As a Smash Bros fan, I’m very excited for a Switch version of the game. Not only does a single version of the title able to be played on the TV or on the go sound incredibly compelling, but I can’t help but wonder what they might add, as well as hope they might address the few small things that have bothered me about the latest entry of Smash. Before I address those thoughts though, I feel I must address when I believe this game will be coming, looking through the rest of 2017, Nintendo’s Switch plans are pretty busy with some major titles including Super Mario Odyssey taking up that space. I don’t think Nintendo wants to compete with themselves with another big title this holiday season, and if they did, you’d think they’d have announced it by now. Quite honestly, I think the earliest we’ll see Smash Switch will be spring 2018, but it very well could be holiday 2018 or even later. By that point, Smash Wii U will be 4 years old. For context, Smash 4 came out about 6 and a half years after Brawl, and Brawl came out about 6 and a half years after Melee. Melee however was released just under 3 years after the original Smash. With that in mind, I don’t believe it would be too soon to hope for a new Smash title by the end of next year.
With that in mind, I think I should first address what I believe the new Smash Bros game is. I do believe (perhaps to the disdain of some fans) that the new title started out as a simple ‘DX’ version of the Wii U game. The Wii U version of the game has nearly 60 fighters built, refined and balanced, I just can’t imagine them starting from square one again, especially when you know that graphically they’re going to look very similar to how they look in the Wii U version of the game anyway. I believe they’ve taken the entire Wii U title, and combined all the exclusive 3DS version of the game’s features, including all the exclusive stages and yes, Smash Run, allowing up to 4 people to play Smash Run split-screen on a single Switch. And I think from there the plan was to just add a few more fighters and stages, polish up the graphics a little, slap the DX on the title or just call it super Smash Bros. for Switch and call it a day, but I believe those plans changed. I think the initial plan might have been to get Smash DX out this year to really help sell the Switch, but the Switch has been selling really well, and has an incredibly solid lineup for the rest of the year, there really is no need to rush Smash, and as such, they can concentrate on making it a grander game. At its core it will be built on what Smash Wii U is, but it will be bursting with more new and extra content as well as extra refinement. Yeah, it will have new fighters and stages, but it will have more than all that too. Lets continue to look at what I’d like to see added to Smash Switch without getting into new fighters I’d like to see yet, I'll address that thought at the end.
Refinement
First I’d like to address general refinement. The Wii U version of the game is already fantastic, but that doesn’t mean its not without its flaws. For starters, its main menus are not intuitive, they need to just clean these up, this wouldn’t be hard, but they could make this all make a lot more sense and be more simple to navigate. Not the biggest of deals, but I’d like this fixed.
Next they really should address the character selection screen. For starters I believe the game will include all the Wii U fighters including the DLC fighters, but I think they need to fix the ordering, DLC and clone characters should sit next to their franchises (and that’s pushing forward too), put Dr. Mario next to the Mario fighters, Lucina next to the Fire Emblem ones, Dark Pit next to the Kid Icarus fighters, Roy and Corrin next to the Fire Emblem fighters, Mewtwo next to the Pokemon, and Lucas next to Ness. Also, why not give us an option to organize the character Selection screen in a way that we desire? Seems like a simple thing they could add which would really please me. Probably not going to happen, but it’d be nice.
Now, the special smash modes need some more expansive options. We can choose to do a lot, but still we are limited. In special Smash modes, we should be able to set individual attributes. For example if I want for only one fighter to be Metal at all times or one fighter to be Giant at all times while the rest of the fighters are normal, we should be able to adjust the attributes individually if we like. You can do these kinds of battles against the computer in modes like the Master and Crazy orders, so why can’t we do this just for fun with our friends? Beyond that, HP Smash should allow for a greater amount of HP than 300. Its great that you can increase the HP by increments of 10, but it sucks that the max is 300, why not 1000 or 999 or whatever? In that same regard, we should have the option to do HP + Stock, where each life has as much HP as you set and when you die you start your new life. One life for HP mode is needlessly restrictive. Beyond that, the DLC fighters should have the customizable move-sets implemented as well, custom fighting is fun, but its annoying that none of the 7 added fighters had any alternative moves. Finally, Stage Creation should be beefier, give us stage elements that we can add like the ferris wheel thing from the sonic stage, or maybe the option to add events for stages (like wind blowing, stage splitting in half, something like that), it’d be pretty awesome to see a community developing custom Smash stages as clever as what we saw in Super Mario Maker. Perhaps integrate the smartphone app, and allow us to design and upload custom stages from our smartphones.
Also, while I think online could use a lot more refinement, my main gripe would be I wish that we could choose to play stock battles online. I can kind of see why they don't do this, because in theory a stock game could last a very long time, and the servers might not be set up for that kind of thing, but come on, most people prefer to play stock over time, yet we can only play time online. This is my personal biggest gripe with online, though I'm aware that other things could be addressed as well. Personally online isn't my main way of playing, I'm more of a party/playing with friends in the same space kind of guy, so addressing online issues is the least of my concern, but adding stock would be my biggest want in that regard.
Neglected Things from the Past
There are two things I’d like to see Smash have again that it hasn’t in recent titles for the franchise, the first is transformations. But I think transformations should be optional, if you play as Samus/ZSS or Zelda/Shiek you should be able to turn transformations on or off before you play, if you have it on, you sacrifice one move for each fighter so they can use that to transform, or just one of the taunts does the transformation, we know the reason they were removed was because they were too much for the 3DS to handle, so that shouldn’t be an issue this time around, so I think transformations could definitely return. The other feature I’d like to return are the end of match bonus awards that we saw in Melee, giving awards for doing unique things in the match, and each award had points assigned to it. The awards really reminded me of the awards you’d get at the end of Goldeneye back in the day, and who didn’t love those? If they brought back the end of match bonus awards then they could bring back the bonus smash mode as well, where you fight to get the most bonus points at the end of the match. That mode honestly isn’t the reason I want the awards back, I just liked the awards, but I would have no issue with the mode returning as well. But that really does it for the missing features I’d like to see return, I’m not a big competitive guy, so my opinion on advanced techniques like wavedashing and the like is that I really don’t care one way or the other, add them back in, or leave them missing, makes little difference to how me and my friends personally play.
Brand New Features
Now for new features I’d like to see added. First and foremost, something I think very well could happen is Rotation Smash. This is based on what happens at the end of Smash Tour where you fight a round rotating stock between different fighters based on those you obtained on the game board. It’s a fun match, but you have to play a full game of Smash Tour just to experience it and you don’t really have full control on your fighters. So why not just add an entire mode where you choose how much stock you have and then choose which fighter each stock will be, you could even do random for them all if you wanted. I’d love this, and I can definitely see it coming.
I also think a new Adventure Mode could definitely happen, in fact what they should do is ship the game with the full roster as it stands right now, DLC and all, should be unlocked from the start, and all the new extra fighters have to be unlocked by playing the new Adventure Mode. Melee and especially Brawl’s Adventure Modes were great fun and fans loved them and want more, with less time needed to focus on making a ton of brand new fighters, perhaps they could devote some time to making a full adventure mode.
A really clever little feature that I’m surprised Smash 4 doesn’t have would be if the Switch version came with an amiibo token or playing card that is just your player data card. You use this amiibo token to save your preferred nickname, control setup, favorite fighter if desired, and your personal record fighting under that name if that matters to you; so that when you go to a friend’s place or a competition or whatever and aren’t using your Switch, you can just scan your amiibo token and instantly have your favorite fighter selected with your nickname showing and your controller setup prepared.
Finally, this feature is going to lead into new fighters I’d like to see in Smash Switch. When Smash Switch started development, I think the initial plans may have been to add only up to 4 new fighters, but as time has continued on and I supsect this game has grown and evolved, I feel like I could see up to 12 new fighters added into Smash 4's already impressive roster, and potentially more DLC to come after the game launches. But I'll address that later. I think one interesting feature that could be added would be the return of the Pokemon Trainer, but not in the same way that he was in Brawl. We wouldn’t see Squirtle and Ivysaur return (despite how much I love Squirtle as a character), instead when you choose the Pokemon Trainer, you’d then get the choice of choosing any combination of 3 of the available pokemon fighters. You’d be able to choose from Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Charizard, Mewtwo, Lucario and Greninja. Then when you’re battling you could switch out your pokemon with a transformation button (Sacrificing a move or relegating the transformation to a specific taunt) just as you could between Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard, where the Pokemon trainer stands on a platform in the background, throws pokeballs and calls pokemon back into their pokeballs. Final Smash would just be the final smash of whatever Pokemon you’re using.
New FIghters
With that all addressed, I want to say that I think a new actual Pokemon fighter for Smash Switch is probably inevitable. Not only is Gen 7 out now, its quite possible that Gen 8 for the Switch may actually start being teased by the time Smash Switch comes out (if Pokemon Switch will indeed be Gen 8). I think its likely to happen and if so that it will likely be a grass pokemon, the 3rd form of a grass starter as we now have one for a fire starter and water starter. It they go Gen 7, it would be Decidueye, who honestly wouldn’t be a terrible choice. Else it could be the Gen 8 grass starter final form. One final choice could be Sceptile, now I know he’s Gen 3 and not exactly current, but Gen 3 doesn’t have any fighters in smash currently (nor does 2, 5, or 7 at this point), plus Sceptile made a name for himself in Pokken Tournament, so he does kind of stick out as a bit more of an iconic Pokemon (to be fair, Decidueye is being added to Pokken Tournament DX, but Sceptile has been in all versions).
Beyond a Grass Pokemon, I can see the following new fighters appear as well:
-Ice Climbers: only removed from Smash 4 due to limitations of the 3DS which the Switch version wouldn't be restricted by. People loved these guys and their unique playstyle, mainy mained with them in both Melee and Brawl, I would just be shocked if they don't return, in fact I'm sure they'll be one of the first "new" characters to be confirmed for the title.
-Inklings: there's no way they wont be playable fighters in the next new Smash, they're incredibly iconic and its not hard to imagine some great movesets for these guys.
-Wolf: If we get one more veteran back after the Ice Climbers, its gotta be Wolf. Why he was removed is a little odd to me, especially with the low representation of villain fighers anyway
-Arm's Fighter(s): Less likely than the Inklings but I still think they have a strong chance of appearing, I could see them having pretty much every available Arms fighter as a different costume like the Bowser Jr and the Koopalings, considering every Arms fighter pretty much controls the same, though if they don't go that route, I could it being a Spring Man and Ribbon Girl sharing the space like Olimar and Alph
-Isaac: I'm really surprised Isaac from Golden Sun hasn't been a fighter yet, Golden Sun was a pretty iconic handheld Nintendo RPG series, and Camelot is a second party close to Nintendo, it seems odd they don't have representation, especially when Isaac was an assist trophy in Brawl and doesn't even appear in 4
-K. Rool: More villains are needed and Ridley will stay relegated to a stage boss, next up would logically be K. Rool who became an iconic Nintendo villain with a unique personality of his own. I think he has a strong chance of appearing, but wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't all the same. Though the Mii Fighters did get a K. Rool outfit, so he's clearly not completely forgotten.
-Bomberman: If they add any more 3rd party fighters, I can almost Guarantee Bomberman will be next. Yeah, I'd kind of like to see Snake return again as well, but realistically, I don't think he is happening. He appeared because Kojima really wanted him in the game and now Kojima doesn't even have control of the Metal Gear franchise. On top of that, Snake's fighting style was very much at odds with everyone else's style in Smash, he doesn't really feel like he belongs as a Smash fighter. Conversely, Bomberman oozes that Nintendo charm despite not being a Nintendo property, and the moveset writes itself. If Konami is going to have a fighter in Smash again, I think it will be Bomberman before Snake, and I think he has the strongest chance of appearing of any 3rd party fighters at this point.
-Geno: The love and demand for him has died compared to when Brawl was being worked on. But like K. Rool he isn't forgotten as he also had a Mii Fighter outfit. He was everyone's favorite fighter in Mario RPG, Nintendo and Square are getting along great these days with Cloud already in Smash, and was apparently seriously considered for Brawl. I think he has a chance, but I think everyone is kinda moving on and not nearly as excited by the prospect of him in Smash as they used to be. Still I could see him making the cut somehow.
-Another Zelda Fighter: Skull Kid, Vaati, Ghirahim, or Impa (Hyrule Warriors version). For as big and important of a franchise that Zelda is for Nintendo, it seems odd that it only provides 3 separate characters for Smash to base fighters on. Granted there are different versions of the same characters to give us a total of 5 fighters from the Zelda series, but beyond Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf, another important character to the franchise should be a fighter. And I think I can narrow it down to one. It'd be nice to do a villain, but Skull Kid and Ghirahim are already assist trophies, and if I'm being honest, Ghirahim's relevance is already gone. Skull Kid could potentially make a good fighter, but I think his position as an assist trophy is a good spot as well. Vaati is a villain that appeared in a few Zelda titles, and would be a great fighter, but I think his chance to be in a Smash game has faded, at this point if you mention Vaati to a casual Zelda fan, they'll ask, "who?" Which brings me to Impa, who really does make the most sense, she appears time and time again in the Zelda series as various ages, but always as an important character in the series aiding Zelda. In Hyrule Warriors she finally got her chance to shine and show what a badass she could be. I think she makes sense as a fighter, and her Hyrule Warriors version would have a unique and perfect look and style for the new Smash title.
-Banjo & Kazooie: when we had the chance to vote for a fighter we'd like, Microsoft said they were more than open to the idea of Banjo & Kazooie appearing in Smash, Nintendo and Microsoft had worked together in the past, like when Minecraft made its way to the Wii U and Switch. The characters have their roots in Nintendo and scream Nintendo in their style. Plus they love to have their big reveal with new fighters, and this would be pinnacle of announcements they could make at this point. I mean I can't imagine any other fighters they could announce now that would be both logical and be more unexpected than Cloud, except for Banjo & Kazoie. Plus they'd have the perfect moveset for Smash. Surprisingly, I really can see this one happening.
If you can’t tell, I’m excited about Smash Switch, I’m sure there are other features and ideas I’m missing (as well as a few honorable mentions for fighters I'd like to see, but I just can't imagine happening like Mike Jones of star Tropics), but this is all the bulk of what I think and a little of what I’d love to see (but perhaps wont) in the Switch version of the game that I think would all only improve an already fantastic series of games. I suppose I should speculate as to what the game will actually be called, the obvious choices seem to be Super Smash Bros. for Switch, Super Smash Bros. DX, or Super Smash Bros. Deluxe. Frankly I kind of hope they call it Super Smash Bros Deluxe, because I’m not a fan of the “for X system” as part of a title thing, plus it feels like a call back to the old game titles: Melee and Brawl, just one word after the Smash Bros title. Plus it would give us all a simple way to address the game: Deluxe or DX, everyone always just says they were playing Melee or Brawl or Project M, but no one really says Smash for Wii U, most people say Smash 4 it seems like. So I kind of like how a name like Deluxe, while not incredibly original for Nintendo titles right now, at least gives it a real identity with its name, which the Wii U and 3DS entries really feel like they lacked.
With that in mind, I think I should first address what I believe the new Smash Bros game is. I do believe (perhaps to the disdain of some fans) that the new title started out as a simple ‘DX’ version of the Wii U game. The Wii U version of the game has nearly 60 fighters built, refined and balanced, I just can’t imagine them starting from square one again, especially when you know that graphically they’re going to look very similar to how they look in the Wii U version of the game anyway. I believe they’ve taken the entire Wii U title, and combined all the exclusive 3DS version of the game’s features, including all the exclusive stages and yes, Smash Run, allowing up to 4 people to play Smash Run split-screen on a single Switch. And I think from there the plan was to just add a few more fighters and stages, polish up the graphics a little, slap the DX on the title or just call it super Smash Bros. for Switch and call it a day, but I believe those plans changed. I think the initial plan might have been to get Smash DX out this year to really help sell the Switch, but the Switch has been selling really well, and has an incredibly solid lineup for the rest of the year, there really is no need to rush Smash, and as such, they can concentrate on making it a grander game. At its core it will be built on what Smash Wii U is, but it will be bursting with more new and extra content as well as extra refinement. Yeah, it will have new fighters and stages, but it will have more than all that too. Lets continue to look at what I’d like to see added to Smash Switch without getting into new fighters I’d like to see yet, I'll address that thought at the end.
Refinement
First I’d like to address general refinement. The Wii U version of the game is already fantastic, but that doesn’t mean its not without its flaws. For starters, its main menus are not intuitive, they need to just clean these up, this wouldn’t be hard, but they could make this all make a lot more sense and be more simple to navigate. Not the biggest of deals, but I’d like this fixed.
Next they really should address the character selection screen. For starters I believe the game will include all the Wii U fighters including the DLC fighters, but I think they need to fix the ordering, DLC and clone characters should sit next to their franchises (and that’s pushing forward too), put Dr. Mario next to the Mario fighters, Lucina next to the Fire Emblem ones, Dark Pit next to the Kid Icarus fighters, Roy and Corrin next to the Fire Emblem fighters, Mewtwo next to the Pokemon, and Lucas next to Ness. Also, why not give us an option to organize the character Selection screen in a way that we desire? Seems like a simple thing they could add which would really please me. Probably not going to happen, but it’d be nice.
Now, the special smash modes need some more expansive options. We can choose to do a lot, but still we are limited. In special Smash modes, we should be able to set individual attributes. For example if I want for only one fighter to be Metal at all times or one fighter to be Giant at all times while the rest of the fighters are normal, we should be able to adjust the attributes individually if we like. You can do these kinds of battles against the computer in modes like the Master and Crazy orders, so why can’t we do this just for fun with our friends? Beyond that, HP Smash should allow for a greater amount of HP than 300. Its great that you can increase the HP by increments of 10, but it sucks that the max is 300, why not 1000 or 999 or whatever? In that same regard, we should have the option to do HP + Stock, where each life has as much HP as you set and when you die you start your new life. One life for HP mode is needlessly restrictive. Beyond that, the DLC fighters should have the customizable move-sets implemented as well, custom fighting is fun, but its annoying that none of the 7 added fighters had any alternative moves. Finally, Stage Creation should be beefier, give us stage elements that we can add like the ferris wheel thing from the sonic stage, or maybe the option to add events for stages (like wind blowing, stage splitting in half, something like that), it’d be pretty awesome to see a community developing custom Smash stages as clever as what we saw in Super Mario Maker. Perhaps integrate the smartphone app, and allow us to design and upload custom stages from our smartphones.
Also, while I think online could use a lot more refinement, my main gripe would be I wish that we could choose to play stock battles online. I can kind of see why they don't do this, because in theory a stock game could last a very long time, and the servers might not be set up for that kind of thing, but come on, most people prefer to play stock over time, yet we can only play time online. This is my personal biggest gripe with online, though I'm aware that other things could be addressed as well. Personally online isn't my main way of playing, I'm more of a party/playing with friends in the same space kind of guy, so addressing online issues is the least of my concern, but adding stock would be my biggest want in that regard.
Neglected Things from the Past
There are two things I’d like to see Smash have again that it hasn’t in recent titles for the franchise, the first is transformations. But I think transformations should be optional, if you play as Samus/ZSS or Zelda/Shiek you should be able to turn transformations on or off before you play, if you have it on, you sacrifice one move for each fighter so they can use that to transform, or just one of the taunts does the transformation, we know the reason they were removed was because they were too much for the 3DS to handle, so that shouldn’t be an issue this time around, so I think transformations could definitely return. The other feature I’d like to return are the end of match bonus awards that we saw in Melee, giving awards for doing unique things in the match, and each award had points assigned to it. The awards really reminded me of the awards you’d get at the end of Goldeneye back in the day, and who didn’t love those? If they brought back the end of match bonus awards then they could bring back the bonus smash mode as well, where you fight to get the most bonus points at the end of the match. That mode honestly isn’t the reason I want the awards back, I just liked the awards, but I would have no issue with the mode returning as well. But that really does it for the missing features I’d like to see return, I’m not a big competitive guy, so my opinion on advanced techniques like wavedashing and the like is that I really don’t care one way or the other, add them back in, or leave them missing, makes little difference to how me and my friends personally play.
Brand New Features
Now for new features I’d like to see added. First and foremost, something I think very well could happen is Rotation Smash. This is based on what happens at the end of Smash Tour where you fight a round rotating stock between different fighters based on those you obtained on the game board. It’s a fun match, but you have to play a full game of Smash Tour just to experience it and you don’t really have full control on your fighters. So why not just add an entire mode where you choose how much stock you have and then choose which fighter each stock will be, you could even do random for them all if you wanted. I’d love this, and I can definitely see it coming.
I also think a new Adventure Mode could definitely happen, in fact what they should do is ship the game with the full roster as it stands right now, DLC and all, should be unlocked from the start, and all the new extra fighters have to be unlocked by playing the new Adventure Mode. Melee and especially Brawl’s Adventure Modes were great fun and fans loved them and want more, with less time needed to focus on making a ton of brand new fighters, perhaps they could devote some time to making a full adventure mode.
A really clever little feature that I’m surprised Smash 4 doesn’t have would be if the Switch version came with an amiibo token or playing card that is just your player data card. You use this amiibo token to save your preferred nickname, control setup, favorite fighter if desired, and your personal record fighting under that name if that matters to you; so that when you go to a friend’s place or a competition or whatever and aren’t using your Switch, you can just scan your amiibo token and instantly have your favorite fighter selected with your nickname showing and your controller setup prepared.
Finally, this feature is going to lead into new fighters I’d like to see in Smash Switch. When Smash Switch started development, I think the initial plans may have been to add only up to 4 new fighters, but as time has continued on and I supsect this game has grown and evolved, I feel like I could see up to 12 new fighters added into Smash 4's already impressive roster, and potentially more DLC to come after the game launches. But I'll address that later. I think one interesting feature that could be added would be the return of the Pokemon Trainer, but not in the same way that he was in Brawl. We wouldn’t see Squirtle and Ivysaur return (despite how much I love Squirtle as a character), instead when you choose the Pokemon Trainer, you’d then get the choice of choosing any combination of 3 of the available pokemon fighters. You’d be able to choose from Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Charizard, Mewtwo, Lucario and Greninja. Then when you’re battling you could switch out your pokemon with a transformation button (Sacrificing a move or relegating the transformation to a specific taunt) just as you could between Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard, where the Pokemon trainer stands on a platform in the background, throws pokeballs and calls pokemon back into their pokeballs. Final Smash would just be the final smash of whatever Pokemon you’re using.
New FIghters
With that all addressed, I want to say that I think a new actual Pokemon fighter for Smash Switch is probably inevitable. Not only is Gen 7 out now, its quite possible that Gen 8 for the Switch may actually start being teased by the time Smash Switch comes out (if Pokemon Switch will indeed be Gen 8). I think its likely to happen and if so that it will likely be a grass pokemon, the 3rd form of a grass starter as we now have one for a fire starter and water starter. It they go Gen 7, it would be Decidueye, who honestly wouldn’t be a terrible choice. Else it could be the Gen 8 grass starter final form. One final choice could be Sceptile, now I know he’s Gen 3 and not exactly current, but Gen 3 doesn’t have any fighters in smash currently (nor does 2, 5, or 7 at this point), plus Sceptile made a name for himself in Pokken Tournament, so he does kind of stick out as a bit more of an iconic Pokemon (to be fair, Decidueye is being added to Pokken Tournament DX, but Sceptile has been in all versions).
Beyond a Grass Pokemon, I can see the following new fighters appear as well:
-Ice Climbers: only removed from Smash 4 due to limitations of the 3DS which the Switch version wouldn't be restricted by. People loved these guys and their unique playstyle, mainy mained with them in both Melee and Brawl, I would just be shocked if they don't return, in fact I'm sure they'll be one of the first "new" characters to be confirmed for the title.
-Inklings: there's no way they wont be playable fighters in the next new Smash, they're incredibly iconic and its not hard to imagine some great movesets for these guys.
-Wolf: If we get one more veteran back after the Ice Climbers, its gotta be Wolf. Why he was removed is a little odd to me, especially with the low representation of villain fighers anyway
-Arm's Fighter(s): Less likely than the Inklings but I still think they have a strong chance of appearing, I could see them having pretty much every available Arms fighter as a different costume like the Bowser Jr and the Koopalings, considering every Arms fighter pretty much controls the same, though if they don't go that route, I could it being a Spring Man and Ribbon Girl sharing the space like Olimar and Alph
-Isaac: I'm really surprised Isaac from Golden Sun hasn't been a fighter yet, Golden Sun was a pretty iconic handheld Nintendo RPG series, and Camelot is a second party close to Nintendo, it seems odd they don't have representation, especially when Isaac was an assist trophy in Brawl and doesn't even appear in 4
-K. Rool: More villains are needed and Ridley will stay relegated to a stage boss, next up would logically be K. Rool who became an iconic Nintendo villain with a unique personality of his own. I think he has a strong chance of appearing, but wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't all the same. Though the Mii Fighters did get a K. Rool outfit, so he's clearly not completely forgotten.
-Bomberman: If they add any more 3rd party fighters, I can almost Guarantee Bomberman will be next. Yeah, I'd kind of like to see Snake return again as well, but realistically, I don't think he is happening. He appeared because Kojima really wanted him in the game and now Kojima doesn't even have control of the Metal Gear franchise. On top of that, Snake's fighting style was very much at odds with everyone else's style in Smash, he doesn't really feel like he belongs as a Smash fighter. Conversely, Bomberman oozes that Nintendo charm despite not being a Nintendo property, and the moveset writes itself. If Konami is going to have a fighter in Smash again, I think it will be Bomberman before Snake, and I think he has the strongest chance of appearing of any 3rd party fighters at this point.
-Geno: The love and demand for him has died compared to when Brawl was being worked on. But like K. Rool he isn't forgotten as he also had a Mii Fighter outfit. He was everyone's favorite fighter in Mario RPG, Nintendo and Square are getting along great these days with Cloud already in Smash, and was apparently seriously considered for Brawl. I think he has a chance, but I think everyone is kinda moving on and not nearly as excited by the prospect of him in Smash as they used to be. Still I could see him making the cut somehow.
-Another Zelda Fighter: Skull Kid, Vaati, Ghirahim, or Impa (Hyrule Warriors version). For as big and important of a franchise that Zelda is for Nintendo, it seems odd that it only provides 3 separate characters for Smash to base fighters on. Granted there are different versions of the same characters to give us a total of 5 fighters from the Zelda series, but beyond Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf, another important character to the franchise should be a fighter. And I think I can narrow it down to one. It'd be nice to do a villain, but Skull Kid and Ghirahim are already assist trophies, and if I'm being honest, Ghirahim's relevance is already gone. Skull Kid could potentially make a good fighter, but I think his position as an assist trophy is a good spot as well. Vaati is a villain that appeared in a few Zelda titles, and would be a great fighter, but I think his chance to be in a Smash game has faded, at this point if you mention Vaati to a casual Zelda fan, they'll ask, "who?" Which brings me to Impa, who really does make the most sense, she appears time and time again in the Zelda series as various ages, but always as an important character in the series aiding Zelda. In Hyrule Warriors she finally got her chance to shine and show what a badass she could be. I think she makes sense as a fighter, and her Hyrule Warriors version would have a unique and perfect look and style for the new Smash title.
-Banjo & Kazooie: when we had the chance to vote for a fighter we'd like, Microsoft said they were more than open to the idea of Banjo & Kazooie appearing in Smash, Nintendo and Microsoft had worked together in the past, like when Minecraft made its way to the Wii U and Switch. The characters have their roots in Nintendo and scream Nintendo in their style. Plus they love to have their big reveal with new fighters, and this would be pinnacle of announcements they could make at this point. I mean I can't imagine any other fighters they could announce now that would be both logical and be more unexpected than Cloud, except for Banjo & Kazoie. Plus they'd have the perfect moveset for Smash. Surprisingly, I really can see this one happening.
If you can’t tell, I’m excited about Smash Switch, I’m sure there are other features and ideas I’m missing (as well as a few honorable mentions for fighters I'd like to see, but I just can't imagine happening like Mike Jones of star Tropics), but this is all the bulk of what I think and a little of what I’d love to see (but perhaps wont) in the Switch version of the game that I think would all only improve an already fantastic series of games. I suppose I should speculate as to what the game will actually be called, the obvious choices seem to be Super Smash Bros. for Switch, Super Smash Bros. DX, or Super Smash Bros. Deluxe. Frankly I kind of hope they call it Super Smash Bros Deluxe, because I’m not a fan of the “for X system” as part of a title thing, plus it feels like a call back to the old game titles: Melee and Brawl, just one word after the Smash Bros title. Plus it would give us all a simple way to address the game: Deluxe or DX, everyone always just says they were playing Melee or Brawl or Project M, but no one really says Smash for Wii U, most people say Smash 4 it seems like. So I kind of like how a name like Deluxe, while not incredibly original for Nintendo titles right now, at least gives it a real identity with its name, which the Wii U and 3DS entries really feel like they lacked.
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