Wow... we've got
a lot of submissions for Melee's first newcomers, and we haven't even gotten into fighters from Smash 64's returning series yet! Anyways, here are the nominations:
- Ice Climbers (Ice Climber)
- Olimar (Pikmin)
- Andy (Advance Wars)
- Duck Hunt (Duck Hunt)
- Excitebiker (Excitebike)
- Ayumi Tachibana (Famicom Detective Club)
- Wario (Wario Land)
- Mr. Game & Watch (Game & Watch)
- Pit (Kid Icarus)
We'll be adding
2 newcomers to start with, so vote for your top 2, with yours below 1st:
- Wario
- Olimar
And here are the roster size nominations:
- My roster size (15 base, 27 full)
-
ShadicMCGS
's roster size (16 base, 30 full)
-
Pupp135
's roster size (16 base, 28 full)
Yes, voting for your own roster size is allowed.
As for 1P Game's format:
Perkilator
's 1P Game format will be the one used, which means that Board the Platforms will not be returning as a mode (this shaves off some of 64's dev time, since there's no longer a need to create 16 different stages for that mode).
Job #6:
If Rare is off-limits/can’t be negotiated with, then Mr. Game & Watch is my pick.
Now, to address the concerns regarding Rare IP content in Super Smash Bros. Melee...
Discussion #1: Rare IP content in Super Smash Bros. Melee
We're in an awkward position regarding the possibility of adding content from the intellectual properties of the game studio Rare, which was arguably the most prominent 2nd-party developer for Nintendo prior to the studio's acquisition by Microsoft on September 24, 2002. In the original timeline Melee was released on November 21, 2001, and contained two items from Rare's
Perfect Dark (released on May 22, 2000): The Proximity Mine/Motion-Sensor Bomb (a holdover from Smash 64, where it was instead based on the one from Rare's Goldeneye 007 licensed game, which Perfect Dark was a spiritual successor to; this item was later retconned into a Smash Bros. original item from Brawl onward) and the Cloaking Device. This combined with
Nintendo considering trophies of some of Rare's characters for Melee shows that Rare's original IPs were perfectly eligible for content in Melee.
Now, assuming that Melee maintains the same development time it did originally, there's no risk of potential legal issues with Microsoft due to the game releasing before the September 2002 deadline, even if we account for the additional months of dev time for Smash 64 pushing forward Melee's development and release date by that same amount. But with the added dev time that's certain to go into this version of Melee (which ironically would normally come in handy for negotiating the rights to use Rare's IPs), we run the risk of exceeding that deadline.
Of course, since this thread covers an alternate universe version of the Smash Bros. series, it's also entirely possible that the Nintendo of this thread's universe chose to solidify their partnership with Rare by acquiring them as a first-party developer before Microsoft did, given how heavily associated with each other they were during the lifespans of the SNES and N64. This would, of course, make content from Rare's IPs more easily available for use in future Smash Bros. games.
With that in mind, I'd like to hear your thoughts on how best to handle the situation regarding Rare, and how much content from Rare's IPs could (or should) be included in Melee.