Official Next Smash - Speculation & Discussion Thread

[Gengar84]

I don't see how either one of them can be considered obscure.

I don’t think you’re understanding what I’m saying. There’s a difference between being obscure and being more obscure than something else. For example, Samus Aran is more obscure than Pikachu but that doesn’t make Samus obscure.

 

[Sucumbio]

It's all about exposure. I'd never heard of Game & Watch but my wife knew exactly what it was having had one. I had Tiger LCD paperboy though. Because of Smash there's actually several characters that came to be exposed that would otherwise have little to no recognition otherwise. Like, outside of Smash fans, some characters just aren't known.

Extend that to internet based knowledge. Maybe some people don't follow Smash but follow gaming history. Point is there's several characters that on a personal level will be a giant "who?" versus say, Pikachu who's the opposite of obscure due to such grand exposure (tons of games throughout multiple gaming generations, animes, live action movie, etc.)

So it's difficult for me to actually pick the most obscure character because many seem like they should be but aren't necessarily because either they've found an audience thanks to Smash or general internet culture. Or their series has seen new life due to release on virtual consoles or have been updated. Fire Emblem Heros for instance brought several characters into the spotlight even though their origin games may not be.

So to answer this question the first thing I'd do is narrow it down to characters that are only known to a larger audience because they're in Smash.

So like, Captain Falcon. To me they are obscure. F zero was popular for a time but since then there's been several gaming generations that basically never heard of it. I personally didn't even know the game had characters having only played it a few times at a friend's house.

Ice Climbers are definitely obscure... I didn't even play that game during the nes era lol.

Game & Watch again no real world exposure these days.

Ness and Lucas, unless you have sought to play their games they're pretty obscure.

 

[JOJONumber691]

Here's a question.

Who is currently the most obscure first party and/or third party character? Do you think they would go more obscure?

First Party is definitely since he’s from a Japan exclusive game… which wasn’t even out when Melee released. As for Third Party, I’m thinking probably because Banjo-Kazooie gets constant rereleases and was second place on the Smash Ballot. Bayonetta isn’t marketed too much by SEGA and gets few rereleases.

 

[Gengar84]

First Party is definitely since he’s from a Japan exclusive game… which wasn’t even out when Melee released. As for Third Party, I’m thinking probably because Banjo-Kazooie gets constant rereleases and was second place on the Smash Ballot. Bayonetta isn’t marketed too much by SEGA and gets few rereleases.

Yeah, at the time of release, it probably was . These days, Bayonetta 3 is actually getting decent advertisement so i think she is a bet better known by the general Nintendo fanbase than some of the older third party characters that haven't had much going on in recent years. I personally knew who every third party character was other than Richter and almost every first party since Melee so no one is that obscure to me. The only characters i didn’t know about prior to release were. I knew about Symphony of the Night but Alucard was the only playable character i was actually familiar with from that game. Although i was aware of the Dracula meme, i just never made the connection who the other character was. So i guess you could say i knew of Richter’s existence but didn’t know anything about him.

 

[Sucumbio]

I have to admit many of the characters in the Smash roster were unknown to me. I just don't play a wide variety of games sticking to survival horror, fighting and metroidvanias mainly.

 

[Gengar84]

I have to admit many of the characters in the Smash roster were unknown to me. I just don't play a wide variety of games sticking to survival horror, fighting and metroidvanias mainly.

Nothing wrong with that. I think Smash is a great way to introduce people to new characters and games they may not have been familiar with before. If it wasn’t for Smash, I may not have ever gotten into Fire Emblem. Ike’s inclusion in Brawl inspired me to give the series a try and now I really enjoy it. That’s partially why I don’t necessarily think we have to limit the roster to only the most popular and best selling franchises.

Truthfully, I’m pretty narrow in the types of games I play regularly too. I mostly play JRPGs and first party Nintendo games based on IP from the NES and SNES era. I’ll buy the occasional game outside that scope but that’s the large majority of it.

 

[Wonder Smash]

I don’t think you’re understanding what I’m saying. There’s a difference between being obscure and being more obscure than something else. For example, Samus Aran is more obscure than Pikachu but that doesn’t make Samus obscure.

I already got what you were saying (though I don't think obscure is the best way to describe it).

As for if they'd go more obscure...maybe? The only character I could maybe see as more obscure and having any actual shot of making it into SMash is Adol Cristin of the Ys series.

He'd be an interesting character for Smash.

 

[Gengar84]

I already got what you were saying (though I don't think obscure is the best way to describe it).



He'd be an interesting character for Smash.

Probably not. I was just answering a question of “who is the most obscure third party character in Smash?”. That’s a difficult question to answer since I don’t think any are obscure but comparatively speaking, I would guess that Banjo, Terry, Bayonetta, and Richter are less recognized by the general public than the other third party characters in Smash. Not that any of them are actually obscure.

 

[Sucumbio]

I'd go so far as to say 3rd parties probably wouldn't get in if they were obscure.

Though admittedly once again never heard of Joker or the series he's from until I researched it after his announcement lol.

 

[Gengar84]

I'd go so far as to say 3rd parties probably wouldn't get in if they were obscure.

Though admittedly once again never heard of Joker or the series he's from until I researched it after his announcement lol.

I’m hoping you’re wrong on that one. There are quite a few third party characters I really want that would be considered obscure by today’s audience, mostly classic characters from the NES and SNES era. My most wanted characters are the Battletoads, who were relatively popular back in the day but are probably considered pretty obscure these days. Same goes for Magus from Chrono Trigger, who is my number 2. Bill Rizer from Contra and Fulgore from Killer Instinct are two more classic characters I’d love to see. You could at least make the argument that none of these characters are really obscure because they were at least popular at one point in history. The Killer Instinct game on X-Box help Fulgore and Rash to some extent with recognizability but even that is nearly 10 years old at this point.

Then there’s Zegram Ghart from Rogue Galaxy, who is my favorite video game character, but he’s so obscure and owned by Sony that he never had any chance. Other characters I love like Raziel from Soul Reaver and Death from Darksiders fall into this category of characters that were probably always relatively obscure.

 

[Sucumbio]

I’m hoping you’re wrong on that one. There are quite a few third party characters I really want that would be considered obscure by today’s audience, mostly classic characters from the NES and SNES era. My most wanted characters are the Battletoads, who were relatively popular back in the day but are probably considered pretty obscure these days. Same goes for Magus from Chrono Trigger, who is my number 2. Bill Rizer from Contra and Fulgore from Killer Instinct are two more classic characters I’d love to see. You could at least make the argument that none of these characters are really obscure because they were at least popular at one point in history.

Then there’s Zegram Ghart from Rogue Galaxy, who is my favorite video game character, but he’s so obscure and owned by Sony that he never had any chance. Other characters I love like Raziel from Soul Reaver and Death from Darksiders fall into this category of characters that were probably always relatively obscure.

Yeah that does put a damper on prospects so I also wish to remain hopeful. With crono cross remake coming to switch it's possible this will shed light on the series'as a whole so there's that. Killer Instinct was pretty popular and again so when it came to Xbox so that's a good thing. Zegram hey I mean anything is possible

 

[chocolatejr9]

I’m hoping you’re wrong on that one. There are quite a few third party characters I really want that would be considered obscure by today’s audience, mostly classic characters from the NES and SNES era. My most wanted characters are the Battletoads, who were relatively popular back in the day but are probably considered pretty obscure these days. Same goes for Magus from Chrono Trigger, who is my number 2. Bill Rizer from Contra and Fulgore from Killer Instinct are two more classic characters I’d love to see. You could at least make the argument that none of these characters are really obscure because they were at least popular at one point in history. The Killer Instinct game on X-Box help Fulgore and Rash to some extent with recognizability but even that is nearly 10 years old at this point.

Then there’s Zegram Ghart from Rogue Galaxy, who is my favorite video game character, but he’s so obscure and owned by Sony that he never had any chance. Other characters I love like Raziel from Soul Reaver and Death from Darksiders fall into this category of characters that were probably always relatively obscure.

I wouldn't be surprised if that was part of the reason some people want Nintendo to be more open to acquisitions. That, and the usual reasons so many get excited about acquisitions...

 

[Gengar84]

Yeah that does put a damper on prospects so I also wish to remain hopeful. With crono cross remake coming to switch it's possible this will shed light on the series'as a whole so there's that. Killer Instinct was pretty popular and again so when it came to Xbox so that's a good thing. Zegram hey I mean anything is possible

Yeah, there are rumors of a new KI in development made by Bandai-Namco of all developers so that is good news for Fulgore and potentially Rash if they bring him back as a guest again.

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I’m excited about finally being able to play Chrono Cross again. I’m hoping they drop more hints linking Magus and Guile as characters. As for Zegram, I’m not going to delude myself into thinking he has any chance lol. Still, I’ll bring him and his game up whenever I get the chance because at least I might be able to spread awareness about one of my favorite games and inspire some people to check it out. You can get it digitally on the PlayStation store for pretty cheap.

 

[Geno Boost]

if the "no non-video game characters" rule gets broken in the next smash game who do you guys want to see and will your top 10 wanted characters be different after that?

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

The lack of really obscure third party characters likely comes down to Nintendo obviously wanting some return on their investment when it comes to fighters. If they're giving Square Enix money to use someone, they're sooner going to use on a prominent Final Fantasy character that will sell the game and/or fighters pass, and not Sonic Blastman.

 

[Perkilator]

At the very least, I think acknowledgement of obscure 3rd party characters via Spirits is nice.

 

[Lenidem]

if the "no non-video game characters" rule gets broken in the next smash game who do you guys want to see and will your top 10 wanted characters be different after that?

Honesty: no one. If this rule ever gets broken, I stop playing Smash.

 

[Dan Quixote]

if the "no non-video game characters" rule gets broken in the next smash game who do you guys want to see and will your top 10 wanted characters be different after that?

I'd mostly be rooting for Sora to finally be represented in full lol

 

[Perkilator]

if the "no non-video game characters" rule gets broken in the next smash game who do you guys want to see and will your top 10 wanted characters be different after that?

At the very least, I wish Donald and Goofy were Spirits on Sora's DLC Spirit Board

 

[chocolatejr9]

The lack of really obscure third party characters likely comes down to Nintendo obviously wanting some return on their investment when it comes to fighters. If they're giving Square Enix money to use someone, they're sooner going to use on a prominent Final Fantasy character that will sell the game and/or fighters pass, and not Sonic Blastman.

I only know Sonic Blast Man from ProJared...

 

[Geno Boost]

Honesty: no one. If this rule ever gets broken, I stop playing Smash.

tbh if a 4th party get in it would probably just be 1% of the entire roster assuming the next smash game surpass 100 characters

 

[chocolatejr9]

So, I don't know how many people here care, but E3 2022 has been officially cancelled. We'll likely still get a Direct around that time, but we just lost our biggest source for gaming news of the year...

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

E3 was rapidly losing relevance in the last few years, and the pandemic essentially finished it off. With more companies doing their own presentations and even gaming journalism itself being decentralized among vast content creators rather than a few select outlets; it was a concept somewhat out of time anyway.

Nintendo's still likely doing a late spring Direct, but I wonder if something like this will shift the actual timing to something like May as opposed to June. No guarantee, but there's a chance.

 

[dream1ng]

So, I don't know how many people here care, but E3 2022 has been officially cancelled. We'll likely still get a Direct around that time, but we just lost our biggest source for gaming news of the year...

I suspect Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony will still have events sometime during the summer. And the third-parties can either do their own thing (which some of them will), or just simply show up in the showcases of the big three.

The loss of E3 is mostly going to be reflected in missing out on the result of networking that happens at those events. That's apparently where Sakurai first got in contact with the Rare guys. And Sora only happened due to a chance meeting at an award show. So these are the kinds of things we lose out on.

 

[RealLuigisWearPink]

if the "no non-video game characters" rule gets broken in the next smash game who do you guys want to see and will your top 10 wanted characters be different after that?

I also would consider quitting at that point but the only non-video game characters i'd contemplate are Nester, Captain N and for historical purposes, Popeye (MAYBE Dash Rendar from Shadows of the Empire)

 

[Gengar84]

if the "no non-video game characters" rule gets broken in the next smash game who do you guys want to see and will your top 10 wanted characters be different after that?

There would be a ton of non video game characters I’d love to see if that rule ever gets broken but it’s hard to group them together with my most wanted video game characters. I have no idea how it would shift my list around but I’ll list several non video game characters I’d love to see in that scenario:

Spider Man
Venom
Gambit
Wolverine
The Predator
Alien
The Undertaker
Shawn Michaels
Becky Lynch
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Spawn
Ichigo
Edward Elric
Bakugo
Liliana Vess

I’m sure I’m missing a ton of characters I’d love to see but those were just a few off the top of my head. I personally don’t care much about rules for who can get in and who can’t. As long as I can play as characters I like, that’s cool with me. Smash was originally supposed to just be Nintendo characters and they’ve already expanded from that in Brawl so I wouldn’t have any issue with opening the floodgates completely at this point.

 

[HyperSomari64]

if the "no non-video game characters" rule gets broken in the next smash game who do you guys want to see and will your top 10 wanted characters be different after that?

1. A tie between Goku and Superman
2. Mickey Mouse
3. SpongeBob SquarePants
4. The Hulk (or Shuma Gorath)
5. Darth Vader (with Anakin alt.)
6. Ultraman
7. Turok
8. Geralt of Rivia
9. Kermit the Frog
10. Kenshiro
Bonus. Homer Simpson

 

[RodNutTakin]

if the "no non-video game characters" rule gets broken in the next smash game who do you guys want to see and will your top 10 wanted characters be different after that?

In my eyes, the only non video game character I feel who would truly deserve it would be Popeye.
Personally, I don't want to have to deal with my most wanteds having to compete for development time with the likes of Goku or SpongeBob.

 

[Geno Boost]

in terms of 4th party if i had to choose 5 i would go with:
-Goku
-Mickey Mouse
-Superman
-Thanos
-Ronald McDonald
This would feel insane when they all meet in a single game

 

[CannonStreak]

Spiderman, Goku, Naruto, Bart Simpson, Wreck-It Ralph, Donald and Goofy, Turok, the Ninja Turtles, Batman, Bugs Bunny, among others are all who I would like to see in Smash if the fourth party rule was broken.

 

[dream1ng]

I like that Smash is a melting pot of gaming. So I wouldn't react enthusiastically to any fourth-party character. But depending on who the character was, I suppose my reaction would range from begrudging acceptance to active resentment.

It would boil down to how much that addition seemed to mesh with the cast. And I know some people find a character "sticking out" as part of the charm, but I don't.

 

[RealLuigisWearPink]

As a tangent, I want to see a character that incorporates old Nintendo arcade games like Pac-Man does with Namco. Donkey Kong Jr would be my pick

 

[SPEN18]

Honesty: no one. If this rule ever gets broken, I stop playing Smash.

I don't think I'd go so far as to stop playing the game altogether, especially if the 4th party character is like a DLC character that I can choose to not buy, but yeah I agree that the game and its roster start to lose all identity if we allow non-game characters. Scope is just unmanageably large then.

 

[StrangeKitten]

Would Amy Rose be a good fit for Smash?

I think so! My girlfriend and I were talking about what she'd be like the other day. I suggested Wolf-like movement stats: slow on the ground (though not the slowest) but fast in the air, to reference how she's usually slow in her playable appearances, but being fast in the air would still give her a bit of that Soniclike speed. Gf suggested "faster Dedede" which is likely how she would play in some regards (faster movement than Dedede, faster swings). She'd be pretty unique, as one of the only characters to use a hammer for attacks!

I think we should get Eggman, Tails, Shadow, and maybe Knuckles before we get Amy, but she'd round out the Sonic characters nicely and is enough of a major character that she should be added, imo.

 

[RealLuigisWearPink]

Hm. Something seems....SMASHING today

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

Well, I'll gladly take Goku. Though hey, Venom would be sweet too, so I can revive my original MvC team. MegaMan and Venom. Otherwise, Popeye sounds fun. And having Goofy and Donald with Sora sounds perfect to me. King Mickey would be a bonus beyond that.

Ooh, love the April Fool's Day avatars.

...Welp. Garfield is my "when I look at my screen", while I got Mr. Krabs for my public-looking one. Sad. Though hey, I'm not exactly lacking in money but I'm still sometimes catlike? XD

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Remember Lincoln Loud?

This is him now.

Spoiler

 

[RodNutTakin]

I would say that I hate mondays.

But it's Friday.

 

[ZeldaFan01]

!!!

Furthermore, Silver & Blaze would be likely as candidates, maybe even more than any *other * Sonic character, I think, bc they are deemed as very nimble/popular characters. Also, don't think they'd be considered as echoes of Sonic bc of various reasons such as Silver using mostly Telekinesis and Blaze w/ her fire properties free to use at her disposal.

 

[Geno Boost]

Do people still want Laboman in smash? I haven’t heard anyone talk about him in years