SSB4 Rumours and Leaks

[S_B]

It's telling to me that we're able to recognize probable final rosters in this thread based on how disappointing they are, and how, if one looks remotely pleasing, it's probably a wishlist.

I couldn't agree more.

I've listed some of my favorites in my sig and any one would make me a double-main, for sure (also, Alex Roivas from ED but I couldn't find a sig pic of her).

Chibi-Robo especially (which has the best chance out of all of my choices) would be great to see because it's easily one of the most underrated games of all time. It starts out and you're just a little toy robot, and before the end, you're serving divorce papers to a father turned man-child, helping a lego dinosaur commit suicide (to be rebuilt later) and confronting some deep, HEAVY stuff that leaves you going "Whoa...".

That game had DEPTH, like REAL depth, but I don't expect to see CR because Sakurai is too busy adding one-dimensional characters from Rhythm Heaven (which isn't a bad series, mind you, just no where near on the level of CR).

SSB has always been capable of renewing people's interest in the characters added to it (ala Ness). I can think of no game more deserving than CR, though EBA/Ouendan and Eternal Darkness also belong in the list of "awesome games that never truly got to shine".

 

[swordbreaker]

I've come to accept this based off of this leak, and it is infuriating. I hope people rake Sakurai over the coals for "stressing himself to the brink of death" over roster decisions, then coming up with this pile of bilge as a final result. Most won't, but hopefully a few realize it's okay to not worship any and all final rosters on bended knee.

@ S_B It's the Mario Kart 8 leak of only 48 characters, plus the Pre-Brawl guy claiming no Ridley or K. Rool that's got me doubting. To each his or her own, but I'm perfectly happy with the two games' worth of Bowser I already have.

What I don't understand, is why it's so hard just to give the majority of people what they want or expect? There is also the - "You want an AC rep? Nah not a fighter!" Then when he has hardly a damn choice THEN he adds him, then on top of that he seems to add a character that REALLY makes no damn sense based off of what he said before hand *Cough*Chorus Kids*Cough*. It makes it seem like he comes up with lame reasons why he doesn't choose certain characters and hypocritically chooses others. I'm okay with Sakurai not getting all fan request in as long as there are not clear WTF choices and not the good WTF like "WTF is that character?" but the bad ones where it makes you go "WTF was he thinking?" Wasting dev time on crap like that, that only like 3 people may have even asked for? Come on. He's the only one who does this crap and I was expecting him to have his fill with WFT who actually was successfully implemented. Not even Ultimate Marvel 3 was this bad, beyond not listening to Mega Man fans anyway.

 

[S_B]

What I don't understand, is why it's so hard just to give the majority of people what they want or expect? There is also the - "You want an AC rep? Nah not a fighter!" Then when he has hardly a damn choice THEN he adds him, then on top of that he seems to add a character that REALLY makes no damn sense based off of what he said before hand *Cough*Chorus Kids*Cough*. It makes it seem like he comes up with lame reasons why he doesn't choose certain characters and hypocritically chooses others. I'm okay with Sakurai not getting all fan request in as long as there are not clear WTF choices and not the good WTF like "WTF is that character?" but the bad ones where it makes you go "WTF was he thinking?" Wasting dev time on crap like that, that only like 3 people may have even asked for? Come on. He's the only one who does this crap and I was expecting him to have his fill with WFT who actually was successfully implemented. Not even Ultimate Marvel 3 was this bad, beyond not listening to Mega Man fans anyway.

I completely agree that the roster is disappointing, though less disappointing than Brawl and Melee, IMO.

This is kind of Sakurai's way of being a "diva", and being all "I DO WHAT I WANT!!!"

Also, I read this...

Chibi-Robo! was developed by Skip Ltd., the creators of the Japan-exclusive Giftpia for the Nintendo GameCube.[6] Chibi-Robo! was first announced in early 2003 with publishing rights held by Bandai. Its original projected release date was June 2003 in Japan and spring 2004 in North America.[15] Unlike the released version of Chibi-Robo!, the beta version entailed the player training Chibi-Robo to defend the home of his inventor from a pair of burglars. The gameplay was different as well; instead of a platform-adventure game, it played like a point-and-click adventure title, where the player was not in direct control of Chibi-Robo, but was rather conveying commands to him clicking a cursor around the area.[5][15] The protagonist was also to learn and develop depending on the choices the player made for him.[15] However, this incarnation of Chibi-Robo!was ultimately put on "indefinite hold" and disappeared from the media.[16] Shigeru Miyamoto was eventually introduced to the game by fellow Nintendo producer Kensuke Tanabe.[6] Miyamoto took a personal interest in the character of Chibi-Robo and signed on as the game's senior producer. The development of Chibi-Robo! was revamped with Nintendo acting as its new publisher.[6][17][18] Chibi-Robo! was in development for four years from start to finish.[5]

...And I want to say, "Dammit, Miyamoto! MAKE HIM INCLUDE CR!!!"

 

[Ta1nted_4ngel29]

The only character I would like to see in would be the Masked Link, and he'd now have the uniqueness of being the only transforming character, since he would have to cycle between mask forms.

Also, maybe it'll be a late august release date for the 3ds and one more Sal leak after e3 listing another 5-6 newcomers on top of the two batches of newcomers he listed? Would be nice and likely to happen since he did this for E3 2013 and Smash direct, since that's another major date for reveals which is his MO.

 

[BKupa666]

What I don't understand, is why it's so hard just to give the majority of people what they want or expect? There is also the - "You want an AC rep? Nah not a fighter!" Then when he has hardly a damn choice THEN he adds him, then on top of that he seems to add a character that REALLY makes no damn sense based off of what he said before hand *Cough*Chorus Kids*Cough*. It makes it seem like he comes up with lame reasons why he doesn't choose certain characters and hypocritically chooses others. I'm okay with Sakurai not getting all fan request in as long as there are not clear WTF choices and not the good WTF like "WTF is that character?" but the bad ones where it makes you go "WTF was he thinking?" Wasting dev time on crap like that, that only like 3 people may have even asked for? Come on. He's the only one who does this crap and I was expecting him to have his fill with WFT who actually was successfully implemented. Not even Ultimate Marvel 3 was this bad, beyond not listening to Mega Man fans anyway.

Agreed. It's not being entitled if the character(s) whose absence(s) you're upset about were major national or international requests. Like it or not, if the goal is to assemble a fanservice roster of All-Star characters, their absence(s) are objectively flaws, especially if characters are intentionally added in their stead because people don't care about them (but "Sakurai adds who you don't know you want!!!").

I get the feeling that Sakurai and the developers got cynical and figured that, since people will buy the games and defend the final roster no matter what, they could get away with adding whatever characters they wanted without repercussion. Notice, this is the first Smash game where there hasn't been any popularity poll conducted at all, not even a Japan-only one. What's more, it wasn't until after Brawl when he started preaching about how "adding to the roster doesn't matter, we need to take a new direction."

 

[jweb22]

Bought the first one before I had any thought for the roster, and I was fresh off OoT which made me a natural Link fan.

After that, Bowser alllll the way. I love taking big, slow, heavy characters and making them work. :D But Bowser specifically because I think he's underrated as a character.

That said, it's also the mechanics I like. Ultimately, the characters boil down to hitboxes and hurtboxes with costumes so roster isn't THAT relevant (but I do love the Bowz).

I agree with you man. I only started paying attention to the roster when Brawl was coming out because I was quite young when 64 and Melee came out so I didn't care. But as a hardcore Golden Sun fan, I was extremely pissed off when I saw Issac wasn't playable but we had 3 Foxes, 2 Ness, 2 Captain Falcons and 2 Links as playable characters. I like this current roster more than Brawls if the Sal leaks are legit which I expect them to be but my fingers are crossed for Issac being playable as well and with his Assist Trophy not being shown yet...I have hope.

 

[NickerBocker]

Guys we dont have the final roster just yet. Cool your jets.

 

[S_B]

I get the feeling that Sakurai and the developers got cynical and figured that, since people will buy the games and defend the final roster no matter what, they could get away with adding whatever characters they wanted. Notice, this is the first Smash game where there hasn't been any popularity poll conducted at all, not even a Japan-only one.

Oh, so there wasn't one this time? He still could've drawn from Brawl's poll.

And I agree: why not just pick characters that people actually want?

I realize that would mean I wouldn't see any of the characters I'd like to see, but it would at least be fair because characters on the poll were ones WANTED by players in greater numbers.

If nothing else, it WOULD be fair.

 

[BKupa666]

Oh, so there wasn't one this time? He still could've drawn from Brawl's poll.

And I agree: why not just pick characters that people actually want?

I realize that would mean I wouldn't see any of the characters I'd like to see, but it would at least be fair because characters on the poll were ones WANTED by players in greater numbers.

If nothing else, it WOULD be fair.

He did, based on a quote he had about Mega Man being the next most popular third party after Sonic. It's just disappointing, yet not surprising in retrospect that he didn't even bother going through the motions of creating and distributing a new one, despite character tastes potentially changing in the intervening years.

 

[S_B]

I agree with you man. I only started paying attention to the roster when Brawl was coming out because I was quite young when 64 and Melee came out so I didn't care. But as a hardcore Golden Sun fan, I was extremely pissed off when I saw Issac wasn't playable but we had 3 Foxes, 2 Ness, 2 Captain Falcons and 2 Links as playable characters. I like this current roster more than Brawls if the Sal leaks are legit which I expect them to be but my fingers are crossed for Issac being playable as well and with his Assist Trophy not being shown yet...I have hope.

Yeah, Isaac is pretty deserving as well, and he represents an entire franchise.

And I too am anything but fond of the fact that Sakurai will add piles of clones but he won't represent franchises that were extremely GOOD but never got representation.

Release Golden Sun on the WiiU shop and include Isaac in 4, I'd say.

He did, based on a quote he had about Mega Man being the next most popular third party after Sonic. It's just disappointing, yet not surprising that he didn't even bother going through the motions of creating and distributing a new one, despite character tastes potentially changing in the intervening years.

Ahh, I see.

I'm sure Marshall wasn't on that poll...

 

[S_B]

Guys we dont have the final roster just yet. Cool your jets.

This is Sakurai.

It's never too early to set our faces to "disappointed".

 

[Deoxys911]

this is the first Smash game where there hasn't been any popularity poll conducted at all, not even a Japan-only one.

This is true, but he did specifically mention in an interview about these games that they listened to fan requests and took them into consideration during pre-E3 development. We know he listened to the fans to some extent considering Mega Man, an Animal Crossing rep., and Little Mac got in, fan favorites who were not important enough to be playable have been showed off as ATs (Waluigi, Midna, Skull Kid, etc.), not to mention all of the teasing us about Ridley and Palutena. Even if there was no poll, it is clear he listened to the fans. Whether or not he cared what they wanted all that much, now that's up for debate.

 

[SuperGuzzi]

[...] with his Assist Trophy not being shown yet...I have hope.

Sakurai didn't show the Shadow assist trophy neither

 

[BKupa666]

This is true, but he did specifically mention in an interview about these games that they listened to fan requests and took them into consideration during pre-E3 development. We know he listened to the fans to some extent considering Mega Man, an Animal Crossing rep., and Little Mac got in, fan favorites who were not important enough to be playable have been showed off as ATs (Waluigi, Midna, Skull Kid, etc.), not to mention all of the teasing us about Ridley and Palutena. Even if there was no poll, it is clear he listened to the fans. Whether or not he cared what they wanted all that much, now that's up for debate.

I know, which is why the idea that he might not have cared all that much is upsetting, especially coming off of the flood of fan favorites we got in Brawl (which, while not perfect, was loads better than Melee or this game).

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Just popping in to ask that the 48 character, Mario Kart leak is false right?

The user got other info wrong. And not even a small thing. THE ENTIRE STATEMENT.

 

[DarkShadow20]

I've come to accept this based off of this leak, and it is infuriating. I hope people rake Sakurai over the coals for "stressing himself to the brink of death" over roster decisions, then coming up with this pile of bilge as a final result. Most won't, but hopefully a few realize it's okay to not worship any and all final rosters on bended knee.

@ S_B It's the Mario Kart 8 leak of only 48 characters, plus the Pre-Brawl guy claiming no Ridley or K. Rool that's got me doubting. To each his or her own, but I'm perfectly happy with the two games' worth of Bowser I already have.

I'd be really disappointed if Sal's leak is the final roster as well. It's just so bland. But I'd still look forward to and get both games. Little Mac and Mega Man were in my top 10 at least, but I'm still hoping for Ridley, K. Rool, and Mewtwo. Even if none of those are in, there's always the possibility of DLC. Or I can just continue to use Brawl hacks and have pretty much whatever I want in the game.

 

[deepseadiva]

It's telling to me that we're able to recognize probable final rosters in this thread based on how disappointing they are, and how, if one looks remotely pleasing, it's probably a wishlist.

So much lol.

 

[Bauske]

A lot of this stuff goes back to the Brawl days, as some pictures from the Brawl website can be viewed. Now, while viewing the last couple of pages of this archive, I found some interesting things. Characters who are on the Smash website have a "TO" date of either 2013 or 2014 (which means, I think, means that the character page was last updated on that date). The "FROM" dates are generally 2007 and 2008, the years that the Brawl dojo was updating.

Now, there are some other characters listed here that have a modern "TO" date, namely Ike, Lucas, Metaknight, Pokemon Trainer (strange...), Wario, Snake, and Ice Climbers. Wolf is the only veteran listed there whose "TO" date has not been updated. Many other characters names are not listed. Those are probably the ones listed under "Hidden" (but then why is Wolf's name normal?).

Oddly enough, there are two characters listed who also share the "FROM" date with other characters from Brawl: King K. Rool and Crash (Bandicoot...? Nah...). Their "TO" dates have never been updated.

I'm wondering if these updated "TO" dates on unconfirmed veterans mean anything. It could mean that these characters have pages on the site, but are currently unavailable. Or, it could mean absolutely nothing...

EDIT: The URLs for some of the Hidden characters have a "TO" year of 2012. Now I'm beginning to wonder if these modern dates have anything to do with when the new site took over the smashbros.com domain, and everything from Brawl's dojo had to be moved. Going by the way the Brawl dojo labels the URLs of hidden characters as "Hidden#", I think I can try and determine that the characters whose pages have a recent date of 2012 are Falco, Captain Falcon, R.O.B., Mr. G&W, Ganondorf, and Jigglypuff. The pages for the Brawl secret characters who have already been revealed (Luigi, Marth, Lucario, and Toon Link), are also updated with 2012. Ness is the only one without a current date.

Why are we not talking about this more instead of arguing back and forth about the Sal leaks? I find this far more interesting. Yes, those are the Brawl pages, but as Brad-Rock pointed out, Ike, Lucas, Metaknight, Wario, Snake, and Ice Climbers all got moved pages. But not Wolf. Remember how everyone is saying Ike is cut? It looks like that may not be the case. It may be Wolf instead.

 

[Muster]

Why are we not talking about this more instead of arguing back and forth about the Sal leaks? I find this far more interesting. Yes, those are the Brawl pages, but as Brad-Rock pointed out, Ike, Lucas, Metaknight, Wario, Snake, and Ice Climbers all got moved pages. But not Wolf. Remember how everyone is saying Ike is cut? It looks like that may not be the case. It may be Wolf instead.

Another interesting thing to note, the day all those character pages were recorded was the first update on that site to Sonic, which means it was the first day that sonic was shown in his sm4sh form. (on that site, his reveal was 11 days old at that point.) If the FAQ of the site is to be believed, all of those character pages were updated in some way on that day, and that's why it recorded them again.

 

[CaptainCrisb]

Another interesting thing to note, the day all those character pages were recorded was the first update on that site to Sonic, which means it was the first day that sonic was shown in his sm4sh form. (on that site, his reveal was 11 days old at that point.) If the FAQ of the site is to be believed, all of those character pages were updated in some way on that day, and that's why it recorded them again.

So if this is true.. Ike, Lucas, Metaknight, Wario, Snake, and Ice Climbers will appear in Sm4sh?

 

[BKupa666]

Is there reason to pay attention to those observations about links being updated if they feature characters who were obviously never in the running, like Crash Bandicoot or Geno? Meddling fans were almost certainly responsible for them showing up in those Wayback Machine listings, right?

 

[Muster]

So if this is true.. Ike, Lucas, Metaknight, Wario, Snake, and Ice Climbers will appear in Sm4sh?

I'm not quite sure what it means, but if it means that they're messing with the pages to prep for future use or something along those lines, then that could be the case.

Is there reason to pay attention to those observations about links being updated if they feature characters who were obviously never in the running, like Crash Bandicoot or Geno?

apparently the first page linked had fake pages added in, but what we're looking at is how the already existing pages have been recorded, as the pages apparently update when they change in some way.

 

[CaptainCrisb]

I'm not quite sure what it means, but if it means that they're messing with the pages to prep for future use or something along those lines, then that could be the case.

apparently the first page linked had fake pages added in, but what we're looking at is how the already existing pages have been recorded, as the pages apparently update when they change.

Wow... I could get my dream roster if the Sal leak and this is true :O

 

[jweb22]

I hate to be "THAT GUY" but can someone put up a link to the websites page or tell me what page the link is on. Please?

 

[TeenGirlSquad]

Is there reason to pay attention to those observations about links being updated if they feature characters who were obviously never in the running, like Crash Bandicoot or Geno? Meddling fans were almost certainly responsible for them showing up in those Wayback Machine listings, right?

"Crash" doesn't necessarily refer to Crash Bandicoot, it could just be referring to some random resources.
The same goes for "trails", which could really be anything at all.

Similarly, Geno could be referring to something other than a playable character. That being said, I'm going to remain skeptical of the newcomers in this leak. The most I'm going to take away from it right now is that Snake and Ike have better chances than many of us believed, and Wolf is probably getting cut.

 

[Muster]

I hate to be "THAT GUY" but can someone put up a link to the websites page or tell me what page the link is on. Please?

Everybody is that guy at one point, don't worry.
Just click "to" twice to get the most recently updated articles up top. Here's the link.

 

[Zyfoe]

This is probably the most interesting leak (could it be called that?) so far imo.

It raises a lot of questions though, such as the ones Bauske and Muster have pointed out. Why were the pages all updated on the same day? Why was Wolf's not updated? Is it someone pulling a ruse on us? Or is it genuine?

 

[jweb22]

Everybody is that guy at one point, don't worry.
Just click "to" twice to get the most recently updated articles up top. Here's the link.

Thank you!

 

[AquaDork1]

Where does it say King K. Rool won't be playable?

 

[shadowjosh]

I agree with BKupa on most of what he's saying, though Mega Man is a BIG deal to me and so I'm hyped to get the game still.

The thing is, Shulk and Palutena ARE highly requested but there's just this annoyance that major Nintendo characters have gotten passed over three times now. We're just getting new franchises or revived franchises instead of balancing this with rounding out existing ones.

Of course, the original leak never mentioned Rosalina. I still think, if this is accurate, that we're getting a few more surprise newcomers.

 

[Starphoenix]

A lot of cynicism seems to be stemming from that MK8 leaker. To be quite honest, I really doubt the veracity of his claim considering he got an entire feature wrong for another game he was supposedly leaking.

A lot of this stuff goes back to the Brawl days, as some pictures from the Brawl website can be viewed. Now, while viewing the last couple of pages of this archive, I found some interesting things. Characters who are on the Smash website have a "TO" date of either 2013 or 2014 (which means, I think, means that the character page was last updated on that date). The "FROM" dates are generally 2007 and 2008, the years that the Brawl dojo was updating.

Now, there are some other characters listed here that have a modern "TO" date, namely Ike, Lucas, Metaknight, Pokemon Trainer (strange...), Wario, Snake, and Ice Climbers. Wolf is the only veteran listed there whose "TO" date has not been updated. Many other characters names are not listed. Those are probably the ones listed under "Hidden" (but then why is Wolf's name normal?).

Oddly enough, there are two characters listed who also share the "FROM" date with other characters from Brawl: King K. Rool and Crash (Bandicoot...? Nah...). Their "TO" dates have never been updated.

I'm wondering if these updated "TO" dates on unconfirmed veterans mean anything. It could mean that these characters have pages on the site, but are currently unavailable. Or, it could mean absolutely nothing...

EDIT: The URLs for some of the Hidden characters have a "TO" year of 2012. Now I'm beginning to wonder if these modern dates have anything to do with when the new site took over the smashbros.com domain, and everything from Brawl's dojo had to be moved. Going by the way the Brawl dojo labels the URLs of hidden characters as "Hidden#", I think I can try and determine that the characters whose pages have a recent date of 2012 are Falco, Captain Falcon, R.O.B., Mr. G&W, Ganondorf, and Jigglypuff. The pages for the Brawl secret characters who have already been revealed (Luigi, Marth, Lucario, and Toon Link), are also updated with 2012. Ness is the only one without a current date.

Ness and Wolf disconfirmed.

 

[TheTuninator]

Who the hell is Andy?

I weep for the future of AW.

That picture of Andy is pretty bad, though. Ought to just use the official art.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Again. The MK8 leaker is probably wrong.

Considering his entire MK8 leak was dead wrong.

 

[Fandangox]

A lot of cynicism seems to be stemming from that MK8 leaker. To be quite honest, I really doubt the veracity of his claim considering he got an entire feature wrong for another game he was supposedly leaking.


Ness and Wolf disconfirmed.

Up until now.

 

[Muster]

Again. The MK8 leaker is probably wrong.

Considering his entire MK8 leak was dead wrong.

What did he get wrong on the mk8 leak?
I'll i've heard is inside drifting being different or something.

 

[MrPanic]

I gotta say that I gave up on the getting hyped for the roster part of smash. At this moment in time I'm at the realization that the roster almost can't work out for me any more. There's not a lot of stuff that can really get me hyped at this moment. The only characters I can still get hyped for are Neku from TWEWY (0% chance that's ever gonna happen) and Isaac from Golden Sun (got no good indication on his chances, but I can't help but feel negative). I never really got on the Ridley and Rool hype either. I really like Ridley but I never really liked playing big characters in smash so I can't really justify getting hyped for him and Rool I just straight up hate, imo that obese croc with the busted eye is one of the most disgusting final bosses ever created and his inclusion would only make me hate this game's roster even more. Though his chances are very low luckily for me.

The main problem is that Smash already has most of the characters we want to play as, the dream roster is already there so the dev team would definitely do better with including new franchises than satisfying the old fans with all their weird pick and it seems that is exactly what they're doing. I personally cant be bothered to get too fuzzed about the roster, because Brawl kinda showed that if the game ain't fun, the roster doesn't matter a whole lot.

Anyway, to get on topic again, that MK8 thing really shouldn't be considered any more imo, why are people still considering it after it got discredited pretty big?

 

[Banjodorf]

At this point I'm honestly just glad Little Mac got in, and that Shulk and Palutena are likely. Also Mega Man. Those at least are the kind of things we're looking for.

I do love all the unique characters, but the leak so far has proven that it isn't just fan favorites he's going for if they're true. I sort of adapted a "Take whichever ones you want you can get" mentality a while ago.

Who am I kidding, I did that for Brawl too when the secret roster annoyed the hell out of me. At least Diddy and Olimar and Ike were there.

 

[Mariohuge]

Speaking of leaks, when's the OP going to be updated? Just about half, if not all, of the leaks there were deconfirmed.

 

[Ryuutakeshi]

Well, all my faves are already in so they could add chibi-ganosaurus mcderpaderp and I'd be okay. I'm mostly here because I like knowing things and rumors are juicy.

 

[Smash G]

K Rool would have a better chance if they'd put him in the darned new Donkey Kong games. It's been a while since his last appearance.