My god, I love Valve games. Genuinely. Aside from Nintendo, Valve may have my most favourite set of characters and titles ever. You know how people view Capcom and it's multiple excellent IPs? Or maybe even Sega when you include Atlus? I'm that way with the boys behind Steam.
Honestly, either of today's rated characters, Chell from Portal or a freaking Left 4 Dead character(Bill preferably!) crossing over with Nintendo would be INSANE for me.
I've heard Dead by Daylight may bring Left 4 Dead's Bill Overbeck to Switch via Cross Progression and that very simple cameo is super exciting to a Valve nerd like me who played Left 4 Dead endlessly.
I've got a brand new Combine-arvester...
Chance: 10%
Alright, let me just set this up by stating that you know all the hype people talk about with Doomguy being the face of First Person Shooters and how it revolutionised FPS and all that?
Yeah, well Half Life is the OTHER FPS that defined the genre. Might be a bit before the times of some users here, but back in the day Half Life was THE game and Gordon Freeman is to PC gaming as Mario is to Nintendo, or Master Chief is to Xbox or...how many saw Crash was to Playstation back in the day.
If Valve are approached, I think they'll use good old Crowbar swinging, gravity gun shooting and nerdy mute Gordon over the larger than life Heavy or the equally mute but cunning Chell.
Want: 90%
I'll be honest with you here. Half Life, whilst being one of the biggest of deals to PC gaming if not ALL gaming, isn't my favourite Valve product. Heck, it's fourth on the list after Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead and Portal(in that order) and whilst Gordon's got plenty of fun little tools to unleash upon the unsuspecting fighters including a
GUN THAT SHOOTS HORNETS, A FLESH EATING MINION HEADCRAB TYPE THING, A DISINTIGRATION GUN AND A GRAVITY GUN, I'd still prefer several other Valve characters.
Oh yeah, don't make the mistake of thinking Freeman would be boring. The weaponry he has access to is insane.
Heavy Pain
Chance: 7%
Heavy is the most popular choice amongst Smashers for a Valve character, and it's not difficult to see why. He's cartoony, he's over the top and they're far more familiar with him than Gordon due to Youtube being littered with Team Fortress 2 source videos, and considering the game shows no sign of dying even after 13 years(!) Heavy certainly has the longevity and popularity to be a worthwhile addition to Smash.
Heavy, for his part, also has a few things he has over Gordon. For example he's crossed over with a few things prior including Super Smash Bros. veteran Sonic the Hedgehog in the Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing game on Steam. He, Pyro and Spy took it in turns to drive their cars to race against Sonic and friends as a PC exclusive racer(similar to how Banjo was for Xbox in the prior title).
Valve aren't above putting the TF2 cast out in other cameos either with Saints Row coming with a lovely set of mercenary bobble heads for 'The Boss' to wear in Saints Row the Third(aka the best one, fight me).
With all this, Heavy has become the second mascot of Valve, and certainly the most active face.
Contrary to popular belief Nintendo and Valve do have a little bit of a relationship, but it's unfortunately not a very impressive one. They had planned to release a Half Life Tactics game exclusive to Nintendo Switch, but the project was canned. Aside from that all we currently have Bridge Constructor Portal on Nintendo Switch(but it's a multiplatform title) but there's apparently some big Valve/Nintendo news coming up somewhere between August and October so who knows what that could mean. I'm erring on the side of caution, but it could be anything.
Want: 100%
He's a weird choice for Smash. He has no presence on Nintendo consoles. Heck, out of the 9 mercenary classes he's probably one of the hardest to turn into a Smash fighter(unless his team comes with him for up specials and the like) but gosh dang it, if I don't have a soft spot for this big beefy boy and his sandvich delivery service.
Team Fortress 2 is my favourite title ever, beating even the likes of Smash Bros. and Super Mario Bros. Since my username and position on this site as someone who's been around even longer than Team Fortress 2 has been, you can probably understand just how big a deal this is to me.
Would I want him over my other wants like Captain Toad, Bandana Waddle Dee or Dixie Kong? No. I love Heavy, but frankly those guys deserve inclusion in the Nintendo fighter before him, but if he got in, he'd easily be my favourite third party addition ever, beating out both Pac-Man and Sonic even.
Overall I'd prefer Pyro(my main) or the more mobile classes of Scout, Soldier(RIP Rick May) and Demoman for Smashers, but as Heavy is the face of the franchise having these other classes be the character over him would...kinda feel wrong.
Team Fortress 2 is an excellent game and free to play so for gods sake give it a go if you can...now if only Valve could finish the
Team Fortress 2 comic series.