started at the bottom now the whole team here
Hat Kid
Chance: Abstain
The creators have hard deconfirmed her. Unfortunately, that's just how it be sometimes. Gotta take their word for it.
Want: 25%
A Hat In Time was cute. I'm a big Mario Sunshine guy and you can really tell how much influence there was put into this game. It's very well-designed, glitches aside, and it's bursting with personality. Hat Kid would have a lot of fun moves because of the badges you can equip and she's a cute character. However, she's not higher than other indy reps I'm behind like Hollow Knight or Quote or even Sans, and I'm a little leery of some of the things the devs have said about Nintendo in the past. Not that that should really affect how I feel about a character's playability but, eh. I don't know if I'm going to pick the game up when it comes to Switch. It's worth a play on PS4 and again it's a very charming game with some great stages - I love the penguin movie studio especially - and music. Wouldn't be against her, but not my first pick.
Concept: Style Savvy Rep
Chance: 5%
Hey, at least it's not an auto-deconfirm due to Spirits because the only Style Savvy Spirit in the game is Shop Assistant from the first game. There are three other games with nothing, even if Trendsetters and Styling Star got music tracks. Still, it's not very likely and I recognize that. There WAS a rumor going around when the game first was datamined that Ring A Ding had blank stage data associated with it, but I haven't heard anything since so I'm just going to assume that was a hoax so I don't get my hopes up. I just don't see them going for such an outside pick for DLC, unless we're about to get Style Savvy Switch It Up (please).
Want: 100%+
My most-wanted first-party.
"Really?" you may ask. And to that I say "Really!". More than Elma, more than Captain Toad, more than any other first-party, I want a Style Savvy rep in Smash. First off, the reason I say "Style Savvy rep" is because while the character they'd go for is absolutely a customizable Stylist protagonist (with multiple outfits like the Inklings? Yes please), my personal favorite rep from the games would be
Sophie from Style Savvy Fashion Forward. She's my favorite character. But I digress.
For those who don't know, Style Savvy (also called Nintendo Presents: Style Boutique in Europe and Girl's Mode in Japan) is a first-party series that started on the Nintendo DS and continued to the 3DS with the latest game in the series released in 2017. There are four games in the series so far: the original, Trendsetters, Fashion Forward, and Styling Star.
The series is developed by Syn Sophia, the former AKI Corporation, creators of some of the greatest classic wrestling games of all time (WWF No Mercy in particular). Funny, huh? That was one of the things that made me check it out; it's no secret I'm a huge wrestling game fan, and also this series has INCREDIBLE reception. Like, seriously, in Japan it spent ages on the New First Party charts and consistently places well with each new game. In Europe and the US each game is
consistently well-received.
Anyway, after learning all this I decided to try the series myself. The original was cute but a little shallow in places, but Fashion Forward is where it all clicked. It's a shockingly good business simulation absolutely bursting with content, color, and fun things to do. It has great music (shoutouts to
Girls Be Ambitious from Styling Star) and I found myself sinking hours into it because it just put a smile on my face.
So, where does Smash tie into this?
Well, Smash itself puts a smile on my face too! To me, the biggest strength of Smash is the variety and fun each character and series brings to the battle. I adore Wii Fit and every time I do Wii Fit Trainer's final smash I can't help but laugh because I recognize that exact voice clip she uses from my time playing a ton of Wii Fit in college. And Style Savvy is a series and demographic not yet represented in Smash with an art style - shoujo manga - that would bring variety and fun into Smash with a super unique character!
Over at
the Style Savvy thread we've discussed a lot of ways a Style Savvy character could be among the most unique additions to the roster, with things like a pummel that applies makeup to the opponent, different clothes providing stat boosts, movements that are like a runway model doing magazine poses, attacks that have to do with the pop songs in the latest game, and more. The amount of moves in her arsenal is almost limitless and just fun to consider. A fashion model from a Nintendo first-party mixing it up with other gaming icons is just great to think about, and you know the fanart of her giving Nintendo characters fashionable outfits would be hilarious.
Simply put, Style Savvy is a fantastic series that surprised me by being fun, deep, and humorous, and having roster variety that could appeal to a whole new demographic and represent a DS game at the same time would really be great. Don't just write off these games - they have the pedigree to stand alongside the greats in Smash, and clearly Sakurai and the gang agree considering Evie got a trophy in Smash 4 and music was added both last game and this game.
We don't have a shoujo character in Smash. She'd make a great unique contrast to everyone else on the roster and there's no one who can even compare. So please think about it!
Nominations: Tracer x5
