Shantae, the Half Genie Protector of Scuttle Town! (A Switch To A New WayForward)

[DarthEnderX]

I wish people would stop calling Shantae an indie character.

WayForward is not an indie developer. They've made games in franchises like DuckTales, Adventure Time, Ninja Turtles, Silent Hill, Double Dragon, etc. They've been around for ages. The Shantae franchise has four games in it spanning 4 console generations now.

Just because they Kickstarted a Shantae game doesn't make Shantae an indie character.

 

[MoveMan1]

But being an indie fighter is Shantae's best chance to get in...

 

[P.Kat]

Alright, so after a number of revisions, here's all of my ideas for Shantae's representation in Smash Bros. Ultimate. This includes moveset, stage, music, etc. (some spoilers for the games may be needed to for better explanation) Please feel free to provide any necessary feedback.

Spoiler: Full Moveset

Neutral Attack: whips her hair to attack up to 3-times in succession (Both the down tilt and neutral aerial also use the hair whip)
Dash Attack: Slides forward with her feet up (Rottytops race from GBC game)
Forward Tilt: Power Kick from Pirate’s Curse
Up Tilt: Flicks her hair in an arc similar to Greninja

Forward Smash: Elbow dash from the first Shantae game, propels her forward a bit
Down Smash: Puts her hands together and shakes her hips forward then backward (uses the dance mapped to the A button in the first game/elephant dance from Risky’s Revenge)
Up Smash: 2-hit spin kick from the first Shantae game

Forward Aerial: Based off her twirl attack from the first game, she spins around ballerina style with her hair hitting opponents as she twirls around.
Back Aerial: Thrusts her hip back similar to Peach
Up Aerial: In a pose similar to her Half-Genie Hero artwork, she thrusts her hand upward creates a small flame that hits multiple times
Down Aerial: The drill attack from the first game, similar to Sonic’s Down air, but can hit an opponent more than once.

Though not really a tether, Shantae can use her hair to grab opponents from a reasonable distance; she’d hold her opponent with her hands and pummel them with her knee.
Forward Throw: She bumps her opponent with her hip.
Back Throw: Backflips and throws the enemy into the ground, continuing her momentum until she lands back on the ground (inspired by her Recover animation from Pirate’s Curse)
Down Throw: She throws her opponent to the ground and pulls out a Storm Puff to zap them with
Up throw: Throws her opponent up and hits them with a single fireball

(I’ve been pondering the possibility to have all her specials tied to a magic meter)

Neutral Special: Transformation Dance, similar to Half-Genie Hero, Shantae dances and activates a selection of transformations around her and must select a direction to transform similar to Shulk’s new Monado Arts activation (lasts for around 10 sec., possibly shield and B to cancel out) Each Transformation would have one attack and one special attack

Forward-Monkey (Low Damage, High Jump, Wall Climb)
Attack: Monkey Claw (overhead slash, easily combo with it)
Special: Monkey Bullet (weak but fast dash attack, similar to Fox Flash)

Down-Elephant (High Damage, Low Speed)
Attack: Elephant Dash (slow but powerful dash attack)
Special: Elephant Stomp (high knockback)

Back-Spider (double jump allows her to use webbing to pull herself up if a surface is above)
Attack: Spider Leg (performs an uppercut with her frontal leg similar to the Bonelegs enemy in HGH)
Special: Spider Venom (continuously deals damage similar to flowers)

Up-Harpy (Less Traction, Multiple Jumps)
Attack: Harpy Talon (overhead slash)
Special: Harpy Feather (low damage, but can fire multiple at a time)

(quick note, in the case of Kirby copying this move, I was just thinking he'd just use the Monkey Dash and his hat would resemble her monkey form)

Side Special: Triple Fireball-shoots out three fire balls-one straight forward, one angled upward, and one angled down, probably could cover half the length of Final Destination in distance

Up Special: Storm Puff-uses the puff to float upwards a bit before letting go, the puff will send thunder down upon release and disappear after

Down Special: Pike Ball-similar to Mega Man’s Leaf Shield, one Pike Ball revolves around Shantae. It lasts a bit longer but can’t be thrown.

Final Smash: Half-Genie’s Power: To start, Shantae would transform into the mermaid to trap her opponents in bubbles which would gather into one, then into the monkey to fly back and forth across the screen to attack captured opponents, and after would fly up off-screen to turn into a giant elephant to smash the opponents to the ground and send them flying. (inspired by several attacks Shantae uses for her boss at the end of Pirate Queen’s Quest)

Spoiler: Animations/Other Details

On-screen Entrance: Either Shantae flies in on a magic carpet or warps in via Warp Dance, says "Ret-2-Go!" either way (VA: Cristina Vee)

Her taunts would consist of some of the belly dances from the GBA game, specifically the ones mapped to the D-Pad: (potential easter egg could have you transform to a Tinkerbat for a moment when you put in the button combination for that dance)

Idle Animations:
-Straightening out her hair like in Pirate’s Curse
-Imitates Rottytops’s idle stance for a bit

Victory Animations:
-Spinning around in midair like she does when she completes a stage from her games
-Her flying in her monkey form to grab a gem, then transforming back to perform a dance (like in Super Shantae NAB)
-Landing from a jump and performing her Stage Clear pose from Half-Genie Hero

Victory Fanfare: Stage Clear jingle from Half-Genie Hero

Palettes:
-Red: Default (Design would resemble her portrait art from Half-Genie Hero, potentially with her vest from Pirate’s Curse too)
-Blue: The blue palette swap Backer costume
-Purple: Based off Nega Shantae (eyes would be yellow and pupil less)
-Green: Based off Rottytops
-Yellow: Based off Sky
-Navy: Based off Bolo
-Officer Blue: The Officer costume from HGH (Based off Mighty Switch Force)
-Officer Red: Red variant of the Officer costume (Based off Mighty Switch Force 2)

Other Details:
-She has the ability to crawl (and of course she'd have the same crouching animation from her games).
-Her default idle stance would be her full health dancing animation in Pirate’s Curse and Half-Genie Hero, but it'd change into the defensive stance from HGH after you take damage.
-Her Screen KO animation would resemble the one used in the Officer costume

Spoiler: Stage

Burning Town: A travelling stage similar to 3D Land based off the Burning Town sequence from the first game and Half Genie Hero. Starting out at the Lighthouse you cross the bridge travel through Scuttle Town as Risky’s ship fires upon the stage in the background (some of the stage would collapse when hit by the cannonballs). The stage stops moving at a section with platforms popping in and out of the background, moves through a more on-fire section of Scuttle Town then stops again once you get on Risky's ship as it travels back around to the lighthouse and restart the cycle. Risky will be on the ship to fire cannonballs across the stage, but a barrel of TNT will appear below her and attacking it would send her and any opponents in range flying.

MUSIC
Dance Through the Danger (Half-Genie Hero)
We Love Burning Town (Pirate's Curse)
Neo Burning Town (Half-Genie Hero)
Boss Battle (Pirate's Curse)
Boss Battle (Half-Genie Hero)
Scuttle Town (Pirate's Curse)
She's Got Moves! (Risky's Revenge)
Trip Through Sequin Land (Pirate's Curse)
Barrel-O-Mermaids (Half-Genie Hero)

Spoiler: Trophies

Potential ASSIST TROPHY: Patricia Wagon (Mighty Switch Force)
Patricia runs around the stage and fires off her Pellet Gun to damage opponents, also faded out blocks will appear on the stage and they can become visible by her helmet automatically like in the last levels of her game, damaging opponents on impact, (if KOed with them, they'll always result in a screen KO) but providing can be KOed if caught in her own blocks (albeit with the screen KO from her game)

COLLECTABLE TROPHIES:
Shantae (Classic Mode)
Alt. (Her transformations)
Final Smash: Half-Genie’s Power (All-Star)
Risky Boots
Rottytops
Sky/Wrench
Bolo
Tinkerbat
Mimic

Her Final Smash could also be her Obliterate Dance from Half-Genie Hero, where she dances, and all enemies in range take damage over a short amount of time, if their damage is 100% or more they'll be instantly destroyed by the end of the dance otherwise it provides heavy damage and knockback.

 

[Deleted member]

I wish people would stop calling Shantae an indie character.

WayForward is not an indie developer. They've made games in franchises like DuckTales, Adventure Time, Ninja Turtles, Silent Hill, Double Dragon, etc. They've been around for ages. The Shantae franchise has four games in it spanning 4 console generations now.

Just because they Kickstarted a Shantae game doesn't make Shantae an indie character.

Wayforward's previous work for hire projects have no bearing on Shantae's Indie status.

I'm curious to know what your definition of Indie is?

 

[Wademan94]

Her Final Smash could also be her Obliterate Dance from Half-Genie Hero, where she dances, and all enemies in range take damage over a short amount of time, if their damage is 100% or more they'll be instantly destroyed by the end of the dance otherwise it provides heavy damage and knockback.

That's a possibility as well, though isn't the damage on that was instantaneous?

To be honest, I've been having a lot of trouble settling on what her Final Smash would be, some ideas I had to toss aside due to Final Smashes in Ultimate being quicker as well as forgoing full movesets for transformations. (example: any idea I had inspired by the dance parlor mini game from the first Shantae considering DK's had his rhythm-based one replaced) A variant of the Final Smash idea in my current moveset would be Friends to the End, where Wrench comes in to tackle opponents and Sky, Bolo, and Rottytops come into attack instead similar to Robin's Pair Up (Shantae would still come in with the elephant at the end to deal the finishing blow) I'll keep playing around with some ideas

 

[DarthEnderX]

But being an indie fighter is Shantae's best chance to get in...

Only if you think it's a given that Nintendo is going to add an indie rep.

If they have no intention of repping indie games, then it hurts her chances of getting in.

I'm curious to know what your definition of Indie is?

A game made by an indie developer.

WayForward is not an indie developer. They've been around for decades and have made over 70 games. You might as well call Capcom an indie developer.

 

[ThatShadowLink]

A game made by an indie developer.

WayForward is not an indie developer. They've been around for decades and have made over 70 games. You might as well call Capcom an indie developer.

WayFoward is an independent developer. While they have been around for decades, they make a lot of licensed titles so that they can fund their own passion projects. The original Shantae was not an independent game, but all subsequent entries have been, as they have been self-published and without outside financial backing (aside from Half-Genie Hero of course).
I don't mean to be pedantic, but an independent games developer is one that self-publishes, has no other company with major financial backing involved, and does not have a large team of workers on one game. It's not just a title given to a one-man team that makes a single breakout hit or a small tech demo.

 

[DarthEnderX]

I don't mean to be pedantic, but an independent games developer is one that self-publishes, has no other company with major financial backing involved, and does not have a large team of workers on one game.

And what constitutes a "large team"? There's almost 100 people on the 1/2 Genie Hero team. If you think that's an "indie" team, then we're done talking about this.

 

[Deleted member]

WayFoward is an independent developer. While they have been around for decades, they make a lot of licensed titles so that they can fund their own passion projects. The original Shantae was not an independent game, but all subsequent entries have been, as they have been self-published and without outside financial backing (aside from Half-Genie Hero of course).
I don't mean to be pedantic, but an independent games developer is one that self-publishes, has no other company with major financial backing involved, and does not have a large team of workers on one game. It's not just a title given to a one-man team that makes a single breakout hit or a small tech demo.

One thing to note that while yes the original was published by Capcom, does't automatically make it Non Indie.
A recent example is Shovel Knight was published by Nintendo in Japan. that doesn't disqualify SK as indie right?

It all comes down to wither on not the publisher bankrolled the project.

And what constitutes a "large team"? There's almost 100 people on the 1/2 Genie Hero team. If you think that's an "indie" team, then we're done talking about this.

So your definition of Indie Developer is solely team size?

 

[DarthEnderX]

So your definition of Indie Developer is solely team size?

It makes more sense than "all that matters is whether they published it themselves".

Which would mean any game that Capcom or Squaresoft published itself was an "indie" game.

I guess we don't need Shantae to rep those indies because Mega Man and Cloud are already doing it!

 

[Deleted member]

It makes more sense than your "all that matters is whether they published it themselves" definition.

Which would mean any game that Capcom or Squaresoft published itself was an "indie" game.

I guess we don't need Shantae to rep those indies because Mega Man and Cloud are already doing it!

Companies like Capcom, Nintendo, Square, EA, Ubi are in all reality Publishers, who have internal/2nd party development studios.

Wayforward is a Private work for hire Development studio.
Thats the difference, They are on their own when it comes to Shantae.

 

[DarthEnderX]

Companies like Capcom, Nintendo, Square, EA, Ubi are in all reality Publishers, who have internal/2nd party development studios.

So then the difference is...team size.

 

[Deleted member]

So then the difference is...team size.

Sure, if you wanna compare Wayforward to these companies of several thousands, 100 seems small right?

So then we fit your sole metric of team size! YAY!

 

[GoldLiger]

Well IMO, Shantae is the Indie Queen. I hope she is one of the newcomers for Ultimate. If not, then hopefully as a DLC character in the future.

My brother and I are going to main Fox & Falco team once again. Can't wait to see what changes(other than FINALLY WE RETIRED THE LANDMASTER) he has.

 

[Guybrush20X6]

Indie is a nebulous term and mostly refers to independence from large publishers.

In Shantae's case, game 1 was published by Capcom but the rest were funded from within Way Forward and Kickstarter, hence making them "independent" on a publisher.

To change the topic, Shantae could benifit greatley from the Switch's faster loading times. We've seen Pokemon trainer in action and he/she can swap Pokemon in an instant now. Shantae could use all her different forms as fast as she can boogie.

 

[KirbyWorshipper2465]

Indie is a nebulous term and mostly refers to independence from large publishers.

In Shantae's case, game 1 was published by Capcom but the rest were funded from within Way Forward and Kickstarter, hence making them "independent" on a publisher.

To change the topic, Shantae could benifit greatley from the Switch's faster loading times. We've seen Pokemon trainer in action and he/she can swap Pokemon in an instant now. Shantae could use all her different forms as fast as she can boogie.

I wonder how much they'd be able to use. Ones like the elephant might be tricky to implement, depending on the size used (then again we got Ridley now, so anything is possible).

 

[Guybrush20X6]

I wonder how much they'd be able to use. Ones like the elephant might be tricky to implement, depending on the size used (then again we got Ridley now, so anything is possible).

She could use them as different stances/movesets or she could turn into them on the fly. Depends what angle they go for.

 

[ThatShadowLink]

It would probably be best if they were just momentary or "summons" and she immediately turned back as having four different movesets on one character seems like complete overkill...

 

[perfectchaos83]

I've always envisioned her transformations being linked to Smash attacks, that way she dances to charge and transforms into one of her transformations. Her specials can be magic attacks and/or Risky's pirate tools.

 

[Wademan94]

My original idea for Shantae's transformations back in the Smash 3DS/Wii U era (I thought of this before the release of Half-Genie Hero) was similar to Risky's Revenge, like holding down the neutral special to cycle through the transformations that'd be used for one attack (Monkey Bullet, Elephant Dash, and Mermaid Bubble)

Now that Ultimate doesn't have the limitations of the 3DS to worry about, Shulk's upgraded Monado Arts gave me the idea for transformations quick selected by her neutral special like Half-Genie Hero's system, and each transformation would only have two attacks when active, one neutral and one special (would still jump and shield too), because it'd be way too much time to pretty difficult to have full movesets on each transformation

I've posted my full moveset ideas at the end of the last page, but here's what I had in mind for said special:

Spoiler: Neutral Special

Forward-Monkey (Low Damage, High Jump, Wall Climb)
Attack: Monkey Claw (overhead slash, easily combo with it)
Special: Monkey Bullet (weak damage but fast, similar to Fox Flash)

Down-Elephant (Less Knockback Taken, High Damage, Low Speed and Jumping)
Attack: Elephant Dash (slow but deals )
Special: Elephant Stomp (high knockback)

Back-Spider (double jump allows her to use webbing to pull herself up if a surface is above)
Attack: Spider Leg (performs an uppercut with her frontal leg similar to the Bonelegs enemy in HGH)
Special: Spider Venom (continuously deals damage similar to flowers)

Up-Harpy (Lightweight, Less Traction, Multiple Jumps)
Attack: Harpy Talon (overhead slash)
Special: Harpy Feather (low damage, but can fire multiple at a time)

 

[Deleted member]

Shantae would require 4 full move-sets, So i had an idea to lessen the workload, and ease the rage of Smash fans (WHY DOES SHANTAE GET 4 MOVESETS WHEN ONE OF THOSE COULD BE WALUIGI)
She only gets 1 full Move set base form Shantae, pretty much what you think. Hair whipping, pirate gear etc.

Her Special moves would be shared across all her forms. As this would be her way to transform. Each special move is tied to a transformation. By tapping the special move she would simply transform, But by pressing and holding the special she will transform and preform the special attack.
normal B, Base shantae, Fireball.
Up B, Harpy Form, Recovery move (use your imagination)
Side B, Monkey, Monkey Bullet.
Down B, Elephant, Ground Pound.

I said earlier that only her base form would have a full moveset, Here i will give a very basic overview of what i mean.
So each of her transformations will obviously have much different stats, But I wanna take it a bit further and give each form simplified movesets,
Elephant will be a ground based tank, comparable to bowser in raw power, however all her elephant air moves are actually just the same move, a rather weak air move.
Monkey would be a fast agile combo beast. however Monkey would not have any smash attacks.
Harpy would be queen of the skies. very powerful air game. (maybe access to Air smashes) but limited ground attacks, (weak peck and a Dash peck.

 

[KirbyWorshipper2465]

Shantae would require 4 full move-sets, So i had an idea to lessen the workload, and ease the rage of Smash fans (WHY DOES SHANTAE GET 4 MOVESETS WHEN ONE OF THOSE COULD BE WALUIGI)
She only gets 1 full Move set base form Shantae, pretty much what you think. Hair whipping, pirate gear etc.

Her Special moves would be shared across all her forms. As this would be her way to transform. Each special move is tied to a transformation. By tapping the special move she would simply transform, But by pressing and holding the special she will transform and preform the special attack.
normal B, Base shantae, Fireball.
Up B, Harpy Form, Recovery move (use your imagination)
Side B, Monkey, Monkey Bullet.
Down B, Elephant, Ground Pound.

I said earlier that only her base form would have a full moveset, Here i will give a very basic overview of what i mean.
So each of her transformations will obviously have much different stats, But I wanna take it a bit further and give each form simplified movesets,
Elephant will be a ground based tank, comparable to bowser in raw power, however all her elephant air moves are actually just the same move, a rather weak air move.
Monkey would be a fast agile combo beast. however Monkey would not have any smash attacks.
Harpy would be queen of the skies. very powerful air game. (maybe access to Air smashes) but limited ground attacks, (weak peck and a Dash peck.

Adding to that, it would be fun if her crawling animation consisted of using her crab form.

 

[Wademan94]

Shantae would require 4 full move-sets, So i had an idea to lessen the workload, and ease the rage of Smash fans (WHY DOES SHANTAE GET 4 MOVESETS WHEN ONE OF THOSE COULD BE WALUIGI)
She only gets 1 full Move set base form Shantae, pretty much what you think. Hair whipping, pirate gear etc.

Her Special moves would be shared across all her forms. As this would be her way to transform. Each special move is tied to a transformation. By tapping the special move she would simply transform, But by pressing and holding the special she will transform and preform the special attack.
normal B, Base shantae, Fireball.
Up B, Harpy Form, Recovery move (use your imagination)
Side B, Monkey, Monkey Bullet.
Down B, Elephant, Ground Pound.

I said earlier that only her base form would have a full moveset, Here i will give a very basic overview of what i mean.
So each of her transformations will obviously have much different stats, But I wanna take it a bit further and give each form simplified movesets,
Elephant will be a ground based tank, comparable to bowser in raw power, however all her elephant air moves are actually just the same move, a rather weak air move.
Monkey would be a fast agile combo beast. however Monkey would not have any smash attacks.
Harpy would be queen of the skies. very powerful air game. (maybe access to Air smashes) but limited ground attacks, (weak peck and a Dash peck.

I don’t really see the transformations needing full movesets, especially when her games have the forms use one ability at a time and her base form is the most versatile. I only listed two moves for 4 forms I used, but they each have potential to be useful

 

[BigShad]

I'm not too sure if someone's already suggested this, but Shantae having more than 1 moveset would be cray-cray. What you do with her is have her base form be the most versatile, but then give her forms that give different properties (smaller but faster, bigger but tankier, winged, etc.) but have very limited and predictable moves to compensate, like 1 or 2 very basic moves. I guess the best way to compare this would be in one of the bosses of a certain DLC (not spoiling). Of course, predictable doesn't mean bad, you just need to learn how to mix it up in order to play the half-genie at her best.

 

[Wademan94]

I'm not too sure if someone's already suggested this, but Shantae having more than 1 moveset would be cray-cray. What you do with her is have her base form be the most versatile, but then give her forms that give different properties (smaller but faster, bigger but tankier, winged, etc.) but have very limited and predictable moves to compensate, like 1 or 2 very basic moves. I guess the best way to compare this would be in one of the bosses of a certain DLC (not spoiling). Of course, predictable doesn't mean bad, you just need to learn how to mix it up in order to play the half-genie at her best.

That’s exactly what’s present in my moveset ideas for her, look at the end of the last page for the whole thing

 

[Jazzy Jinx]

Shantae would be a super hype character from me. I supported her kickstarter for Half-Genie Hero and have enjoyed her games since before then.

Throw me on the support list!

 

[DoctorSanity]

I supported Shantae half-genie hero as well and I believe I was on the original smash 4 shantae thread if you want to add me for support?

I simply don't see an indie character other than Shantae being picked, and feel that Sakurai should have known that an indie character is very desired by people by the time he put in his plans for Ultimate.

 

[perfectchaos83]

I supported Shantae half-genie hero as well and I believe I was on the original smash 4 shantae thread if you want to add me for support?

I simply don't see an indie character other than Shantae being picked, and feel that Sakurai should have known that an indie character is very desired by people by the time he put in his plans for Ultimate.

The only indies I even see as likely are Shantae and Reimu. Shantae has had a decent following in Japan even before localization and Reimu from Touhou is pretty much the shining example of indie in Japan with a notable following in the West.

 

[Deleted member]

The only indies I even see as likely are Shantae and Reimu. Shantae has had a decent following in Japan even before localization and Reimu from Touhou is pretty much the shining example of indie in Japan with a notable following in the West.

I'm honestly surprised you didn't say Shovel Knight lol.

Here in the west when Indies come up it's usually SK and Shantae. I've seen some arguments for Quote. But I didn't expect Touhou.

 

[DoctorSanity]

oh yeah I forgot about those indies some people I follow on tumblr really really love them, don't they have like a billion games over there?

 

[perfectchaos83]

I'm honestly surprised you didn't say Shovel Knight lol.

Here in the west when Indies come up it's usually SK and Shantae. I've seen some arguments for Quote. But I didn't expect Touhou.

Simply put, I'm not thinking from a western perspective. SK is a de facto indie in the west, but SK himself is still more of a literal who in Japan. His game did rather lackluster even with Nintendo as the publisher. Quote's a good choice, but he has one game which, imo, has always been my problem with most indies.

 

[The21stSmasher]

Huh, just looking at the majority of these movesets, I can most certainly see Shantae as a technical character to play as; her transforming ability is pretty diverse. There's no way something like that can be passed up.

 

[Parallel_Falchion]

I don't mean to attack Shovel Knight fans, but it makes me scratch my head whenever people say SK is more likely than Shantae. Even if he did well in the ballot, I think Sakurai would see the character as more flavor of the month (which, let's be honest, he is/was), while Shantae has real history behind her, and history with Nintendo in particular.

 

[Jazzy Jinx]

Yeah, if there's one thing I'm thankful for it's that Shantae has the advantage of history with Nintendo. It also helps that she's released new games recently so she's been pretty relevant as of late. The moveset potential is off the charts too and her company is pushing for her to be in.

Frankly, I think it all hinges on Sakurai and whether or not he wants to give indies representation.

 

[TMNTSSB4]

Well Shantae already has a good amount of moves that can make a moveset (including taunts and victory poses), so she would be set for Smashing

 

[DoctorSanity]

I don't mean to attack Shovel Knight fans, but it makes me scratch my head whenever people say SK is more likely than Shantae. Even if he did well in the ballot, I think Sakurai would see the character as more flavor of the month (which, let's be honest, he is/was), while Shantae has real history behind her, and history with Nintendo in particular.

I think the problem with shovel knight and most indies that lead to this is that, with the exception of characters like Shantae, most are also a bad case of "That guy" syndrome. Do you sometimes remember that Shovel Knight actually talks a decent amount in his game, yet you still can't remember his character? That's a symptom of the "That guy" character.

I think why most indies are like this is they're intentionally designed to be a little plain either design wise or personality wise, so you get interested in the wacky world the indie game inhabits. This is fine for the single indie game, but because of that you don't really care to see a sequel or the characters in other mediums. I posted in the "characters you don't want in smash" thread that I don't really want SK in Smash cause he's a character designed to not focus on him. And a character like that in a character focused fighting game like Smash might be really awkward.

This is why I support Shantae as my #1 indie pick. To me the "character" part of the indie character is the most important part of getting them into Smash. Wayforward put a lot of effort into making Shantae her own character and I really praise them for that, even when the games have their problems.

 

[ZelDan]

Is Shovel Knight "flavor of the month" though? His game released in 2014 and even to this day he is still relevant thanks to the King Knight campaign and coming out, and of course he had 2 previous DLC in between. Even if Shovel Knight the character doesn't play that big of a role in the next DLC or in the Spectre Knight campaign, the Spectre Knight and King Knight campaigns were still helpful for the Shovel Knight brand or franchise. Also, Shovel Knight is probably one of my top 20 favorite games of time, so I know for a fact that Shovel Knight will probably stick with me to some extent for alot of my life.

Anyways, I came here to say that I'd like like to be on the supporter list for Shantae, since her, and Shovel Knight, are the only two indie characters I think would be a good for for Smash.

 

[Captain Hazama]

Well supposedly based on leaker's info, (most likely a big fat fake.) We might see K. K Rool and Shantae on July 9th

 

[DoctorSanity]

Well supposedly based on leaker's info, (most likely a big fat fake.) We might see K. K Rool and Shantae on July 9th

honestly i hope that leak isn't fake but only in the most trolly way possible

like King is meant to be taken literally and it's King from Tekken kjshdfkjhsjkfsjkh

 

[KirbyWorshipper2465]

I don't mean to attack Shovel Knight fans, but it makes me scratch my head whenever people say SK is more likely than Shantae. Even if he did well in the ballot, I think Sakurai would see the character as more flavor of the month (which, let's be honest, he is/was), while Shantae has real history behind her, and history with Nintendo in particular.

Yeah, if there's one thing I'm thankful for it's that Shantae has the advantage of history with Nintendo. It also helps that she's released new games recently so she's been pretty relevant as of late. The moveset potential is off the charts too and her company is pushing for her to be in.

Frankly, I think it all hinges on Sakurai and whether or not he wants to give indies representation.

I think the problem with shovel knight and most indies that lead to this is that, with the exception of characters like Shantae, most are also a bad case of "That guy" syndrome. Do you sometimes remember that Shovel Knight actually talks a decent amount in his game, yet you still can't remember his character? That's a symptom of the "That guy" character.

I think why most indies are like this is they're intentionally designed to be a little plain either design wise or personality wise, so you get interested in the wacky world the indie game inhabits. This is fine for the single indie game, but because of that you don't really care to see a sequel or the characters in other mediums. I posted in the "characters you don't want in smash" thread that I don't really want SK in Smash cause he's a character designed to not focus on him. And a character like that in a character focused fighting game like Smash might be really awkward.

This is why I support Shantae as my #1 indie pick. To me the "character" part of the indie character is the most important part of getting them into Smash. Wayforward put a lot of effort into making Shantae her own character and I really praise them for that, even when the games have their problems.

The main thing is, SK just had a bunch of DLC campaigns, which were stuck in development and released sporadically until this year. This really limited what Yacht Club could do until now, since they literally only worked on one game. Also, the character reached a level of crossover oversaturation that would make Isabelle blush.

Out of indies with personality, the one with the most I've seen so far is Retro City Rampage's The Player, but he's not even in the running since the game's West-only. But then again, the fans have no problem maining a guy who only says "hiya!" at most, and a smiling kid with no voice, so it's less a problem of being vanilla and more of not having a huge established brand like Zelda and Animal Crossing.

Overall though, most indie games are so thorough in their conception that fans would have a hard time wanting a sequel (that is, assuming the game is well-made or not relying on a minimalistic pixel style, otherwise it's either completely forgettable or a fiasco), so this can limit their impact. Unless said games manage to reach enough legendary cult status to even reach Japan's attention, though it's too early to make that call for some.

Shantae is that rare case that did manage to touch Japan's hearts, which took several years and a few console generations. She's been indie long before it was considered cool. It helps that Risky's Revenge even got a PS4 release over there, so anyone that can't play the original can start with RR instead since it segues into Pirate's Curse.

Is Shovel Knight "flavor of the month" though? His game released in 2014 and even to this day he is still relevant thanks to the King Knight campaign and coming out, and of course he had 2 previous DLC in between. Even if Shovel Knight the character doesn't play that big of a role in the next DLC or in the Spectre Knight campaign, the Spectre Knight and King Knight campaigns were still helpful for the Shovel Knight brand or franchise. Also, Shovel Knight is probably one of my top 20 favorite games of time, so I know for a fact that Shovel Knight will probably stick with me to some extent for alot of my life.

Anyways, I came here to say that I'd like like to be on the supporter list for Shantae, since her, and Shovel Knight, are the only two indie characters I think would be a good for for Smash.

On that note, I heard SK was goofier when not being played as, at least according to the Plague Knight campaign.

That said, I do still support Shantae and him. Even if he won't make it (which is likely), we can still have Shantae.