition for those last-minute slots that wasn't there in Brawl or 4. And sure he may beat like, Pichu or Young Link, but who else? None I can think of. Wouldn't be surprised if he's the third lowest priority first party char; hell I'm draftin' a first party priority prediction rn, and that's where I got him.

Hopefully clones are allowed to be DLC. I'm ngl, I'd buy Doc.

--

Doc was higher priority than characters like Wolf in 4, so I can't count him out in all good faith lol

Like Riley said, Doc's circumstances were weird in that game and he heavily benefitted from Sak developing him as a alt first so I'm not sure that's a fair comparison. We can compare them in Brawl though, and there Wolf was prolly higher priority given, well, he's the one that made it in the game. And given he had less data than Mewtwo and Roy, Doc was prolly the lowest priority Melee veteran period (discounting Young Link and Pichu who weren't supposed to return at all)

 

[Gengar84]

Does anyone else have a character that they think would be awesome for Smash and no one else seems to care about? For me that’s…pretty much everyone I talk about here lol. More specifically though, I’d love to see Jessie and James from Team Rocket as a tag duo fighter. Unlike Pokemon Trainer where they just stand in the background, Jessie and James aren’t afraid to mix things up themselves.

Their specials and smash attacks can consist of summoning their most popular Pokemon for attacks and using various gadgets. For example, Jessie could summon Wobuffet as a counter attack and use Seviper as a tether grab. James could summon Toxapex for his counter variant and use Baneful Bunker, which poisons the opponent rather than dealing a direct attack. He could also kick a Magikarp at his opponent which is usually a really weak attack but sometimes it transforms into Gyarados for a huge impactful strike. The two could Share Meowth for several attacks. They already have the perfect Star KO line in “We’re blasting off again!”. I just feel like these two are so iconic to Pokemon that it would be awesome to see them in Smash.

They probably don’t have the highest chances for Smash, seeing that they originated in the Pokemon anime and not the games, but I think they’d be great at representing a whole new side of the franchise. Plus, we got Advent Children content in Smash so who knows, maybe it’s possible.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

Does anyone else have a character that they think would be awesome for Smash and no one else seems to care about?

I suspect everyone has a dark horse choice for Smash that really doesn't excite that many besides them. Speaking for myself, Sparkster from Rocket Knight Adventure I always thought could make for a really fun addition for Smash, especially given how much the rocket pack could really be played with as a mechanic. Between the three 16-bit games (and heck even the 2010 Xbox release) there's something there. He's not likely given that both among Konami properties and platformer mascots there's far more prominent choices, but I'll champion him whenever I get the chance.

 

[maf91186]

Does anyone else have a character that they think would be awesome for Smash and no one else seems to care about?

Those can usually be found in people's signatures as we've long since realized there's nobody to talk to about them lol; whether that be from recognizing how obscure the characters are or how they're not anywhere near first pick material from said franchises.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

Does anyone else have a character that they think would be awesome for Smash and no one else seems to care about?

I haven't really thought about any super out there picks for a while, and I don't bring them up much in general, but a decent chunk of my movesets for back in Ultimate's DLC days are in this category. Stuff like Amy from ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal, Rytlock Brimstone from Guild Wars 2, Toon from Disney's ToonTown Online. Freddy and Amaterasu aren't quite on that caliber, but they are fairly niche within this community.

And then Chell I think is one of those "lukewarm until they actually do it" characters; Nobody is specifically gunning for her, but if they did add her, they'd all pop off.

 

[maf91186]

Speaking for myself, Sparkster from Rocket Knight Adventure I always thought could make for a really fun addition for Smash, especially given how much the rocket pack could really be played with as a mechanic.

Nice choice! So few people know who he is anymore and I think the giant mech would be a perfect final smash.

 

[fogbadge]

Does anyone else have a character that they think would be awesome for Smash and no one else seems to care about?

hmm Ashley Mizuki Robbins from Another Code I think. she did get a bit of a boost with the remakes earlier this year but still doesn't get talked about much

 

[Gengar84]

I haven't really thought about any super out there picks for a while, and I don't bring them up much in general, but a decent chunk of my movesets for back in Ultimate's DLC days are in this category. Stuff like Amy from ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal, Rytlock Brimstone from Guild Wars 2, Toon from Disney's ToonTown Online. Freddy and Amaterasu aren't quite on that caliber, but they are fairly niche within this community.

And then Chell I think is one of those "lukewarm until they actually do it" characters; Nobody is specifically gunning for her, but if they did add her, they'd all pop off.

I feel like a lot of my characters would fall in the Chell category. A lot of them are fairly recognizeable characters that are just overshadowed by more popular competition. The one that stands out for me that’s truly obscure is Zegram from Rogue Galaxy. The rest of my list at least makes some logical sense for why they might get in even if they’re not super likely.

Chell seems like she’d be a lot of fun though. I imagine her portal gun working in the same way I made Magus’ black hole. He basically summoned a temporary Stage Builder teleportation hazard that he and others could travel through for a short time before it disappeared.

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

Like Riley said, Doc's circumstances were weird in that game and he heavily benefitted from Sak developing him as a alt first so I'm not sure that's a fair comparison. We can compare them in Brawl though, and there Wolf was prolly higher priority given, well, he's the one that made it in the game. And given he had less data than Mewtwo and Roy, Doc was prolly the lowest priority Melee veteran period (discounting Young Link and Pichu who weren't supposed to return at all)

True, I did admittedly forget about the "clones were originally gonna be costumes" thing, for Doc anyway.

Definitely would impact his chances since Sakurai's not just gonna suddenly go back on the whole thing just for Doc I don't think lol

 

[Shinuto]

You know here's a character I wasn't super on board for at first, but after awhile they just sorta clicked for me.

Reimu. How you all feel if she got in and what are her chances overall?

 

[maf91186]

You know here's a character I wasn't super on board for at first, but after awhile they just sorta clicked for me.

Reimu. How you all feel if she got in and what are her chances overall?

Loved her in Project X Zone. I like her design, personality and abilities, however, I don't think she's much likely at all for the same reason as some of my dreams lol

 

[TheFirstPoppyBro]

You know here's a character I wasn't super on board for at first, but after awhile they just sorta clicked for me.

Reimu. How you all feel if she got in and what are her chances overall?

As is probably obvious from my profile picture (I'm a huge Touhou fan), I would love if Reimu got into Smash. I think ZUN has expressed interest in Touhou getting into Smash, and he has a few connections that could help that (I don't know how it works for music from circles getting put into Taiko no Tatsujin for example, but I imagine ZUN would have to be asked about putting Reimu in those games, for instance), plus it definitely has the history behind it.

As for her chances though, I don't know if they're super high? It would certainly be easier than most third parties since ZUN is just one man, but I feel like Touhou is still pretty niche overall, even if it's not as much as in recent years, so it sorta becomes a question of opportunity cost I think.

EDIT: Assuming you meant Touhou Reimu anyway, the above comment mentioning Project X Zone has me wondering if I have the wrong Reimu lmao

 

[maf91186]

As is probably obvious from my profile picture (I'm a huge Touhou fan), I would love if Reimu got into Smash. I think ZUN has expressed interest in Touhou getting into Smash, and he has a few connections that could help that (I don't know how it works for music from circles getting put into Taiko no Tatsujin for example, but I imagine ZUN would have to be asked about putting Reimu in those games, for instance), plus it definitely has the history behind it.

As for her chances though, I don't know if they're super high? It would certainly be easier than most third parties since ZUN is just one man, but I feel like Touhou is still pretty niche overall, even if it's not as much as in recent years, so it sorta becomes a question of opportunity cost I think.

EDIT: Assuming you meant Touhou Reimu anyway, the above comment mentioning Project X Zone has me wondering if I have the wrong Reimu lmao

Not me realizing I probably have the wrong Reimu
Or even realizing I was combining the names of two characters Reiji and Xiaomu

 

[Gengar84]

You know here's a character I wasn't super on board for at first, but after awhile they just sorta clicked for me.

Reimu. How you all feel if she got in and what are her chances overall?

I think my brother would be pretty excited he was pretty obsessed with Touhou music for a long time. It’s not exactly my type of game but I’m open to her inclusion in Smash. I’m sure she’d make a lot of people happy.

 

[ninjahmos]

I like Doc, but I kinda doubt he'll make it in the next game, unless they're so eager to include him.

Does anyone else have a character that they think would be awesome for Smash and no one else seems to care about?

Well, I'd definitely love to see Axel and/or Blaze (Streets of Rage) in Smash.

 

[Will]

You know here's a character I wasn't super on board for at first, but after awhile they just sorta clicked for me.

Reimu. How you all feel if she got in and what are her chances overall?

About as likely as any other indie character, sans Sans. I’ve always wanted to say that last part

I am indifferent, but I do feel like my social media feed would be plagued with unfunny ‘literally who’ bros until she released, but on the plus side it means I get to hear more Touhou music.

 

[fogbadge]

I don't know who reimu is

 

[Ivander]

I don't know who reimu is

The one on the left is Marisa. The one on the right is Reimu. Both are the main characters of Touhou. Reimu might look notably familiar because her design was inspired by Pocky from Pocky & Rocky.

 

[fogbadge]

The one on the left is Marisa. The one on the right is Reimu. Both are the main characters of Touhou. Reimu might look notably familiar because her design was inspired by Pocky from Pocky & Rocky.

I don’t know what pocky and rocky is either

 

[maf91186]

Sorry to derail but is anyone else having difficulty sharing images from Twitter? Or anywhere else for that matter

 

[fogbadge]

Sorry to derail but is anyone else having difficulty sharing images from Twitter? Or anywhere else for that matter

it’s a forum wide problem atm

 

[maf91186]

it’s a forum wide problem atm

Ah. Tyty

 

[Gengar84]

I like Doc, but I kinda doubt he'll make it in the next game, unless they're so eager to include him.



Well, I'd definitely love to see Axel and/or Blaze (Streets of Rage) in Smash.

I really liked Streets of Rage 4 so I’d be down for either of them. My favorite character in the game is Estel Aguirre but I don’t see her getting in over the two main characters. I think Smash could use more female characters in general so I think Blaze would be really cool.

 

[Louie G.]

I wouldn't totally count out Dr. Mario either, yeah, mainly by virtue of being so easy to implement - but he is pretty much the definition of expendable. It's difficult to imagine a scenario where Doc is outright planned from the beginning, in a game that will likely continue to expand on the Mario cast where he is easily first or second in line to part with. His saving grace is very much that precious last minute clone slot. Which others were right to point out was... kind of a matter of circumstance in Smash 4, anyway.

I like Dr. Mario quite a lot, but he's a character that I'm more than willing to part ways with. As much as I love Smash's wealth of fun traditions and legacy characters I think we're at the point where we can afford to leave some behind in pursuit of the series' future. Dr. Mario is inoffensive one way or another since he's not the most development heavy character in the first place, but yeah I'd be surprised to learn that he would be a priority moving forward. Even in respect to other clone characters I'd much rather that effort dealt toward making someone like Daisy or Dark Samus more unique.

 

[HyperSomari64]

I miss Brentalfloss. I loved his Dr. Wily song collab with the Megas.

I was going to say that to this day I'm crying for him not doing a "What if Sonic the Hedgehog had lyrics?", but then I remembered the official lyrics by Dreams Come True.

 

[GoldenYuiitusin]

Already dreading a certain character's discussion getting more obnoxious about how much a "lock" they are.

 

[Kirby Dragons]

Does anyone else have a character that they think would be awesome for Smash and no one else seems to care about? For me that’s…pretty much everyone I talk about here lol.

I've got plenty. Narmaya, V-Raptor and Amazon Pandora for a few examples.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

"Well I can't imagine Ninja Gaiden adjacent speculation with Smash will continue on for that much longer"

Game Awards

Given how long various fans myself included having been asking for a 2D NG game again, good to see it happen, especially with solid team that did the Blasphemous games.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

I'm just glad Ninja Gaiden is alive.