My time to shine.
ASSASINATION SMASHROOM
Ezio is the main character of Assassin’s Creed 2, developed by Ubisoft. As an assassin, his family is killed setting up a revenge quest against the Templar Order. Ezio quickly became a breakout character. Assassin’s Creed 2 was received better than the first, and Ezio would later go onto star in several more games. He is undeniably the series’ most popular character, and the series itself continues to thrive and sell well to this very day. Hell, Assassin’s Creed 2 alone sold over 1.6 million in its very first week, and has sold well over 10 million copies. Ubisoft has famously had a rather strong relationship with Nintendo as of late. Rayman, another of the company’s mascots, was featured as a trophy in Smash 4, one of the only third party trophies without a character in the game. Rayman alongside the Rabbids are featured in Ultimate as spirits, and Rayman legends was pledged to be a Wii U exclusive and wa spublished by Nintendo in Japan. Hell, just look at Mario+Rabbids or Starlink. Nintendo has a tight grip over their IP, so the fact that they trusted Ubisoft with these crossovers, even with their biggest franchise in Mario, just demonstrates their relationship. Needless, to say, negotiations wouldn’t be an issue, and based on datamining it seems Rayman was included as one of the earlier spirits. Ubisoft was one of the first developers to announce a Switch game, alongside Sega(got a new character) and Square(rumoured to get a new character).Now, you may by asking:
Why wouldn’t it be Rayman then?
Here’s the thing, Rayman, while certainly finding success, is just eclipsed by Assassin’s Creed in popularity. Remember, Nintendo is ultimately the one deciding here, and Assassin’s Creed is arguably Ubisoft’s biggest franchise these days. Ezio himself is very iconic, and with the DLC lineup seemingly going for popular third-parties, Ezio fits that lineup quite nicely.
Here’s another thing that’s pretty interesting
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&t=2045&v=VZ8VyX8-PV8
That’s Xander Mobus saying that alongside Rayman, one of the fake names he got given was
Altair, protagonist of the first Assassin’s Creed. This suggests two things. One, NOA at least has Assassin’s Creed on the mind. Two, NOA has other Ubisoft franchises apart from Rayman and the Rabbids on the mind. There’s also the question of Rayman being a trophy for two games in a row now which makes me wonder if the Smash team really thinks he should be added.
But Assassin’s Creed isn’t popular in Japan!
That’s another interesting thing. Surprisngly, even to me, while the series initially seems to have sold poorly over in Japan (Assassin’s Creed 2 sold around 250,000 copes in Japan based on the notoriously innacurate VGChartz), the more recent entries seem to have flipped that around. In this interview
http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2018/09/12/assassins-creed-odyssey-rpg-series-transformation/ Ubisoft Asia general manager Steve Miller says the series has a “core following” in Japan and is one of the most successful Western series over there. That’s a direct statement from a guy who would know about this. These articles
http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2018..._assassins_creed_odyssey_starts_strong_on_ps4
http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2017...rts_assassins_creed_origins_climbs_into_top_5 depict the recent entries in the series topping the sales upon their week of release. With this, I think it’s fair to say that the series at least isn’t a flop over there. For comparison, here’s how Rayman sells over in Japan
https://nintendoeverything.com/rayman-legends-sells-under-1500-copies-in-its-first-week-in-japan/ https://gonintendo.com/stories/302881-japan-rayman-legends-definitive-edition-first-day-sell-through
This is just another argument for Ezio being chosen over Rayman. Whether it’s the East or the West, Assassin’s Creed frankly eclipses Rayman in popularity.
Here’s another thing, in Soul Calibur 5, the guest character for that game was our main man Ezio himself.
While Soul Calibur has included characters like Geralt who are far more popular in the West than Japan, this just further demonstrates that Ezio has clout. He’s been noticed by Japanese devs. He’s not an unknown. Ultimately no matter which way you slice it, Ezio is gonna be a bigger name than pretty much anybody else from Ubisoft,
The series has no history with Nintendo!
While the series ain’t exactly known for being on Nintendo, it’s made appearances. There have been several Assassin’s Creed games for the Wii U and 3DS. Just two days ago they announced that Assassin’s Creed 3 and Liberation would be remastered for the Switch. Hell, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has been ported to the Switch too, albeit through a streaming service and exclusively in Japan. Another thing is that while Joker’s press release mentions SMT’s history with Ninty, Persona itself has never been on a Nintendo console, and with NOJ making decisions here I do have to wonder how big a factor history really is. With the rumoured Erdrick and the confirmed Joker, Nintendo seems to be wanting to draw in new audiences to Smash with the DLC. Ezio certainly does that considering he’s coming from a popular series that doesn’t have much overlap with Smash. I will concede though that this is a blow against him.
He’s too violent!
While Ezio is, y’know, an assassin, his actual weapons aren’t really much more violent than Snake choking someone or Joker using his knife. Plus Ike and Samus are mercenaries! They managed to fit him in Soul Calibur, Smash shouldn’t be too much harder. Again though, this is a bit of a point against him.
In conclusion, while Ezio is held back to an extent by his lack of history and violence, if Ubisoft is gonna get a character, I think it’s gonna be him. While Ubisoft couldvery well just not get a character, I think their (to put it bluntly) sucking up to Nintendo in recent years might just net them something in terms of Smash. Ezio is honestly an underrated character right now imo.
Chance: 50%
Want :
Plot-twist, I’m not actually an Assassin’s Creed fan. While I did enjoy 2, I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of the new games and some of the practices the series has taken, and I would actually prefer Rayman. However, Ezio is just a cool character. He’s got a cool design, a fun personality, cool weapons and a fun moveset in Soul Calibur. The potential for a stage and music set is definitely there with the numerous location the series has taken place in. While I’m not a fan, I definitely wouldn’t mind Ezio getting in. Plus, it means we would get a proper assassin in Smash.
60%
Wooh, there we go. Hope I didn’t dissapoint ya. Now my noms feel justified.
Oh, noms: rerate 2B x5.
