What If ALL Smash Games Suffered Less and Rushed Development Time?

[DreamyMystX64]

All based off of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZqaT57cCUQ

Just before I jump into the rosters, a few things would be affected obviously, such as no third parties and rushed release dates (since that's the point of the topic), and some aspects of certain fighters would be dropped for something to align with rushed development. The roster would overall be way smaller (possibly triple the amount of Smash 64's roster).

Ultimate also likely wouldn't had existed if this happened to be the Smash timeline, though instead we'd get a "Deluxe" port of Smash 3DS/Wii U that combines all content from both of those games into the same package plus new content. On the bright side, it would likely see a 2017 release (the same year the Switch launched).

Believe it or not, I did comment how this would have worked for Melee in the video I linked above (from David V. Kimball).

GAMES:

Spoiler: 64 (1999)

ROSTER:

Mario
Donkey Kong
Link
Samus (would not have Zero Suit transformation)
Yoshi
Kirby
Fox
Pikachu
Luigi (clone of Mario)
Captain Falcon
Ness
Mewtwo

STAGES:

Battlefield
Final Destination
Peach's Castle
Kongo Jungle
Hyrule Castle
Planet Zebes
Super Happy Tree
Dream Land
FX Cruise
Pokémon Stadium
Mute City (would be like on Smash 3DS)
Onett (would be like from Smash Remix)

Spoiler: Melee (2001) (GameCube Launch Title)

ROSTER:

All of the Smash 64 cast, including the following newcomers:

Peach
Bowser
Zelda (would not have Sheik transformation)
King Dedede
Marth (would most (possibly) likely take from Link considering they're both swordsmen)
Ryota Hayami (added as a Captain Falcon clone (as clone characters usually save development time) to advertise Wave Race: Blue Storm)

STAGES:

Battlefield
Final Destination
Peach's Castle
Bowser's Castle
Kongo Jungle
Hyrule Temple
Planet Zebes
Yoshi's Story
Green Greens
Fountain of Dreams
Corneria
Pokémon Stadium
Mute City
Onett
Archanea
Dolphin Park

Spoiler: Brawl (late 2007)

ROSTER:

All of the Melee cast (including the 64 veterans), including the following newcomers:

Ganondorf (would not be another Captain Falcon clone)
Ridley
Meta Knight
Wolf (clone of Fox)
Pit
Geolyte (from Sakurai's DS game "Meteos")

STAGES:

Battlefield
Final Destination
Comet Observatory
Luigi's Mansion
Bowser's Castle
Kongo Jungle
100m
Bridge of Eldin
Norfair
Yoshi's Island (would be like the SSF2 stage)
Green Greens
Mt. Dedede
Halberd
Lylat Cruise
Pokémon Stadium
Port Town Aero Dive
Saturn Valley (would be like the SSF2 stage)
Archanea
Dolphin Park
Skyworld
a home stage for Geolyte

Spoiler: 3DS/Wii U (late 2013)

ROSTER:

All of the Brawl cast (including every veterans from the past games), including the following newcomers:

Diddy Kong
Tingle
Wario
Waddle Dee
Palutena
Olimar
Shulk (would not have Monado Arts)
Little Mac (would not have KO Meter)

STAGES:

Battlefield
Final Destination
Comet Observatory
Mario Circuit
Luigi's Mansion
Bowser's Castle
Tropical Freeze
100m
Skyloft
Clock Tower (would be like the SSF2 stage)
Pyrosphere
Yoshi's Island (would be like the SSF2 stage)
The Great Cave Offensive
Halberd
Orbital Gate Assault
Pokémon Stadium
Port Town Aero Dive
Saturn Valley (would be like the SSF2 stage)
Archanea
Coliseum
Dolphin Park
Skyworld
Palutena's Temple
a home stage for Geolyte
Gamer
Garden of Hope
Guar Plains
WVBA Ring

Spoiler: Deluxe (2017)

ROSTER:

All characters from every previous entry, including these following newcomers:

Isabelle
Inkling (would have unlimited ink to avoid certain mechanics revolving around it)
Spring Man (would not have selectable ARMS)
Takamaru

STAGES:

Battlefield
Final Destination
Peach's Castle
Mario Circuit
Comet Observatory
Luigi's Mansion
Bowser's Castle
Rainbow Road
Kongo Jungle
Tropical Freeze
100m
Hyrule Temple
Skyloft
Clock Tower (would be like the SSF2 stage)
Great Plateau Tower
Pyrosphere
Yoshi's Island (would be like the SSF2 stage)
The Great Cave Offensive
Halberd
FX Cruise
Orbital Gate Assault
Pokémon Stadium
Mute City 64
Port Town Aero Dive
Onett
Saturn Valley (would be like the SSF2 stage)
Archanea
Coliseum
Dolphin Park
Skyworld
Palutena's Temple
a home stage for Geolyte
Gamer
Garden of Hope
Guar Plains
WVBA Ring
Town & City
Moray Towers
Spring Stadium
Murasame Castle

 

[Depressed Gengar]

Why on earth is Mewtwo on a SSB64 roster that's supposed to be suffering from time constraints? Jigglypuff was a semi-clone of Kirby, so cutting her for someone completely unique would take more time, not less.

 

[DreamyMystX64]

Why on earth is Mewtwo on a SSB64 roster that's supposed to be suffering from time constraints? Jigglypuff was a semi-clone of Kirby, so cutting her for someone completely unique would take more time, not less.

Let's just assume Smash 64 wasn't affected by this timeline. Besides, I'm not that heavily attached to the ideas of Jigglypuff in Smash.

 

[Pupp135]

For this, I’ll increase the limits and include third parties as Snake was a part of Brawl’s original plan, and Brawl without a delay is technically a shortened development time.

Spoiler: 64: Fall 1998

I’m also shortening 64’s development time as I think it’s only fair for all entries to have reduced development times.
I don’t see a reason to leave out any of the starters despite Yoshi being an honorary Mario character and Metroid being irrelevant compared to other franchises.
Falcon stays as he’s probably easier to develop than Ness or Marth, and making Wario a Mario semiclone feels redundant.
Luigi and Falcon are the secret fighters, but Luigi takes Jigglypuff’s requirement.
Stages:
Mushroom Kingdom
Kongo Jungle
Hyrule Castle
Brinstar (Zebes Renamed)
Super Happy Tree
Green Greens (Dream Land renamed)
Great Fox (Sector Z renamed)
Saffron City
I’d assume that the 1P game stages would still need to be locked behind 1P game, and I can only do 8 starting stages.

Spoiler: Melee (I guess gamecube’s launch or start in 2001)

I used davidvkimball ’s video as a guide, but I replaced the 17th fighter with two clones as I assume that clones could still sneak in.
Bowser led the poll.
Peach was still presumably second on the poll, and she rounds out the Mario cast.
I added Marth as introducing Fire Emblem to the West sounds like a good idea.
Ness joins because I would’ve considered adding Lucas for Earthbound 64 promotion, but it gets cancelled, and I could use Lucas’s moveset for Ness. Also, I think Ness would’ve had a good number of votes.
Mewtwo was a major request, and Pokemania was huge.
For the remaining fighter, I struggled on who to pick. I went with Zelda as OoT was popular, and she‘d reuse Peach’s assets.
For clones, I’ll just say Dr. Mario and Falco because their proportions are the closest to the base character, and Roy was probably decided as one of the latter clones.
For unlocks, I’ll go with Mewtwo, the clones, Marth, and Captain Falcon.
Stages:
(Above) Peach’s Castle
Bowser’s Castle
Kongo Falls
Temple
Great Bay
Crateria
Archanea
Mute City
Yoshi’s Island
Fountain of Dreams
Halberd
Venom
Onett
Pokemon Stadium
Final Destination
Battlefield
Metal Cavern
Brinstar
Dream Land
Great Fox
Saffron City
The unlockable stages would be Mute City, the series originals, and the 64 ones.

Spoiler: Brawl (Fall 2007)

For this one, I’ll assume the delay never happens, which means that at least five or so characters are missing (this would at least have been Lucario, Sonic, and the post subspace fighters in the real game. Given that R.O.B.’s codes are after Lucario, I’d probably say that he’d be missing too in this scenario). With my Melee roster reduced to 18, I’ll say that somewhere around 30 isn’t too far fetched (There were vacancies from clone Ganondorf and of Sheik/Ice Climbers/Mr. Game & Watch, but that development time could be used to bring in another newcomer or two).
For cuts, I’ll say that Dr. Mario and Mewtwo are cut like in the real timeline, and it probably doesn’t help that Mewtwo would probably be buggier in this timeline (I found this reference on why Mewtwo was cut).
Snake was personally requested by Kojima, so I cannot see myself rejecting him.
In terms of the 18 unique newcomers, I’d probably still work on all of them barring Sonic as he was turned down before the delay happened. Meta Knight gained in prominence/popularity around that time, Pit and R.O.B. seem like interesting retros, Zero Suit Samus gives us a cool Easter egg, Wario, Diddy, and Dedede get their due invitation, Ike, Lucas, and Lucario represent newer games, Pokemon Trainer has a cool gimmick (This idea was planned before the delay), Olimar represents a new franchise, and Toon Link and Wolf are lower effort fighters.
In addition to these fighters, I’d also want to consider or work on Ganondorf, Ice Climbers, and Isaac as the former is a prominent character not on the roster, and the latter two seem like cool characters from different series.
In terms of scrapped fighters, I’ll say that Dr. Mario, Mewtwo, Toon Link, King Dedede, Wolf, Lucario, Isaac, R.O.B., and Sonic are cut.
The unlocks would be Ganondorf, Marth, Captain Falcon, Falco, Lucas, and Snake
In terms of Subspace roles, I think I can keep most of the things similar. The Ancient Minister doesn’t fight after his reveal as R.O.B. Meta Knight is on his own for the Halberd. King Dedede keeps his role, but is not playable, so it’s Luigi and Ness against Bowser. The Game & Watch bugs never happen, and Zelda never transforms.
Stages (I’ll say 30 is fair)
Delfino Plaza
Luigi’s Mansion
Mario Circuit
Oil Drum Alley
Flower Fields
Wario Ware
Bridge of Eldin
Pirate Ship
Frigate Orpheon
Serenes Forest
Big Blue
Dedede Castle
Corneria
New Pork City
Spear Pillar
Distant Spring
Underworld
Icicle Mountain NES style
Smashville
Shadow Moses Island
Battlefield
Final Destination
Metal Cavern
Mushroom Kingdom
Brinstar
Temple
Fountain of Dreams
Great Fox
Pokemon Stadium
Unlockable stages will be Sky Pillar, 25m, Bowser’s Castle, Big Blue, Smashville, Metal Cavern, Temple, and Brinstar.

Spoiler: 3DS (Spring 2014) and WiiU (Summer 2014)

For this one, I’ll lower the base roster to 44, which would give me most newcomers except for Bowser Jr and Duck Hunt’s slots.
In terms of cuts, Ice Climbers, Ivysaur, Squirtle, Lucas, and Snake are cut for similar reasons giving me 25 veterans to work with.
Given complaints for its absence in Brawl, Mewtwo would return (pun unintended).
For newcomers, Villager, King Dedede, Miis, Sonic, Mega Man, and Pac-Man are obvious.
Rosalina seems like a cool, gimmicky choice.
Greninja stays for promotional reasons again.
I’ll keep Shulk just so that I have a character from a new series.
Palutena was requested, and Kid Icarus: Uprising was new.
I still want an Awakening character, and Robin seems more interesting than Chrom.
Little Mac was a requested fighter.
Wii Fit Trainer was a fun, quirky choice, so I’ll keep her.
I want to say to add Ridley, but I also considered Rosalina and Little Mac. Because of the lack of development time, Ridley joins as the bonus DLC.
I think that the clones can be made in the same timeframe.
For DLC, I’ll just leave it to 5 slots.
For the first DLC fighter, I’ll go with Ridley as I‘d need time to figure out how to make him work be.
I wanted to add a second Link in Brawl, so Toon Link should be easy enough to add.
Ryu and Cloud are prominent choices, so they stay.
For unlockable fighters, I’ll say that Rosalina, Ganondorf, Marth, Captain Falcon, Falco, Mewtwo, Dr. Mario, Dark Pit, and Lucina are unlockable.
Because of time constraints, 8 player smash never happens unfortunately, and I probably wouldn’t add Smash Tour or Master Orders/Crazy Orders.

Spoiler: For Deluxe (2017)

Tidus(/)
I’d view this like Mario Kart 8 DX, and I’d probably just combine all the 3DS and Wii U content into one.
Snake returns as he was the only missing veteran.
Newcomers would just be K. Rool, Isabelle, Simon, Corrin, and Inkling. Corrin is controversial, but Fates was relevant during this cycle.
For echoes, I’d probably just add Chrom and Daisy.
DLC would probably have only one wave.
I’ll go with something like this:
Incinoroar as the bonus DLC fighter as the promotional Pokemon.
Bayonetta‘s series does have strong relations with Nintendo, and she had votes.
If there is a Square Enix character, I’d prefer Tidus.
Tekken is huge, and Namco plays a big role in this, so Kazuya joins,
Pyra/Mythra join to promote Xenoblade 2, and the Rex duo thing just doesn’t work.
From this, the only characters that feel missing to me are Steve, and Sora (I’d like to see Jigglypuff and Sheik too, but just didn’t work out unfortunately).

 

[DreamyMystX64]

Updated my listings to add stages

 

[Wario Wario Wario]

why does smash 64 have more content

 

[DreamyMystX64]

why does smash 64 have more content

first game in the series, nuff said

 

[davidvkimball]

Fun discussion! I have a concept for a new video that's what would have happened if Smash 64 was released for GameCube as the first game in the series.

 

[DreamyMystX64]

Fun discussion! I have a concept for a new video that's what would have happened if Smash 64 was released for GameCube as the first game in the series.

Hello David!

Wasn’t very much expecting to see you here!

I do indeed also look forward to seeing that idea very soon!