I may as well toss my hat into the ring here. Note: as stated in the opening message, I'm not going to include any more characters than originally were. I'm also, however, going to give myself a restriction - everything also has to work on the 3DS, so characters like the Ice Climbers aren't elegible. (Sorry about that.)
Veterans
- Mario sticks around. Obviously. He overall stays the same or at least similar - F.L.U.D.D. might be weird
now but at this time (2014ish) it wasn't such a bad inclusion. Honestly, Mario's a solid overall pick here. It's best not to overcomplicate him.
- As you can imagine, Donkey Kong also stays here. I actually think he's going to also stay mostly the same, with my only real suggestion being to give him his Ultimate Final Smash if possible. He's a solid pick here.
- Link is a cool inclusion here, given that he's more of a composite design based on different games - I think this is great, and makes a lot of sense to be handled this way. One thing I'll mention is that I'm removing his Gale Boomerang and replacing it with a normal Boomerang. (sorry.)
- Samus is... difficult. The problem is that I know I can't change her too much, mostly because if I did, she'd essentially become a whole new character - to the point where she might take a slot away from the newcomers. As such, I'm mostly just going to give her quality-of-life improvements similar to that we've seen in Ultimate - things like her ability to charge Neutral Special in the air and the like. She's also not going to be able to change into ZSS.
- Yoshi sticks around. I have very little to say on Yoshi, if I'm honest. Yoshi is cool.
- Kirby's mostly the same too, with the only real changes being that I'd give him his fire attack as seen in Melee (which would get people excited, hopefully!) and maybe giving him one or two more bonus Down Special models?
- Fox, again, remains mostly similar - his design isn't
perfection by any means but he's good enough not to warrant any real changes.
- Pikachu obviously sticks around. As does his party hat! It's cool.
- Luigi also stays here, with my only real suggestions being that it could be cool to see him use the Poltergust as a grab (similarly to in Ultimate) but I'm still okay with him not, well, doing that.
- Ness is still here. PK Fire is (slightly) less spammable. You're welcome.
- Captain Falcon obviously sticks around, and I'm glad he got buffed a little moving into Sm4sh. Doesn't need too much.
- I'm going to only change one thing about Jigglypuff - they get buffed at least once during the entire span of
Super Smash Bros. 4 for Wii U and 3DS.
- Peach is still here. If possible, I'm actually going to pull an Alph and have Daisy feature as four of Peach's alts, with some unique voicelines and a unique model. The model does exist, as do the voicelines, and they don't really need to differ too much - plus, her promotion into an Echo Fighter in Ultimate could potentially come with more changes.
- Bowser's here, and he keeps Tough Guy. That's... actually about it.
- Similarly to how they were handled in Sm4sh, Sheik and Zelda lose their transformations and gain a down special each. Otherwise, they're pretty much unchanged.
- See above.
- I'm going to say something perhaps pretty controversial here - Dr. Mario actually sticks around. My decision here is actually because I think he's a cool inclusion, and whilst I did consider making him a costume for Mario, he'd instead be a clone. Ideally, if possible, he'd be able to get a few more unique things overall - and perhaps a little more life in his taunts and the like - with development time being taken from a future pick. (I'll get there.)
- Falco sticks around, and honestly, they're pretty much unchanged.
- Marth also sticks around, but...
- Lucina is in an interesting position where, on the one hand, I would genuinely like to represent them - notable character from FE, representative of Awakening, etc - but their role as a clone is... pretty uninteresting, and it wouldn't make much in the way of sense to actually include them as a Marth costume. Lucina's my first cut from the roster, which I do genuinely think is a bit of a shame, but I'll get back to this roster spot later - it might become important.
- Ganondorf... is actually pretty much the same. No, like, genuinely - I think he's fine. Low-tier, sure, but fine.
- Mr. Game and Watch? He's staying too. Funky lil fella.
- Meta Knight, similar to how he was handled in Sm4sh properly, gets somewhat nerfed from his Brawl interpretation - though still remains an effective, if not overpowered, character.
- Pit's changes coming into Sm4sh make sense and are generally logical in nature, plus the decision to allow him to represent Uprising more specifically helps him in some ways.
- Dark Pit, on the other hand, gets the Alph treatment. I did consider giving him a unique moveset of his own - given his render includes him wielding a staff, I considered having him represent that playstyle - but all in all he just... makes more sense in the role of a costume. Again, he gets unique voicelines and such.
- Zero Suit Samus does stick around, even if I'm still not 100% convinced her representation of
Metroid is all that great. At the end of the day, she is a fun inclusion, and it'd be a shame to cut her.
- Wario... okay, I may get crucified for this but my only real change is to have his plumber costume by default and his biker costumes afterward.
- Ike sticks around. I know Lucina is a logical pick to be included here, but I think Ike's unique moveset, personality and overall feel help his case a lot.
- Charizard makes sense to keep around. Sure, Pokemon Trainer is cool, but Charizard was always the most iconic of the three. Plus, it makes his Ultimate return more exciting!
- Diddy also sticks around, but
gets nerfed into the ground because he makes me irrationally angry doesn't get much change from his actual self.
- Sonic's an interesting case. There's a lot of ways I could take the character, but what I'm instead going to do is have a few of his moves and animations feel a little more... Sonicy, using some of the (limited) development time we scrounged from Lucina and Dark Pit. It's not much, but it's a step in the right direction.
- King Dedede remains pretty much the same overall. I would consider including a Masked Dedede alt, but it feels... maybe a little pointless as a whole model change just for that.
- Olimar's mostly the same too, and retains his Alph costumes - because they're very cool and I like them.
- Lucario is... interesting. Bear in mind, his central mechanic - Aura - has already been given to everyone what with Rage being introduced. He's a Gen IV rep, so a fairly interesting pick - and a Pokemon rep - but... it's difficult, because nowadays, he's a really prominent character in the Pokemon franchise. However, I'm going to go for a really difficult decision here - and I'm actually cutting Lucario, with the stipulation that he
has to be replaced with a Pokemon rep.
- R.O.B. also sticks around, for a few reasons - but mostly because he's generally just... cool.
- Toon Link is decloned somewhat from Link, though when I say this, I only really mean with specials. His normal moves remain pretty similar and his animations should really capture the Toon vibe, but I'm going to replace his Final Smash with a cutscene where he uses the Wind Waker to summon a tsunami, hopping atop the King of Red Lions to ride it. Maybe replace his up special with the Hurricane Spin?
Newcomers
- Villager is an obvious inclusion into something like this, and honestly, I don't think he needs any changes.
- I do have a lot of bias for Mega Man, but I'm going to say he sticks around - whilst I briefly considered replacing him with a different third-party NES character like Simon, Mega Man makes a lot of sense to be included. However, I'm going to suggest that instead of being based exclusively on his NES games, he takes animations, design aspects and other hints from other media, such as the Marvel vs. Capcom series. Also, it'd be cool to have a victory screen where Rush jumps up and starts licking him.
- Wii Fit Trainer is such a bizarre, but genius, inclusion, that I think they
have to stick around.
- Rosalina and Luma are interesting, because whilst a lot of people would probably replace them with a certain purple-clad tennis star, I'm going to keep them around. Their puppet fighter archetype is unique amongst the cast, and representation for the Galaxy series is a really good thing to see.
- Little Mac also makes it into the game, but I'd say his laughable aerial performance... stays! He just gets a little buff on the ground to counter it.
- Greninja is interesting, to be honest. I considered changing this one out, but given the circumstances of his creation, he's the best pick Sakurai could have gone with - and honestly, I think he's not so bad.
- The Miis stay, but with a couple of changes. Firstly, their UI (or maybe their starting screen) gives an indication as to their specific moveset. Secondly, they have set variables for hitbox size, weight, and so forth (as in Ultimate.) Ideally, this would make them tournament-viable. I'm keeping all three moveset types, too.
- Palutena is... interesting. I'm actually going to keep her around, but whilst her moveset would also be a great representation of the custom moves system present in the game, her base moveset should be changed a little to keep her at pace with the rest of the cast.
- Yes. Need I say more.
- Robin actually sticks around, given they represent a unique element of the Fire Emblem series as well as acting as a great representative for Awakening - even more so now that I've removed Lucina.
- Shulk... actually sticks around too. Xenoblade is a cool series, and seeing it rise in popularity, it made sense to include it here. My only suggestion is to perhaps make his face slightly less similar to that of Mac's?
- Keeping this little gremlin here as is too! The Koopalings concept was awesome, by the way.
- Last pick from base-roster, and honestly, Duck Hunt is such a fun inclusion and makes so much sense that they're sticking around.
Notable Base Roster Changes
- Gains costumes of Daisy, with unique voicelines and one or two unique animations. (similarly to Alph with Olimar.)
- Cut, though represented with trophies and the like. (And
maybe an assist trophy?...) I would like to suggest another clone character in her place, but given the additional development on various different characters and her own last-minute inclusion, it wouldn't be fair for me to do that.
- Made into a series of costumes of Pit, similarly to how Alph is made into costumes of Olimar.
- Cut, and replaced with...
Deoxys. This was actually a pretty difficult decision for me to make, but Deoxys felt like a natural choice - another important Gen IV Pokemon, but with a significantly more unique moveset and the capacity to do unique things that Lucario wouldn't be able to. One thing is that I'm not going to include a full Attack/Defence/Speed Forme moveset (that could come in Ultimate, perhaps) but Deoxys would be more like (of all people) Ben 10 over in Punch Time Explosion - where their Forme will change from move to move. For example, when dashing, Deoxys switches into Speed Forme, when shielding, they switch into Defence Forme, and so forth.
DLC
- Mewtwo makes sense to bring back, and honestly feels like a natural inclusion. I'd like to stress that Mewtwo should be more significantly differentiated from Deoxys in various ways, though this likely wouldn't be an issue.
- Lucas is... interesting. I feel like he's a little too similar to Ness at this point, which would be fine, but I'm actually going to cut him - replacing him with (perhaps ironically),
Wolf. Wolf would be decloned from Fox quite significantly, being heavier overall and having more bestial animations (and generally getting more development time) whilst still being close enough to reasonably have mechanical similarities, making him easier to development.
- Roy... actually sticks around here. Bear in mind, this is a roster where Lucina has been cut - so given the other FE characters present here are Marth, Ike, and Robin, Roy isn't so bad as a semi-clone with
plenty of differences from Marth overall. He makes a lot of sense, and would probably sting less. My only change here is that Roy is announced and released
before Wolf, simply for the sake of hype.
- Ryu... actually also sticks around! I briefly considered replacing him with a different third-party character, but Ryu (at this time, at least) is unique enough of an inclusion to actually make sense - with his whole fighting game inputs thing being a pretty solid way to represent him. I briefly considered "Smashifying" him a little more and removing them, but they're a cool gimmick at this point in time.
- Corrin is pretty weird. I think cutting them is a good pick here - Fates wasn't really well-recieved, after all, and people might start to show concern about Fire Emblem by this point. However, Corrin seems to have had a lot of development - so it's reasonable to suggest a first-party pick with a unique moveset, that acts as a (somewhat) promotional pick for the time. So... what other notable Nintendo releases came out in 2015 and involve characters that can transform? Yeah, Corrin gets replaced with
Inkling, albeit based almost completely on the first Splatoon. It's a new Nintendo IP, but given the promotion surrounding it (and its success, in hindsight), Inkling is a logical inclusion.
- So, given Cloud apparently got high enough in the Ballot, he's pretty much a lock-in. Nonetheless, I did briefly consider replacing him with a different Square character (like maybe Erdrick) but Cloud makes a lot of sense to see here. He's cool. Oh, and he's nerfed
slightly.
- Bayonetta actually sticks around, because in spite of the controversy surrounding the Ballot results, it's a fairly reasonable point to say that she's a lock-in. Nonetheless, she is going to be nerfed a bit - still enough to be high-tier, but not enough to be broken.
Notable DLC Roster Changes
- Lucas is cut and replaced with Wolf, who maintains some baseline mechanical similarities with Fox and Falco but is significantly decloned compared to his Brawl appearance.
- Corrin is cut and replaced with Inkling, who has a moveset and general design similar to that of Ultimate (albeit purely being based on the original Splatoon at launch.) Unlike Corrin, Inkling actually also gets a unique stage, though I'm not exactly sure which one - I'm going to suggest Urchin Underpass.
So, here's my final roster:
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| | | | / | | | | X | X | | |
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So... yeah. Two roster slots get completely cut, but the development time goes to plenty of other things throughout the game giving the roster a more well-rounded vibe. It's a shame to see Lucina and Lucario go, though. Hope this interests y'all!
