While Nintendo has made many a fan dreams come true with the one-two punch reveal of Metroid’s Ridley and Donkey Kong Country’s King K. Rool as playable characters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, that doesn’t mean that fans aren’t curiously anticipating what other characters will be revealed before the game’s release.
And, to truly earn the “Ultimate” title that the game is going for, there are a few areas of gaming lore that Nintendo needs to address. Here’s five characters that still deserve a slot in Nintendo’s epic brawler.
Fan-created Isaac model by colossalcake.
Isaac
Poor Golden Sun. After getting trophies — and Isaac as an assist trophy — in Super Smash Bros. Brawl — the series was oddly left without much representation in the Wii U and 3DS iterations.
While Camelot’s amazing JRPG series has gone dark lately, there’s really no major Nintendo characters left on my wish list aside from Isaac. It’s time to finally see it happen.
Geno
The internet was quick to notice a pattern in some of Ultimate’s new characters: The Inklings, Chrom, and K. Rool were all Mii character costumes in the last Smash game. It’s a pattern that could point to another oft-requested character who was also a costume finally making an appearance.
Nintendo already worked with Square on getting Cloud in the game, and something tells me Square would be pickier about his inclusion than they would be for a character that was in one game and hasn’t been used since.
And just think: Geno amiibo. That should be more than enough to get everybody excited.
Banjo-Kazooie
Rare’s classic platforming duo will probably always be associated with Nintendo consoles, and is one of the blind spots left in Smash Bros. when it comes to Nintendo’s own history.
Microsoft has said they’d let it happen, so that means the ball is really in Nintendo’s court on this one. They already have a few characters mostly associated with Sony (Cloud and Snake), so if they really want Ultimate to be a celebration of all aspects of gaming, it’s time to include somebody from Microsoft’s stable of IPs. Especially if that IP was once at home on Nintendo systems.
Sora
As Smash keeps growing, there are fewer and fewer series and franchises that are missing major representation. Disney and Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts is one of the giant holdouts left.
Bringing Sora into Smash Bros. would allow an even tenuous tie between Nintendo and the Disney universe — and who wouldn’t want to see that happen — and could even mean further expansion into other Disney properties showing up as stages or assist trophies.
And for those saying it is impossible: Remember that Bowser showed up in Wreck-it Ralph, and it’s no secret Disney really wanted to include Mario in the sequel. Could some type of deal have been worked out? Time, it seems, will tell.
Monster Hunter representation
Most of the Ultimate reveals have been quite heavy on the Western front: I’m not sure Japan really cares at all about K. Rool or Ridley. Nintendo can’t forget their own shores, though, and I think they need to throw their Japanese base a character or two.
I was already rooting for somebody from Monster Hunter — and the series also got costumes the last time around — but the most recent direct has been thinking it is even more of a sure thing. I can’t imagine a stage and a boss appearing in Ultimate without any character representation, and Capcom already has a few characters in the game.
However, Monster Hunter World skipping Switch could have complicated Nintendo’s willingness to do this, but they could also be saving the announcement to tie into the Western release of Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate later this month. The two games even both share the Ultimate moniker!
