In the end, if Geno's not in Ultimate, we basically wasted 13 years of our lives and we're a joke as a fanbase and individuals but, hey, we still have another year to wait before we decide to bite down on the ol' cyanide capsule that's been standard issue since 2008. Maybe we'll do a coordinated mass hanging on Twitch come next December, amirite? Geno? More like "KO" as the ropes snap in unison! HEY-O!
Listen man. Ridley was my single most wanted character for nearly 20 years of my life, and after 2014 I thought I would never get to play as him in an official Smash Bros. game (I thought Sakurai's words on Ridley being too big were basically the end of the dream).
I thought Smash 4 was the end of the line (it was worse that I was among the few Ridley fans who saw the writing on the wall back in mid-2014, and I tried to warn other Ridley fans that he was deconfirmed for Smash 4). With pre-Melee, I thought it was because Metroid still was a series on hiatus even though two games were in development at the time. With pre-Brawl, I felt so many other big Nintendo characters were "ahead in line" before Ridley. With Smash 4, I was really bewildered. Only when Sakurai said his thoughts on Ridley that I felt it was probably never going to happen (or at least until Sakurai retired from the series). I surmised by the time that did happen, I would be at the age where I would have little time for gaming and/or little interest.
I still wanted to play as Ridley in Smash Bros. mind you, but I thought an official title was no longer in the cards. I never bought a Wii U (I did get Smash 4 on the 3DS though), so I basically felt that between Smash 4 3DS and Project M I had the definitive Smash 4 experience. I felt at least through fan mods I could enjoy Ridley in Smash Bros., and I was actually content with this. After Roy's confirmation for Smash 4 DLC (which was also a miracle in it of itself), I basically stopped posting on SmashBoards for three years.
I felt I was truly done with Smash Bros. at that point.
Honestly, it was Smash Switch getting announced so soon after the end of Smash 4 DLC, that I even had a curiosity about this title. When Vergeben's rumors started popping up about Ridley, I did not believe them simply because EVERY leak that ever had Ridley always ended up being fake to the point where if I saw a leak with Ridley in it, I instantly felt it was a red flag about its lack of legitimacy (I did want to believe it though considering he was also saying that there would be no cuts and that Simon Belmont would also be added in).
It was a miracle for Ultimate to turn out the way it did. I know many in this topic are bashing spirits, but for a few Nintendo characters that I really like but would most likely never be made playable (Pico and Leaf/Leif), Spirits at least gave those characters an event match to call their own and even made neat references about their background and source material in them (like how in Pico's spirit battle Death Wind is the music playing in the background, which is said to be his home planet). Spirits give even the most minor of Nintendo characters an opportunity to have a little spotlight, and actually have cute little references to the characters in the matches themselves.
We have no idea what the direction for the next game is going to be, however, if there is one lesson to be learned from the Ultimate epoch, it is nothing is guaranteed. Who would have thought a year ago that Ridley, Dark Samus, Chrom, and Castlevania characters would be newcomers for this game, or that EVERY single character in the history of the series would come back, even Young Link? Or two months ago that Piranha Plant would be an unique Mario newcomer for this game?
A few months ago, the conventional belief was that Incineroar was too boring to be selected as the Pokemon newcomer, and that Decidueye, Mimikyu, and Lycanroc were all far more likely? Now look at what happened. Many ended up being endeared by Incineroar's pro-wrestler persona as well.
Throughout this cycle there have been many characters that people said were "shoe-ins" that did not happen. It began with Rex & Pyrra and Spring Man (when Sakurai said the design document was submitted in December 2015, that was what poured cold water on those characters). Then when the game was actually unveiled, most people thought that Ashley and Shadow were practically confirmed. When K. Rool was confirmed, many thought the same for Isaac and Geno.
In life, there is no such thing as guarantees, and unfortunately, even when something looks very promising, you have to keep your expectations in check, even if in your heart you want to believe that the outcome you want is what is going to happen.
It is possible we get more DLC after February 2020, just as much as its possible we simply do not get a new character confirmed for the series until a few years later.
Even if Geno is not playable in Ultimate, he will still very likely have the fantastic Mii costume he received return.
He is a nearly 22 year old one-shot character. It is very understandable why he is not playable, much like why Isaac is not playable (as it stands, Golden Sun actually has more content in Ultimate than any other Smash Bros. game despite the series's heyday being 15 years ago). However, even still, we do not know what the future holds for these characters (they could show up in future titles in their respective series) or the next Smash Bros. goes in a direction amicable to their inclusion even if the characters are far older with no new source material to work with.
Personally, even if Crono (probably my favorite non-Nintendo character not yet in Smash Bros.) showed up as a Mii costume, I would be absolutely elated because the character has not had anything major happen with him or his property since the 2008 DS port of Chrono Trigger, and it would still be a way to play as the character alongside all my other favorite gaming characters. I really like Crono, but I understand even despite all the accolades and praise Chrono Trigger has (it still is considered among the best games of all time), he is still a character from a single title released nearly 24 years ago.
