What if Meowth was one of the original 12 instead of Jigglypuff?

[Perkilator]

Looking back, I think I would've preferred to be one of the original 12 instead of . was popular at the time of Smash 64, but that's it; meanwhile, was way more popular in the anime in comparison for not only being a talking Pokemon, but also a member of the Team Rocket trio, and is still relevant today.

 

[Golden Icarus]

100% would have preferred this. I don’t think this is confirmed, but I’m pretty sure Jigglypuff’s inclusion is largely due to their similarities to Kirby. Puff isn’t quite a clone in 64, but it’s clear that they used Kirby as a base. Either way, when I think about going back in time to change some of Sakurai’s character choices, replacing Puff with Meowth is one of the first things that comes to mind.

 

[illegalsmileIV:XX]

 

[Perkilator]

Sacrilege!

I'll be honest, and say, I have no knowledge of Pokemon, beyond Pik and Puff, I just had to Google Meowth... What sort of fighting style comes to mind, when you consider it for inclusion in Smash?

I'm only going on the look of the character here, but I can see a similar style to Pik(?)

I see kind of a sneaky, underhanded fighting style for Meowth.

 

[Otoad64]

would've been a better choice.

I like Puff, but Meowth just makes way more sense.

 

[Champion of Hyrule]

Honestly, I think Jigglypuff makes more sense for Smash. Puff was used a bit of Gen 1 marketing and is pretty iconic in Red/Blue/Green, but Meowth is only really especially important in the anime, and I’m sure the anime really wasn’t a priority for picking a second character, for Sakurai. He might have even decided on the Smash 64 characters before the anime became popular, although that’s not confirmed.

Plus, IMO Jigglypuff would have had more moveset potential than Meowth. I would like to see Meowth in Smash, and think he could have a pretty good moveset. (He’s even my favorite Pokémon) but I just think Puff makes more sense in Smash

 

[WaddleKing]

Honestly I just want both.

If we can have as well as a bunch of other characters with a similar silhouette.

Gimme the balloon and scratch cat who play and look nothing alike.

 

[illegalsmileIV:XX]

 

[Otoad64]

From what I'm reading, I'm glad it was the pink balloon that made it in... (Bet you can't guess why?!) Honestly, even though I had to Google Meowth, I would think it'd make a more interesting character than Pikachu, certainly in terms of the overall look of the character screen.

but Pikachu is the mascot of Pokemon so you kinda have to have him

 

[illegalsmileIV:XX]

 

[WaddleKing]

Well Meowth is also the rival to Pikachu, removing Pikachu would remove the point of adding him, like Sephiroth with no Cloud or something.

 

[illegalsmileIV:XX]

 

[WaddleKing]

So, in reality, it would have actually made a lot of sense to have Pika and Meowth - canon wise - together?!

It's like how I would have preferred to see Peach or Toad, rather than Luigi... Mario and Luigi, together, although different characters in 64, are still very samey. But, yeah, knowing Pik and Moew are rivals, would have actually made the pairing quite good. They would have to be relatively close in strength and ability, for it to work properly.

Well it's more of his straight up enemy, one of the few Pokemon Pikachu shows massive dismay against usually (and vice versa). Pikachu does have lesser prominent rivals that do look or work kinda similar, like Raichu or Mimikyu, though the former would have to be some form of clone most likely. Imo I think he/Team Rocket should have just been in the future games anyway since 64 and Melee were riddled with time constraints, sure he'd have to be unique but he's still a relatively easy character to work with.

 

[Otoad64]

thing is you can only really add Meowth in 64, Melee or Brawl because past that they just add mons from the newest generation

 

[WaddleKing]

thing is you can only really add Meowth in 64, Melee or Brawl because past that they just add mons from the newest generation

Thing is he'd still fit nicely in future games since he's proven to remain a consistent mainstay, plus you can rep stuff from new gens too with regional forms. And back in Brawl we got both promotional mon and a longtime mainstay through PT. By Ultimate I'd have added a full on promo pick + a mainstay pick in the form of Team Rocket or Eevee.
There's a difference between what I expect and think would work well pretty much.

 

[Otoad64]

Thing is he'd still fit nicely in future games since he's proven to remain a consistent mainstay, plus you can rep stuff from new gens too with regional forms. And back in Brawl we got both promotional mon and a longtime mainstay through PT. By Ultimate I'd have added a full on promo pick + a mainstay pick in the form of Team Rocket or Eevee.

I agree I would prefer to get a mainstay and promo pick, but the thing is, Ultimate only had 6 non echo newcomers at launch. Unless you want to squeeze in Raichu as an echo then I'm not sure how you can add both

 

[WaddleKing]

I agree I would prefer to get a mainstay and promo pick, but the thing is, Ultimate only had 6 non echo newcomers at launch. Unless you want to squeeze in Raichu as an echo then I'm not sure how you can add both

Well there is DLC in the case of Ultimate. I was more passable with it in 4 since it was their first time, I can let just 1 new Pokemon rep and it being a pure promo pick pass, but with Ult it's gotten really stale, plus a lot of the mainstays technically would also promote things they still use, in the form of their animes, merch (which Eevee especially gets a ton made of), cards and so on.
Unfortunately my expectations are very low, but I'd love more than anything to see a mainstay be added again.

 

[StrangeKitten]

I would greatly prefer to have Meowth over Puff. I can see why Puff was chosen at the time - she had a pretty large role in the anime and was pretty popular, and since Smash 64 had a budget of pocket lint, could be built off of Kirby. There really weren't too many other Pokemon at the time who could be built off of existing fighters, and of the ones I can think of, they'd be worse additions than Puff.

It's only in hindsight that Puff becomes one of the worst additions in my eyes. Gen 1 is the only gen to have more than 1 fighter from it, and boy does it have a lot. However, each gen 1 mon is easy to justify, except for Puff. Pikachu is the mascot, Mewtwo is the only legendary and serves as the "villain", and Pokemon Trainer incorporates stages of evolution and switching and serves as an excuse to add Charizard who is the series' other mascot. That leaves Puff feeling very superfluous, as her gag in the anime isn't really used (they revived it briefly in Sun and Moon but it didn't shoot her to the top of popularity or anything). In the mainline games, she's never really been more than a random Pokemon you could come across. Her popularity really faded after gen 1 and never really picked back up much. Meowth has at least remained relevant in the anime as well as the games (he's gotten the lion's share of new forms the past two gens!)

 

[Arcadenik]

This question and topic depress me.

The only way to fix this is to finally put Meowth in Smash as a playable fighter.

 

[dezeray112]

I would've preferred to have either Meowth or Gengar. But I am perfectly fine with Jigglypuff's inclusion.

 

[YoshiandToad]

Meowth would have definitely held up better than Puff does in the modern day.
Puff was one of the random Pokémon that got promoted during Gen 1's peak alongside the aforementioned Meowth, Psyduck, Squirtle, Charmander, Bulbasaur and Pikachu so at the time it made a lot more sense than it does now. Eevee sort of picked up more popularity as the generations rolled on thanks to additional Eeveelutions like Umbreon, Espeon and Sylveon and occasionally being a starter in spinoffs

Imagine how weird it would be to have Psyduck in Smash now that he's featured far less, yet Psyduck had a considerably bigger role than Jigglypuff ever did.

Meowth meanwhile is still relevant today thanks to his reoccurring antagonist role in the anime. Heck, after Pikachu he is the most reoccurring Pokémon bar none.

Gamefreak and the Pokémon company aren't shy about using him in their games either as a preorder bonus for Sword and Shield with a special dynamax form and both Alola and Galar have unique variants of Meowth.
Pokémon Go, Pokémon Masters and Pokémon Let's Go recently adopted the anime Team Rocket into the games too, and Team Rainbow Rocket(silly name, yes) utilised Meowth as the united team's mascot mon.

 

[Pupp135]

I’m happy that Jigglypuff got in and see it as a nice bonus due to its ease of development, but I will admit that if time constraints weren’t a factor, Meowth would have made more sense if we go by legacy since it continued to play a big role in the anime (tbh, if I had enough development time for a second unique Pokemon in SSB64, I would’ve gone with Mewtwo, who was planned for SSB64; maybe Meowth could be in Melee in this hypothetical).
In this case, would Ness also be cut since he’s the most unique secret character, and would Melee have only 25 fighters since Jigglypuff takes less work than a unique fighter, and there wouldn’t be something to replace it (I’m assuming we have the original time constraints)?

 

[Annex]

Imagine how weird it would be to have Psyduck in Smash now that he's featured far less, yet Psyduck had a considerably bigger role than Jigglypuff ever did.

It's crazy - if Jiggs didn't get picked for this game it seems so unlikely that she would've been added in later.

More people may know her now just from how much smash has grown than knew her back when she was being given her time in the anime and franchise.

Crazy