I was re-watching the latest Smash Direct when I starded thinking about something: both of the new characters are representative of a specific generation of Nintendo hardware, respectively NES for Simon Belmont and SNES for King K. Rool, then I realized the other two brand new fighters we got, Ridley and Inkling, can also be considered representatives of GameCube (aka the peak of the Metroid series) and Wii U. I know some of you are already writing comments about my tinfoil hat, but, doesn't it make sense from a marketing standpoint ? Like what's the best way to make a game appealing to the highest ammount of people, other than adding a very iconic character from each generation ?
If you think about it, following this strategy you get an explanation to the crowd reactions to the different character reveals (I know I'm stretching it and people didn't go crazy for Ridley at E3 because Nintendo also had a poor showing but let's just speculate before we get to the meat of my prediction): the Inkling and Ridley trailers didn't set the world on fire since they are from the two worst selling Nintendo consoles, thus being less memorable to the players watching each presentation, on the other hand NES and SNES were both successful pieces of hardware and their representatives had a much more positive reaction, so much so that the general opinion of the game seems to have changed following the latest Direct, going as far as removing almost all debate about this game being a port or not.
But this is a prediction, so let's get to it: we've got 4 consoles covered so far, with 4 (or more !) missing. Then, why did I mention only two in the title ? Well that's because two are the most likely ones: the N64 and Wii, who certainly need to get representatives, and I want to go as far as to predict that the N64 rep will be Skull Kid, I know, many people already predicted his addition following the Moon reveal as an assist trophy, but come on, nobody made up such a crazy reasoning for it. Then we have a Wii rep, that's quite tricky, I myself don't have specific ideas, perhaps it might be Karate Joe from Rhythm Heaven due to DK imitating his pose in K. Rool's reveal trailer, but I think Nintendo will go with someone a little more recognizable for their most popular console (maybe Travis Touchdown ?). Now, why did I mention other two consoles ? well, that's because I'm doubtful, first I'm doubtful about Ridley, I think he might just've been added to kill the meme and that could lead to another GC rep possibly joining the roster; the other console is the Switch itself, which might not get its own rep due to how young the console is, but still has a few characters to draw from (i.e. Rex&Pyra and SpringMan who were both reequested by fans).
But Luke, you said "or more!" well, that's right, while we're done with Home Consoles (unless someone expects Red Wario from the Virtual Boy games) there's still handhelds to cover, I don't think it's reasonable to expect a new fighter for each handheld system, the number of additions would simply be too high, but I think there's a chance for a few reps for the smaller devices aswell, If I had to guess I'd say a GBA, DS and 3DS rep are the most likely, in the form of Phoenix Wright, Professor Layton and Incineroar (adding a Pokémon like in all Smash Games).
My basic prediction is that we'll get 3 characters, one for N64 (Skull Kid), one for Wii (no guess) and one for 3DS (Incineroar/other Pokémon) to which we might see added other 4 characters, depending on how hard Sakurai and his team want to work on this game, still I'm already satisfied with the actual roster: Ridley, my main, is already confirmed.
What do you think about all this nonesense ? Do you think it's reasonable to expect more than 3 other newcomers for Smash Ultimate ? who would you like to be added to the game if the newcomers had to be generation-representatives ?
Last edited by Luke888 - on 15 August 2018
