RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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We’re more than one year into Nintendo’s Switch 2 era , and the hits keep on coming. Games like Donkey Kong Bananza , Pokémon Pokopia , and Splatoon Raiders have helped to reinvent Nintendo’s most reliable franchises. The extent to which things have changed may not be apparent yet, but they’ll be crystal clear once Switch 2 gets its all-but inevitable next Super Smash Bros. game.
Beyond being a great fighting game series, Super Smash Bros.’ best quality is its role as a time capsule. Each new game takes a snapshot of the current state of Nintendo’s most popular franchises, tweaking characters to represent their most recent evolutions. The Switch 2’s Super Smash Bros. game already has a lot to work with in that respect. If Nintendo is looking to tweak the roster to create parity with its recent games, we could see some big changes to old characters and some long overdue franchise representation. Consider this as much of a wishlist for roster changes as a list of early predictions for what the next Super Smash Bros. will look like.
Splatoon has always felt like a series that doesn’t have much Super Smash Bros. potential outside your basic Inklings. The newly released Splatoon Raiders might just change that. Fans on the Splatoon subreddit have begun yearning to see the shooter’s protagonist, The Mechanic, in Super Smash Bros. and I can see why. The character’s wide arsenal of gadgets open the door for a tricky character that plays nothing like a traditional Inkling. I could see the Splatchet, Bombloons, Booyarang, or virtually any tool neatly translated into a special attack. Let players swap between ink tanks on the fly to switch their gadgets, and you could have a dynamic fighter that makes fights more unpredictable.
If any character deserves a total makeover in the next Super Smash Bros. game, it's Donkey Kong. The ape has been a mainstay in the series since its very first entry, and neither his look nor moveset has changed much in that time. That will no doubt change the next time we see him. It’s safe to assume that the character’s new toon redesign will be used for Super Smash Bros., but his attacks could stand to be tweaked to better represent Donkey Kong Bananza . I’d love to see DK gain the ability to rip chunks off the stages that he can hurl at enemies and surf on. A Final Smash that incorporates his Bananza forms seems like a no-brainer too, complete with a Pauline cameo. There are plenty of possibilities here that connect his old pummeling tricks to Bananza ’s smash-’em-up action.
Samus Aran is as close to a perfect Super Smash Bros. character as it gets. The powers that she obtains in the Metroid series all cleanly fit into a fighting game formula, making for an excellent long-long character. If she’s going to change at all in the next Smash game, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond opens the door for some tantalizing tweaks. Aside from giving her some new suit variants (I’m dying to see the Vi-O-La Suit in Smash), I’d love to see Samus’ newfound psychic powers represented in some form. The Control Beam feels especially ripe for adaptation, giving her a Ness-style projectile that you can steer. Let’s just agree to leave Myles MacKenzie off the roster, though, for his own safety.
Yoshi has never needed much of a rework in Super Smash Bros. because his skills are very consistent throughout his games. He can eat things and turn them into eggs. What more can you do with that particular set of skills? Yoshi and the Mysterious Book offers some bright ideas. The puzzle-platformer infuses Mario’s sidekick with a bit of Kirby DNA, letting Yoshi interact with critters to borrow their powers. That opens up a lot of potential for Super Smash Bros., as any number of powers from Yoshi and the Mysterious Book could freshen up his old attacks. Perhaps he could toss Peckadees like darts or spread Scatterpuff spores to inflict status effects on his foes. The fact that there are so many great ideas to play with has me excited to see how Nintendo reshapes the old dinosaur.
Considering how much of a hit Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is, it feels like Nintendo will need to figure out a way to get its life sim represented in Super Smash Bros. one way or another. The easiest route might be retiring Mii Fighters and putting Tomodachis in their place. Considering that the latter are basically souped-up Miis, it feels like a fair trade. Their moveset wouldn’t have to change much, but being able to import your weirdest creations into Super Smash Bros. could go a long way to bringing some self-expression to the roster. I would love to get my Garfield Tomodachi into the fold, specifically. That’s really why I’m putting this idea into the air.
Way back when Super Smash Bros for Wii U details were trickling out, there was a leak that claimed Rhythm Heaven’s Chorus Kids would be playable fighters. It was a left-field rumor, but it also made perfect sense. That didn’t come to fruition, sadly, but Rhythm Heaven feels primed to get its own fighter next time thanks to Rhythm Heaven Groove . I still think the Chorus Kids would be a fun fit, but the more practical solution is bringing Karate Joe into the mix. His moveset potential feels self-explanatory, but the real trick would be finding a way to give his attacks a boost if performed in time to the background music. My real dream here is that he’d be a 2D fighter in the vein of Mr. Game and Watch, keeping the spirit of Rhythm Heaven’s art intact.
While Super Smash Bros. isn’t hurting for Pokémon representation, the monster-collecting series somehow feels underserved. That’s mostly because the fighters all tend to represent the mainline RPGs rather than the series’ long history of spinoffs. Pokémon Pokopia , though, is just too important to ignore. One of the best-reviewed Pokémon games of all time deserves a little love, and there’s a great opportunity to provide that by making Ditto a fighter. Just picture the humanoid Ditto from Pokopia smacking opponents wit...
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