I’ll start this off by going with the perfect attendance crew as they are mandatory for the thread (to be honest, I can’t see Sakurai or Nintendo going through with cutting one of them as they are the perfect attendance crew).
Then, I’ll go into the biggest Nintendo franchises absent from the starting eight: Fire Emblem, Animal Crossing, Splatoon, and Xenoblade. For Fire Emblem, I’ll just have Marth for now as he is the main representative of the series in the context of SSB. Animal Crossing is an A list franchise, so both Villager and Isabelle stay (Villager and Isabelle made it in over Zelda and Ganon in Mario Kart 8, so there is merit to assume both are safe).
In terms of Xenoblade, I’ll have Shulk in for now, but I also like Aegis. Given that Pokemon Trainer doesn’t really fit in this scenario, the value in Aegis increases as they’d be the transforming fighter.
The next thing I’ll go into are the major “side“ characters:
I could bend the rules and give Luigi his own series, so Rosalina can join, but I’m fine with having the Mario roster as Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser. I’ll just tack Wario on here as he’s really a de facto Mario character in the same way Yoshi is.
Diddy, Zelda, and Ganondorf are self-explanatory.
While Octoling is the frontrunner for another Splatoon character, I think that DJ Octavio could lend to an interesting moveset.
Kirby is more complicated because of the three fighter limit, but I think I have a good compromise. I have Bandana Waddle Dee join because he is a huge request, and I decided to keep Dedede as the SSB community loves him based on what I’ve seen in the SSF2 and Smash Remix community (he’s finally in remix
).
Fire Emblem’s the second most complex one given its rotating cast and lack of a true mascot. At the moment, I’ll choose Robin for the weapon durability gimmick, but there’s also a good justification for Ike, Chrom, and Byleth.
Pokemon is the most complex one because there’s a four character limit, and the one character that I want to add makes the roster hit the limit (Pokemon Trainer). More realistically, the three spots would go to Pokemon Trainer or if Pokemon Trainer isn’t working, then Charizard, Lucario/Mewtwo, and a promotional pick. I like Jigglypuff, and if Captain Falcon’s (i.e. the king of relevancy through SSB) being encouraged, why not keep all 12 fighters (Jigglypuff was low priority pre-Ultimate, but I honestly don’t care for Captain Falcon). For the other pokemon, I’ll just go with Tinkaton and Charizard as Tinkaton is the new placeholder pokemon, and I’m pretty sure that I’d be forced to add Charizard. Ideally, I’d just break the rules and add the Trainer and Jigglypuff.
Now, it’s time to go into the third parties. If I’m being honest, there’d probably be at least 5 or 6 third parties at this point, but I’ll follow the rules. I’ll keep Sonic as he was the most requested third party in Brawl. Pac-Man and one of Mega Man or Ryu would be the least biased option, but I’m letting my bias take the wheel here, so Sora and Tidus join.
While not as major as the franchises listed above, Pikmin is important enough to keep, so Olimar stays.
For the Mii Fighters, I’m not in the mood to try squeezing them in as they are, so I’ll exclude them here, and there’s no point in reducing them to one fighter.
The next thing to go over are characters heavily associated with SSB. The most notable ones are Captain Falcon, Ness, Mr. Game & Watch, Pit, Ridley, and King K. Rool (Banjo too, but I’ve hit my third party limit). For now, I’ll just put in all 6 and see what else I want.
With the exception of Meta Knight and my third party choices, this probably satisfies both the corporate side and the vocal SSB fans, so I’ll just think of what else I’d like to see. The things that I’d like to see the most are Icies, Sheik, Ike, and Tom Nook. For this case, I’ll add Ice Climbers, Sheik, and Tom Nook, and Mr. Game & Watch and King K. Rool will be removed.
