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Filed under: Industry People, Masahiro Sakurai, Super Smash Bros. Series

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This article looks at comments made from the December 1st- December 5th!

Remember, don’t insult other posters. If you insult other posters, your post that you might have spent so much time on might not get approved, and thrown in the trash. Stay classy!

Kaminari

Is kinda ironic you guys put “Daisy” in November 2016 poster, Althought you guys hate her

 

From: November 2016 Review

Already replied:

We don’t hate her. Most of us think she’s just unlikely for Smash as a full fighter.

 

To expand upon that comment: I don’t hate any characters. As far as all of the character go, I try to evaluate their own chances critically. Are the important, are they special, are they unique? Would they make a great addition to Smash. There’s a TON of bias involved in that, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

With Daisy, we haven’t seen a lot of spin-off content within Smash (Mario Kart being the clear exception), and Daisy doesn’t have a strong connection to the mainline Mario games.

MagcargoMan

“Smash further cemented the popularity of the human form of Ganon…so did we get more Ganondorf because of Melee?”

Is this even likely? He’s not some niche character like Marth or Pit. He’s the villain of the Zelda series, not some minor or obscure character from a smaller franchise.

From: Featured Comments

Before Melee, Ganondorf had 1.5 appearances — OoT and the Space World Demo. Perhaps without Smash, ‘Dorf wouldn’t have been so prominent. Maybe we could’ve gotten more Ganon appearances.

As Anime9001 stated, it’s just speculation either way.

Anime9001

The only thing I particularly disagree with in the replies is there being no “shoo-ins” because Ice Climbers are probably the most shoo-in character any character can be. The only way I see them being excluded is if the port doesn’t get any new characters at all.

As for the “Wolf fiasco,” there are a few differences between their circumstances. The most important of which is that Sakurai actually cares about the Ice Climbers. You see, Smash Brothers has always been a toss up to make predictions for, but the single constant throughout the franchise is that “Sakurai does what Sakurai wants” (which is largely why Smash is so hard to predict in the first place). When considering characters for the game, I see three main criteria that is considered in descending importance. 1. What Sakurai wants. 2. What Nintendo wants. 3. What fans want. Number 1 always happens unless for extreme circumstances or Nintendo really puts their foot down, and number 3 doesn’t happen if it conflicts with number 1. Going back to Wolf, the reason he was a “shoo-in” in everyone’s minds is because he was a no brainer from a marketing standpoint. In other words, he fell into category 2. However, from at least what I’ve seen of Sakurai’s interviews (which is pretty hit and miss, to be fair), Sakurai is very……indifferent towards the inclusion of Wolf. When question why he included Wolf over, say, Krystal, Sakurai stated they had time to develop a character who would take less development time than the normal character, and ended up deciding on Wolf. End of story. No real heart towards his inclusion even compared to some of the other semi-clones and clones on the roster. His inclusion was to bolster the roster. A Nintendo reason. As the the Ice Climbers, Sakurai showed very uncharacteristic regret (compared to other cuts) to them being cut due to the 3DS limitations. It’s one of the few times Sakurai didn’t get his way, and I fully expect him to rectify that assuming we get any new characters in the port. The fact that it sounds like they were already made on the Wii U version is just kinda icing on the cake in that a new character with so little development needed would make it so Nintendo would want them as well, and we KNOW the fans want them back. So the Ice Climbers fall under all three categories and would probably be the easiest new character to include in any Smash game since Smash’s inception if them being practically made on the Wii U is true.

Just as an aside, most of the other characters people are predicting fall strictly into category two, except for Geno (I don’t think Nintendo would want to pay Square’s probably high cost for royalties for a dead character) and K Rool (Also kinda dead to Nintendo, but less so), who fall closer into category 3. Although current cooperation with Square and Smash Ballot results respectively significantly help them make impact into the other categories.

And….that went on a bit longer than expected. Hope that wasn’t too rant-y!

From: Featured Comments

Sakurai’s comments about Wolf can be read here.

Sakurai straight up said Wolf was an easy character that could be made — but was requested. He knows there are fans for Wolf, it’s not like he “doesn’t care”. I think Wolf was the character he meant when referring to series that don’t have new entries are prioritized.  When Sakurai began working on Smash for Wii U/3DS, it’s quite possible he didn’t know about Zero and therefore prioritized other characters. I have some other theories in the article where I correctly predicted Wolf wouldn’t be coming back.

I think Ice Climbers are very likely…I just don’t like the term “shoo-in”. There aren’t a lot of guarantees in Smash. 

 

Nintendrone

I think my joke might’ve flown over Push’s head. He has yet to hear the holy sound of SiIvagunner’s high quality rips (Sometimes featuring Wood Man! nice).

From: Featured Comments

I listen to Silvagunner’s rips sometimes! I’m aware of that meme 🙂

MEMORY MAN! (@realmemoryman3)

She is more likely to be a full fighter than an alt….and that is fact! I….even have a source!

From: November 2016 Review

Still waiting on a source. Please respond.

Ville FIN

Wario’s Finger Lags in His Bike Pose in 8 Player Smash
But In Normal Mode it has Smoot Transactions

From: The Definitive Unused Fighters List in Smash

Thanks for the info!

TaddtheMushroom

For real though. I know some people that still insisted that the Genmatsu rumor was 100% real all the way up until the DLC ended.

From: On Fake News and Gaming

Already replied in line:

I believe the Gematsu rumor was 100%, some of the staff here don’t believe it, or that it had outdated information.

-PushDustIn

If you want to see a full retrospective on the Gematsu Leaks check out our articles on it.

Link

This article reminds me that not too long after the Smash Ballot came out, there was a list going around called “the viable contenders list”. It claimed certain characters were front runners, and certain ones had less of a chance, even though there was absolutely no proof either way. Not to mention the fact that Iwata himself had stated that you could vote for any video game character, so to make the claim that there was such thing as a “viable” character was misleading. In any case it was frustrating to see this list go around all over the place, in some cases being accepted as truth.

From: On Fake News and Gaming

Ah, I remember that list. It came out of nowhere…I tried researching to see where it came from and I think I found some random blog. It’s kind of similar how my Perception of Smash DLC blew up. Don’t trust images without reading up on them.

 

5 comments
  1. Someone needs to quiz Sakurai on the Gematsu leak and if he is aware of it. Naturally he won’t comment on which Rhythm Paradise character was planned anyway but its worth a try. Do you know if the Gematsu leak was known about in Japan? If so how many believed it?

    haruhisailormars on December 9 |
  2. Oh, that page of Sakurai responding to why Wolf was in the game was actually the one I was thinking of when I typed that. I’ll admit, Sakurai was much less indifferent sounding towards Wolf’s inclusion in my head from what I remembered, but I think it’s the line where he basically states that the final decision to include Wolf was largely due to his model, and he we wouldn’t have gotten a third Star Fox character otherwise. I admit though, I largely remembered the interview wrong.

    As for the Ice Climbers thing, I can respect that. The turn “shoo-in” has turned somewhat poisonous within Smash speculation, and Sakurai can be extremely difficult to predict. I just don’t think we’ve had another character qualify anywhere near for this title like the Ice Climbers do in quite some time.

    Anime9001 on December 9 |
    • And since I can’t (or don’t know how to) edit my previous response, I’ll continue here now that I’ve skimmed the article where you discussed why Wolf was no longer a “shoo-in.”

      The main difference I see between the two is that the deadline/goal for Wolf’s “shoo-in” status kept extending largely because his exclusion had been clouded in mystery. I’m sure being a non-priority character had something to do with it, but the reasons for his inclusion exceeded many peoples’ reasons for his exclusion. But the truth of the matter is, no one knew the exact reason and Sakurai’s thoughts on why he was excluded from the main roster in the first place. On the other hand, you have the Ice Climbers, who Sakurai stated were entirely intended to be included and were in a playable state on the Wii U before being cut on a technicality. Now that this technicality is removed however, we know that the bar for their inclusion, unlike Wolf, has already been met. This alone wouldn’t cause me to call them a shoo-in (although it does already paint their chances above Wolf), but the fact that they’re already completed or nearly created within the game being ported means that they would probably be easier to include than any other new character, or even semi-clone that could be added to the roster. The fact that their bar is passed for when they were supposed to be included and that they would be the easiest character to add from a development standpoint is why I believe they’re an exception to the “no shoo-ins” policy. And for the record, I only care about the Ice Climbers for their Smash history and not really anything else. Well, that and doing 1HP shenanigans were kinda fun. Playing 8 player Smash against 7 1HP Ice Climbers and acting like you’re a god among mortals, littering the land with corpses…..

      Oh, sorry, just reminiscing a bit on old times. Anyway, I miss them from a nostalgic standpoint, and to goof off, but they’re not really a character that I care much about from a personal standpoint. This is just my outlook on their chances from a logical standpoint in my opinion.

      And no need to reply btw. I kinda just re-iterated myself, and your point still stands. I just sorta disagree with it in this case.

      Anime9001 on December 9 |
  3. Hello you guys of source gaming.
    Im watching you guys for quite some time and i really like your content (especially when its about defending something like the clones who got enough hate) and i always look forward to the featured coments.

    However there is one thing that “annoys” me a bit and its the possible new content of a (still rumored) switch-port of Smash 4.
    Off course i would like to see new stuff added (if a port is coming) but i think people are going a bit overboard with it. I think we can be lucky if we get new content at all. It wouldnt surprise me if we just get a port with all the dlc.
    Seeing people talking about how they want at least 5-8 new characters and a bunch of new modes really makes me afraid of all the salt this might make. I think you know well how people like to overhype themself for something (and then get dissapointed for something that was never promised at all) Especially after what happened with the smash ballot.

    Maybe im just to negative on that topic but i think it would be better if we just calm down a bit and wait until something oficial is coming.

    Anyway thats just my 2 cents.
    Looking foward to your next articles.

    Greetings from germany
    Jocario Zero

    Jocario Zero on December 9 |
  4. Well being in the Space World Demo indicates they wanted to have him continue to appear on the Gamecube rather than be a one-off. Given that Wind Waker is a sequel to Ocarina of Time (even before the Timeline was released it was confirmed in the intro) and Ganondorf’s actions had a huge effect on the world, I doubt it would have been a change added in 2002, especially given that Wind Waker was in development in 2001 and most definitely before Melee released.

    Also, don’t forget Ganondorf was supposed to appear in the Oracles games (http://zeldawiki.org/images/b/bf/Ganondorf_OoX_concept.png), which released 10 months before Melee. They clearly didn’t intend him to be a one-time thing.

    MagcargoMan on December 11 |