True but he can continue to get minor tweaks.
The funny thing is, the tweaks Falco got absolutely ruined the core of his character. Pillar combos, that full body dair spike, shutdown lasers, all of it a thing of the past. The changes they made completely disregarded why people enjoyed Falco in the first place.
I don't know if I can agree to this.
In terms of competetive play? Yes, probably.
He got the short end of the stick this time around. But he was in the Top 3 of Melee and pretty damn good in BRAWL (atleast Top 5). Far better than Fox (
@Brawl). He can't be the top pick in every game since his release, right?
But from a designer stand point? NO
Smash 4 Falco never felt and played MORE different from Fox, than ever before. More moves changed to look and feel different from Fox (not counting specials). It's hard to call Falco a Clone or even Semi Clone these days.
I like to compare Fox and Falco to Mario and Luigi. Yes, on first glance you can see their connection (which is a good thing from a game design perspective, since they share a game and some sort of relationship to each other).
But if you play either one of those characters for more than 10 minutes, you can easly see how they differ. A lot actually.
(*Yet, I will admit however: Falco's numbers need some tuning. The Balance team did a very good job with the rest of the cast and if they had more time, they would (probably) adressed that).
And while Sakurai and his team try to keep classic character combos and traits if possible, gameplay balance and character identity have to come first. Rember, this is a casual AND a competetive game.
Anyway, back to:
Wolf
We are number 3 in the
Smash Bros poll of returning veterans!
Link: (
https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/85czpd/rsmashbros_character_survey_results/)
1st: Ice Climbers
2nd: Snake
3rd: Wolf
Considering how much work was put to make the
Ice Climbers work despite the 3DS, they will probably come back to the new Smash. And since Snake has licensing issues, Wolf will be probably number 2 of returning veterans (assuing Konami doesn't do a 180) - I would love to have both back tho.
Back then, when we got the results of the
Smash 4 Ballot, Sakurai said that veterans were
REALLY high on the list.
Now, I personally assume he "had" to pick some fancy or
"impossible" character like a 3rd party Bayonett and Cloud, over fan favorite, but lesser known ones (returning veterans, Geno or K Rool and so on).
Which made FAR more revenue and/or buzz for Smash and expended the horizon, what was possible to be included as a character.
(And PLEASE don't forget the
advertisment part of Smash games: Bayonett pratically found a new home on Nintendo and the Switch. We are getting a port of 1 and 2 for the Ninetndo console and Bayo 3 is announced.
And the Square Enix has expressed great interest in bringing FF in some way to Nintendo, Ryu and the recent amount of Street Fighter releases)
I think the K Rool, Geno and the Inkling costume we got for the
Miis, serve as a
placholder and even as a little
hint:
"We know you want them, we've heared you. And you will get them soon, but we just can't right now."
Maybe they had to keep some for a new Smash game: Smash 5 development probably started around 2016 (strongly implied by Sakurai and working on his "secret" project). Only a small poriton of the team did DLC characters and updates, which might explain why a single character took so long.
And it is pretty safe to assume that the ballot, while officially aimed at Smash 4 DLC, was there as well to gather information for Smash 5.
I would go as far and claim: The team split up character suggestions from the ballot:
"What makes more sense as DLC for the current game and which ones do we safe up for the completely new game?"
Example: Mewtwo & Roy & Lucas were there as fan favorites and returning veterans; Ryu & Cloud & Bayo however filled a different role: New, "mature" and "outside of the horizo" + promotional reasons.
This makes me believe, that Wolf and Ice Climbers - since they fall under the same "category" as Mewtwo, Lucas and Roy - will come back as the veterans for Smash 5. Mewtwo and Roy both skipped a game and would have been next in line, if the team had more time.
Now, of course not every costume has to mean something. But those who came out late in Smash 4 cycle and REALLY close to the ballot, I see as a potential placeholder (and hint).
Examples:
- Toad (maybe just as Captain Toad)
- Tails and/or Knuckels (an addition sonic rep is somewhat realistic)
- Isabelle and/or K.K. Slider (second rep for Animal Crossing)
*Don't forget:
The Smash team often hinted at characters in the past (or atleast introduced in another way), before they became fully playable.
For example:
-) Little Mac was an assist trophy in BRAWL, before he got into Smash 4. (I assume they planned the same for Isac from golden sun, but probably gave up at some point.)
-) Meta Knight was teased with a Mii costume mask, before they officially announced him in Smash 4 (even if this wasn't a surprise after BRAWL)
There are many more examples, but I am to lazy to look up and this is getting way to long.
*Additionally: For anyone who followed the character balance patches, I would like to remind you:
Rosalina and two other really strong characters, which had a vocal demand for nerfs, recieved one patch a weight decrease by 1. A nerf, yes, but a minimal one.
This was again a placeholder and a note, saying: "We know they are a problem and we will get to them soon."
And they got nerfed really well, a patch (or 2) later.
TL;DR: Wolf chances are looking pretty well.
I think. Probably. I don't know, my uncle doesn't work for Nintendo or Sakurai.
