Doomguy
Chance: 18% - Man, I never thought I'd see the day where I had to consider this guy a legitimate contender, but here we are. DOOM's influence on the gaming sphere cannot be understated. It's one of the most important games of all time, and while it's had a lengthy hiatus after the Nintendo-exclusive Doom 64, it's come back in style with it's latest entry being incredibly well-received and making the jump to the Switch. In terms of iconic and influential third parties, relevancy, and Nintendo support, Doomguy absolutely qualifies.
Unfortunately, while he's got all of that in his pedigree, there's quite a few stepping stones for him to get over first. While I don't see the distinction being as important as others do, he is a western third party for a series that's never featured one. I fully expect Rayman to break that mold this game, but it's still worth mentioning for right now. Secondly, the DOOM franchise never took off in Japan, which isn't a death sentence immediately considering Little Mac overcame that obstacle, but as a third party it ultimately hits him harder than it does Mac. Third, Bethesda is rather new to Nintendo's third party round table. Have they earned the chance to nominate a warrior to Nintendo's All-Star franchise when they've only just recently gotten on board with them at all? We'll have to wait and see.
Finally comes the issue of his moveset. He's certainly got the potential for it, the issue comes instead with creating a moveset that is iconic and accurate while still being beholden to Smash's overall friendly-to-everyone nature. Doomguy's most iconic weapon is just a real-ass shotgun, and while there's definitely weapons he could draw from that wouldn't be as realistic, they'd be trading part of the character's iconicity off to save on ratings. Even Doomguy's melee attacks would need some tweaking, considering a lot of them are quite violent and skullcrush-y. Snake went through something similar to get added, but Doomguy would need significantly more tinkering to get down to that comfy E for Everyone level. Unfortunately for Doomy, he's not had a Scorpion scenario either, where the developers have themselves created and approved of versions of the character without their otherwise trademark goriness, so he doesn't have that to fall back on either.
Overall, I think Doomguy's a possible curveball choice for the roster as DLC. For the base game I think he's juuuust missed the boat, but if Sakurai and co. are willing to overcome his hurdles he'd be a very worthwhile add.
Want: 60% - I didn't grow up with DOOM nor have I played any of the games, so I don't really have a connection to him, but he's definitely an iconic, storied character who I'd be happier to see than plenty of other 3rd party suggestions that've been thrown around. He'd be a much preferred option than something from Skyrim at the very least. But, if I had to choose a character from a super-influential M rated game, I'd much rather have Scorpion than Doomguy. Look for that nomination to start replacing my regular one once we've finished rating Dark Matter Blade and Impa.
Predictions
Anna: 5.12% - From a franchise that even Sakurai was correctly worried had too many characters already, which has tons of competition from characters like Lyn, Alm, Celica, and a FE16 protag, and in which her most common appearance is as a shopkeeper. She's sunk, and I'm expecting a lot of agreement on that front tomorrow.
Nominations
Dark Matter Blade x 5
