Smash Bros. Ultimate Characters Most Likely To Miss Next Smash
Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai claimed the next game likely would need a smaller roster, but which fighters are likely to get the chop?
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate With the final DLC fighter Sora bringing the total number of playable characters to 82, future installments surely would need a pared-down roster. Each new Smash Bros. game, with the exception of Ultimate, has excluded at least one previously playable character, although some have been added back retroactively through DLC.
Starting off with a manageable roster of 12 fighters, the growing popularity Smash Bros. series led to more players wanting more characters from more franchises. While Ultimate's "everyone is here" motto is forever cemented as a momentous feat of game development, previous installments haven't been afraid to uninvite characters in the past. It's possible the next game could continue expanding the roster as the Super Smash Bros. series likely won't get another installment until the next generation of Nintendo consoles.
Masahiro Sakurai told The Verge that the next Smash Bros. game would need to "shrink the roster". When deciding which characters to remove from the Smash Bros. roster, Nintendo may look at which fighters are most popular with fans or provide a unique experience when compared with others on the list. As the diverse selection of playable characters is a main draw of the series, the next game surely will keep a wide range of fighters, even if it has to cut a number of them. Shrinking the roster would give Nintendo the opportunity to reintroduce cut characters as DLC or in future games as it's previously done, with some of the current fighters easier to cut than others.
With the addition of the long-awaited and highly requested Sora in Smash Bros., a total of 13 characters were added as DLC to the most recent installment (as Nintendo counts Pyra and Mythra as two separate characters). Despite several of the DLC fighters representing new franchises to the Smash Bros. world, their recency makes them an easy target to cut before the next game. Players likely won't have as much of an attachment to them as they do with series mainstays like Mario, Pikachu, and Captain Falcon. Being locked behind a paywall also limits the number of players who've formed bonds with them, allowing for Nintendo to more easily justify their exclusion going forward.
While overall the DLC characters seemingly have the odds against them for returning, Nintendo could keep some to maintain the diverse nature of the roster and keep the franchise representation up. Smash Bros. Ultimate's final new stage and character introduced the fan-favorite Kingdom Hearts series, bringing the total number of gaming franchises represented in the platform fighter to 40. Some gaming series surely would have to be cut if Nintendo reduced the roster and despite Ultimate's DLC fighters likely first on the chopping block, the next Smash Bros. game could keep fighters like Joker, Steve, and Sora to ensure gaming's popular franchises are represented.
Another new set of fighters introduced in Smash Bros. Ultimate that may not be likely to return are echo fighters, who share the main attributes of another character on the roster. For example, while Samus and Dark Samus use the same moves, the latter's stance appears different due to her ability to fly. As echo fighters have always come from the same franchise as their bases and have very minimal differences in gameplay, Nintendo could easily remove them from future installments.
While echo fighters give Smash Bros. more crossover characters than Fortnite, the majority of them only provide additional characters from adequately represented franchises. Super Mario's Daisy, Metroid's Dark Samus, and Fire Emblem's Lucina and Chrom all could easily be skins of their base characters in future installments. Nintendo has proven they can give drastically different skins with Bowser Jr.'s all being different Koopalings, so it could easily extend the same concept to cut echo fighters.
Even with the massive roster of Smash Bros. Ultimate, not every game series is represented evenly. Fans of the Super Mario, Fire Emblem, and Pokémon franchises are spoiled with several fighters to pick from, while fans of WarioWare, Animal Crossing, and Sonic aren't as lucky. If Nintendo does decide to pair down the roster in the next entry, it may prioritize downsizing series with heavy representation in favor of keeping the franchises with fewer fighters on the board.
Despite Greninja's popularity - evidenced by all the Pokémon fan art dedicated to Greninja - the water-type ninja likely would be the first Pokémon cut. While Incineroar was added more recently, Greninja's playstyle borrows from other fighters, while Incineroar feels more like a unique character. Robin and Corrin seem likely to be the first Fire Emblem characters to be removed, primarily due to their newness. Byleth's inclusion as a DLC character to bolster the already over-represented franchise also sets them up for removal.
Super Mario is one of the most represented series in Smash Bros., with a total of nine playable fighters. As an echo fighter, Daisy will likely be relegated to an alternate skin of Peach, and the same fate could happen to Rosalina. Despite providing a unique playstyle, Bowser Jr.'s removal from Smash Bros. would allow the more familiar faces of the Mushroom Kingdom to return.
Characters cut could return in the next Smash Bros. as DLC characters, as the series has previously reintroduced removed characters as DLC. While crafting the roster for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's sequel, certain groups of characters seem more likely to be cut than others. As every new game has also introduced new characters, Nintendo may need to remove a number of fighters to make room for new additions to excite players. No news of the next installment has been revealed, outside of Sakurai's comments that he no longer considers another game out of the question. Sakurai has also expressed concern that a smaller roster may not appeal to fans, but if one does have to be implemented, Nintendo will likely prioritize characters who've been regular inclusions in the series, along with fighters who bolster the number of franchises represented in the next game.