SSB4

[Arcadenik]

Can we have both SNES Andross as Assist Trophy and N64 Andross as a boss?

A Nintendo vs. Capcom game would be a dream come true... after SSB4 comes out, of course.

[Johans Nidorino]

About Little Mac... Everybody says he's a good idea for the next Smash. And he would be cool, but does anybody else feel it a bit awkward to picture him playable? I mean... it's weird for me to imagine a boxer doing grabs and throws, or a character of his build using only punches as aerial moves.

[TV Eye]

Which would make him all the more unique

I mean, does DK ever kick?

[Koopaul]

He has three kick moves. His dash attack, back air, and down air.

Oh never mind, I see what you're saying...

[Manspeed]

His grab animation could look like Aran Ryan's in Super Punch-Out!!

He doesn't necessarily need to kick, but if he did it would probably look like Dragon Chan's kick.

See? Best way to give Little Mac a plausible moveset is to borrow techniques from the other boxers.

EDIT: Also, Boo Destroyer. Dude, what the hell is up with the animosity?

[Arcadenik]

I would love to see new stages based off obscure games that probably wouldn't have playable characters. Duck Hunt and Sky Skipper come to mind.

[Prince~Of~Light]

Rhythm Heaven would make an excellent stage. (-lvl-) Sorta like a spiritual successor for Hanenbow from Brawl. Hit your opponent rhythmically to make more damage or cause status effects?

[8bitretroshit]

Jun 13, 2011 2:39:23 GMT -5 TV Eye said:

Sakurai mentions the possible inclusion of a Capcom character (I think we all know who).

Is that interview published yet? Cause it seems to me IGN was all 'Hey Sakurai, how about adding another 3rd party addition from CAPCOM, eyyy? *wink wink, brofist*' and Sakurai's basically 'Yeah, sure, maybe, who knows'

Megaman would make this game about 20% cooler though, so here's hopin'! For the classic one that is, don't need any of those silly looking spinoff robots

Kirby throwing hadoukens would be pretty sweet too actually

[Koopaul]

Well Lucario Kirby...

[8bitretroshit]

Does Lucario Kirby wear a silly headband and shout out techniques like a demented super hero?

I don't think so!

[Prince~Of~Light]

No. But he has BLUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE BAAAAAALLLLLSS.

[Boo Destroyer]

Jun 14, 2011 0:23:21 GMT -5 Prince~Of~Light said:

Rhythm Heaven would make an excellent stage. (-lvl-) Sorta like a spiritual successor for Hanenbow from Brawl. Hit your opponent rhythmically to make more damage or cause status effects?

Totally this. The stage's rhythmic antics would work wonders with battles here. Perhaps it could change to another setting where the music is different too over time.

[parrothead]

Reasons why Nintendo added these characters:

Mario - Many reasons. One of them is that he is the mascot of Nintendo.

Donkey Kong - To promote his own series. His name is also the name of one of Nintendo's earliest successes in the video game market.

Link - Several reasons. His series is one of the most highly-rated video game franchises.

Samus Aran - Although the promotion of Super Metroid was kind of outdated back when SSB64 came out, Nintendo was paying tribute to Gunpei Yokoi after his then-recent death.

Yoshi - One of the main reasons was to advertise the then-released Yoshi's Story. In SSBM and SSBB, he was added to advertise his later games like Yoshi Touch & Go, Yoshi's Island 2 and Yoshi's Topsy Turvy.

Kirby - Several reasons. Masahiro Sakurai created both the Kirby series and the SSB series, which explains why Mario and Kirby were facing each other in SSB64's intro.

Fox McCloud - To promote the then-recently released Star Fox 64. In later SSB titles, he was added to promote later Star Fox titles. Despite not being seeing fighting outside of the cockpits of his Arwing, LandMaster nor Blue Marine vehicles, some promotional artworks of him shows him holding a pistol.

Pikachu - Many reasons. He is the mascot of one of the best-selling (if not the best-selling) franchise of Nintendo's.

Jigglypuff - Back then, Jigglypuff made special appearances in the anime by holding a microphone and a marker. She also appeared in one part of the First Generation Pokemon titles in a Pokemon Center, and when you talk to her, she sings. If you talk to Pikachu in Pokemon Yellow after talking to Jigglypuff, you'll see that Pikachu is asleep.

Jigglypuff might also be added as a nerfed-down character. Despite not appearing as much as before in later seasons of the Pokemon anime, while sharing some moves of Kirby's, Jigglypuff was kept in SSBM and SSBB. I'm not sure if she will return in SSB4.

Luigi - Many reasons. There are a bunch of fans being like "You can't have Mario without Luigi!"

Captain Falcon - The icon of the F-ZERO series was added in SSB64 to promote the then-recently released F-ZERO 64, and in SSBM to promote later F-ZERO titles. In SSBB, he was added, because the F-ZERO promotion was still in use; however, it was almost over.

Another reason he was added was that he had a pretty original move set influenced by the legendary tokusatsu character Kamen Rider. Although most gamers thought he never fought in any game in the series, the SNES F-ZERO instruction booklet's comic explains it, but he was only using moves that would later become the Raptor Boost and elbow attacks.

Ness - Some say he was added because MOTHER 2 / SNES EarthBound is highly-rated in Japan, but fairly popular there. But according to FryGuy64, Ness was added probably due to one or some of the SSB64 designers liked him. Ness was the one who made me gain interest in the lesser-known side of Nintendo's library. In SSBM, he was probably added to promote the then-upcoming MOTHER 1+2 / NES+SNES EarthBound. In SSBB, he was probably added to promote the same game above and / or to fill in the remaining game's disc space or the end of the development schedule was near.

Princess Peach - Several reasons. She is one of the most popular examples of a damsel-in-distress in video game history. Most fighting game playthroughs I've seen on Nico Nico Douga (NND) were using female characters, while Japanese fighting game developers were producing fighting games heavily-filled with female characters. Some were male-free. SSB64 lacked female characters if you don't count Jigglypuff.

Princess Zelda - See Princess Peach. Her name is also part of her franchise's name. She was also included, due to having an alter ego, Sheik, which can be used to turn her into a two-in-one character, making her unique.

Bowser - About the same amount of reasons Peach and Zelda has.

Ice Climbers - Probably to represent the early NES era from 1983 to 1985.

Dr. Mario - To advertise the then-released Dr. Mario 64 and the then-upcoming Nintendo Puzzle Collection and the 2-in-1 Dr. Mario Puzzle League GBA game. Despite the Wii and DSi having then-upcoming Dr. Mario titles, he was removed because he was too much like the normal Mario.

Ganondorf - See Bowser.

Pichu - To promote the then-released Pichu Bros. animated short, as well as its sequel in the then-upcoming Pokemon Channel and have as many characters in SSBM no matter if they are clones or not.

Young Link - Perhaps to advertise the then-recently released The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, as well as to have as many characters in SSBM no matter if they are clones or not.

Falco Lombardi - Probably to increase the number of Star Fox characters. In SSBB, he was probably added again to fill in the remaining disc space to add as many playable characters as possible before the development schedule ends.

Mewtwo - Probably to promote his major appearances in Pokemon: The First Movie and Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back. He was also added to represent his appearance in the First Generation Pokemon titles as one of the last Legendary Pokemon you can face and catch. In SSBB, despite having an original move set, he was most likely switched with the similar Lucario to represent the Fourth Generation instead of the First Generation.

Marth - Nintendo needed another franchise to represent. Marth was added because he was the most-important character of the earliest title in his franchise: Fire Emblem. His appearance in SSBB was for promoting the then-upcoming remakes of his two Fire Emblem titles.

Roy - To advertise the later-released Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi and perhaps Fire Emblem: Recca no Ken (a.k.a. the first Fire Emblem released outside of Japan). He was also added to have as many characters in the game as the GCN disc can hold. In SSBB, he was most likely switched with Ike to promote his appearance in the newer Fire Emblem titles: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.

Mr. Game & Watch - Some reasons include paying tribute to Gunpei Yokoi, promoting the Game & Watch Gallery series, and to represent the original Game & Watch series due to being one of Nintendo's million-sellers. His appearance in SSBB was to represent the then-upcoming DSi ports, the two Game & Watch Collections and the limited-edition Club Nintendo version of the Game & Watch: Ball title.

Meta Knight - See Kirby. In addition, Meta Knight had some original moves unlike other sword users. He was also added because he became playable in Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land and some later Kirby titles.

Pit - Probably to rebuild the Kid Icarus series fanbase, pay more tribute to Gunpei Yokoi, and have a character unique enough to be added to the roster. Masahiro Sakurai also added him to promote the still-upcoming Kid Icarus: Uprising that he started developing as soon as SSBB was finished.

Zero Suit Samus - To obviously advertise the then-released Metroid: Zero Mission, as well as to make her Varia Suit counterpart more unique.

Wario - Several reasons. One of them was to promote the Wario Land and especially the WarioWare franchises.

Solid Snake - I remember watching an episode of G4's documentary show Icons (now "Game Makers") about the Metal Gear series, and heard a close relationship between Hideo Kojima and Shigeru Miyamoto during their lunch about planning on developing Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for the GCN, which had a Mario and Yoshi doll cameo in the game. This helped Kojima increase his chance of having his franchise's protagonist Solid Snake appear in SSBB along with "begging" (which started when SSBM was in development).

Diddy Kong - He has be seen a lot with his partner Donkey Kong, and the DK franchise needed more characters. He was the protagonist of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Quest and Donkey Kong Land 2. He's also the titular character of Diddy Kong Racing and Diddy Kong Racing DS.

King Dedede - See Kirby and Meta Knight.

Ike - To advertise Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.

Lucas - To advertise MOTHER 3 / GBA EarthBound.

Wolf - See Falco Lombardi. I noticed that Nintendo looks like they are adding one protagonist, one major secondary character (or more) (excluding ones that are more than secondary characters) and one antagonist per franchise (or a specific game in the franchise). For the Pokemon series, that's different.

Pokemon Trainer - Although the Fourth Generation was the then-current Generation Nintendo was mainly focused on, the remade version of the First Generation Pokemon Trainer was chosen, because it was the newest while the anime series was using that Pokemon Trainer as the protagonist. And while both are based on the franchise creator Satoshi Tajiri, the First Generation was the beginning of his dream, which is kind of the same reason why Marth was added to SSBM.

Lucario - See Mewtwo. Lucario was added to promote Pokemon: Lucario and The Mystery of Mew, as well as the ones that belong to Sir Aaron, Maylene and Riley. Masahiro Sakurai might replace him with the Fifth Generation's counterpart in SSB4.

Sonic - As soon as Solid Snake was revealed, it unlocked the gates for 3RD-Party character requests. Sonic was the most-requested 3RD-Party character (especially by U.S. citizens), mainly to have fun making more "Mario VS. Sonic" arguments since the early '90s. He was also added to advertise the Mario & Sonic Olympic titles.

Toon Link - To most likely replace Young Link and to fit with advertising some then-released and then-upcoming titles in The Legend of Zelda series that use his look, including The Wind Waker, The Minish Cap, and The Four Swords titles. While Ocarina of Time 3D will be released soon, I'm not sure if it's necessary for Toon Link and Young Link to switch places again.

R.O.B. - Either to say that he saved video games in North America after the 1983 North American Video Game Crash, or to represent the same thing the Ice Climbers represent.



This will help make things easier for you readers to come up with ideas that may have a high chance at appearing.

[TV Eye]

Um...random much, parrot dude?

Not every character is in the game due to them promoting an upcoming game of theirs. The original 8 from SSB64 are all mascots. Mario, DK, Yoshi, Link, Pikachu...and not every character needs a reason to be in. The only characters I can think of who were to promote something would have to be Mewtwo, Lucario, Roy, and Ike. That's about it. (Even though Mewtwo was originally supposed to be in 64)

Wario was added because the WarioWare series made a name for itself. Snake was added because Sakurai and Kojima are friends. Captain Falcon was put in because Sakurai liked how he looked. Lucas was added because he was supposed to be in Melee. Hell, I'm betting they came up with Zero Suit Samus so that they didn't have to dig for some obscure Metroid character and just figured, "Well, Samus can take off her suit..."

Also, the Pokemon movies have almost nothing to do with the characters being put in. Lucario was the first 4gen Pokemon revealed, meaning more people were able to recognize him. Mewtwo was also recognizable being the first true legendary people were meant to use their Master Ball on. Pichu might have been thrown in due to the anime (Jigglypuff was 100%).

You make it seem like Smash Bros. is merely a playable ad for upcoming games

[Fryguy64]

I think if you take just the playable roster, a lot of them are ads for upcoming games. With the main roster, it's pretty safe to assume that there will be more Mario games, Zelda games, Pokemon games and Kirby games on the horizon.

The others are usually a mix of characters that Sakurai (and by extension, everyone else) has nostalgia for, and characters from new or upcoming games.

And of course, they're all there to sell Super Smash Bros.! Which may be why some of our more off-the-wall suggestions Takamaru, Sukapon are unlikely. They're not in already, and so we can assume Sakurai's nostalgia doesn't extend to them. But you never know! Sakurai didn't pull King Dedede and Meta Knight out until the third game, and they're his own creations.

Characters from Mother seem to be in due to Sakurai's love for the series. I think we all have our own ideas about who to go in, but we have to remember that SSB is Sakurai's Nintendo Fangasm, and whether that's focusing on old games or helping Nintendo flog new ones, it's ultimately his call. Much as NinDB is my own Nintendo Fangasm ;D