Since I've always wanted a Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat game for so long, it's really starting to dawn on me how much Smash could have been a good opportunity for that crossover to finally happen after all these years. The idea was mentioned before but fighting game characters for Smash was never really something I was interested in because you pretty much already have an idea of how they'll play since they already have a moveset.
But while I can picture the violence being some sort of concern with a straight up Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat game (it wouldn't matter either way to me), I'm certain Scorpion or whatever MK character in Smash could make it without the violence at all and it wouldn't be a problem. So it's a shame that it didn't even happen through another game like that.
At this point, with Scorpion and Sub-Zero apparently leaked through the datamines of MultiVersus, I'm almost hoping Ryu would appear as a guest character in that game since Street Fighter characters have been making so many crossover appearances in other games lately.
It will be nice that MultiVersus will finally put an end to the "Scorpion can't work in a toned-down game" complaints. Unfortunately it will now subject him to the baseless "he's already in another platform fighter" nonsense.
To be fair though, things probably aren't going to work out Smash-wise for any character that basically skips Japan.
With regards to 2B I really don't think a new game is enough to stop her at this point. I personally see her as approaching the realm of iconic video game characters if not there already and definitely see her in that way as far as female video game characters go. It's like Cloud. By the time he got into Smash there'd already been numerous sequels after his entry in the series before even counting all the previous Nintendo-era entries but he still got to represent the Final Fantasy franchise as a whole. I think of 2B in a similar way. I'd love to see her in the game and I think she deserves it. After Tifa, Aerith, Yuffie, Terra and Celes I'd say she's my most wanted female rep. I know the list is pretty long before her but at least it's all Square!
I would be shocked if 2B doesn't end up being the Cloud of her series. Her game is what brought the series out of fairly obscure territory and made it one of Square's most currently prolific. And she's really popular generally. Not that FF was obscure before 7, but you get it.
If your criteria for smash inclusion is as broad as exclusives on nintendo (bayonetta) to a couple of cute spinoff/sidegames (persona, tekken) to glorified cameos you didn't know until you actually played it (FF7), then maybe nintendo representation is so vague that it was never a decisive factor anyway (even the commonly brought up comment by sakurai stated it "as a courtesy").
Maybe. Again, we don't know for sure.
The point is, not having Nintendo representation boxes out so few candidates it really doesn't matter - especially because if skins count, it basically boxes out no one, aside from some already unlikely Valve and Sony characters.
Honestly smash would probably be duller if it adhered moreso towards heavily associated nintendo characters. Imagine trading cloud/snake/joker for the likes of black mage/shantae or even hayabusa.
To some extent this is true. Worth keeping in mind though, that if we didn't start getting more of the less associated characters, the fanbase wouldn't be that bothered by the Nintendo association, because that's how people thought it worked anyway.
Also interesting that every third-party we've received due to demand has had strong Nintendo association, whether Sonic, Mega Man, Simon, Banjo or Sora.
The fanbase would still be entirely enthused by getting mostly Nintendo associated characters so long as those characters were ones liked among the fanbase. Monster Hunter, Bomberman, Leon Kennedy, Phoenix Wright, Lloyd, Rayman, Travis, Shovel Knight, Hayabusa, more Sonic, and ones where ymmv like Doom Slayer and Crash, who may be less associated but still have a strong history of Nintendo support. Sort of like Ryu.
Yeah like I said, I just don't think there's that many IPs without a game published on Nintendo hardware that would really get into Smash, anyways. For example, Darkstalkers is another IP that just recently lost its "Nintendo virgin" status as all of its main games are now available on Switch through Capcom Fighting Collection...but nonetheless I don't expect Morrigan to ever be playable in Smash due to Darkstalkers not really being an active or major IP in any capacity, nor are there that much requests for her.
At this point, unless Nintendo really is crazy enough to work with Sony for a character of theirs, it really does just boil down to Master Chief, and that's just assuming that skins in other games like Minecraft and Fortnite don't count.
And tbh, just because Darkstalkers hadn't shown up on a Nintendo doesn't mean Morrigan hadn't either. She had. A few times. Same with stuff like DMC and Dante.
