Nine Characters Who Won’t be in Super Smash Bros 4; Who Not to Expect come E3 2013
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When it comes to character predictions and Super Smash Bros, they’re one hell of a mixed bag. You’ve got the popular characters people like and hope to be in the next game (King K Rool, Ridley and Shulk for instance), the characters no one’s even heard of that some utterly delusional fans hope will be playable in the game (Carpaccio and Honey Queen for Super Smash Bros!) and the hordes of third party predictions that are less likely than the last (Mega Man, Simon Belmot, A Call of Duty character, Mickey Mouse…) But ridiculous ones aside, here are nine highly wanted and beloved characters I can practically guarantee will not be in Super Smash Bros 4. Have fun!
Zoroark
Because while he’s definitely Game Freak’s gen 5 attempt at replicating Lucario and marketed to hell and back, I think generation 6 will probably kill his chances stone dead.
Why? Well think of it this way. Remember how Nintendo had a playable character based on Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire in Brawl? Wait, no they didn’t. That’s because Pokemon Diamond and Pearl came out between the release of the gen 3 games and Brawl’s own development and release date. And I guarantee anything the same situation will occur again with Pokemon X and Y getting a playable representative instead of Black and White.
Let’s not also forget that Pokemon X and Y versions are coming out this October. That’s not a vague ‘couple of years away’ release date like Zelda Wii U got, that’s a set in stone release month for the games, and they’ll be available worldwide at the same time. Unless an absolute ‘miracle’ occurs and Super Smash Bros 4 somehow has a finalised character roster before the end of the year, we’re getting a playable generation 6 Pokemon and not Zoroark.
Additionally, keep in mind Zoroark kind of failed to catch on like Lucario did. Sure Nintendo and Game Freak pushed him wherever possible and tried to make him the generation 5 Lucario equivalent, but the fanbase weren’t having any of it. Given how they’ve practically surrendered as far as marketing him goes, I wouldn’t be surprised if gen 5 was represented by an actual ensemble darkhorse like Genesect instead.
Either way, Zoroark’s chances are as good as dead, and only a couple of die hard fans think otherwise.
Rosalina
A Mario character that really has lost a lot of popularity in the last few months or so, Rosalina still seems to have a couple of dedicated fans hoping for her to be playable in the next Super Smash Bros game regardless.
But you know what? I honestly think her chances are now as good as gone. Seriously, she’s not relevant any more. I mean sure, she had a massive role in Super Mario Galaxy 1 where she appeared to recreate the universe, but what since then?
Nothing except minor bit part roles and Mario Kart. Her Super Mario Galaxy 2 appearance was basically just an extra meant to shut up the few fans complaining that Lubba took her role for most of the adventure and to show the two games were connected in some way. And her being in Mario Kart has absolutely no bearing on her importance. After all, two Mario Kart or Mario spinoff appearances isn’t exactly a difficult thing to achieve, as these characters have all found out:
- King Boo
- Birdo
- Toadette
- Koopa
- Paratroopa
- Funky Kong
- Shy Guy
- Metal Mario
- Dry Bowser
- Baby Peach
- Baby Daisy
- Petey Piranha
- Kritter
- Boo
- Baby Donkey Kong
- Hammer Bro
- Boomerang Bro
- Blooper
- Goomba
- Toadsworth
Out of all those more minor characters, I’d honestly say that the likes of King Boo or Petey Piranha is probably more likely Rosalina is. Hell, out of all the Mario characters left to include, she doesn’t even barely register on the pecking order:
- Waluigi
- Bowser Jr
- Princess Daisy
- King Boo
- Kamek
- Petey Piranha
- Paper Mario
- Fawful
- Rosalina
Even Dry Bowser probably has more of a hope in hell than she does. After all, Rosalina appeared in a minor role in Galaxy 2, a major one in Galaxy 1 and two spinoffs. Dry Bowser appeared playable in two spinoffs, had a boss role in a Mario and Sonic sports game and was a major boss in two New Super Mario Bros titles and Super Mario 3D Land. Practically speaking she’s literally less important than a palette swap and probably only a little more so than the likes of Naval Piranha.
She isn’t going to be in a Smash Bros game. It’s not even guaranteed we’ll see a new Mario character in one…
Ghirahim
Yes he’s currently popular because he’s a well liked villain from the latest Zelda game in the franchise. But that doesn’t mean he should automatically shoved into Super Smash Bros Brawl and end up depriving more needing characters of a place.
For one thing, his popularity is literally 90% because he’s from the last game in the franchise. That’s normal, every game has a popular one off character or two (also see Rosalina, Zoroark and N on this very list). But they tend to lose most of their popularity the minute they fall out of relevance and never get seen again.
That’s it. It’s basically 15 minutes of fame fictional character edition. Once a new game or work comes out with a new ensemble darkhorse, they then get forgotten by all but the most die hard (and sometimes delusional fans) and the cycle repeats itself. Prior to Brawl we had people ask for popular Twilight Princess characters like Midna and Zant. And if Smash Bros had been super popular in the days of yore, we’d have ended up with die hard fans campaigning for Agahnim, Majora, Veran and Onox too. It’s an endless cycle, and mark my words; Ghirahim and most of this list will be irrelevant within two years.
Geno/Dimentio/Near enough any Mario RPG character
Basically, name any popular character from a Mario RPG, and there’ll be at least someone adament they’ve got a chance of being in the next Super Smash Bros game.
For much the same reasons as Rosalina and Ghirahim, except with the additional problem that the Mario RPGs just aren’t very popular. That’s not to say they’re bad, but look at it this way:
Ghirahim is unlikely despite being in a game selling about 4 million copies.
Rosalina is unlikely despite being in games selling between 10 and 20 million copies (albeit as a side character in most)
But the average Mario RPG sells at best about as much as Skyward Sword did, and in general about 2 million copies worldwide. Super Mario RPG? Sold about 2.5 million copies worldwide. Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door? Same scenario.
Nintendo/Sakurai aren’t going to include a character which has zero relevance outside of a fairly unpopular game released many years back, and that isn’t even really ‘retro’ in any way. I like Geno, Dimentio, the X-Nauts, etc as much as anyone else, but at best they’re ‘internet popular’ rather than mainstream and wouldn’t cause many people to be excited for Super Smash Bros 4.
If anyone from a Mario RPG I’d expect either Paper Mario himself, or just MAYBE Fawful (due to his popularity and even presence of a wiki page). It’s certainly not going to be Geno.
N
Another one time Pokemon character, N is the main ‘villain’ of Pokemon Black and White 2 (villain in quotes because he’s just a pawn for Ghetsis) and the supposed leader of villain group Team Plasma.
But while there is quite a bit of discussion about him being a Pokemon Trainer style rep for generation 5, I think his chances really aren’t that good in general. Will N ever return in another Pokemon game set outside Unova? Probably not, he’d make absolutely no sense in a region based on France like the one in Pokemon X and Y, and I don’t see him appearing in other future generations either.
So while him appearing in a Super Smash Bros game might make for some interesting scenarios and ‘moral’ questions (would they make him a hero or a villain? He’s both opposed to the heroes and their traditional ideas and yet too ‘nice’ to really stand alongside the likes of Bowser, Ganondorf or King K Rool), his major role in only one generation might make him rather irrelevant by the time Super Smash Bros 4′s roster is finalised. After all, when’s Pokemon X and Y coming out, this October?
Marx
Really, people have suggested Marx as a playable character to represent the Kirby series with no irony whatsoever.
He’s a good enough boss character (and his chances of being a boss in a Super Smash Bros games are arguably decent), but I don’t really see him as a plausible fighter. After all, he teleports around and isn’t even affected by gravity. How the heck is that supposed to work?
So while I guess it wouldn’t be hard to come up with a varied moveset for him, I honestly don’t see any plausible way to turn a super powerful final boss who doesn’t even has walking animations into a character in a fighting game.
Koopalings (no really)
Yeah, some people think they’d work as characters, although no one’s quite explained how. Would you really waste seven move slots on mostly identical characters representing the Mario series? Have the most convoluted team setup on the planet?
Not to mention that Nintendo don’t ever merely add one Koopaling on their own, so the only real choices would either be to add none of them or add all of them. I think they’re probably gonna be assist trophies at best here, it’d be too much hassle to put them all into Super Smash Bros 4 as playable characters.
Any Real Person (Sakurai, Iwata, Miyamoto or Reggie)
Now admittedly, the characters above have some semblance of a chance in a new game. They might be obscure, they might be mostly irrelevant to Nintendo in general, but at least they’re video game characters that would theoretically work in a fighting game.
But real people like Shigeru Miyamoto or Masahire Sakurai? No. No way in hell would Nintendo put them as playable in a fighting game, especially one like Super Smash Bros. After all, real people in video games tend to be restricted to non violent genres for obvious reasons, and having real life Nintendo staff as playable characters in a game built around fighting to the death might be seen as a bit extreme.
So I doubt we’ll ever see real people in Super Smash Bros or any other fighting game.
Zant or Midna
Well, it’s already unlikely that a Skyward Sword specific character will make it into Super Smash Bros 4. What chance in hell have any characters from Twilight Princess got now? Especially one time characters like Zant or Midna.
Remember, as I said above, their fifteen minutes of fame are now up. If they don’t ever return in another Zelda game, then the chances we’ll ever see them again (Super Smash Bros or not are practically non existant). Neither will likely end up as playable in the next Super Smash Bros title.
So there’s the list. They’re not the least likely character ideas I’ve ever heard, but frankly they’re some of those that have enough of a fanbase despite their slim chances that I thought it’d be useful to point out why they probably won’t be included. I mean, I could give fifty million reasons Kammy Koopa, Dunsparce and [random Call of Duty character here] aren’t going to be included, but fairly few people were seriously predicting it in the first place. These on the other hand have a fanbase I think should probably not get their hopes up so high over an unlikely character, hence their inclusion on the list.
What do you think? Do you agree with my reasoning? Or do you think Sakurai will include a lot of one offs like N and Ghirahim just to appeal to the fans and maybe scrap them for the fifth game?
I would love to see more Wario ware characters. Especially Ashley and red, another i would love to see is Skull kid or Banjo-Kazooie, lately Nintendo have been in talks about joining forces with rare again, but Microsoft has such a firm grip on there balls i don’t know.
I would hope that they broaden alternate costumes. This would make things like dry bowser, metal mario(tanooki suit, frog suit, spin hat thingy suit, etc.), birdo (alternate to yoshi), zora armor link(red/blue tunic, maybe even some masks) possible. Exact same move set, but expand on different looks especially if they’ve already said there will be less 3rd party characters that people are hoping for. At least give us different looks for each character.
Oh and I forgot to mention all the different looking links from all the different games. That would by the shit.
*Links
I bet we’ll see Chrom from Fire Emblem: Awakening in the new Smash Bros, probably alongside Marth. Also (this is less a prediction and more just a cool idea) it would be neat if we got a Twilight Princess version of Link that could transform into a wolf.
The sales figures to denounce Mario RPG games from being included isn’t exactly a solid leg to stand on. Saying SMRPG only sold 2.5 (1.7 in japan according to wiki) million units is laughable compared to Super Metroid selling close to half that number (about 1mil in japan),and Paper Mario games sell about on par or better than Metroid games and Metroid has more games in their library to draw from, yet no one bats an eye towards Samus. I don’t think iconography is what they go for when selecting characters compared to how varied they can make the roster.
Though I think you’re right, the most likely character we would get is Paper Mario, and since there’s Toons and Doctors of the same name in the smashverse, a Paper version doesn’t sound absurd. And if N were to be in the game I’d only see it as a replacement for Pokemon trainer, which is a bit unlikely. Most of these would make nice assist trophies though.
That’s true, they do sell more than Metroid. But you should also keep in mind that for whatever strange reason, Metroid still seems to be ‘preferred’ by Nintendo themselves over a LOT of series that sell better. Donkey Kong Country sells at least twice as well as Metroid does, but Nintendo still seems to think of Metroid as the more ‘important’ series.
And Wario Land/WarioWare, Star Fox, Animal Crossing and Yoshi all sell better than Metroid on a regular basis, but no one’s saying they’ll all get a ton of new characters in Smash Bros 4.
Nintendo are not purely based on sales as far as what series they prioritise. Heck, many sell better than Zelda does now, but Nintendo still sees Zelda as their third or so most important franchise.
Still, the characters fans often want and the ones most likely to get in as far as Mario RPG reps go are not the same thing. Paper Mario and maybe Fawful have at least in a hope in hell. Geno? Not so much. Same with any other one offs.
And yes, many of these could make decent assist trophies. Or maybe bosses in the case of Marx or the Koopalings.
Waluigi was an assist trophy, but I guess that is why he’s on the top of that pecking order isn’t it?
Genesect is getting a movie, wouldn’t that make it a breakout character?
N would most likely be a pokemon trainer costume at best.
As for “any real person”, there’s the mii. If they can make the mii into a smash bros character that is, but I don’t see it on this list and I’m sure plenty of people have hypothesized the possibility of a Mii character in smash bros. I personally don’t see that as a possibility but it might work if you based his moveset on those mii sports and such games. Though specials may be a bit tricky and final smash? Well… is there even anything?
The miis could have some sort of “Mob” final since there are so many of them.
This article showed absolutely no rational argument in why these characters will not be in the game. If your gonna use the argument that Rosalina isn’t relevant anymore, than there goes 90% of the roster wouldn’t be in there. And if ANY character from Pokemon would be included Zoroark since he’s gotten a massive push when Pokemon B&W came out.
Zoroark didnt get the same effect Lucario did. Yes, Nintendo shoved him/her into a movie but even that didnt increase Zoroark’s popularity. The only Lucario replacement I see coming is Mewtwo’s new form, which In My Opinion is the new Lucario, marketing wise.
It doesn’t need to match popularity. Mewtwo was not a fan favorite in Smash Bros regardless of his outside popularity. And the new form has not been met well.
Your the biggest idiot I’ve ever seen, some of these won’t get in, but some have fairly good chances, to say that Waluigi has a better chance than Bowser jr. or fawful even, is just stupid, your obviously a Waluigi fanboy. Are you 10? Or are you just an idiot, who has no idea of what they’re talking about? Your such a fool.
Waluigi has a freakin assist trophy that means they have a possible full move set for him.. Bowser Jr seems ok.. But i’d rather have Waluigi, so we can have someone that rivals Luigi.
Btw the Characters we are most likely seeing is Ridley, King K Rool,(or), Dixie Kong, Krystal, Isaac, and Megaman (Surprisingly). A few others but i kind of forgot.. And i’m sure they’ll add someone we highly unexpected, they’re good at that. HaHa!
Fingers crossed on Krystal being playable; lose the punk bird and bring in a Starfox character that’s A: more popular and B: would have some new moves.
I don’t even think any of that bunch of Mario characters is going to make it in. Also Waluigi has no personality.
Because having a personality is how Mr. Game and Watch, ROB, Luigi, the Ice Climbers, and Jigglypuff got in.
That was a very well-thought-out post, so I’m curious to hear your opinion of a possible Golden Sun rep. I’ve been dying to see Isaac (as well as Geno, but you’re probably right about him), but I was dying for Brawl to come out, too, and it wasn’t what I wanted after Melee.
I really don’t think popularity or how frequent the characters appear in games because Pit a wasn’t in a a game for more than 20 years and he appeared in Brawl as a playable character. So that means all characters on this list has at least a chance on getting in.
You are being narrow minded. When I first unlocked Mr.Game and Watch I didn’t even know who he was. Character selection in fact is probably based on many factors including advertisement. Having a character that isn’t that well known or popular promotes them. For example, Pit didn’t have a game since the 90′s and now he has Kid Icarus:Rising. Your argument is reasonable but not complex. You can’t doubt them automatically based on popularity; there are many other factors.
After finding out Wii Fitness Trainer, Villager, and Mega Man are newcomers and Smash Bros knowledge, Brawl assist trophies/trophies and Sakurai’s desire to add more classic characters; I can determine the the characters being added are: Little Mac(classic character), Deoxys or Meowth(Meowth is extremely popular. I don’t understand why he wasn’t put in SSB1 instead of JiggyPuff), Krystal(Smash needs more females and less repeative Starfox characters), Samurai Goroh(Cap Falc is one of the few characters without another member in his group),Palutena(Sakurai worked on Kid Icarus:Uprising. He put new moves on Pit and must have did the honors of introducing Palutena into Pit’s group on Smash),Ridley(I’m not much of a fan of him but he can be scaled down. He was suppose to be in melee but his tail was hard to be animated. He was in brawl and should be in Smash 4 since it appears Ridley boss animation in brawl was perfected and can be scaled down. Samus also needs someone in his group and Smash needs more bad guys),King K Rool(need more bad guys and characters to DK franchise), Kat and Ana(more characters for Wario franchise and possibly can be villians and girls. Was assist trophy as well.),Waluigi(villain and more characters for Wario franchise. Was assist trophy as well.)