MERRY CHRISTMAS FRIENDOS DO I HAVE A PRESENT FOR YOU. I GIVE YOU MY SECOND MAGNUM OPUS.
Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls smashers of all ages. I give you Ani’s first annual NinTED Talk™ (Yes I know I used that term earlier in another post, but I made that pun at like two in the morning and I didn’t realize how great it is till now, It’d be a missed opportunity to not use it again) There’s been a lot of suspicious happenings involving the Mother games in SSBU, most having to do with the first and third Mother games. I’m having this NinTED Talk™ to get all these thoughts in one place and to make sense of the current madness we’re trapped in. I’m gonna be a bit less formal in this than in my slideshows soooooo let’s get this show on the road.
Firstly old man Mr. Design Argument is basically btfo out at this point by none other than the spirit designers. The argument to begin with was rather laughable when three Links and four blue haired Fire Emblem characters are on the roster, but since Ninten is using Ness’s Fuel alt in his spirit rather than his og costume or the blue alt, (So long Ninten is Blue Ness theory, you won’t be missed) this implies that the spirit designers are aware that he doesn’t have to look identical to Ness to be Ninten. Whether it references his sprite, the commercial, or something else entirely it doesn’t really matter. This says Ninten can and would get a redesign if he were in Smash Bros. And since Blue Ness ISN’T Ninten, with the current echos all being skins and the like… He wont be an echo fighter~~ But most of us already knew this so let’s move on.
"Reggie said all the characters would be new franchises and would add new movesets.” Nope and Nope • 2. That is purposely twisting his words and we here at NinTED Talk™ don’t take to kindly to agenda pushing. Thankfully Ninten could get a unique moveset and according to music slot theory, two franchises already present in the game will be getting a DLC newcomer. What could Ninten’s moves be? PK Beam, Boomerang moves, Teleporting using Dimension Slip,(Might as well make him as broken as the game he originates from right?) Maybe having him carry his bat more often, Ana’s unique assist PSI are open for use, telepathy, the Eight Melodies or EVE being his final smash, his Asthma actually playing a role in how he fights, honestly, he could be a pretty unique contender. Similar to how Robin was drastically different from Marth, Roy, and Ike despite being a stereotypical “Fire Emblem” character. So even if the unique moves thing were true, it’s a pretty poor argument.
“But EarthBound isn’t popular!” Tell me lies tell me sweet little lies~ Popular is a very subjective term. Many considered Persona a simple niche and Joker a literal who. Just because something’s niche doesn’t mean it can’t be a very popular niche, let’s see…
-Second Highest selling 3DS Virtual Console game in Japan
-All three Mother games crack the Top 15 best sellers on the Japanese Wii U Virtual Console
-2nd best selling VC game in America and 4th best selling Digital game on the Wii U period
-The great GameStop crash of 2015 was caused by Ness Amiibos
-Camp FanGamer is a thing
-Mother 3’s localization is one of Nintendo’s biggest memes
Yeah naw… It ain’t popular my left wing.
Now let’s talk about the Mother content in SSBU. There’s a ****load more than I believe most of us were anticipating. All four of the stages are back which leads to another argument people have. “Certain series have enough stages.” Seeing that Yoshi is a single character and has four stages just for him and there being three FE stages shared by seven FE characters, this is a fan rule that’s already been broken, so Ninten coming with a new Mother stage isn’t that big of a deal especially since it’d be five stages shared by three characters.
Anyways the Mother content is suspiciously abundant. Both Jeff and the Starman return as assist trophies, the aforementioned four stages returning, and three items: Franklin Badge, Mr. Saturn, and now the Ramblin Evil Mushroom are all present in Ultimate. Speaking of which, Mr. Saturn is the only non playable character present on the mural and cover of the game. (Not to mention this is the first time Ness has been on the cover of a Smash Bros game as well.) The Flying Man Mii costume returns with the addition of a Mr. Saturn Hat also.
Then there’s the aesthetic overhaul Ness and Lucas both received. Ness has a new up air, idle animation, and new grab animation using his telekinesis. Lucas’s PK Love has been changed to blue like its original appearance Both Ness and Lucas have aesthetic changes to all their PSI moves as well, and the backgrounds during their final smashes are far from random. The Sound Stone and the Masked Man battle? Yeah those are pretty damn specific if you ask me. Not to mention the party members appearing with Ness and Lucas in their final smashes. There’s quite a bit of effort put into these two. Even their renders are highly detailed having different shirt collars and sock types.
Then there’s the spirit list. Great googally moogally there’s a lot of those little suckers. According to the Smash wiki there’s 28 including Ness and Lucas’s fighter spirits. (If there is for sure more dm me the deets) Now let’s compare this amount to other franchises. There’s more EB spirits than Yoshi, Star Fox, F-Zero, Pikmin, Kid Icarus, Wario, Punch Out, Xenoblade, Metal Gear, Splatoon, Sonic the Hedgehog and even Street Fighter. Let me repeat. A franchise that hasn’t had a new entry in 12 years has more spirits than SONIC THE HEDGEHOG AND STREET FIGHTER. There’s actually 2 more spirits in SSBU than stickers present in SSBB. Does that mean anything? Probably not. But the fact they programed 28 spirits for a franchise that’s lucky to get half that amount in trophies is kinda amazing to me.
Let’s recap what we’ve got so far: Every Mother stage ever, two assist trophies, three items, Ness and Lucas’s aesthetic overhauls, 28 spirits, 2 Mii costumes, and Ness actually getting his face on the front cover of the game. Now, let’s get into the weeeeeird stuff.
Judging by Joker who’s game was released in 2016 in Japan and Rex from Xenoblade 2 released in 2017 being reconfirmed via Mii costume, I believe it’s safe to say the DLC characters were chosen between 2016-2017. The character would also have to be a character that is from a game localized worldwide, (Lucas was the only exception due to fan demand) and since EB0 was localized the year prior, Ninten wasn’t too new to be considered here.
In fact, let’s talk about Lucas for a sec. Wolf was another popular character that was cut from Brawl that had a large fanbase that wanted to see him back, yet Sakurai chose Lucas, a Japanese only character over Wolf, a character from a game localized around the world. I believe it’s also important to mention that Lucas was NOT leaked beforehand. Hell, EarthBound Beginnings never leaked either. Both were complete surprises to everyone, and it ain’t no coincidence that they were released to the public in the same month.
Then there’s the Flying Man Mii costume. Several fighters like K. Rool and Chrom have been upgraded to playable status, but what about the Flying Man costume? Seems a bit random right? Well turns out Sakurai did infact make 3D renders for the Magicant Flying Men, HOWEVER according to an interview, him not having these models DOESN’T MEAN that he wouldn’t have made those costumes. He was going to make something for the Mother series regardless of having those models or not. Due to the Flying Man spirit in SSBU being from EB0, if this Mii Costume references a new possible Mother character they will be from Mother 1. Oh bye the way, guess when they were released? A month after Lucas and Mother 1’s localization.
“B-But Porky is the most likely!” Is he? Is he really…? The only reasons I’ve heard for Porky being the most likely are 1. He’s a missing spirit, which isn’t true, 2. He’s a missing boss, which Duon and Rayquaza are as well so… 3. He’s a villain which… literally means nothing to Nintendo and Sakurai as evidenced by how long it took to get Ridley and K. Rool in and 4. Porky could advertise Mother 3. Uh, would It be that smart to have a spoilery boss that doesn’t appear until the end of the game being a playable character in Smash? Might as well get Masked Man at that point since at least he had the most demand for Mother characters back in the day and was actually present throughout more of the game. Basically what I’m saying is, most of the reasons are either untrue or could be applied to many other characters. “You’re biased Ani” If I were biased I’d tell you Masked Man, Decidueye and Klonoa would be playable. Ninten’s the only option that fits with current evidence and Nintendo’s protagonist preferences. “But who cares about spoilers?” Itoi does. Itoi owns the rights so all Mother content is approved by him. Nintendo cannot force him to put Porky in. Sorry mates.
Oh, and Lucas was released alongside Mother 1, so why would Ninten being released alongside Mother 3 be so weird?
“What makes you think Mother 3 will even come out next year?” A few things, one being my intuition, but that hardly classifies as a source. Vergeben on the other hand DOES have a source, and since he was right on Hearthstone, Animal Crossing, and the Switch’s VC being a subscription service, he clearly has decent Nintendo sources. Though there’s one thing that he mentioned back in his r/cappa post from 2017 that is highly intriguing. “Mother 3 is real. According to my source, it was completely localized and playable. The sad thing that I've heard is that it is being held back for some reason, which all I know has something to do with not knowing which month to release it in.” Hmm hmm and HMMMMMMM… Certainly a post that makes you say that. Next summer would be the most logical time to release it so why aren’t they certain about it? Keep this in mind as I’ll bring this up again later.
Now… back on schedule… Where was I? Oh yeah all the weird crap in SSBU pertaining to the Mother series. Let’s get on with what probably the weirdest portion of content is: The music.
I didn’t mention this earlier, but Mother did in fact get two new music tracks: Magicant from Mother 1 and Fourside from EarthBound. Both tracks are based around stages and are remixes of tracks already in game which is… A bit odd, but gets even odder when you take a look at the Smash Bros. Blog. Some franchises including Mother, Kid Icarus, Star Fox, and Xenoblade didn’t get any music posted on the blog whatsoever. Some franchises like Star Fox didn’t get any new music while Xenoblade only got tracks ripped from the series with no remixes. Pikmin and Yoshi got remixes posted sooooo… Why not either Mother track? Hell, even Hip Tanaka, a composer from Mother 1 is working on Smash Ultimate. There’s no good reason to not post a Mother track.
Now here’s the fun part. Back in August, Australian Smash Players were allowed to play an updated demo of Smash. However, they were not allowed to record Cloud’s victory theme, Ness’s victory theme, or the stage Onett. Cloud’s I understand due to copyright from Square, but Ness and Onett? New Pork City was another Mother stage in the demo and they were allowed to record that, so it couldn’t have just been copyrighted music. Well it turns out that the Mother characters received a new victory theme. Not just any victory theme, the Eight Melodies from Mother 1.
Why is this interesting? First of all, Corrin was also present in the demo and received a new victory theme. Their’s were NOT copywriten. Same with Chrom/Lucina. The Zelda characters as well as Dark Samus and Ridley also got new themes. Also not copywriten. Though what makes this Mother victory theme special is this: These new victory themes either originate from new remixes present in Ultimate or are a variation of of the original theme. The new Mother theme is NEITHER of these. Would it be so crazy for this remix of Eight Melodies to be present in a possible Fighter Pass?
Now some of you are probably thinking that maybe Nintendo would want Ninten in Smash but Sakurai certainly wouldn’t. Which could be an argument if there wasn’t a ton of evidence showing Ninten being a considered character in Brawl, as well as ton of Mother 1 content in past Smash games. Let’s take a look at the oddities involving Mother 1.
-Mother 1 music on Ness’s home stage Onett that wasn’t even present in Ness’s game
-All the cut Mother tracks in Brawl were from EB except Mother 1’s Eight Melodies.
-Ness didn’t get his Melee victory theme back.
-Ness was not planned to get a unique victory theme yet Lucas was while Brawl’s victory theme is from Mother 1, not Mother 2 or 3.
-The Ruined Zoo possibly being the Podunk Zoo with Ness (who obviously resembles Ninten) rescuing Lucas. Most stages characters debuted in were reminiscent of their games.
-The 26 stickers in Brawl. Mother 1 tied Mother 2 with 8 stickers each. One was a Mad Truck.
-The Magicant stage in Smash 3DS is based on Mother 1.
-Starman and Devil Car in Smash Run were both Mother 1 enemies.
Judging by the suspicious Brawl content, there’s enough evidence to show he was considered at the very least.
Kay moving on to something else: Player Icons and Ninten’s weird spirit placement. Good god the fun never ends does it.
Ninten for whatever reason was one of the last spirits added and is positioned first in a list of six characters. Characters in most lists that top it are fighters, so it’s rather interesting that Ninten tops a list without being one. Even stranger is that Loid and Teddy were added in the first batch, showing that Mother 1 characters weren’t forgotten. The remaining other five, Ana, Kumatora, Flint, Salsa, and Hinawa I could see being added later as they’re less important but Ninten? A main protagonist? Really makes ya think huh…
Another oddity is Loid and Ana’s spirits being publicly shown on the Smash Bros website since the November direct with no Ninten in sight. It wouldn’t be due to looking similar to Ness since Kaptain K. Rool was also a spirit that was shown on the same page. But why though?
Alright player icons. Strangely Rex from Xenoblade doesn’t have a player icon… Is this due to being deconfirmed? If so that’s good news for the 250 spirits that happen to also be player icons. This includes our asthmatic psychic himself! (Imma just copy/paste something from my slideshow MK II) Most of the player icons seem to be characters already represented in the game in some fashion, Paula, Poo, Kuma, and Boney are in final smashes, Flying Man and Ultimate Chimera are stage hazards, Mr. Saturn is an item, Porky is represented through his stage, and Claus is a Lucas skin. It wouldn’t be a reach to say Ninten is also present in the background of Magicant, however, so are Ana and Loid. Why choose Ninten and a random like EVE? This isn’t the first time they were referenced together, there’s an image from the 50 fact extravaganza where there’s an image of the two (Ness as a reference for Ninten obviously) so that’s a bit interesting.
Now this is a bit of a tinfoil hat theory, but since Ninten, Eve, and the Flying Man are the only Mother 1 spirit icons, and seeing that nearly all the other characters have a presence in Smash, could Ninten’s final smash be using EVE? Think about it, if all the DLC were chosen in advance this time around, EVE being a player icon but not Ana or Loid would actually make sense if Ninten was a chosen fighter. I mean, Duster isn’t a player icon either and he’s just as important as Loid or Ana. Just some food for thought.
Okay then there’s the possibility of there being an Iwata tribute character. Is it unlikely? Yeah probs. But if we’re getting one, it’s gonna be BWD or Ninten. Iwata worked on Mother 1, and was the one to announce EarthBound coming to VC and Lucas as Smash 4 DLC. Due to that, I’m thinking Ninten would be the tribute if there is one. Also Sakurai bias.
So before we at NinTED Talk™ try to connect all the dots here and I put my tinfoil hat on,
LET’S RECAP AGAIN.
-Design argument BTFO by spirit designers.
-Twisting Reggie’s words won’t change what he actually said.
-Mother games sell like hotcakes.
-Crapton of Mother content in Smash.
-The Flying Man Mii Costume.
-Relevant during the original project plan/localized around the world.
-Porky isn’t as likely as people think he is.
-Vergeben potentially leaking Mother 3.
-Weirdness surrounding the Mother music in Ultimate.
-The new victory theme/it not being a track present in game.
-Ninten most likely being considered for Brawl/Mother 1 content in previous games.
-Ninten’s bizarre spirit placement/why is he so elusive.
-The player icons. Ninten be one of them.
-Potential Iwata tribute character.
It’s tinfoil hat time boys.
So, according to Dataminers, there’s a missing character slot that was created way early on in the game. Some have said it’s the Piranha Plant, however it’s been discovered that his stats are already in the game implying this mystery character no. 70 was planned waaaaaay back, but got cut. I’ve heard numerous theories: Chun Li which… Sakurai can’t think of a moves for her but makes one for a ****ing plant? Yeah I’m not biting. Another is Geno which with the Vifam gun evidence is certainly more likely that most other random possibilities but… What if this mysterious no. 70… Was Ninten?
I know I know… “Ani’s officially lost it, put her out of her misery.” But just hear me out. Remember the odd music situation? Every big reveal had a music track posted that related to the character or series. The only two franchises that had multiple music tracks that weren’t posted were Mother and Wii Fit, but I think it’s fair to say Wii Fit wasn’t going to be getting a new challenger anytime soon. Maybe there were no EarthBound tracks on the blog because the track planned to go along with a reveal isn’t in the game yet.
This could explain the copyright issues if there were a new character originally planned. They wouldn’t want to show a newcomer hint too early. Again, looking back at the other new victory themes, they are either remade versions of the original themes or rips from new tracks. Mother is NEITHER OF THESE. What’s the victory theme again? The ending of the Eight Melodies from Mother 1. Once again, Ness and Lucas have a Mother 1 victory theme despite neither of them being from said game.
Sounds kinda similar to the brawl scenario now doesn’t it?
Now one might say that EB didn’t get any tracks cut and that’s true, but what if they added victory themes BEFORE they added the regular music since they’re tied to fighters. Or even if they didn’t, the lack of the Eight Melodies being it’s own track is hella suspicious enough that it shouldn’t be ignored. “But EarthBound has enough Music Tracks they don’t need anymore” Again, the only remixes we got in Ultimate were remixes of remixes already present in past Smash games. I don’t think five unique tracks are too much of a tall order when FE got around 9 new tracks total.
Remember Ninten’s odd spirit placement? Perhaps that has to do with him getting cut from base roster and ending up on the end just to make sure that he’s present in the game. Also compare Ninten’s spirit battle to other EB spirit battles: Ana you fight a Female Villager and Ness. Salsa is a Diddy Kong and Wario. Hinawa is a Zelda with two Lucas’s. Ninten’s is… Fighting four Ness’s in a stamina battle. …Da faq? Unless this is a super roundabout way of referencing his Dimension Slip I honestly have no clue what this means. You could chalk it up to him being added at the end so there was less effort put into him but Ana, Salsa, and Hinawa were all added AFTER Ninten was. Well ain’t that something. Maybe this was due to getting cut? I dunno man. Him, EVE and the Flying Man are the only Mother 1 player icons as well.
The same Flying Man that inspired the Mii costumes. “X-Files theme plays”
But if he were planned, why would he be cut? Two possible reasons. One being time constraints. The other being a possible Mother game being released in 2019.
Remember back to Vergeben’s Mother 3 leak. He mentioned that the reason it wasn’t out was due to them not knowing what month to release the game in. He posted this back in late 2017 and he has not mentioned this leak again since. “So that means it was bogus.” Not quite. At least I wouldn’t say so just yet. Everything else he listed came to fruition in some way, though some details were slightly off. (Like TWEWY being a sequel on Switch) This doesn’t mean it’s outright fake. Remember when I mentioned that Lucas and EBB didn’t get outright leaked to the public? A possible reason why Verge hasn’t mentioned it might be due to that source being snuffed out. Itoi doesn’t seem to be a fan of spoilers and his content getting leaked, (I mean, even Claus and Masked Man are separate spirits in SSBU, and Porky’s in the ASC) so if Verge has no source, then he can’t comment on it. But this could also signal the possibility of Verge’s source being slightly off. It might not JUST be Mother 3, but there’s no way to know for sure.
The interesting this though is what his source said about the game. “They don’t know what month to release it in” It doesn’t take an entire year to figure out what month to release a game in especially if it’s supposedly already finished. Summer of 2019 seems the most logical time so what’s the issue here?
According to Sakurai, a Smash character can take over a YEAR to develop and perfect. A year prior to the tweet mentioning that the DLC characters were confirmed was when Vergeben made his Mother 3 leak post. I know I know, Ninten himself taking a year to make seems ridiculous at first until you realize that they’d also have to record 5 (4 if the Eight Melodies are one) music tracks AND make a brand new stage as well/battlefield and omega forms. And since Joker came out in Japan in 2016, and Rex getting the axe the DLC characters would have to for sure be officially released to the public before 2017. (Rip Fire Emblem and Pokemon)
Ninten being a pseudo shill like Lucas was doesn’t seem impossible now does it?
Combine this with the music slot theory which is two DLC characters will be from franchises already present in the game. Mother is obviously already present so that helps out there.
Something else that hints at Mother 3 is the piece of art made by a staff member of Mother 3 showing Lucas and Claus playing SSBU on their Switches they got for Christmas. There’s also a Lucas amiibo on the wall and… Balloon Fighter?! Iwata’s baby?! What are you doing here!! Iwata worked more on the first two games, so this is a tiny bit odd. The possibility of something Mother related being an Iwata tribute doesn’t sound so totally farfetched now… Especially since Lucas was announced by Iwata himself.
Also I’m not sure where else to say this but, New Pork City is labeled Mother 3 instead of EarthBound in SSBU. Does this mean if it gets localized it would simply be called Mother 3? The plot thickens.
And before someone says that Ninten and Mother 3 being released together makes no sense, they did the exact same thing in 2015 with Lucas and EBB. Why not have the forgotten Protagonist and Mother game come at the same time? I mean, if Mother 3 was unsure of when to be released, what if it was due to being unsure about a Smash character. Really makes ya think huh?
Alright let’s finish this puppy up, I wanna go eat pizza and hang with family cuz Christmas so...
ONE FINAL RECAP YA’LL ANI HAS OFFICIALLY LOST HER MIND BOOYAAAAA.
-Design argument BTFO by spirit designers.
-Twisting Reggie’s words won’t change what he actually said.
-Mother games sell like hotcakes.
-Crapton of Mother content in Smash.
-The Flying Man Mii Costume is a Mother 1 FM and would’ve been made regardless.
-Relevant during the original project plan/localized around the world.
-Porky isn’t as likely as people think he is.
-Vergeben potentially leaking Mother 3.
-Weirdness surrounding the Mother music in Ultimate.
-The new victory theme/it not being a track present in game.
-Ninten most likely being considered for Brawl/Mother 1 content in previous games.
-Ninten’s bizarre spirit placement/why is he so elusive.
-The player icons. Ninten be one of them.
-Potential Iwata tribute character.
-Possibly planned for SSBU but got cut and pushed back later.
-His spirit fight is bizarre compared to the other Mother characters.
-Mother 3/Mother collection might be delayed due to a possible Smash character.
-Lucas came with Mother 1, Ninten could come with Mother 3.
-Music slot theory signals two established franchises will get DLC characters.
-The Mother 3 artwork with Balloon Fighter (Iwata reference)
-New Pork City being labeled Mother 3 instead of EarthBound
.
-30th anniversary of Mother 1 in 2019.
Thank you for taking the time to read this NinTED Talk™ this NinTED Talk™ loves you. I hope this wasn’t completely pointless. Lemmie know if I missed anything.
Merry Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/whatever you chose to celebrate. Imma go eat some food and chill with family. Have a good holiday bros. May Santa grace us with a playable Ninten and Mother games next year.
The Anigriffin
made 
