WertQuadNine
Smash Journeyman
Today I pose an interesting question: What if Smash Ultimate was the very first game in the series?
By that, I mean what if Smash 64, Melee, Brawl, Smash Wii U, and Smash 3DS NEVER existed? What if E3 2018 was our first glance at a unique fighting game that brought together Nintendo's most iconic characters into an all-out free for all battle? There would obviously be quite a lot of differences, but I think we should just focus on the roster itself. So with that, let's design what we think the roster would look like!
A few "rules"
- Just pretend every other Nintendo game has been released without any differences. Smash has definitely influenced behind the door discussions on other games, but let's just ignore that and pretend everything else has been the same. (Ex: Fire Emblem still came to the west, Link, Inkling, and Animal Crossing characters still came to MK8, etc.)
- Pretend the "the development plans finished in 2015" comment doesn't exist and just think any game release could be represented
- Don't just make a wishlist, attempt to think like Nintendo Execs would while designing
- Besides that, everything is free reign, go nuts!!!
- Just pretend every other Nintendo game has been released without any differences. Smash has definitely influenced behind the door discussions on other games, but let's just ignore that and pretend everything else has been the same. (Ex: Fire Emblem still came to the west, Link, Inkling, and Animal Crossing characters still came to MK8, etc.)
- Pretend the "the development plans finished in 2015" comment doesn't exist and just think any game release could be represented
- Don't just make a wishlist, attempt to think like Nintendo Execs would while designing
- Besides that, everything is free reign, go nuts!!!
My own roster
I know most people probably came to this thread with the idea to create their own, but for now, I'll start with mine to get things going.
I know most people probably came to this thread with the idea to create their own, but for now, I'll start with mine to get things going.
So the basic theme I went with was that they would want to include as many franchises as possible. With that note...
Mario Series
With the franchise being so iconic, I think they'd want to include more for Mario than anything else. I think the Brawl roster (minus Wario) is the ideal way to have a large number of reps while still only including iconic characters. Mario is Mario. Luigi is THE player 2 in gaming, Peach is THE princess, and Bowser is THE iconic villain. Also, Yoshi is his own franchise so ofc he would be there too.
Zelda Series
The main 3 is likely all we'd see. No Shiek and no toon/young link. I think they'd keep the fighters all their same iterations from Smash Ultimate so they each cover a segment of Zelda history.
Metroid Series
Likely a weird choice to include Dark Samus, but I think it makes sense if this was the first game. Nintendo treats Metroid like a major franchise so they would probably want 2 reps. Ridley would be deemed "too big" (until fans beg enough that they add him), and Dark Samus would probably be an easy clone.
Kirby Series
Probably would ditch Meta Knight to keep each series smaller. Maybe even Dedede too, but I think he deserves a spot.
Pokemon Series
This one is super hard. SOOO many choices, but I think Pikachu, Poke Trainer, and Mewtwo are the most likely. I know this only includes gen 1, but maybe the trainer would use starters from other generations or something. Maybe Lucario too, but idk
Fire Emblem
This one was hard too. Marth has a legacy in Fire Emblem games so I think he'd still be added, but the other rep is pretty hard. I put Corrin since it's the newest game, but maybe Chrom since Awakening re-vitalized the series. Tough one.
Star Fox
Just Fox. I think Star Fox is a pretty important series, but I don't think Falco or Wolf would be added due to Zero's recent failure.
Donkey Kong
Probably no Diddy. I mean he's an obvious addition for a sequel, but not sure about the base game.
Earthbound / F-Zero
I really doubt Captain Falcon or Ness would appear despite being in Smash 64. They were relevant at the time, but now no one would know who Captain Falcon is. As for Earthbound, I think most of those fans came from Smash, so they just wouldn't exist in this alternate timeline.
I'll work on the rest later.
Mario Series
With the franchise being so iconic, I think they'd want to include more for Mario than anything else. I think the Brawl roster (minus Wario) is the ideal way to have a large number of reps while still only including iconic characters. Mario is Mario. Luigi is THE player 2 in gaming, Peach is THE princess, and Bowser is THE iconic villain. Also, Yoshi is his own franchise so ofc he would be there too.
Zelda Series
The main 3 is likely all we'd see. No Shiek and no toon/young link. I think they'd keep the fighters all their same iterations from Smash Ultimate so they each cover a segment of Zelda history.
Metroid Series
Likely a weird choice to include Dark Samus, but I think it makes sense if this was the first game. Nintendo treats Metroid like a major franchise so they would probably want 2 reps. Ridley would be deemed "too big" (until fans beg enough that they add him), and Dark Samus would probably be an easy clone.
Kirby Series
Probably would ditch Meta Knight to keep each series smaller. Maybe even Dedede too, but I think he deserves a spot.
Pokemon Series
This one is super hard. SOOO many choices, but I think Pikachu, Poke Trainer, and Mewtwo are the most likely. I know this only includes gen 1, but maybe the trainer would use starters from other generations or something. Maybe Lucario too, but idk
Fire Emblem
This one was hard too. Marth has a legacy in Fire Emblem games so I think he'd still be added, but the other rep is pretty hard. I put Corrin since it's the newest game, but maybe Chrom since Awakening re-vitalized the series. Tough one.
Star Fox
Just Fox. I think Star Fox is a pretty important series, but I don't think Falco or Wolf would be added due to Zero's recent failure.
Donkey Kong
Probably no Diddy. I mean he's an obvious addition for a sequel, but not sure about the base game.
Earthbound / F-Zero
I really doubt Captain Falcon or Ness would appear despite being in Smash 64. They were relevant at the time, but now no one would know who Captain Falcon is. As for Earthbound, I think most of those fans came from Smash, so they just wouldn't exist in this alternate timeline.
I'll work on the rest later.
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