The Hole In Our Hearts - How Absent Characters Affect the Metagame

In 2008, when Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released, a new figure in the roster appeared. No, it wasn’t a newcomer, but quite the opposite: it was the figure of absent characters. Despite bringing a whole bunch of newcomers, nobody could hide the fact that there were certain characters that were nowhere to be seen.

When Smash 4 released, however, another new figure appeared: the figure of a returning veteran, characters that did not appear in onegame but came back to duke it out once again. Only three such characters exist, namely, Dr. Mario, Mewtwo, and Roy, thelast two being DLC.

However, there are still certain characters that are missing from both Meleeand Brawl, and they not only left a hole in their fans’ hearts butalso a hole in the metagame.

Let’s start by analyzing the characters that debuted in Melee but are absent in Smash 4:​

Ice Climbers​

Many Smash advocates remember Popo and Nana and are pretty wounded by their absence in the latest installment. However, it wasn’t always like this. The Ice Climbers were at some point going to appear in Smash 4; in fact, in the first versions of Super Smash Bros.for the Nintendo 3DS, a glitch could be triggered that made the in-game audience chant the names of the ICs.

Despite us not knowing whether wobbling would be back, what does their absence mean for the current meta? For starters, the viability of many characters. Their amazing stage presence caused some characters to drop in the tier list or simply stop being used by players in favor of other characters with more options.

Another effect is the “neutrality” of the starter stages. Their stage control abilities always made stages like Final Destination less fair in some MUs. Characters with less stage control struggled because of the lack of escape options like platforms and had difficulties KOing because of the relatively wide blast zones.​

Pichu​

Always considered an inferior version of Pikachu, Pichu was never seen in high levels of play. Suffering from poor control options, low combo potential, and little KO power, Pikachu was always preferred in competitive play.

Pikachu is currently one of the top 10 characters in the tier list, and although we cannot know how things would have turned out if he reappeared, many of his attributes made him very inferior, such as his recoil damage from most of his attacks, which limited his optimal options to just a few moves, or his incredibly below-average weight, which made him vulnerable to most kill moves.
​

Young Link​

Young Link’s absence was somehow filled with his googly-eyed counterpart, Toon Link, and even more so in the latest installment, as Young Link’s Fire Bow is one of Toon Link’s custom special moves. With similar stats and an almost identical moveset, Young Link’s substitution has pretty much filled the hole that this childversion of Link left.

Not only do these characters have similar movesets, but they are also akin in their relationship with Link: both of them have placed higher than Link in various tier lists.
​

---

Although the three returning veterans covered some of the absences from Melee, others werestill left behind from Brawl: Snake, the Metal Gear protagonist; Wolf, the leader of StarWolf; and Squirtle and Ivysaur, the Generation 1 Pokémon starters (and evolution).
​

Snake​

Another absent character with amazing stage control tools. He can place mines, grenades and C4 strategically to catch careless fighters. Snake, accordingly to his military nature, is tough to kill and excels on the ground, although his air mobility is among the poorest in thegame.

Both playing as and against Snake requires many outside factors, includingmemory and awareness, or at least a good eye and a good TV to locate Snake’s traps, of course without deviating your attention from the battle at hand.

As a mentally exhausting character, it may relieve some people to hear he’s not back, but by the same token, Snake mains may not be very happy with his absence.
​

Wolf​

Wolf’s appearance in Smash 4 seemed like a sure thing. Brawl veterans like Zero Suit Samus, Toon Link, Pit, and Wario that returned sure made it look like everyone was coming back, and when that did not immediately seem to be the case, DLC also provided hope that he was coming back.

Currently, heis only present in a similar fashion as YoungLink, withcustom special moves that resemble his moveset. However, his absence is one of the most memorable among fans.

Squirtle & Ivysaur​

These two, alongsideCharizard, formed the Pokémon Trainer trio, who had two main unique mechanics: Type Effectiveness and Stamina.

The former works quite similarly to how it works in the home series, in which a Rock-Paper-Scissors-like cycle works among the three types of Pokémon: Fire beats Grass, which beats Water, which beats Fire. In Brawl, anattack that is not very effective deals 10% less knockback, while an attack that is super effective it deals 10% more knockback. By simple math, Ivysaur was affected widely by this mechanic because of hisvulnerability to fire attacks, which were more common than water and grass attacks. Obviously, thismechanicaffectedmatchups, giving Ivysaur several disadvantageousMUs as 19 characters could use fire attacks, and balancing Squirtle’s light weight due to hisresistance to fire attacks.

The second mechanic was more complicated. All Pokémon started with 120 Stamina Units, and they lost 1 unit per second and1 unit perfailed attack; Pokémon gained 2 Stamina Units per second when on the sidelines. Also, all Stamina was refilled when a Pokémon was KO’d. When Stamina reached a certain point, the Pokémon would change its stance, aesthetically looking tired, and as a little advantage, having a smaller sprite, hitbox, and hurtbox. However, this seeming advantage came as a warning, as it meantthey were running low on Stamina andthat their attacks would soon deal less damage and knockback.

Obviously, these limitations were a burden to PT mains and, as a direct effect of Ivysaur and Squirtle’s absences, these mechanics are gone, releasing Charizard from some of his disadvantages. This has balanced some of Charizard’s MUs, but not many, as the only characters with water-type attacks (which would be super effective against Charizard in Brawl) are Mario and his F.L.U.D.D., Greninja, and Kirby having previously inhaled Greninja (impossible unless in a Team Match, which was also irrelevant when the Pokémon were together because a Kirby could absorb one Pokémon and keep his Copy Ability if PT switched Pokémon). Also, Charizard’s fire attack effectiveness is now irrelevant due to Ivysaur not being in the game.

---​

So what do you think? Were you expecting some of these characters to return? Whose absence do you think had the biggest impact? Let us know!

 

I hate cuts.

 

My 2 cents:

Out of the entire group, Wolf was the most missed in the same vein as Mewtwo (as he could have benefited from the same upgrades Fox and Falco got and wouldn't have required much for modeling into the game), and he was more or less a villain, plus he was one of my many alts in Brawl and he was one of the few character who can possibly take on Meta Knight and win.

Snake I kind of do feel bad for getting the chopping block (as a good friend of mine mains him and he was pretty good aside from recovering back to the stage), but he didn't belong in Smash Bros, heck he didn't even fit in well alongside the Nintendo cast aside from being the very 1st 3rd Party character in the game (Bayonetta I'm willing to give a pass on as she somewhat meshes well with the cast as does Cloud).

The Icies I will give some credit for being very good but very broken when the stage control effect plays into their favor, but without a new game they were clearly getting the boot (but gave us another possibly broken character in Rosalina & Luma in the process who more or less replaced them once the 3DS limitations gave in).

Pichu and Young Link?? Never heard of them and I'm glad they're gone, to me they were nothing more than just filler clones to pad up the roster at the time (Pichu to hype up Gen II and Young Link for Majora's Mask, even though Wind Waker was coming around at the time in 2 years time).

The 2 Pokemon from Pokemon Trainer I kind of have a soft spot for, but did anyone even expect them to return? (aside from the Zard of course which he benefits from not having 2 weaker lackeys holding him back).

 

(but gave us another possibly broken character in Rosalina & Luma in the process who more or less replaced them once the 3DS limitations gave in).

Rosalina & Luma were not designed to replace Ice Climbers. Rosalina & Luma were actually the first newcomers listed in Sakurai's initial pitch for Smash 4, before actual development had really gone under way (i.e they wouldn't yet have known if the 3DS would limit ICs). She was also the first newcomer revealed after the E3 2013 reveal for Smash 4, and was one of the few newcomers available in the E3 2014 demo of Smash Wii U. All of these things point towards the fact Rosalina & Luma were more or less finished early on.

They also don't serve as a replacement to the ICs because they are a completely different archetype of fighting game character. ICs is simply a duplicated character that mimics you and the de-syncs and such are more of an unorthodox, unintended side effect of how the work. Rosalina & Luma are a puppeteer/puppet duo, and are designed on the basis that they can fight independently of each other, or together. Luma is also treated more like an item than as a character by the game itself, because he has transcendent priority like an item, and he can even attack Ghastly in Smash Run on the 3DS version.

 

Wobbling wasn't in Brawl so it probably wasn't going to be back in Smash 4. And due to the new grab mechanics that Smash 4 brought in, it would make Ice Climbers far far far worse than in previous installments. If they did get back in they would probably just have been that iconic character not viable in competitive play

 

Getting out the crazy chain grabs (that would be impossible on SM4SH) and moves of the IC's was a bad idea, 'cause they balance themselfes with crazy potencial of having a lvl. 9 CPU with you, with having to keep track on TWO character at the same time, and i know that they were planned but the 3DS limitations couldn't keep a computer mimicing the human and all that but the could have done something, like launching a NEW version of the 3DS with more power and some other features (LIKE UH... I DON'T KNOW, THE NEW NINTENDO 3DS XL) and having the option to DLC that character. ATT: A notorious ex-IC's main D:< (still in Brawl through).

 

Just leaving this comment here to point out that this article has not been proofread in the slightest.

 

Just leaving this comment here to point out that this article has not been proofread in the slightest.

Just leaving this comment here to point out that we do have editors and it does have proofreads Instead of complaining enjoy the article :D

 

Just leaving this comment here to point out that we do have editors and it does have proofreads Instead of complaining enjoy the article :D

Just read Snake's segment and you'll see what I mean by "this hasn't been proofread." This post is not here for disrespect or complaining, but to point out a problem.

Also, "proofreads."
wat

 

Besides a couple of missing spaces, nothing man, unless you consider a TV joke a mistake and lack of proof reading

 

Do not forget that Pichu in Sm4sh with some buffs would be a good glass cannon, boosting his rage with his attacks dealing damages to himself. A missed opportunity.

 

Actually that is pretty true. Did not thought of it :D

 

I'll be blunt about this.

My hatred of Ice Climbers is what they did to me in Brawl. But I understand why people still want them around.

Snake is a konami issue, they have been kind of picky with their licenses recently.

Squrtle and Ivysaur were separated to have Pokemon Trainer work better. But also had them cut which is unfortunate.

Pichu is a joke character and would need to be reworked from the ground up.

Young Link is Toon Link now in my eyes.

Wolf is the one I miss the most and I still want him back.

 

I miss Wolf and the Icies. Good article.

 

Besides a couple of missing spaces, nothing man, unless you consider a TV joke a mistake and lack of proof reading

There are missing spaces everywhere. I doubt that this article was properly proofread if there are 10+ instances of words stuck together without a space to separate them. It does not matter if it's a minor mistake. Mistakes are still mistakes, ones that I'm positive would have been found and fixed if the article had been proofread. The sheer number of them has an impact on the quality of the article.

The purpose of these comments is to point out that the article does not meet the standard of quality that I see from other articles posted on Smashboard's front page, even other articles that you have posted. The first was to bring attention to it. The second was to ensure that you knew what I was referring to.

Otherwise, I like both the topic and content of the article itself. I hate that I've felt compelled to comment about proofreading rather than being part of the discussion. But I'd rather be the guy who points out the spinach stuck in your teeth instead of the guy who notices but decides to say nothing.

 

Loved the article, but it was a bit difficult to read because a lot of spaces were missing. A few grammar errors here and there don't bother me that much, but you seriously missed about every eleventh space. Other than that little problem, great article with a good flow and solid content. Man, now I miss Ivysaur, gotta love that Bair! Also, just wanna specify that I'm not trying to hate or anything, but I just don't want to see great articles held back by bad grammar

 

You will be missed Wolf. Having the Star Wolf theme without Wolf is just a very sad sight, and even more insult to injury is added when you take into account that Lylat Cruise returned; Wolf's special taunt conversations for that stage could've "easily" returned by reusing the voice clips that were in Brawl.

 

Not sure if someone brought this up before, but...

in fact, in the first versions of Super Smash Bros.for the Nintendo 3DS, a glitch could be triggered that made the in-game audience chant the names of the ICs.

People still think it's a glitch?

Guys, it legit IS Villager's Japanese chant. It says "Mura no soncho!" (which means "the village's mayor"), not "Nana! Popo!"

To be fair though, the way it's said DOES sound like an IC chant, so I can see why this misunderstanding exists. Heck, if I had to be honest, even I was fooled by it!

 

Characters getting cut from the game doesn't effect the meta anymore than if they stayed and got buffed or nerfed.

Also, cue people whinning about cuts. Oh wait, that's already happening.

 

WASSA MATTAH, SCARED?


That's all l have to say. l'll miss you

 

's absence is the one that hurts me the most. I still can't believe that Sakurai left him behind.

Maybe next time.

 

I still blame the 3DS for many of these. Especially ICs, clearly cut because Nintendo wanted the versions to be the same and the 3DS hardware couldn't handle ICs.

 

You can't compare metas with character cuts.

ICs DEPENDED on Wobbling and Chaingrabs in Melee and Brawl and if they were in Smash 4, they would be radically worst due to new grab mechanic and if wobbling was in Smash 4 is some crazy way, it would get patched out.


Plus Brawl and Smash 4's meta are radically different due to how much of a focus aerial game was and how it was forcibly defensive due to how strong Meta Knight was and how it rewarded and much slower paced game than before.

Plus we wouldn't know how Snake or Wolf would have effected the mets or even would cause changes to it.

 

You know which characters are also absent and affect the metagame for being absent? Miis (but we know people try to avoid talking / hearing about them because they are controversial, which is pretty dumb).

On a side rant; I honestly don't understand why Roy got in over Wolf. Mewtwo made sense due to more fan demand than Roy (even though both were generally unviable in Melee). Yet when the both came as DLC, they were terrible at the start (just as bad as in Melee, surprise surprise). After a long time of patches, Mewtwo has become viable, while Roy hasn't so much. Mewtwo was fixable, but Roy wasn't. I would attribute Roy's failures due to his fighting concept as an up-close swordsman (which sounds interesting conceptually, but doesn't work well in practice or IRL).

What I'm trying to get at is why would people want a character that just cannot generally be good when the most glaring flaw is the design of the character itself? Even in Project M when Roy made more of an impact, his other Fire Emblem counterparts were still better by a good or significant margin. Also, I don't care for Wolf that much and I don't even use him at all, but I still think he would have been better than Roy. Lastly, if IC's were in Smash 4, I think their recovery should be changed (like Olimar's in a sense)

TL;DR - People avoid talking about Miis like the flu (which sucks). Why is Roy in Smash 4 instead of Wolf? Roy's fighting design doesn't work well.

 

You know which characters are also absent and affect the metagame for being absent? Miis (but we know people try to avoid talking / hearing about them because they are controversial, which is pretty dumb).

On a side rant; I honestly don't understand why Roy got in over Wolf. Mewtwo made sense due to more fan demand than Roy (even though both were generally unviable in Melee). Yet when the both came as DLC, they were terrible at the start (just as bad as in Melee, surprise surprise). After a long time of patches, Mewtwo has become viable, while Roy hasn't so much. Mewtwo was fixable, but Roy wasn't. I would attribute Roy's failures due to his fighting concept as an up-close swordsman (which sounds interesting conceptually, but doesn't work well in practice or IRL).

What I'm trying to get at is why would people want a character that just cannot generally be good when the most glaring flaw is the design of the character itself? Even in Project M when Roy made more of an impact, his other Fire Emblem counterparts were still better by a good or significant margin. Also, I don't care for Wolf that much and I don't even use him at all, but I still think he would have been better than Roy. Lastly, if IC's were in Smash 4, I think their recovery should be changed (like Olimar's in a sense)

TL;DR - People avoid talking about Miis like the flu (which sucks). Why is Roy in Smash 4 instead of Wolf? Roy's fighting design doesn't work well.

Because people like the character. So what if he's not that good? Ganon, Palu, and plenty of others say hi. They're icons to the game. (although you're right, Wolf had maybe just as much impact as Mewtwo or Roy....)

 

Snake (if viable again) would have been a natural counter to Rosalina with his projectiles and ability to cover horizontal movement. At the very least, that unique combination of moves would make for a number of fascinating match ups, as they did for Snake in Brawl and various Brawl mods.

Ice Climbers are an interesting pairing. They can do some things from range, but really their core strength is up close. Up close, they are as deadly as they come in Melee and Brawl, and I imagine the hand off potential would be in Smash 4 just like those two titles. We don't know for sure how they would work, but it would have been cool to see that, and to see them be that up close grab happy threat.

On a side rant; I honestly don't understand why Roy got in over Wolf.

Roy is a clone, Wolf really isn't.

Wolf shares the attributes of 3 moves with Fox and Falco in Brawl (side B, neutral B, down B), and the down B is totally different from Falco's then-new side B, the blaster acts differently than both characters, and honestly, it feels like a bit of a stretch calling that side B a "cloned move."

On top of that, the process of making another character like Marth has got to be easier, seeing as how it was already done. On top of that, Falco took many of Wolf's aerial attributes and a few moves for whatever reason, so Wolf would need to be recreated in a few ways, which would require added work.

Roy, meanwhile, was very straightforward with the fixes (although they still found a way to make him weaker than Lucina and Marth, who are both also quite weak in Smash 4).

\\

I will agree with you on Roy's design execution not totally working though though. The design of the 3 Marth's was kinda bad. Making aerials get wrecked by OoS and shielding options made them lose one of the best strengths from Melee and Brawl. Really, they should have stuck with the previous designs of Marth, especially the Melee design (although modified for the game).

Because they strayed away from this without giving Marth, Lucina or Roy much range or speed (their attacks are deceptively slow; in a lot of ways, Marth feels slower than Brawl), all 3 of these characters are lackluster. It sucks, because as we saw in Melee and Brawl, the potential is definitely there, especially in Melee.

Edit: Damn it, I pushed the post button on accident (normally I copy and paste these additions as an edit). :/

 

Roy is a clone, Wolf really isn't.

Wolf shares the attributes of 3 moves with Fox and Falco in Brawl (side B, neutral B, down B), and the down B is totally different from Falco's then-new side B, the blaster acts differently than both characters, and honestly, it feels like a bit of a stretch calling that side B a "cloned move."

On top of that, the process of making another character like Marth has got to be easier, seeing as how it was already done. On top of that, Falco took many of Wolf's aerial attributes and a few moves for whatever reason, so Wolf would need to be recreated in a few ways, which would require added work.

Roy, meanwhile, was very straightforward with the fixes (although they still found a way to make him weaker than Lucina and Marth, who are both also quite weak in Smash 4).

I should probably rephrase what I meant about Roy getting in over Wolf. I'm not treating them as clones at all (even if Roy is one). What I mean to say is why Roy got in, but Wolf didn't. Still, your comment still stands about Roy maybe needing less work since his moveset is more of a clone while Wolf is more unique and not necessarily a clone, so he probably would have needed a bit more time to work on.

However, if you look at Lucas, who's moveset is radically different from Ness, he still came at the same time as Roy and Ryu despite not being a clone, so part of me thinks that Wolf could have definitely been made in the same time span as Roy and Ryu, if given the chance to be made for DLC.

 

Well, Wolf is gone.
At least we get a sandwich.

 

Well, Wolf is gone.
At least we get a sandwich.

And krystal can't enjoy it.

Heh, anyway. This always happens in fighting games, you just got to get used to it. I wouldn't be surprised if lucina and DP got cut the next time. I hope this teaches the mentality that nothing is guaranteed.

Spoiler

I wanted krystal over wolf tbh

 

There's actually a lot of cuts that I want going into Smash 5... and they seem pretty disagreeable to the community. One of them is Sheik...

 

The cuts that really affected me the most in the transition from Brawl to Smash 4 were Snake, Wolf and the Ice Climbers. *Excluding Roy and Mewtwo because they came back* Although I didn't play a lot of the ICs, Snake and Wolf were cuts I was very disheartened about.

But I've moved on from that. Not every game can be made perfect. Content gets cut, or they probably don't have the time and money to get everything into the game. In that case, I can only say that come the next Smash Speculation scene, I'm certain that Wolf will be returning alongside the Ice Climbers (provided that we're getting a new Smash and the NX power). Snake is a bit harder to say...

 

Heh, anyway. This always happens in fighting games, you just got to get used to it. I wouldn't be surprised if lucina and DP got cut the next time.

I'm actually hoping sticks around long enough to be Luigified in a future Smash. He has a particularly destructive nature, and I think he should have a moveset that reflects that nature.

I wanted krystal over wolf tbh

Both would be ideal as both have their fanbases (I want her to show up too), but for priority's sake I'd choose first. But that's just me.

 

Rest in peace for all of the cut characters. (For Now).

 

I feel like Ice Climbers absence is prob bc of difficulty of the 3ds running Nana. I can't remember if it was just rumor or if someone said this but I picutre a 3ds running 4 player smash all ICs and 4 nanas and the AI behind it might have been problematic with the 3ds. The 3ds's limitations created big changes for Olimar and Zelda/Sheik. Olimar has fewer pikmin and on 3ds his pikmin run at a slower framerate. Zelda and Sheik's transformation was removed bc of difficulty transforming on 3ds but I don't think this was a big deal since they really felt like 2 separate characters anyway.

As soon as fire emblem Roy made it into the game as DLC along with Mewtwo and Doctor Mario already being back I thought for sure Wolf would be back. I figured Nintendo would hold off Wolf's release to time it with Star Fox Zero's release. So I was shocked when Bayo Cloud and Corrin were the last 3 DLC characters and Wolf was left out.

I think we all knew Snake was a one time thing. Nobody really wanted Pichu back anyways.

 

Even the hole in your heart, within time it may become, A Wolf

 

all 3 of these characters are lackluster.

Marth has been doing well for himself recently. Mr. E, False, and Pugwest place well with him. People need to stop associating Marth with his past counterparts, really.

Lucina has the stigma of depthless Marth, but unlike Melee Roy, she has had balance patches improving her.

Roy was overhyped trash from release and sucks at life in general.

 

Many Smash advocates remember Popo and Nana and are pretty wounded by their absence in the latest installment. However, it wasn’t always like this. The Ice Climbers were at some point going to appear in Smash 4; in fact, in the first versions of Super Smash Bros.for the Nintendo 3DS, a glitch could be triggered that made the in-game audience chant the names of the ICs.

Factually wrong. I disproved this ages ago, and it even was removed from the ssbwiki.
The chants have NOT been changed, as it's the chant for the Villager (Which states Mura no ChouChou).

Always considered an inferior version of Pikachu, Pichu was never seen in high levels of play. Suffering from poor control options, low combo potential, and little KO power, Pikachu was always preferred in competitive play.

Pichu was straight up designed to be the joke character in Melee.

Wolf’s appearance in Smash 4 seemed like a sure thing. Brawl veterans like Zero Suit Samus, Toon Link, Pit, and Wario that returned sure made it look like everyone was coming back, and when that did not immediately seem to be the case, DLC also provided hope that he was coming back.

Currently, heis only present in a similar fashion as YoungLink, withcustom special moves that resemble his moveset. However, his absence is one of the most memorable among fans.

Wolf barely got into Brawl. He was one of the last characters finished (which is why he wasn't in SSE)

That's a lot of spaces missing in this article too (three in the previous section that I quoted a lot).

 

I miss snake..ima buy brawl again cuz ov em jus 4 the hell ov it he waz my main I'm still looking 4 a new main in ss4 :/..wolf was cool..Nana and popo where gud too..pichu I used to hold frwrd b and pray to hit...young link was kick asz his boomerang wuz my fav compared to all zee links..

 

Just seeing Snake on here makes me hopeful and proud. No matter what people said pre-release, nobody can deny that an entirely different type of game play style, the trap style, was left on the dust. Maybe someday when the next Smash rolls around we can have him back in all his glory. And you can be damn sure I'll support him when that game's speculation blooms. And by that time, if he comes back, he really would have kept us waiting; for a long time.

 

There's actually a lot of cuts that I want going into Smash 5... and they seem pretty disagreeable to the community. One of them is Sheik...

Na, sheik has been there forever and has a unique character design. What I want to see gone or converted into skins intstead are all the clones. And please I would love to see a couple swordies get cut, we have way too many.