Unpopular Smash Ultimate Opinions! - Read the OP before Posting

[Michael the Spikester]

Kid Icarus isn't overrepresented. IMO it could use one more character being Medusa.

Its ironic people say it is yet ignores how Fire Emblem has seven characters and Pokemon has nine.

 

[Opossum]

Kid Icarus isn't overrepresented. IMO it could use one more character being Medusa.

Its ironic people say it is yet ignores how Fire Emblem has seven characters and Pokemon has nine.

I think a lot of people look at it as Number of Characters vs Number of Games. "A series shouldn't have more characters than games in their series" definitely used to be a fairly common argument when talking about proportional series representation, especially with Kid Icarus, considering it has three games and three characters.

 

[Guynamednelson]

The reason why KI was considered overrepresented was because it got so many items, Smash Run enemies, and the replacement for codecs. Besides, Viridi and Hades fans would hate it if their more popular characters got screwed over because they weren't quota-filling enough.

 

[R O F L]

Kid Icarus isn't overrepresented. IMO it could use one more character being Medusa.

Its ironic people say it is yet ignores how Fire Emblem has seven characters and Pokemon has nine.

Considering the sales of the franchise, it's safe to say it has enough, in Ultimate. Smash 4 had way too much KI content with it's extra modes.



And I find it funny that the GBA game wasn't even released in Japan until Virtual Console, despite it being developed in Japan.

 

[TheMightyP]

I mighy be REALLY late on this, but I actually prefered Piranha Plant and Incineroar over most of the Grinch characters. The only exceptions was Isaac and Shadow, but I don't really care for the rest.

Also, I would prefer Steve over Banjo.

In terms of the game itself, Isabelle was the 2nd best newcomer, behind Inkling, and Simon/Richter had the worst trailer, though the CGI parts were still entertaining.

 

[Mogisthelioma]

When it comes to Kid Icarus, Sakurai never had biased opinions on that. If you think Dark Pit is evidence, remember that just like Lucina, he was made from an alternate costume to a fighter because they had extra time.

 

[Dee Dude]

-At this point, I think Rayman’s chances are going nowhere. He’s a trophy in 4, Spirit in Ultimate, so there’s a good chance he’ll end up as an AT for next game.

-Why do Mii costumes get so much hate, sure they feel like a half-budget cosplay of your most wanted but they never deconfirmed a character unless official statement otherwise (Rex), they can obviously co-exist hence all the outfits of existing fighters.

-You know what? After getting hooked in it I take back what I’ve said about WoL, it’s pretty fun but it would’ve been if all these locations they used were actual platforming levels with enemies.

 

[MacSmitty]

When it comes to Kid Icarus, Sakurai never had biased opinions on that. If you think Dark Pit is evidence, remember that just like Lucina, he was made from an alternate costume to a fighter because they had extra time.

Inb4 the "but Fire Emblem though..."

 

[CaptainAmerica]

When it comes to Kid Icarus, Sakurai never had biased opinions on that. If you think Dark Pit is evidence, remember that just like Lucina, he was made from an alternate costume to a fighter because they had extra time.

I have issues with this argument. It seems like people love to say that DP/Lucy took absolutely not time whatsoever, when that's patently untrue.

I'll admit that this is the reasoning given, but there are just a few things that make me question how much DP's promotion was 'extra time' versus a minor amount of bias...

• Why did Lucy and DP get the promotion from alt to 'echo,' but Alph didn't?
• Why did Dark Pit manage to get a newly recorded crowd chant ("Pittoo! Pittoo!"), and yet Link and Toon link became the first characters in Smash history to ever share one?
• Why did Dark Pit get a unique victory theme, but Ganondorf was stuck with the same one as the Zelda heroes?

As a massive Zelda fan, it's tough to see how much love he did get, even if he was a clone, and argue that it took absolutely no time to develop characters like Dark Pit at all, when some other characters could have benefitted in the same way but didn't.

I don't want to imply that removing Dark Pit (or Lucy, but I'll stick with DP) would have given us any extra characters. But I cannot accept that the things they did do for him didn't take any time whatsoever which could have gone to other places. After all, why would the time spent recording a crowd cheer or victory theme not take exactly as long as doing the same for a different character?

 

[Brindor]

I'm curious, what's your stance on a Mortal Kombat character? I'm just wondering since Netherrealm is owned by Warner Bros.

Mortal Kombat is cool and all but the last thing I wanna see is Skorpion performing a fatality on Yoshi
I mean, it would be pretty sick, but if there's no fatalities in Smash then MK might as well go home

 

[Robertman2]

I have issues with this argument. It seems like people love to say that DP/Lucy took absolutely not time whatsoever, when that's patently untrue.

I'll admit that this is the reasoning given, but there are just a few things that make me question how much DP's promotion was 'extra time' versus a minor amount of bias...

• Why did Lucy and DP get the promotion from alt to 'echo,' but Alph didn't?
• Why did Dark Pit manage to get a newly recorded crowd chant ("Pittoo! Pittoo!"), and yet Link and Toon link became the first characters in Smash history to ever share one?
• Why did Dark Pit get a unique victory theme, but Ganondorf was stuck with the same one as the Zelda heroes?

As a massive Zelda fan, it's tough to see how much love he did get, even if he was a clone, and argue that it took absolutely no time to develop characters like Dark Pit at all, when some other characters could have benefitted in the same way but didn't.

I don't want to imply that removing Dark Pit (or Lucy, but I'll stick with DP) would have given us any extra characters. But I cannot accept that the things they did do for him didn't take any time whatsoever which could have gone to other places. After all, why would the time spent recording a crowd cheer or victory theme not take exactly as long as doing the same for a different character?

Alph didn't become an Echo because no one cares about Pikmin.

 

[Opossum]

Alph didn't become an Echo because no one cares about Pikmin.

That's not even an opinion, that's explicitly false.

 

[Mogisthelioma]

I have issues with this argument. It seems like people love to say that DP/Lucy took absolutely not time whatsoever, when that's patently untrue.

I'll admit that this is the reasoning given, but there are just a few things that make me question how much DP's promotion was 'extra time' versus a minor amount of bias...

• Why did Lucy and DP get the promotion from alt to 'echo,' but Alph didn't?
• Why did Dark Pit manage to get a newly recorded crowd chant ("Pittoo! Pittoo!"), and yet Link and Toon link became the first characters in Smash history to ever share one?
• Why did Dark Pit get a unique victory theme, but Ganondorf was stuck with the same one as the Zelda heroes?

As a massive Zelda fan, it's tough to see how much love he did get, even if he was a clone, and argue that it took absolutely no time to develop characters like Dark Pit at all, when some other characters could have benefitted in the same way but didn't.

I don't want to imply that removing Dark Pit (or Lucy, but I'll stick with DP) would have given us any extra characters. But I cannot accept that the things they did do for him didn't take any time whatsoever which could have gone to other places. After all, why would the time spent recording a crowd cheer or victory theme not take exactly as long as doing the same for a different character?

Listen, as a Kirby fan I understand that it royally sucks to see other series get the love you feel like your favorite deserves, but at the end of the day it's not like they added Dark Pit and Lucina purely out of bias. They had their reasons, we know, and I'm sure there are other reasons (probably behind every newcomer) that we'll never know about.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Listen, as a Kirby fan I understand that it royally sucks to see other series get the love you feel like your favorite deserves, but at the end of the day it's not like they added Dark Pit and Lucina purely out of bias. They had their reasons, we know, and I'm sure there are other reasons (probably behind every newcomer) that we'll never know about.

Don't get me wrong- I was salty af back then, but I've mellowed out. I'm completely okay with Pittoo now, and I'll even admit that his theme is really a good song.

It's more that I think the argument of "they took no time so we should be grateful" is flawed, since they did have to have taken a bit of dev time, and there are places that I'd have rather that time had been used. Kid Icarus is just a perfect low-hanging fruit for the bias argument since it got way more content in Sm4sh that most like to admit (the classic mode style is almost completely lifted from Uprising, the only series that got "kill all enemies" from a specific series are the two that Sakurai had a hand in and Ninty's flagship, Pit managed a full moveset overhaul from Brawl to Sm4sh while other characters are still saddled with ill-fitting movesets, etc.

I think that "Everyone is Here" is really the best thing that ever could have happened. After getting Squirtle back, even if I'd have liked him to be a bit more standalone, I'm okay with most of the roster, and I no longer hate those I deem 'undeserving.' Yeah, the DLC isn't exciting me so far, but I'll wait and see. Maybe I'll find something I like. And if my dreams come true...well, I'll throw all of my money at Nintendo and be perfectly content.

 

[Gimmick-Hater]

Stamina Battles are funner to play than regular Smash battles.

There to many items, and lot of them are redundant. There are a dozen different explosive items, healing items, generic blasters, etc... I really wish that developers had spent lest time on some of them.

 

[Zuby]

I'll admit that this is the reasoning given, but there are just a few things that make me question how much DP's promotion was 'extra time' versus a minor amount of bias...

• Why did Lucy and DP get the promotion from alt to 'echo,' but Alph didn't?
• Why did Dark Pit manage to get a newly recorded crowd chant ("Pittoo! Pittoo!"), and yet Link and Toon link became the first characters in Smash history to ever share one?
• Why did Dark Pit get a unique victory theme, but Ganondorf was stuck with the same one as the Zelda heroes?

I would love to have a bit more diversity in ending themes across the board. It actually kind of made my day when I won my first battle as Corrin and got "Lost in Thoughts All Alone" instead of the default Fire Emblem theme.

I guess my theory in relation to the quoted question is that Dark Pit has his own very popular theme music that was most likely already going to be in the game anyway based on the amount of Kid Icarus music and its significance within Uprising, at which point the question becomes "why wouldn't they give Dark Pit his own victory theme?"

There are absolutely other characters who have really obvious choices for victory themes but are stuck with a default for the franchise (e.g. Ridley, Wolf)

The thing with Alph really grinds my gears though, I think I've mentioned earlier in this thread that I think the Echo Fighter concept is underutilisied for all the fanfare it was announced with.

As for the crowd not chanting Toon Link - I actually prefer that. He's only referred to as Toon Link for demarcation purposes, it's not actually his name. I'd personally find it weird if they did call out 'Toon'. My biggest issue with Toon Link is the lack of an Engineer costume...

 

[Mogisthelioma]

I think a lot of people look at it as Number of Characters vs Number of Games. "A series shouldn't have more characters than games in their series" definitely used to be a fairly common argument when talking about proportional series representation, especially with Kid Icarus, considering it has three games and three characters.

Kid Icarus characters have already made more appearances outside of their own games so it's no like Nintendo cares. I don't see why it should be a major issue, but I agree the series doesn't constitute more than thee fighters. Personally, I would swap out DP for Viridi, but in a perfect roster I'd keep them all then add another 5 or so fighters.

 

[Wyoming]

Kid Icarus isn't overrepresented. IMO it could use one more character being Medusa.

Its ironic people say it is yet ignores how Fire Emblem has seven characters and Pokemon has nine.

Pokemon can never be over-represented. Like Mario it has so many characters and abilities to use, plus both are media behemoths and Nintendo's two flagship IPs.

Kid Icarus did get a lot of content in Smash 4. A lot of it was down to convenience (3DS assets, Dark Pit originally being a costume, and so on) but it still got a lot of intentional things (two new stages and a retro one - including one that is gigantic, an easter egg dedicated to it, etc.). It got absolutely nothing in Ultimate which is why I don't see anyone saying that for this game. But it is undeniable that Kid Icarus got a lot of stuff in the previous game.

Fire Emblem is similar in a way, but that was only a problem in Smash DLC. I didn't mind the base roster, but I feel like adding both Roy and Corrin was problematic. People want characters, and the option to buy two from the same series won't entice many. And I get that. In hindsight I would have held off Roy if Corrin was so interesting to them, but not like it matters now.

 

[Mogisthelioma]

Let's try to avoid another Fire Emblem discussion, shall we?

 

[TyrantLizardKing]

-Why do Mii costumes get so much hate, sure they feel like a half-budget cosplay of your most wanted but they never deconfirmed a character unless official statement otherwise (Rex), they can obviously co-exist hence all the outfits of existing fighters.

Three reasons I'd say:

-Some just look really derpy, and it doesn't help that Miis themselves still have an air of derpiness to them on their own.
-Like ATs/Pokemon/Spirits, a lot of people see it as a slap in the face to their characters, as if they're not good for anymore than a ripped up model to throw on a Mii (as you said). I know Ashley & Isaac fans feel that way, and it gets worse when they acknowledge demand such as the K. Rool costume in Smash 4. I'm still expecting a Shadow costume for this game down the line honestly.
-People want more than just cosmetics for Miis. Selling extra skins for the actual characters is what is really wanted in the community, and Ultimate already sorta got started on that with things like Wedding & Builder Mario, Ranger & Hero Ike, Summer & Winter Isabelle, Meta Ridley, etc. but I think you'll agree that there's a huge untapped market here.

 

[Wyoming]

-

-Why do Mii costumes get so much hate, sure they feel like a half-budget cosplay of your most wanted but they never deconfirmed a character unless official statement otherwise (Rex), they can obviously co-exist hence all the outfits of existing fighters..

If they make a costume for a non-playable character it shows to me they did think of it, but didn't want to commit to making it playable. It's different from veterans.

Especially if you make people pay for it. Mii costumes are meant to be original characters or something you can create yourself to your liking. If they're including a character's full-kit of clothing you know what that means...

"guess we better make our own!" - Conker

And yes they can be promoted in a future game...but people aren't thinking of that installment yet.

 

[osby]

Kid Icarus characters have already made more appearances outside of their own games so it's no like Nintendo cares. I don't see why it should be a major issue, but I agree the series doesn't constitute more than thee fighters. Personally, I would swap out DP for Viridi, but in a perfect roster I'd keep them all then add another 5 or so fighters.

Man, I'm glad you're not doing Smash, Viridi would look horrible as a Pit echo.

-Why do Mii costumes get so much hate, sure they feel like a half-budget cosplay of your most wanted but they never deconfirmed a character unless official statement otherwise (Rex), they can obviously co-exist hence all the outfits of existing fighters.

Same with Assist Trophies: People don't get they are added AFTER newcomer selection and act like non-playable roles erased their chances to become playable.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I would love to have a bit more diversity in ending themes across the board. It actually kind of made my day when I won my first battle as Corrin and got "Lost in Thoughts All Alone" instead of the default Fire Emblem theme.

I guess my theory in relation to the quoted question is that Dark Pit has his own very popular theme music that was most likely already going to be in the game anyway based on the amount of Kid Icarus music and its significance within Uprising, at which point the question becomes "why wouldn't they give Dark Pit his own victory theme?"

There are absolutely other characters who have really obvious choices for victory themes but are stuck with a default for the franchise (e.g. Ridley, Wolf)

The thing with Alph really grinds my gears though, I think I've mentioned earlier in this thread that I think the Echo Fighter concept is underutilisied for all the fanfare it was announced with.

Yes! Oh man, if each character got a unique theme, it'd be great. Heck, I'd even love (or possibly more) if each series got the same theme, but each character got a unique arrangement of the theme - think how Kirby and Meta Knight both have the same theme, but one is a rock-y remix. I'd have loved to see something like Link getting the normal Zelda theme, Zelda getting a strings-based version, Shiek with a Japanese-esque recut, Ganondorf with it remixed as a funeral dirge with organs, Tink getting something choral, etc. Even in the case of characters like K.Rool, I'd have loved a metallic DK theme but with elements of Gangplank thrown in. It'd be that fun connection with the series, but also giving each character a personality in the theme.

That's also another place where Chrom ended up looking like a late addition since he got Marth/Ike/Roy's theme instead of Robin/Lucy's Awakening theme.

As for the crowd not chanting Toon Link - I actually prefer that. He's only referred to as Toon Link for demarcation purposes, it's not actually his name. I'd personally find it weird if they did call out 'Toon'. My biggest issue with Toon Link is the lack of an Engineer costume...

True, but counterpoints:
- Yink does now get "Young Link" as his cheer. He'd fit in the same category as well, so now we have one Link semiclone sharing a chant with Link and one not. The characters are internally known and referred to with the prefix, so it wouldn't be too awkward to hear it, but I'd be okay with both cheers being Link as long as...
- Roy and Roy have different chants. Even though they have the same name, both had time put into them. I'd be okay with three different "Link!" chants, as long as they were actually different. Now, it's exactly the same - they just copied the same file over. It really makes it seem that they don't care.

On the whole though, the chants have been **** since Sm4sh. Melee's and Brawl's tended to sound good, and you could hear them well. Now, half of the time you can't even hear them going, and most of it all bleeds together into a random noise. I'd have rather they rerecorded them - I'm sure they could easily have gotten recordings of a crowd, there's enough Smash fans around.

At least there's one area Chrom got loads of love... Honestly most of the FE chants are properly enunciated and are also really awesome (Roy's our boy! We like Ike! Chrom, Chrom, he's our man!). Not so for some of the other characters... "[random crowd grunts]"!

 

[TyrantLizardKing]

Same with Assist Trophies: People don't get they are added AFTER newcomer selection and act like non-playable roles erased their chances to become playable.

Source on ATs being chosen after newcomers, if you don't mind.

 

[Michael the Spikester]

Pokemon can never be over-represented. Like Mario it has so many characters and abilities to use, plus both are media behemoths and Nintendo's two flagship IPs.

Problem with Pokemon is if they keep using those characters at some point may as well start calling it Super Pokemon Bros. guest starring other characters.

 

[Wyoming]

Problem with Pokemon is if they keep using those characters at some point may as well start calling it Super Pokemon Bros. guest starring other characters.

But as I already told you, it's only 9/78 (soon 9/79, and more likely 9/82) of the roster.

And honestly if we see Smash as Nintendo All Stars + Third Party all stars, well...Pokemon can easily justify the bulk of the roster.

They only add one new Pokemon per game. The only reason it's so "big" now is because of everyone is here bringing back Pichu, Squirtle, and Ivysaur. I doubt they'd return without that motive.

 

[osby]

But as I already told you, it's only 9/78 (soon 9/79, and more likely 9/82) of the roster.

And honestly if we see Smash as Nintendo All Stars + Third Party all stars, well...Pokemon can easily justify the bulk of the roster.

They only add one new Pokemon per game. The only reason it's so "big" now is because of everyone is here bringing back Pichu, Squirtle, and Ivysaur. I doubt they'd return without that motive.

Agree with you, but in Brawl, more than 1/5 of the newcomers were Pokemon and previous two games added twice, so "one new Pokemon per game" kinda misses the mark.

 

[Michael the Spikester]

But as I already told you, it's only 9/78 (soon 9/79, and more likely 9/82) of the roster.

And honestly if we see Smash as Nintendo All Stars + Third Party all stars, well...Pokemon can easily justify the bulk of the roster.

They only add one new Pokemon per game. The only reason it's so "big" now is because of everyone is here bringing back Pichu, Squirtle, and Ivysaur. I doubt they'd return without that motive.

Fair point.

 

[Wyoming]

Agree with you, but in Brawl, more than 1/5 of the newcomers were Pokemon and previous two games added twice, so "one new Pokemon per game" kinda misses the mark.

We also lost two Pokemon veterans in Pichu and Mewtwo, and Trainer was a rare exception due to him having an interesting mechanic.

 

[osby]

We also lost two Pokemon veterans in Pichu and Mewtwo, and Trainer was a rare exception due to him having an interesting mechanic.

That doesn't change that a significant development time was reserved for Pokemon, not to mention Jigglypuff got in as a last minute additon over characters like Roy.

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

That doesn't change that a significant development time was reserved for Pokemon, not to mention Jigglypuff got in as a last minute additon over characters like Roy.

Though to be fair, Jigglypuff has more worldwide appeal due to being in more games. Roy wasn't well known outside of Smash. Being part of the original 12 might have mattered, but I doubt that(considering Sakurai almost cut Ness twice...). I would've liked Roy in, though, same with Dixie(though her cut is understandable, since she was not able to function as a team with Diddy. It's also a possible reason she's not playable yet, as Sakurai could still want her as part of a team), Dr. Mario, Mewtwo, Toon Sheik(which probably would've been turned into Tetra given enough time, but it's very blatant who was intended in the data, a OC clone. Not unlike Giga Bowser), Toon Zelda, and whatever Pra_Mai was(unlike the Toon Sheik thing, this isn't as blatant and may have been Plusle & Minun. Got nothing more than a guess, though).

 

[SSB_Chai]

Ike is viewed favorably now because he's been bad for so long, but if his nair isn't changed (tbf, nerfing nair will ruin the character) Ike will be a top 5 hated character. He's quickly becoming a frequently played character, and he gives players such a high reward for a tiny amount of investment in learning the character. He reminds me of Cloud in Smash 4, where soon almost everyone will have a pocket of the character., and for some the character will be better than their main due to how oppressive he can be.

 

[Mogisthelioma]

Man, I'm glad you're not doing Smash, Viridi would look horrible as a Pit echo.

Uhh

Oh

I meant as an original fighter. i should have clarified.

 

[CureParfait]

I don't mind someone from a Gacha game being in Smash.

 

[Astroking112]

I would've preferred that Sakurai work on another Kid Icarus than Smash Ultimate.

 

[Sabertooth]

I have issues with this argument. It seems like people love to say that DP/Lucy took absolutely not time whatsoever, when that's patently untrue.

I'll admit that this is the reasoning given, but there are just a few things that make me question how much DP's promotion was 'extra time' versus a minor amount of bias...

• Why did Lucy and DP get the promotion from alt to 'echo,' but Alph didn't?
• Why did Dark Pit manage to get a newly recorded crowd chant ("Pittoo! Pittoo!"), and yet Link and Toon link became the first characters in Smash history to ever share one?
• Why did Dark Pit get a unique victory theme, but Ganondorf was stuck with the same one as the Zelda heroes?

As a massive Zelda fan, it's tough to see how much love he did get, even if he was a clone, and argue that it took absolutely no time to develop characters like Dark Pit at all, when some other characters could have benefitted in the same way but didn't.

I don't want to imply that removing Dark Pit (or Lucy, but I'll stick with DP) would have given us any extra characters. But I cannot accept that the things they did do for him didn't take any time whatsoever which could have gone to other places. After all, why would the time spent recording a crowd cheer or victory theme not take exactly as long as doing the same for a different character?

I agree with you a lot. Echo fighters aren't minor additions, either--they each mean something, and they have an effect on the final roster. You can't just ignore them.

I guess the main grievance I had with Dark Pit and Lucina is that they were from series already receiving new characters. I feel Sakurai doesn't really understand that the Smash fanbase is unique in that it's fractured--you've got the F-Zero fans, and the Fire Emblem fans, and the Kirby fans, and they've all come together to enjoy this crossover. Personally I feel that it's important to try to appeal to as many people as possible, and the way to do that isn't by adding a bunch of characters from the same series. An echo fighter from Pikmin, Donkey Kong, Kirby, or F-Zero would have been a refreshing change of pace instead of the three residents of "Clone Corner" we got in Smash 4, all of which were from series that were already getting plenty of new content.

 

[Michael the Spikester]

I would've preferred that Sakurai work on another Kid Icarus than Smash Ultimate.

I mean he could eventually end up doing another in the future you know...

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Why did Lucy and DP get the promotion from alt to 'echo,' but Alph didn't?

Can't answer the other ones but this one is actually easy to answer.

Marth and Pit are much simpler and easier character to code and design then Olimar.

Unless you made Alph an exact one to one character (which Smash 4 thankfully avoided), he'd take much more time then Lucina, Doc and Dark Pit would.

Those Pikmin are strange little things. Like, they can't even get them coded correctly for custom equipment and All Star in Smash 4 and Spirits in Ultimate.

 

[TyrantLizardKing]

I agree with you a lot. Echo fighters aren't minor additions, either--they each mean something, and they have an effect on the final roster. You can't just ignore them.

I guess the main grievance I had with Dark Pit and Lucina is that they were from series already receiving new characters. I feel Sakurai doesn't really understand that the Smash fanbase is unique in that it's fractured--you've got the F-Zero fans, and the Fire Emblem fans, and the Kirby fans, and they've all come together to enjoy this crossover. Personally I feel that it's important to try to appeal to as many people as possible, and the way to do that isn't by adding a bunch of characters from the same series. An echo fighter from Pikmin, Donkey Kong, Kirby, or F-Zero would have been a refreshing change of pace instead of the three residents of "Clone Corner" we got in Smash 4, all of which were from series that were already getting plenty of new content.

That sort of, sort of, ties into another unpopular opinion of my own, in that I feel Sakurai shouldn't always pick characters just because they please himself. I feel some of that thought should go into the consumers as well (though we got that this time with and the return of). Didn't really want to say that since there's a lot about roster choices we don't know, but I wanted to get it off my chest anyway.

 

[R O F L]

Can't answer the other ones but this one is actually easy to answer.

Marth and Pit are much simpler and easier character to code and design then Olimar.

Unless you made Alph an exact one to one character (which Smash 4 thankfully avoided), he'd take much more time then Lucina, Doc and Dark Pit would.

Those Pikmin are strange little things. Like, they can't even get them coded correctly for custom equipment and All Star in Smash 4 and Spirits in Ultimate.

Alph could work as an echo just with almost pure aesthetic differences, just like Daisy and Richter, if he was he'd be the quickest-to-make echo. My main problem with him not being an echo is that he's a quick re-skin model-swap of Olimar.
I'm 100% okay with no Rock Pikmin, but there are a crap ton of animations and aesthetic differences that don't work with him.
For example, the most important things they could change would be his hurtbox, Final Smash, and Down B. All of these are aesthetically incorrect with him being a model-swap of Olimar.

I would prefer more Olimar alts instead of having Alph for the sole reason of Alph not feeling like Alph from Pikmin 3.

Also, in Smash 4, he was going to be a separate fighter with Rock Pikmin, but was cut due to the 3DS and time constraints. I don't see why they just threw this out when developing Ultimate.