Far Cry
Chance 25 – Yep, I’m going high here. The number drops significantly if Far Cry isn't the series who we get revealed at E3 though. The fact the only person I’ve ever seen bring up Far Cry for Smash is me is just shocking given that we live in a post Cloud and Joker world. First, they’re developed by Ubisoft, who Nintendo has a good relationship with and already has content in Smash. 2nd, the series is iconic in the FPS genre and with it’s villains especially and has been selling very well worldwide since Far Cry 3’s massive success. Third, it’s Ubisofts biggest series with no content in Smash already. Assassins Creed has the Altair costume, Rayman is a spirit, and the Rabbids sorta have stuff I guess? Not sure how the Rabbid forms of Mario characters count here. Also, unlike some of it’s competition(Gonna side eye Rayman here),
Far Cry actually sells in Japan. Far Cry 5 was not only the 2nd most profitable launch of a game in Ubisoft’s history,only losing out to Tom Clancy’s The Division, but it also topped the charts for sales the week of it’s release there with Far Cry 4 being 9th that same week. That’s insane for a FPS in Japan, where those genres of games usually don’t do as well. And yes, Far Cry has even been on Nintendo with the spinoff game Far Cry Vengeance being released on the Wii back in 2006. And on top of all of that, Far Cry 6 is due to come out at some point in the next year after being delayed from February, so there’s reason for Ubisoft to want to pick it as well other than it being an insanely well selling series for them. Just that alone is more than what a few characters already in the game or in the speculation scene have to their names, and a lot of them aren’t even from games or series as popular as Far Cry is either.
Now I guess the issue that comes up is what character would it be? Starting at the simplest spot, you could just opt for one of the protagonists. And while I hate the idea of just going the alt skin route constantly like some want, you could do that here since the most recent protags all generally do the same stuff and have the same weapons. If you just work from the games boom period, Jason Brody, Ajay Gale, and The Deputy(Male and Female) could be used pretty interchangeably. Not sure what you’d call them as a collective name though. Danny/Dani Rojas would work as well with them being the protagonist of 6 but they would most likely be way too late given when the pass was decided. Could very easily go with some sort of weapon swapping mechanic for them as well using the number of guns and explosives from the game would make that pretty easy. You could also just opt for one of them(likely Jason) or do some sort of tag team thing with The Deputy and their partners from FC5 who you can switch in and out nearly at will in game.
I think though, if Far Cry should show up in Smash, the best route would be to go for a villain. The series is best known for it’s crazy, psychopathic, and sociopathic villains who are well written enough to both enjoy and dislike at the same time. I don’t think you can go alt skins here since the villains are a lot more different than the protags are. The most likely candidates here are Vaas, Pagan Min, and Joseph Seed. Those 3 are the villains from 3,4,and 5 respectively, all after the series broke out. Leaving out Aton Castillo from 6 since like I mentioned before, 2021 is likely way too late for this pass. I think out of the 3 the first pick should be Vaas given that Far Cry 3 was the game that broke the series out and that he is one of the most iconic villains in gaming. One issue he has though is that his likeness is of a real life actor(Michael Mando who is currently a part of the Breaking Bad universe). Sakurai mentioned that was a potential issue back around Melee or Brawl’s development time I believe, but so much has changed since then that I can’t say for certain if it’s a problem anymore, as that was back in a time where no guns was seen as a hard and fast rule. For moveset I think you possibly be worried there, although I see no reason that you couldn’t take a protag’s moveset and slap in on Vaas, which is where I think he beats out the other 2 as well, given that Pagan is more cowardly when confrontation actually reaches him and Seed is more willing to let others do the work for him. While Vaas doesn’t exactly engage the player in shootouts either it isn’t much of a leap if any to picture him out there firing guns and the likes at people.
Music is another issue I can see coming up, and while yes, there is a good deal of licensed tracks in Far Cry, there’s also a good deal of music that isn’t. The OST for 3-5 are all good, especially 5s, which has a good deal of music that isn’t at all like anything currently in Smash.
Ok, so for some negatives on the series. First, obviously Far Cry is from Ubisoft who is a western developer. We likely have 1 spot left for them at best. While I could absolutely see Far Cry as a pick for E3 it also has some very serious competition out there from characters with more going for them, such as Master Chief and Crash. There’s also the issue that FC Vengeance did not do well with critics on the Wii, so its possible Nintendo doesn’t really care about the series. Given how well its sold in Japan I doubt that, but no more Far Cry games on Nintendo since then is a little bit suspect. There's also some Ubisoft content that came with the DLC cycles so far, which usually hasn't been a good sign for companies getting a DLC fighter.
So yeah, in conclusion, I think Far Cry is a very under the radar sleeper pick who should get more discussion in the Smash speculation circle. I don’t expect the series to get in but I’m generally shocked that we’ve had so many characters and series thrown at the wall in the 3 years we’ve been doing this for Ultimate and outside of me screaming about it, Far Cry has been largely ignored.
Want 100 – If you read my entire chance post then yeah, you could have probably guessed what my score was here. I bought 3 and 4 off basically a whim and a friend recommendation from the PS store last summer because they combined were less than 10 dollars and thought why not? Had no idea that it would quickly become one of my favorite game series easily from there. Obviously the villains are amazing, but the gameplay is fantastic as well and the world maps and side characters they’ve set up rarely feel boring, forced, or unneeded. I’d 100% recommend playing the series should you own a non Switch console or if the games should get ported over. You will not regret it.
Predictions:
Disagea - 5.61
Noms:
Bioshock Protag x10
Megadoomer
