Written by Nico Farace|
Pictures from the official Smash Bros. website|
Super Smash Bros. is one of Nintendo’s biggest games. A unique fighting game that includes characters from many different franchises, from Mario to Metal Gear. it’s a game that can be enjoyed by competitive and casual players alike. The new game, titled Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, is coming out for the Nintendo Switch on December 7th. Every character from the 4 previous Smash games will be playable. The game also features brand new fighters. With 74 total characters confirmed to be playable as of this writing, the game is already looking to be the biggest Smash game yet.
So far, 9 new fighters have been confirmed to be in the game, but fans are still speculating that more could be coming. While Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of the series, said not to expect as many new fighters in this title, the last game included 17 new characters (not including the post-launch DLC, which added 4 more new fighters), so there is still room for a few more. Sakurai seems to be listening to fans with this new game, including long requested characters like Ridley (from Metroid) and King K. Rool (from Donkey Kong Country) as well as adding new features that make the game better for competitive play, such as the long-awaited ability to remove stage hazards from stages. There are many characters that fans are hoping to see, and many more who have been confirmed to not be playable.
Before we look into fighters that fans are still hoping for, let’s go over some that didn’t quite make it. The vast majority of these characters appear as assist trophies, characters that appear after a player grabs the assist trophy item. They’ll help the player who summoned them, and the character that appears is random. Characters that were assist trophies in the previous game have become full characters in the next game, but they are never playable in the game that they appear as an assist trophy.
In trailers for Smash Ultimate, several of the assist trophies are featured. Some, like Ashley (from WarioWare) and Lyn (from Fire Emblem), are returning from previous games and disconfirming their playability in this game. Others are brand new to this game, like Shovel Knight (from Shovel Knight) and Bomberman (from Bomberman). One character that many people were hoping to see promoted to a fully-fledged fighter was Waluigi. Lots of people have wanted him as a fighter for a long time, but were disappointed to see that he remained an assist trophy in this new title. Various other characters were confirmed as assist trophies that people would have liked to see, but weren’t pushing for or promoting as much, like Zero (from Mega Man X) and Alucard (from Castlevania). To close off the characters that are disconfirmed, Proto Man and Bass (from Mega Man) have been added to Mega Man’s final smash, so they will not be characters.
Despite the list of characters that have been confirmed as not playable, there are some assist trophies that were in the last game and are suspiciously absent from this new title. Dark Samus was one such character, and in the Nintendo direct in August they were one of the characters revealed along with Simon, Richter (both from Castlevania), Chrom (from Fire Emblem), and King K. Rool. Fans were already thinking they might be added as a fighter since their assist trophy was absent from the E3 demo, and this adds hope that another removed assist trophy, Shadow the Hedgehog (from Sonic), could be added as well.
Also revealed in the August direct was a new assist trophy/boss, Rathalos (from Monster Hunter). This sparked speculation that a Monster Hunter character would be added too. People cited evidence such as the fact that the Monster Hunter franchise is very big in Japan, and the fact that Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate was releasing (at the time of writing, it has released) for the Switch. There’s plenty of moveset potential too, especially since Monster Hunter was a character in the fighting game Marvel vs Capcom Infinite as well.
One character that a lot of people have been wanting for a long time is Banjo and Kazooie (from Banjo Kazooie). The characters have held a special place with fans, and though their owner Rare was bought by Microsoft in 2002, the head of Microsoft has said that he would be open to having Banjo and Kazooie in Smash. However, it would not be surprising if the character had to be left out because of contract issues with Microsoft.
Geno (from Super Mario RPG) is also wanted by some fans. An original character created for Mario RPG in 1996, he never appeared in another game. He was added as Mii costume DLC in the last game, but it doesn’t seem likely he’ll ever show up as much more. Since he was only in a single game and wasn’t even the main character of that game, fan demand is really the only thing going for him.
Isaac (from Golden Sun) is another character in the same boat as Geno. While there are some fans who want him, he only had a few games on the GBA, and they were not even as big as Mario RPG. Nintendo did recently renew their trademark for Golden Sun, but this is something Nintendo does often with their properties.
Rayman (from Rayman) is a character that does stand a chance of making it into the roster. Fans do want him in, and there was even a fake leak of Rayman before the release of Smash 4 that gained so much attention that Ubisoft, the owner of the character, said they were going to make a statement about it before the creator of the leak came forward. However, he was recently added to the cast of another fighting game, Brawlhalla, so it could be weird having him in two different fighting games back to back.
Some are speculating that Skull Kid (from Legend of Zelda) could be added. In the background of the August Nintendo direct, there was a purple chair, a yellow chair, and a brown patterned couch. Some fans are theorizing that the chairs could be a reference to Tatl and Tael, the fairies that were with Skull Kid in Majora’s Mask since they’re the same colors. The couch, then, matches the browns used on Skull Kid’s body. While the furniture does match, it frankly seems like the speculation is a little convoluted, especially since Skull Kid’s only appearances were a very small role in Ocarina of Time and the antagonist of Majora’s Mask. There’s also the problem of a moveset, as he didn’t do a whole lot in Majora’s Mask himself. All he did was make the Moon begin to fall, and that can’t even be his final smash since the Moon itself is an assist trophy (sorry to all those who wanted the Moon as a character). While his final smash could be something relating to Majora itself (which was the final boss of the game), the rest of his moveset would be difficult to come up with due to how little he actually does. Skull Kid just doesn’t seem too likely.
If you want to look into characters yourself, or if you want to talk to others about a character that you think should be in the game, there is a forum on Smashboards for talking about potential newcomers. If you want to see what’s already been released, then there is the official website run by Nintendo.
No matter what other characters are added or not, this next game is still going to be huge. With all the changes and improvements to the gameplay, many are already saying that this will be the best Smash game to date. Long requested characters, directional air dodges, hazardless stages, it’s sure to be a big one folks.