Will Smash Ultimate get a new joke/out of left field character, and if so, who do you think it'll be?

[Impa4Smash]

So since Melee, every Smash game has gotten at least one joke, or just really unexpected (but also fairly jokey) character:

Melee -
Brawl -
Smash 4 -

Do you think Smash Ultimate will continue the tradition, or will fan service and a limited roster hurt those chances? Or maybe none will strike Sakurai's fancy. Any thoughts?

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

I think it's going to be Pichu. His gimmick is going to be that he's too young and hasn't properly learned to control his electric abilities and ends up shocking himself

 

[Zinith]

If I'm gonna think really out-of-left-field, I would say the eShop bag.

Spoiler

But part of me wants that character to be Boshi

 

[Impa4Smash]

Maybe I should've added Pichu as a joke character lol

But I was thinking maybe Jack Frost from Shin Megami Tensei.

It would be very out there, but most of the recent games in the series have been on the 3DS, and SMT V is exclusive to Switch (and coming sometime in the future). And Jack Frost is basically Atlus's mascot, and could have a cool icy/snowy move set.

(plus he's adorable)

 

[StormC]

If Simon didn't get leaked he probably would have been the "surprise" character.

Of course that leak could be wrong.

But. Y'know.

 

[Malkior7]

I think at this point Shrek and Goku are the only 2 joke characters that could truly surprise me

 

[Astraltar]

May I remind you I've made a support thread for a fighter based on Tetris? My idea was you make a humanoid structure out of all the different pieces. Two straight pieces for his legs, a T-shape piece for his pelvis, two (meaning both) S-shaped (curvy) pieces for his torso. Then his arms would be made of L-shaped pieces and his head would be a square piece that rotates on an axis just for visual flair. So there's no kind of Tetris piece that's not represented. And he would NOT occupy 2D space like Game & Watch. He'd fill 3D space.

That's my idea of a good jokey character.

 

[Impa4Smash]

I think at this point Shrek and Goku are the only 2 joke characters that could truly surprise me

The game will only truly be Ultimate if Shrek is playable

A Astraltar I'll have to check out that thread. I like that idea! I could see Sakurai making something like that lol

 

[smash puffle]

I always wanted to play as Sandbag since Melee, so this would finally be a glorious moment in humanity when we finally get to play as him.

 

[JadeRock 5599]

I like the idea of sandbag as he could really be used as a joke but also represent a character very important to smash's history.

His side smash should be a bat and it would feel like," how do you guys like being hit by bats?!"

 

[oxyborb]

Nintendo put Mario into Minecraft.

Microsoft might just put Steve into Smash. I think this will be the big shock.

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

They should have the fighting Sandbag team in the next game

 

[Takasmash]

Tabuu playable will be huge.

 

[Honest Slug]

Playable Sandbag would be funny af.

 

[Deleted member]

Dora the Explorer hey she hits all the criterias she has her own video games for the ds

 

[GoodGrief741]

Maybe a Style Savvy character? Nobody would see that coming.

At this point, any of the Brawl ATs getting upgraded would be surprising (Saki, Isaac, Jill, somebody from AW, Ray, freaking Barbara the Bat)

 

[KatKit]

That's a recent first-party character who's the face of her franchise that originated from the DS era, which lacks playable reps in Smash. She comes from a relatively popular series that has more entries than Mother, for example. She has several other legitimate reason to be in this game and yet nobody would see her coming. She'd be more WTF than Wii Fit Trainer, and it'd be glorious.

Edit: Good grief, someone beat me to it.

Edit again: Heh, and their username is literally good grief.

 

[Enchess]

I'm hoping with all my heart it's Sandbag. He's lovable, memorable, and would represent a franchise that ironically doesn't have any roster representation yet.

But if I can't get that, Snip&Clip, the Pushmo guy, and Picross Mario (Mario in an archeologist costume with a chisel as a weapon) are all at least 0.05% chance (unfortunately still more likely than Sandbag imo).

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

That's a recent first-party character who's the face of her franchise that originated from the DS era, which lacks playable reps in Smash. She comes from a relatively popular series that has more entries than Mother, for example. She has several other legitimate reason to be in this game and yet nobody would see her coming. She'd be more WTF than Wii Fit Trainer, and it'd be glorious.

Edit: Good grief, someone beat me to it.

Edit again: Heh, and their username is literally good grief.

That picture has this super creepy uncanny valley thing going on

 

[Sailor Waddle Dee]

Yo

Although personally I Don't see Qbby as a joke character.
He'd definitely be viewed as rather out of left field by many people

 

[Impa4Smash]

Yo

View attachment 150478

Although personally I Don't see Qbby as a joke character.
He'd definitely be viewed as rather out of left field by many people

I’d be down with Qbby in the game! I think he’d be weird enough to continue on the legacy lol

 

[Sabrewulf238]

I predict the out of left field addition will be.....the fact that there is no oddball this time around. I think there's a good chance the lack of places will mean Sakurai might feel pressed to leave out the oddball addition this time around.

That said I could see it being something like a Rhythm Heaven character or Chibi Robo, not really an "oddball" but still a character not many people are taking seriously.

If I HAD to pick an "oddball" I'd probably say Excitebiker, since it fits both the retro role and the oddball role being a fighter that is constantly riding a bike. (but that's more personal preference than what I think Sakurai will do)

A part of me thinks Sukapon was the oddball addition.....as an assist.

 

[Smashoperatingbuddy123]

Mach rider is my guess

And thanks to papagenos video here explains almost to a T why for me

 

[DarthEnderX]

If there's a surprise obscure character, it's probably not gonna be 3rd Party. So far, all the 3rd Party characters have been extremely iconic series characters(except maybe Bayonetta).

Lets see...Game & Watch, Duck Hunt, R.O.B....I think I can out-obscure-Nintendo-history that.

I'm gonna say.....Napoleon from the cover of one of Nintendo's Hanafuda decks!

 

[DonkaFjord]

If we were to follow patterns, all of these 'surprise inclusions' are characters that were incredibly important to Nintendo's history and legacy. They all were tied to one specific piece of Nintendo hardware (R.O.B./Zapper/G&W/Balance Board) and thus a specific era for Nintendo.
Of course patterns can be broken, but I don't think these characters are as unfitting or unmerited as people say (G&W was their first true gaming system and first handheld gaming device, R.O.B. is what helped the NES surpass the gaming market crash by acting as a 'trojan horse' so retailers would see it as more of a toy then a game console, Duck Hunt was on the top 3 best selling NES games twice because of a dual cartridge. The light gun also calls back their first attempt at electronic entertainment being light gun setups in old bowling alleys- plus the characters are pretty engrained in pop culture and gaming culture. The Wii series of games is one of the best selling game series of all time- a feat it was able to pull off in a single generation. Wii Sports and Wii Fit were full blown phenomenons in both the industry and pop culture. Wii Fit has even been used in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes because of its benefits, accessibility, and appeal. The Wii and DS were times where Nintendo basically created the casual gaming market- a demographic that was previously thought to be unprofitable but is now one of the most profitable demographics in the industry.)

So if the pattern continues, it will be a character who was very impactful to Nintendo's history in the industry- it likely won't be a character from a third party or some random side character from a game just because 'no one expected them at all!' But like I said, patterns can be broken.

 

[YoshiandToad]

My money is on either Geno or Sandbag.

 

[Zema]

With Waluigi out of the way, I don't know what other joke characters could possibly make it in.

Sorry, Waluigi fans, I couldn't resist.

 

[Diddy Kong]

Am gonna to vote for Geno here.

Before the Sakurai comments that he wanted to include him two times now, he seems super "out there". But now, not so much anymore.

I don't think any retro could compare with him. I also fail to really see one potential retro newcomer that's actually somewhat demanded.

Other than that... Pichu is back?

 

[papagenos]

Mach rider is my guess

And thanks to papagenos video here explains almost to a T why for me

Well seems redundant for me to say it haha but yeah Mach Rider would be my out of left field pick for all those reasons.

I suppose if you think Geno or Chorus Kids are out of left field I also believe both of those have a pretty good shot too.

 

[Thermithral]

Okay, now here me out on this one!

Smash has A LOT of characters, 65 presently, but very few of them were created outside of Japan.

Out of the 65 characters, 7 are third party, and all of them are taken pretty seriously, in that they are not revealed like a joke (like Wario was in Brawl).

So there is potential for a comedic, joke character fro ma western third party in the roster. But who woudl fit the role.

I present...

Murky, the Murloc ( From Blizzard Entertainment)

Why Murky?
- He is a western character designed by a very large third party western studio, Blizzard, who also happens to now be owned by Activision.
- Murlocs have been around for a very long time and are basically Blizzards equivalent of Sonic(only good), appearing either directly or heavily referenced in virtually every title they release from Warcraft to Overwatch.
- I cant imagine him having a moveset similar to any presently included character.
- Is not taken seriously, at all, and would be hilarious to see.

Will it actually happen? No. Absolutely not in fact, but I would absolutely LOVE it. Mainly, it would pave the way for what I want, Warcraft stuff on the Switch.

 

[Quick Gaming (QG)]

So since Melee, every Smash game has gotten at least one joke, or just really unexpected (but also fairly jokey) character:

Melee -
Brawl -
Smash 4 -

Do you think Smash Ultimate will continue the tradition, or will fan service and a limited roster hurt those chances? Or maybe none will strike Sakurai's fancy. Any thoughts?

Snip and Clip from Snipperclips? IDK

 

[Runic_SSB]

Probably either Labo Robot or the eShop bag IMO.

 

[Souldin]

Whilst I'm not a fan of the term 'joke character', I do get the term and what it implies. That seemingly sort of random character that comes of left field. I've actually been rooting for one of these myself, and I'm glad to see that unlike the Style Savvy rep suggestion, mine has yet to be suggested.

I think there is a chance for there to a 'joke character' addition, and my suggestion for that role would be... Vince.

Vince from Art Academy (oh gosh, I hope I'm allowed to use and post this image, I kind of just found it at random with a google search).

Art Academy is a roughly seven entry series, two of these being crossovers with Pokémon and Disney, spanning the DS, Wii, 3DS and Wii U. Vince is your instructor in most of these games and could be included with a move-set consisting of the various tools of the trade. Draw a line to get back to the stage, create objects by painting them onto a canvas, use a rubber to erase oncoming attacks; these are just a few rough ideas, but I did once make a full-on move-set for him towards the tail-end of SSB4's release.

I feel that if we were likely to get one of the 'joke character' then someone representing Art Academy or Style Savvy would be my best bet; decently running Nintendo franchises aimed at a wider audience.

 

[Bolshoi]

Just putting it out there...Snipperclips. They've already got a song in Smash U

 

[kendikong]

Tingle no longer an assist trophy, meaning...?

 

[Impa4Smash]

Tingle no longer an assist trophy, meaning...?

He's a stage element in the Great Bay stage, so the AT might have been removed because of that. Or maybe they just haven't confirmed him as an AT too yet.
The salt would be high if he got in before the likes of Skull Kid, Impa, Midna, Tetra, the Champions, etc.

 

[Bolshoi]

He's a stage element in the Great Bay stage, so the AT might have been removed because of that. Or maybe they just haven't confirmed him as an AT too yet.
The salt would be high if he got in before the likes of Skull Kid, Impa, Midna, Tetra, the Champions, etc.

I don't know if that actually deconfirms people anymore. Toon Link still pilots the Spirit Train when he's not being played on that stage.

 

[Impa4Smash]

I don't know if that actually deconfirms people anymore. Toon Link still pilots the Spirit Train when he's not being played on that stage.

I suppose he could just not show up if someone plays as Tingle.

I’m probably biased since I despise Tingle lol. But he could certainly be a funny joke character though

 

[Keenwah]

Nintendo put Mario into Minecraft.

Microsoft might just put Steve into Smash. I think this will be the big shock.

And seeing as how Nintendo and Microsoft have been chatting about Minecraft crossplay on Twitter and the updated Minecraft coming out on Switch not too long ago, I wouldn't put it past them to put him in. Although I REALLY don't want Steve in.

 

[AquaSol]

Yup. I doubt the newcomer roster is going to be entirely high-ranking ballot picks. I'm predicting Chorus Kids.