Official Smash Ultimate Discussion

[SvartWolf]

Nebby confirmed as the next Pokemon rep.

It's final smash gets YOU in the bag.

 

[DLEAF]

We're gonna get 101 stages and everyone knows from what game that final stage will be from.

This was the first thing I thought of.

 

[Untouch]

I'm just hoping Isaac did well enough on the ballot to be considered.

Issac was always a character I saw getting really high results on unofficial polls, we'll see if that translates to the ballot though...

 

[Fenriraga]

http://viewtifuljoe.wikia.com/wiki/Dante

On game cube

Actually, Dante was only in the PS2 version of Viewtiful Joe.

 

[Majora's Visage]

I can't imagine we only get 4 new stages - with 6 open spots I think we're definitely due to get a few more, unless there's gonna be stage DLC (one newcomer, one echo, one new stage, one returning stage like Poke-Floats or Melee Mute City for example in each DLC pack)

As far as characters go, I can definitely see big boosts to Issac, Geno, Skull Kid, and Skull Kid and small boosts to unlikely but highly desirable characters like Banjo-Kazooie.

The only character I don't see happening despite being a popular guess here is Bandana Waddle Dee - I just don't see him happening but I easily could be wrong.

In line with everything I've gathered from all of the material provided to us in the form of actual reveals, hints, leakers like Vergeben, and the confirmation that the ballot was used to determine fighters for absolute sure now, this is my final roster prediction (and unbelievably, my only one posted here!)

Newcomers:
Ridley
Inkling
Simon Belmont
K. Rool
Skull Kid
Geno
Issac
Monster Hunter
Rayman

Echos:
Dark Samus
Chrom
Richter
Daisy
Isabelle (Villager)
Ken (Ryu)
Shadow (Sonic)
Dixie (Diddy)
Black Shadow (Falcon/Ganondorf)

Some of you may ask why I think Rayman is here - Never underestimate the power of a strong relationship with Ubisoft, and the fact that Rayman was a trophy when he absolutely didn't need to be.

Monster Hunter is unbelievably popular and has confirmed representation with Rathalos and a previously existing Mii Costume, I'd say he's slightly above a 50-50 chance which puts him in my prediction.

Black Shadow is the only character I'm not fully confident in, but I don't think Sakurai will ignore F-Zero 4 games in a row, and he's a natural echo as well as a villain.

As much as I want Banjo-Kazooie, I don't see Microsoft playing ball despite Phil Spencer's comments. I would LOVE to be proven wrong here.

This assortment of characters would ultimately make a lot of people happy, and I could see Lloyd, Heihachi, Black Knight, Springman/RibbonGirl, Rex & Pyra, and a few others come in as DLC.

Thanks for reading my wall of text prediction!

As a Skull Kid fan, while I certainly hope he gets in... I don't believe he did well on the ballot.

 

[Deleted member]

This was the first thing I thought of.

Get out.

 

[NextChannelGames]

Can someone please fill me in on the whole Dante situation, I’ve been really confused about it so I need clarity.

Before the announcement of the DmC 5 there was a leak before that has so far gotten a lot right. In the leak the guy mentions that Danate is going to be in Smash Ultimate with a trailer description. Though the leaker explains he isn’t into smash leaks and finds it hard to believe so just take it as a grain of salt.

 

[Pakky]

Actually, Dante was only in the PS2 version of Viewtiful Joe.

Woops my bad.

 

[Noipoi]

So only ballot picks are getting in this time? I don't know how to feel about that.

 

[Nonno Umby]

I can't imagine we only get 4 new stages - with 6 open spots I think we're definitely due to get a few more, unless there's gonna be stage DLC (one newcomer, one echo, one new stage, one returning stage like Poke-Floats or Melee Mute City for example in each DLC pack)

As far as characters go, I can definitely see big boosts to Issac, Geno, Skull Kid, and Skull Kid and small boosts to unlikely but highly desirable characters like Banjo-Kazooie.

The only character I don't see happening despite being a popular guess here is Bandana Waddle Dee - I just don't see him happening but I easily could be wrong.

In line with everything I've gathered from all of the material provided to us in the form of actual reveals, hints, leakers like Vergeben, and the confirmation that the ballot was used to determine fighters for absolute sure now, this is my final roster prediction (and unbelievably, my only one posted here!)

Newcomers:
Ridley
Inkling
Simon Belmont
K. Rool
Skull Kid
Geno
Issac
Monster Hunter
Rayman

Echos:
Dark Samus
Chrom
Richter
Daisy
Isabelle (Villager)
Ken (Ryu)
Shadow (Sonic)
Dixie (Diddy)
Black Shadow (Falcon/Ganondorf)

Some of you may ask why I think Rayman is here - Never underestimate the power of a strong relationship with Ubisoft, and the fact that Rayman was a trophy when he absolutely didn't need to be.

Monster Hunter is unbelievably popular and has confirmed representation with Rathalos and a previously existing Mii Costume, I'd say he's slightly above a 50-50 chance which puts him in my prediction.

Black Shadow is the only character I'm not fully confident in, but I don't think Sakurai will ignore F-Zero 4 games in a row, and he's a natural echo as well as a villain.

As much as I want Banjo-Kazooie, I don't see Microsoft playing ball despite Phil Spencer's comments. I would LOVE to be proven wrong here.

This assortment of characters would ultimately make a lot of people happy, and I could see Lloyd, Heihachi, Black Knight, Springman/RibbonGirl, Rex & Pyra, and a few others come in as DLC.

Thanks for reading my wall of text prediction!

Monster Hunter isn't happening. Sakurai never revealed any content from a new series with a playabke character without the actual character. Heck, he even went the extra mile and completely re-skinned the Boxing Ring stage so that it was a generic Smash stage rather than Punch-Out related, at least until Little Mac was revealed.
Plus Bomberman and Shovel Knight proves that Sakurai is willing to represents TP franchises even without having a playable character.

All of the characters I want relied on relevancy instead of the ballot.
'Cause I'm a hipster, I guess.

So only ballot picks are getting in this time? I don't know how to feel about that.

Well, Sakurai stated that Richter was an obscure choice, and he didn't mentioned popularity or the Ballot talking about Castlevania, which means that he picked it personally. That confirms that not the whole roster is going to be Ballot based.

 

[ErenJager]

It would surely be interesting, but the worse part would be seeing 7 characters not making the cut. Just imagine if something like that happened with Smash For selection: who woukd people vote between Wii Fit Trainer or Mega-Man, between Little Mac and a random Villager...we would probably loose those cool oddball choices that makes sense only after Sakurai realize the character, and that make Smash so unique.

Some character speculation must die so that others may live.

Idk, they could give us assist trophies or mii costumes as a runner up prize.

 

[Pakky]

So only ballot picks are getting in this time? I don't know how to feel about that.

Not really don't think was a ballot pick

 

[Noipoi]

So here's a question. What's the first thing you plan to do when you finally boot up the game in December?

For me, I'll go against the bots in regular smash mode to test the new mechanics then I'll jump right into unlocking characters by whatever method they're doing it, hopefully a story mode.

I'm gonna do one match with each of the original 8, then i'm gonna see what else I can do.
My Smash buddy won't be here for a while so i'll have to see what I can do on my own.

 

[Rie Sonomura]

I’m sorry, where are you guys getting “ONLY ballot picks” from? When I read it I didn’t see anything that could hint at that being the case

 

[Untouch]

Since Sakurai said that roster inclusions were based on the ballot, this makes me wonder about the pokemon rep, gen 7 wasn't out by that time, only ORAS were.
Though obviously I don't think that means ALL characters were picked from the ballot.

 

[Captain Fun]

So only ballot picks are getting in this time? I don't know how to feel about that.

I mean, that's not exactly what he said, is it? Sakurai referred to the ballot when picking characters. We knew that was a possibility since they told us up front the ballot could be used for another game, but he didn't say only ballot picks would be put in the game.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

This column has confused me even more regarding squad strike.
" In the first ruleset, the winner of a match goes on to face the next opponent."
I'm very confused, when he says "goes on" it doesn't sound like the same battle, but instead another battle. Does that mean the health and stocks will be replenished?

Looking back over the direct, it seems Squad Strike is not the mode we thought it was. We all wanted a multi-character stock mode, but this looks like you’re just making a series of 1v1s, and the one with the most wins gets the match.

 

[NintenZ]

So only ballot picks are getting in this time? I don't know how to feel about that.

I’m personally not too wild about it either since it’s so different from how the roster is normally.

It feels weird just to break it and I know that a lot of people will be happy with some of the picks but it’s just kinda off-putting.

 

[Paperchampion23]

As a Skull Kid fan, while I certainly hope he gets in... I don't believe he did well on the ballot.

We have remember that choices aren't also from the Smash ballot. I don't deny Simon Belmont is probably a popular character, but MANY people don't know what castlevania is so I can actually see specific character being chosen because Nintendo/Sakurai want them to be included.

People definitely don't realize how much of an icon Skull Kid is, while Majoras mask is not as popular as OOT or even as heavily played or praised, Skull Kid or the mask is easily identified because of its design.

Basically I think Skull Kid is in because Nintendo would want him in as a new Zelda rep, not because of the Ballot. Fun fact though, he was topping polls pre smash 4.

 

[Noipoi]

Not really don't think was a ballot pick

Yeah, the ballot was obviously used but I think there will still be some "Sakurai" characters like a Pokemon or a Rhythm Heaven character.

 

[monadoboy]

I mean that doesn’t necessarily bar any characters Sakurai picked himself though...???

"I referred to the Smash Ballot when selecting characters this time," plus the limited number of newcomers, I'm not holding any hope at all.
Shulk and the Awakening trio are in the game anyway so I have more than I could ask for

 

[CrusherMania1592]

Not every newcomer is going to be from the ballot. Even I didn't know who Richter was before he popped up

 

[Scicky]

So here's a question. What's the first thing you plan to do when you finally boot up the game in December?

For me, I'll go against the bots in regular smash mode to test the new mechanics then I'll jump right into unlocking characters by whatever method they're doing it, hopefully a story mode.

Go through the menu to see what all is available. Try out the new Pika and C. Falcon because they're my favourite of the original roster and I'm willing to bet they're both amazing in this game. Then probably see how the new Link plays. Then get to unlocking characters.

Having a lot of characters is obviously a great thing. But has anyone stopped and thought about balance? Patches in Smash Wii U didn't really solve anything, and I don't want 80% of the cast being forgotten about.

Not entirely true, the game was honestly fairly well balanced before Bayo/Cloud came along, at which point there was little time left for them to do anything about those characters or anyone else for that matter. Obviously it was never perfect, but there were some moments of bliss, and there are still some pretty frequent upsets out there, like Anti's Charizard dunking on Mr. E's Lucina a week or two ago.

Not that there was an actual tier list at the time, but they did a LOT between the 3DS release and where we're at now, and aside from *cough* a few issues *cough*, I think the game is fairly balanced.

Ultimate looks to be continuing that, and other than Bayo I haven't seen any characters who look oppressively powerful, so I'm not super worried. Unfortunately perfect balance is almost impossible, and competitive players will likely always gravitate to the best characters if there intent is to win, but I think/hope we'll have more varied tournies than ever in this game.

 

[Noipoi]

Not every newcomer is going to be from the ballot. Even I didn't know who Richter was before he popped up

I seriously thought Richter was another Fire Emblem when he showed up,
I distinctly remember thinking "what the hell is a Richter?".

 

[Deleted member]

Not every newcomer is going to be from the ballot. Even I didn't know who Richter was before he popped up

I knew him as "die monster, you don't belong in this world" guy.

I should beat Symphony of the Night one of these days

 

[Deleted member]

>Newcomers aren't the heavily requested ones
"Sakurai doesn't care about us!"
>Newcomers are all heavily requested
"How boring!"

I swear, there's no pleasing the Smash fanbase

 

[RileyXY1]

Also, the stage select screen doesn't have an option for custom stages. Looks like the Stage Builder is removed.

 

[Hydrualic Hydra]

As someone who mainly loves the original Castlevania, Super, and Symphony of the Night, I exclusively knew Richter as the 'Die, monster!' guy. I probably wouldn't have even remembered him by name if they didn't do the line for his reveal, but I'm excited to see him and glad his fans to get to have him.

The ballot will definitely contribute to a lot of the heavy-hitting character picks, but there will definitely be less-expected characters with less active fanbases thrown in.

 

[Nonno Umby]

"I referred to the Smash Ballot when selecting characters this time," plus the limited number of newcomers, I'm not holding any hope at all.
Shulk and the Awakening trio are in the game anyway so I have more than I could ask for

In the same column he stated that many people would go "Who is Richter?". And he is a TP character, which means he was planned since the beginning and they spent money for the licensing, voice actor etc etc.
He also didn't mentioned the Ballot when he talked about Simon, which probably means he wasn't chosen due to popularity or fan requests (just look at the varius reactions taht go "Well I've never played Castlevania, so...").

That statement about the Ballot probabky means taht he uses it for picking the fan favourites, but I we have already seen that some characters are chosen by him as usual.

 

[RandomAce]

So Sakurai said that he referred to the ballot when picking characters, it’s basically what I (and a lot of others) predicted but I’m happy that we get actual confirmation.

This bodes VERY WELL for a lot characters. More specifically Isaac, Geno, and Banjo are now one of the most likely newcomers to get into Smash due to their huge amount of support. There’s even the possibility of Sceptile as well since he had a large amount of support during that time for being a fan favorite Pokémon. There’s Sora too... but I think they’d want to license him for DLC since they might spend too much money for the base game.

However, I’m still predicting a SM Pokemon, Elma, and an RH Rep, despite them not being popular or available at all during the ballot, there’s a lot of moveset potential and uniqueness that seems to interest him to get them in as his uniqueness philosophy seems to be an important factor for this game as well.

 

[ThreeT]

It doesn't necessarily mean only ballot picks, but it does show that he is focused on the ballot this time around. This is already evident by all the characters shown in the game thus far. He is trying to appease fans so it makes sense. We shouldn't think that only ballot picks will be chosen, but instead think they are much more likely.

 

[RileyXY1]

It doesn't necessarily mean only ballot picks, but it does show that he is focused on the ballot this time around. This is already evident by all the characters shown in the game thus far. He is trying to appease fans so it makes sense. We shouldn't think that only ballot picks will be chosen, but instead think they are much more likely.

Yeah. I doubt that Dark Samus, Simon, and Richter did well on the ballot.

 

[WingedSupernova]

Looking back over the direct, it seems Squad Strike is not the mode we thought it was. We all wanted a multi-character stock mode, but this looks like you’re just making a series of 1v1s, and the one with the most wins gets the match.

Basically it's meant to be something like a 3 person v 3 person (or 5 v 5) clan battle where each person has a character they pre-select and then they battle in a series of 1v1 battles. Those 1v1 battles can be a gauntlet style where if someone is defeated then the next person on the loser's team faces the winner of the previous game, or they can be pre-selected 1v1 matches where the winner of the match gains a point for their team. At least, that's how I interpreted it. It seems like a really fun time to me.

 

[NintenZ]

I strongly think Castlevania was a Sakurai pick since he Ballot isn’t mentioned anywhere in the Famitsu column and he implied Richter wasn’t a popular pick.

I feel like because of this we could still see some Sakurai picks here and there.

 

[MSmariosonic]

Yeah

I always had my doubts about Simon ranking high in the ballot.

I know he got quite the votes but nothing compared to some others on the newcomer roster.

It seems Sakurai is really careful with the 3rd party picks.

 

[BluePikmin11]

I feel not every choice in Ultimate was decided by the ballot.

I know Dark Samus had notable support in Brawl and pre-Smash 4 before her AT disconfirmation in Smash 4. I feel her status left her lower in the ballot rankings. Ridley, Chrom and Ashley are the only character I knew were willingly voted highly despite their status in Smash 4. The only way I could have seen DS considered is if pre-Smash 4 and Brawl poll results were taken into account.

Richter, who was a choice Sakurai referred to as "A lot of people are probably wondering, “Who’s Richter?” I hope they’ll enjoy getting to know him through Ultimate.", likely was not influenced by the ballot, but by possibly character popularity within the franchise and maybe a bit of Castlevania bias.

Ridley, Simon, Daisy, Chrom, K. Rool all likely ranked pretty high in the ballot, no problem with them.

Inklings were likely Sakurai-based choice, when considering franchises that had succeeded greatly before the project plan in December 2015, though a few votes of Inkling could have made it through the ballot to strengthen the consideration a bit, as the period of voting lasted until October.

And if we consider the newcomer candidates that are considered extremely likely such as Geno, Skull Kid, Isabelle, and Shadow, only two of them could have likely ranked high. Geno and Shadow I know likely pulled off a high amount of votes. I could see notably Isabelle voted by casual voters, but that is a bit of an uncertainty. Out of the "likely" candidates, Skull Kid is the one I am unsure of for the same reasons as Dark Samus, with his AT status disconfirmation possibly discouraging votes.

When considering everything regarding speculation and the ballot, it just does not make much sense to me that every newcomer and echo was primarily chosen due to their notable presence in the ballot.

 

[CrusherMania1592]

>Newcomers aren't the heavily requested ones
"Sakurai doesn't care about us!"
>Newcomers are all heavily requested
"How boring!"

I swear, there's no pleasing the Smash fanbase

There's nowhere safe in Smash

 

[XenoWarriorX]

Rip

 

[ChocolatGelgato]

richter is more popular than simon in japan iirc. The Richter vs Simon thing was an awkward problem that they chose to solve by adding both, especially as it seriously looks like richter is just a extended version of an alt skin. The impact of Richter is being grossly overrated, it's just a bonus, and honestly, I don't believe it means anything other than they put the effort in to please all castlevania fans (Not smash fans in this case)

Richter doesn't mean proof of the character selection process meaning x or y, and also, stop believing every damn leak that said richter too. I wouldn't be surprised if no one knew about richter just because nintendo thought it wasn't even nessesary to tell people he existed.

 

[Jedisupersonic]

Not every newcomer is going to be from the ballot. Even I didn't know who Richter was before he popped up

This is why I did an article on who Richter is after all! I very well knew who he was but a lot of people didn't haha.