Quillion
Smash Hero
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2014
- Messages
- 5,632
With the reveal of Joker from Persona 5, my thoughts towards Smash's shyness towards playable western third-party characters have reawakened. It's been something that hasn't bothered me too much, but it's a pretty noticeable pattern nonetheless.
I know that Smash's favoritism towards Japan-made characters is completely understandable due to Japanese provincialism (NOT xenophobia, as some people may say), but I think companies outside the Land of the Rising Sun should get their fair shake in Smash at least sometime down the line. Western developers have grown to be just as definitive of the industry as Japanese developers since about the PS2/Xbox gen, with companies such as Valve, Bethesda, Ubisoft, Rockstar, and Blizzard among others making such definitive titles both then and now. Hell, I'd say even Activision and EA deserve their fair shake as well.
Yeah, I know that most of the big-name western video games have avoided Nintendo consoles like the plague up until the Switch, but we know that Smash isn't above acknowledging western third-party characters like Rayman (Ubisoft), Shantae (Wayforward) and Shovel Knight (Yacht Club). There are just so many possibilities from the west right now; the currently relevant icons alone include Doom Slayer/Doomguy, Tracer, Steve, and Sub-Zero just to name a few.
I don't know if Smash is going to break its Japanese provincialism for Ultimate, but it really should at least in the next game. They can't keep ignoring it forever, especially since Nintendo is seriously intent on actually courting third-party support from across the seas.
FINAL NOTE: I specifically want western-made third-party characters, not just characters that are popular in the west.
I know that Smash's favoritism towards Japan-made characters is completely understandable due to Japanese provincialism (NOT xenophobia, as some people may say), but I think companies outside the Land of the Rising Sun should get their fair shake in Smash at least sometime down the line. Western developers have grown to be just as definitive of the industry as Japanese developers since about the PS2/Xbox gen, with companies such as Valve, Bethesda, Ubisoft, Rockstar, and Blizzard among others making such definitive titles both then and now. Hell, I'd say even Activision and EA deserve their fair shake as well.
Yeah, I know that most of the big-name western video games have avoided Nintendo consoles like the plague up until the Switch, but we know that Smash isn't above acknowledging western third-party characters like Rayman (Ubisoft), Shantae (Wayforward) and Shovel Knight (Yacht Club). There are just so many possibilities from the west right now; the currently relevant icons alone include Doom Slayer/Doomguy, Tracer, Steve, and Sub-Zero just to name a few.
I don't know if Smash is going to break its Japanese provincialism for Ultimate, but it really should at least in the next game. They can't keep ignoring it forever, especially since Nintendo is seriously intent on actually courting third-party support from across the seas.
FINAL NOTE: I specifically want western-made third-party characters, not just characters that are popular in the west.
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