Smash bros needs more girls? Why

[N3ON]

I wouldn't categorize Lip as anything but a very outside chance. We don't even know if Sakurai views SNES characters the same as "classic characters", given that Sakurai views "retro" characters as ones from a specific era, and has only ever given NES characters as examples. Not to mention the retro Sakurai spoke of this time apparently would be capable of seeing a series revival and expansion in the same vein as Pit. Puzzle League/Panel de Pon isn't exactly that type of series.

She's not impossible... but she's hardly on the same level as the four characters above her on that list, even Krystal.

Style Savy Manager is more relevant then Issac at the moment. That's about it though lol I honestly could care less what the roster is. Wii Fit trainer is all I need but if Ridley, Palutena and medusa somehow make it in then I'll play this game forever!

recent =/= relevant

There were other characters who had a more recent appearance than Samus/Ness/Marth/etc. when they were included as well, and that didn't actually make them more relevant to Nintendo.

I hear ya Neon. Well said and neatly written. I mean Mother only has 3 games. 2 which are japan only and 1 which didn't really do well in the US due to poor marketing. I guess that's just me being salty about it lol xD

Thanks, and I get what you mean, but with Smash, and really most of Nintendo's stuff, it's an unfortunate given that Japan will get priority. And to be fair, Mother is a really big deal over there, and chances are we're not going to get any more than these two for a long while, so at this point being salty isn't going to change much. At least it helped Mother re-establish a fanbase outside Japan.

What we can be salty about is Nintendo not acting off that accrued fanbase when Mother 3 came out.

 

[Starcutter]

At this point we have enough girls for the sake of having girls.

Wouldn't mind Tetra though.

 

[Wii Twerk Trainer]

I dunno I just don't understand why they don't release a mother trilogy on the 3ds or something. Mother has gained a big Fanbase thanks to smash. I just want to know why Nintendo doesn't want anything to do with mother anymore or make a new mother.

 

[Erotic&Heretic]

I think that it's not that we need female character, but just that as we already have a lot of the male protagonists, the female characters just comes to mind now.

I'm not considering popularity/chances, numbers of characters in series, ect... but If you take a look:

Mario had Peach, but we got also Rosalina, who have gotten popularity and some kind of importance now.
The 3 original characters for Kid Icarus are Pit, Palutena and Medusa. DK have Dixie and K.Rool.
Zelda, considering the TP and WW art style, have Midna and Tetra (there's also Toon Zelda and Toon Ganondorf, but too much clones I guess) There's also Impa .
Fire Emblem have Lyn who is popular, and Daraen/Robin, who can be male and female (the female is more popular in Japan, according to this poll: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/fe/kakusei_bk/kekka/index.html ) there's also Chrom who can easily take the place as a FE rep, I know.
Starfox have Krystal who is quite requested. Warioware have Mona, who is one of the most important character with Jimmy T. Ashley is popular, and there's also Captain Syrup from Warioland.

Some other existing series will obviously not get newcommers (I mean, how could G&W get a second rep?). Obviously, a lot of the characters I've mentionned won't make it, but now, a lot of important characters that are not yet in Smash are female.

I probably forget some important male characters.

 

[Sarki Soliloquy]

I think by 20 pages of this thread we've come to the conclusion that, "Characters who are female must be in by their impact on their series and not their sex alone."

Also, saying that Smash needs to market towards females more is stupid. Because people already would love to play as the characters we have and are getting. It's like how some people say that romance is so shoddily executed in recent Marevl films because they want more females to see it.

 

[Wii Twerk Trainer]

Why would females only cater to female gamers? It caters to both genders. To be honest more male gamers request females more then females themselves lol

 

[Jaedrik]

Why would females only cater to female gamers? It caters to both genders. To be honest more male gamers request females more then females themselves lol

Too true, I'm sure the inverse is as well.
My cousin plays as Pit, the other one plays Ganondorf.
Then there's my sister who plays Meta Knight. . .
I'm sure there are plenty of women who play as Marth and Ike, the hunks.

 

[Sarki Soliloquy]

I like to refer to the "fangirls" of the Smash Bros. series as the underbelly of the fanbase. Why? Because they invest themselves in yaoi character pairings, poorly-written fanfics, and the like. People here at Smashboards and even Miiverse care about the quality of the games and not some convoluted romance that was never there.

 

[Erotic&Heretic]

Why would females only cater to female gamers? It caters to both genders. To be honest more male gamers request females more then females themselves lol

True.

I remember a game of Street Fighter X Tekken yesterday with my sister. I picked Juri and Poison. She picked Akuma and Vega.
It's an isolated situation, but I think it reflects well the fact that characters gender is not just to appeal to the said gender.

Just look at Bayonetta

 

[YoshiandToad]

I like to refer to the "fangirls" of the Smash Bros. series as the underbelly of the fanbase. Why? Because they invest themselves in yaoi character pairings, poorly-written fanfics, and the like. People here at Smashboards and even Miiverse care about the quality of the games and not some convoluted romance that was never there.

This coupled with your signature leads to some hilarious unintentional comedy.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

I dunno I just don't understand why they don't release a mother trilogy on the 3ds or something. Mother has gained a big Fanbase thanks to smash. I just want to know why Nintendo doesn't want anything to do with mother anymore or make a new mother.

I'll answer this.

The reason the Mother series isn't getting anymore games is because the creator said the series had reached its conclusion. It's the end of the story.

As for the trilogy? Most likely licensing and legal issues. If I recall correctly, Mother and Mother 3 both borrow some elements (particularly music) that are perfectly fine to borrow in Japan but not here. Then you have a couple of scenes in Mother 3 that are... questionable....

 

[Immortal]

Variety in a roster is a good thing, period.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Variety in a roster is a good thing, period.

Not necessarily.

It depends on how you do it.

 

[IsmaR]

This thread was a lost cause from the moment KCC started posting, but I just want to point out that Ridley is technically female.

 

[3Bismyname]

This thread was a lost cause from the moment KCC started posting, but I just want to point out that Ridley is technically female.

eh only Mike Sneath considers him female. previously he could be considered non-specified at best. though the manga, guide books and all that refers to him a male and even smash bros in the trophy's call him a he.

 

[Wii Twerk Trainer]

If Ridley was a girl I'm pretty sure the demand would skyrocket!female and villain? Ridley would become the most wanted newcomer lol

 

[IsmaR]

I realize all of that, 3B, but to me, word of God (or at least the guy who made the model. he made it, it's whatever he effen wants it to be) is word of God.

Censorship be damned, Vivian/Poison/etc. will always be male, no matter what the American versions say.

 

[GuyWithTheFace]

If Ridley was a girl I'm pretty sure the demand would skyrocket!female and villain? Ridley would become the most wanted newcomer lol

Pretty sure s/he's already the most wanted newcomer.

 

[3Bismyname]

I realize all of that, 3B, but to me, word of God (or at least the guy who made the model. he made it, it's whatever he effen wants it to be) is word of God.

Censorship be damned, Vivian/Poison/etc. will always be male, no matter what the American versions say.

but Sneath isnt the creator of Ridley. he's the 3d modeler who designed Meta and Omega Ridley. but that doesnt mean he created him. Ridley was defined well before Prime trilogy.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

3B has a point.

Issy, you went and said that Poison's original gender was the true gender. Her being male.

That's fine. Original context is the best context.

But if that's the case shouldn't you treat Ridley the same way? Ridley was originally male. Every source we have confirms this.

Seems like you're picking and choosing.


EDIT:

Actually. If we're going by the original Japanese context.

Poison's female.

Poison being male was something originally made by the American lawmakers as they didn't want allegations of violence against women. Making Poison a post-op transgender male was the solution they picked.

So... yeah. Originally, Poison was a girl and Ridley was a boy.

 

[UltimateWario]

Ridley isn't a chick. Period.

One dude mistakenly called her female; said dude happened to be making Meta-Ridley's model for Prime.

Ridley has been, is, and always will be a dude. As if it mattered; either way, he'll eat your parents right in front of you and smile at you while he does it.

 

[Wii Twerk Trainer]

Pretty sure s/he's already the most wanted newcomer.

Probably only in the US. Japan doesn't really care about Ridley. He isn't really requested there. Palutena, mewtwo, king k rool, Dixie kong, Shulk, chrome, Lucina, insert Japanese favorites are way more requested then Ridley over there.

 

[Guybrush20X6]

Odd. Purple space dragon pirate sounds like the exact sort of thing Japan would be in to. Maybe he's just not bishie enough for them.

 

[Wii Twerk Trainer]

Odd. Purple space dragon pirate sounds like the exact sort of thing Japan would be in to. Maybe he's just not bishie enough for them.

I think someone said was because thier not huge on metroid like how the US is. Metroid sells well but it's not say huge like in America.

Hopefully sakurai puts Ridley in anyways

 

[Homelessvagrant]

I like to refer to the "fangirls" of the Smash Bros. series as the underbelly of the fanbase. Why? Because they invest themselves in yaoi character pairings, poorly-written fanfics, and the like. People here at Smashboards and even Miiverse care about the quality of the games and not some convoluted romance that was never there.

Really? I would have to say Smashbros has more of diverse crowd than that. I've met more than few smash gals during my time smashing bros and most of them were quite normal. With that in mind if there was a said pattern I would say that I've seen females tend to gravitate toward yoshi, pikachu, kirby, and pit (and in melee days Peach). But really I think any said pattern is nothing more than a fassad.

Being a female should not be a plus to getting in smash 4 and adding more gals will by no mean attract a stronger female fan base. However I believe this smash has all the prospects of having more of a sexually diverse roster (as there are more likely female contenders and unisex characters that have the potential making it in).

 

[Pete278]

3B has a point.

Issy, you went and said that Poison's original gender was the true gender. Her being male.

That's fine. Original context is the best context.

But if that's the case shouldn't you treat Ridley the same way? Ridley was originally male. Every source we have confirms this.

Seems like you're picking and choosing.


EDIT:

Actually. If we're going by the original Japanese context.

Poison's female.

Poison being male was something originally made by the American lawmakers as they didn't want allegations of violence against women. Making Poison a post-op transgender male was the solution they picked.

So... yeah. Originally, Poison was a girl and Ridley was a boy.

I haven't posted in a year but I'm breaking that run just to tell you Poison was always transgender, it says so in old final fight concept art. The 'Poison got changed for US audiences' thing is total bull**** and only exists because everyone likes to say it and Chinese whispers.

 

[Sarki Soliloquy]

Really? I would have to say Smashbros has more of diverse crowd than that. I've met more than few smash gals during my time smashing bros and most of them were quite normal. With that in mind if there was a said pattern I would say that I've seen females tend to gravitate toward yoshi, pikachu, kirby, and pit (and in melee days Peach). But really I think any said pattern is nothing more than a fassad.

Being a female should not be a plus to getting in smash 4 and adding more gals will by no mean attract a stronger female fan base. However I believe this smash has all the prospects of being a sexually diverse game (as there are more likely female contenders and unisex characters that have the potential making it in).

I wasn't intending my post as sexist. Noticed how I put "fangirls" in quotations? It's more like a denomination within the fanbase.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

I haven't posted in a year but I'm breaking that run just to tell you Poison was always transgender, it says so in old final fight concept art. The 'Poison got changed for US audiences' thing is total bull**** and only exists because everyone likes to say it and Chinese whispers.

Did more research.

Huh.

Never had this many conflicting sources before.

 

[UltimateWario]

Can we all just agree that, as long as the character as interesting, it doesn't matter if they're male, female, transgender, none of the above, or giant purple space dragon?

It's asinine to think that women are automatically more interesting on the virtue that they are women.

 

[Hong]

No one has any idea of what characters will be added ever. Unless it is an obvious character and staple of Nintendo, something anyone familiar with modern media would know of (Pikachu, Luigi, Zelda, etc.), then anyone is up for grabs. People trying to reason how one character might not show up because of the release date of their game or the popularity of the character obviously missed like a third of the cast. Wii Fit Trainer, Ice Climbers, Mr. Game & Watch, R.O.B., and a fair number of other characters are not popular, relevant, and if you factor in folks like Captain Falcon or Ness, not even retro.

Not saying those reasons have no impact on character choice, so much as the factors for character choice are so drastically varied that it is simply silly to try to speak on behalf of the developer.

 

[Homelessvagrant]

I wasn't intending my post as sexist. Noticed how I put "fangirls" in quotations? It's more like a denomination within the fanbase.

No that's cool, I didn't take it as a sexist comment by any means and I apologize if it seemed like I was calling you out specifically. I meant my comment to be more of a broad mention of the idea presented and just happened to use your post in particular. I will admit that the more fanatic fans tend to be a bit more odd in the sense that you mentioned; I guess it depends on how you define 'fangirl.'

 

[JediLink]

I'm sure there are plenty of women who play as Marth and Ike, the hunks.

I can personally verify at least one case of this.

 

[jaytalks]

I actually didn't even recall seeing alot of huge demand for Daisy in Smash until after Rosalina was announced, was it that there were people that actually were expecting Daisy to get in or it is more of a reaction to Rosalina getting in instead?

It would say both were pretty much expected by very little people.

It's asinine to think that women are automatically more interesting on the virtue that they are women.

No one has really said that at all.

 

[Arcadenik]

Probably only in the US. Japan doesn't really care about Ridley. He isn't really requested there. Palutena, mewtwo, king k rool, Dixie kong, Shulk, chrome, Lucina, insert Japanese favorites are way more requested then Ridley over there.

You make it sound like Palutena, Mewtwo, King K. Rool, Dixie Kong, Shulk, Chrom, and Lucina aren't requested outside of Japan. Even if Ridley gets in SSB4 as a stage hazard and not a playable character, people all over the world woul still be happy with the roster since it has other popular characters anyway.

 

[Yomi's Biggest Fan]

I like to refer to the "fangirls" of the Smash Bros. series as the underbelly of the fanbase. Why? Because they invest themselves in yaoi character pairings, poorly-written fanfics, and the like. People here at Smashboards and even Miiverse care about the quality of the games and not some convoluted romance that was never there.

I just died (laughing) when reading this. This is more or less unintentionally caused ever since Marth came along and things went downhill from there. Then again, loads of media are bound to cause such a following from the the start. An infamous example would be Fire Emblem post-Blazing Sword with Roy and heading straight down to Awakening with Chrom.

 

[IsmaR]

Can we all just agree that, as long as the character as interesting, it doesn't matter if they're male, female, transgender, none of the above, or giant purple space dragon?

It's asinine to think that women are automatically more interesting on the virtue that they are women.

/thread

Although I still agree with Elite in that (for specific instances) characters like Rosalina wouldn't be that popular if they were the opposite gender. As much as people say it doesn't, bias for this kind of thing does exist. It just shouldn't matter much, especially when it comes to party games like Smash.

 

[Guybrush20X6]

Looks like Ashley is out of the game.

Wonder if Mona, Captain Syrup or Kat & Ana will make it...

 

[Vann Accessible]

I think with the additions of WFT and Rosalina, and potentially Dixie and Paluenta, we'll have plenty of females.

What we REALLY need are transgender individuals, like this little lady.

Go equality!

 

[SuperMii3D]

Oh great, its this topic again. Why must one of my favorite games be sabotages by such nonsense?

I think Dixie Kong and Palutena would be great additions, and I wouldnt mind seeing Krystal. Maybe Lucina could make an appearance too.

 

[Croph]

Gender, sexual orientation, race, etc., are characteristics. However, they should not be THE defining characteristic, especially creating well-written characters (but these aspects can certainly help with development/depth). Unfortunately, there are exceptions. I've seen too many cases where these characteristics ARE taken as the defining trait, and most of them lead to stereotypes (or perhaps the [flat] "token" [insert gender/sexual orientation/race/etc. here]... but I won't get into that). I like to remember characters for their good character development, growth, how well I could empathize with them, and especially learning morals and lessons from them regardless if my own gender, sexuality, etc. is different... among other things. But I don't want to make a huge argument on what makes a "well-written" character -- I think people have different definitions anyway...

Well, that's just my two cents on the whole thing. Applying this to Smash: being female shouldn't be the deciding factor. Otherwise, I personally think it's a shallow reason to include such character. Not to mention Smash itself is a different context altogether; there are other factors to include as well, just like any other character, really. However, in the end there are some exceptions, making it hard to know how the heck Sakurai chooses things anyway.

Tbh, I haven't really thought of the question "does Smash need more girls?"a lot. Perhaps because I'm more concerned on video games in general including more strong female protags/roles.