Smash Roster Cuts
I started this thinking of just trimming up the Smash roster and add some other characters here and there but I think it’s just going to end up being a big mess of add-ons to the roster. We made a video some years ago about this but with my last post I just thought I’d add more. I don’t share Sakurai’s thoughts about keeping all of the characters because any character could be someone’s favorite. I think there should be like a core group of fighters that always appear but then certain fighters that only show up in one game and then gets rotated out. Soul Calibur does it a lot; Vader, Ezio, ect. I don’t know how long it’ll be before the next Smash but Nintendo X Sega could always happen; it’s just a fun spin off, nothing big. Ahaha, haha-ha. *nudge nudge*
Maybe it’ll be easier to go through this by franchise. As of writing this we still have three DLC characters to be revealed. It bothers me that the characters in the roster don’t hang out with their franchises. *sigh* Okay let’s look at this. We got Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Rosalina Yoshi, Bowser, Bowser Jr., Wario, Dr. Mario and Piranha Plant. I think the core characters that should stay are Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, Rosalina, Bowser, Bowser Jr. and Wario. I’m not a fan of clone characters so if Daisy is going to be in the game she should be much more different than Peach. Piranha Plant was a funny and interesting character to add in but I don’t think it needs to reappear. I don’t really have anyone to add from Mario. Everyone wants Waluigi for whatever reason so he could be in the next one. A couple of the Broodals could also be added in and obviously Bowsette. She’s a wild card; you could make her do anything. Throw some hammers, use a chain chomp, step on my dick, y’know, whatever.
That’s one group down; let’s move on to The Legend of Zelda. Right now we’ve got Link, Zelda, Ganondorf, Sheik, Young Link and Toon Link. I do like what they’ve done with changing up Link and Zelda. It makes having all three Links a little less annoying to me but I still think we could lose one of the others. If it were me, I’d pick to keep Toon Link. I think the other characters are fine but I’d like to add a character or two. I think Impa from Hyrule Warriors would be a good addition. I think they could add Hilda or Ravio from A Link Between Worlds. They could make Hilda her own character, unique from Zelda. Is Hilda’s color scheme a skin/color pallet for Zelda? I’d have to look. Ganondorf could use an aesthetic upgrade also, maybe whatever he looks like in Breath of the Wild 2. Some other characters from BotW could be good too, such as Urbosa.
Oh there’s still a lot. Is there really 80ish characters? That’s crazy. Let’s do Fire Emblem, they’re a big group. I, myself, found it a little lame that when Smash Wii U came out that Marth was still in the game when they had a new Fire Emblem game with a couple characters that are pretty close to Marth. This is one of the characters that is much beloved but how much would it really matter to take Marth out and replace him with Chrom or Lucina and just keep his move set? At this point there have been several Fire Emblem games since Smash Wii U and the player character from those games have been added to Smash Ultimate. So now that they have had all these characters and clones I think the next Smash could slim down the Fire Emblem presence. It could go either way, either keep the classic characters like Marth, Roy and Ike or go with Lucina and Chrom. I think the other player characters could go also, maybe keep Byleth since they’re from the newest game and maybe add some more characters from Three Houses. In my opinion Nintendo should add characters from their newer games to generate interest and get some sales from curious players.
There’s still a bit, ummm let me get rid of most of the DLC characters from Wii U to Ultimate. That’s a little better; Joker could maybe stay now that Persona 5 Strikers is a thing. I saw something about the base game coming to Switch or is that a rumor? Anyway, I’ll tackle Pokemon next. For the most part, most of the Pokemon characters could be taken out and swapped with a new ‘mon. Pikachu and Jigglypuff were in it from the beginning so they can stay. I think Pokemon Trainer could stay also but maybe have three different starters or a second trainer with different starters like Turtwig, Monferno and Empoleon. Mudkip, Grovyle and Blaziken might be more fan favorite and follows the same type and evolution stage as the current Pokemon Trainer. I think either Mewtwo or Lucario could stay, they’re roughly similar, I don’t think we need both.
Okay okay, let me just go through characters that are on their own. Captain Falcon, Ice Climbers, Snake, Sonic, Olimar, ROB, Villager, Isabelle, Mega Man, Wii Fit Trainer, Little Mac, Shulk, Bayonetta, Inkling and Min Min are all solid characters representing their respective games that I don’t know much else about. Snake is kind of a wild card in the game I think, he could stay or go but I’d like him to stay. I don’t really like ROB, I understand why he’s in the game but he could go in my opinion. Maybe instead of Isabelle in the next Smash they could add a different Animal Crossing character(s). Maybe it’s time for Wii Fit Trainer to go? I wouldn’t mind if they stay but we are getting further and further from the Wii after all. I think Shulk, Inkling and Min Min could use a buddy or two from their respective games. I don’t know much about Xenoblade but I do know of Elma. Ness and by association Lucas are staples to Smash so I think they could stay as well, I don’t know anything else about Earthbound so I don’t know if anyone from there should join. Single characters that could go for me are Mr. Game & Watch, Pac-Man, Simon and Richter. I like Simon/Richter but we don’t need clones and they could go to make room for someone else.
Star Fox and Donkey Kong are other games I know very little about so I think the characters we have are good, I don’t know how different Wolf is from Fox to convince me he shouldn’t go but whatever. He could go and someone else could take his place. I think King K. Rool could stick around. I’m getting there like what, three more franchises to go?
Okay, Metroid I guess. Samus and Zero Suit Samus obviously stay, there’s no real reason for Dark Samus to stay unless they change her up and Ridley can go. People have been crying about getting Ridley in the game, you got him, now he can make room for someone else. Just pick any hunter from the Prime series including Hunters. I always figured it could be Rundas from Prime 3 but Sylux makes sense too. Sylux is from Hunters and his ship appears at the end of Prime 3’s 100% ending. They could also throw in a random character from Prime 4 to get people excited, well, more excited, for the next Metroid Prime.
I think all the Kirby characters can stay and add in a rotation slot or two. Prince Fluff from Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Susie from Planet Robobot, any of the three mage sisters from Kirby Star Allies would work. Maybe even Galacta Knight; they’re supposed to be some sort of badass so I think their moves could/should be different then Meta Knights.
And then there was one, Kid Icarus. As I’ve mentioned in one of my last posts I feel like Kid Icarus should get a little more representation. Palutena was fine for an addition but Phosphora or Magnus really should be in. Even Dark Lord Gaol would be good and since Palutena is in why not Medusa or Hades?
So out of all the people I’ve cut let me total that up. Oh what fun for me. If I added right in this mess I’ve cut about 30 characters? That seems like a lot more than I think it should be. I think half of those are characters that I think could be replaced by another in the series or are a echo fighter but I’ll go with it. Gives me lots of room to play around. I think by the time a new Smash comes out most of these indie characters I’m going to list off will just be faint memories and little gems you remember being really good for their time. I think characters like Shovel Knight, Shantae, Hollow Knight, the Drifter of Hyper Light Drifter, Miriam from Bloodstained, Cuphead and maybe even Gunvolt should be added in. They all are reminiscent of older games and I think they deserve to be showcased in Smash. As far as I know all these games have done really well and have done well on Switch. There are obviously more of these 2D old school throwback games but I think these ones have been the most successful and the most iconic. At the very least these characters could all be apart of some indie Smash collab or something. I also think a Monster Hunter would be awesome or even a monster. Maybe a Brachydios or something. And if not a Hunter maybe a slayer from Dauntless. I feel a Hunter would fit better but I’ll take either. I said it in my last post too but nendodorid Miku from Project Mirai would be wonderful. Her other skins or whatever could be outfits from the game or could change her into a different Vocaloid like Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings. I think that my original want way back when of the Kusaragi from Red Steel 2 is too far gone now. Since Snake is in Smash I think it’s only fair to have Ryu Hayabusa in the game as well. I really think Ryu will be one of the last three DLC characters but I’m never right with these things so don’t bet on it or anything. The Ring Fit girl could pair up with Wii Fit Trainer and they could put in the main character from Astral Chain. Why not? That only added just over ten characters I think but I don’t really think the roster needs to be as large as it is now and that isn’t including the proposed added characters from their respective series.
Blarg, this just makes me depressed. What do you think? What characters would you add or take away? Or are we just going to keep this monster of a roster going until every video game character are in it? When will you stop Sakurai? What do you want from us?!?!
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