by Katherine Simon Disclaimer: This article was written prior to Nintendo’s E3 2019 Direct, therefore some of the predictions made might be a little outdated. There will be an addendum at the end of the feature reflecting on my thoughts towards DLC and how it affects my future predictions. Arguably the biggest crossover event in all of gaming, many people are excited to see which of their favorite video game characters will make their way into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. While there are some people who get way too heated over which characters make it in or not, there’s something incredibly fun about trying to guess which beloved gaming icons will make the cut while also seeing what kind of unexpected fighters Sakurai and his team will throw at us next. With the first two DLC fighters of Smash Ultimate being candidates that nobody would’ve expected, Piranha Plant and Persona 5’s Joker, it seems like just about anything goes when it comes to who could be potential candidates. With the possibilities being almost limitless, I thought it might be fun to throw my hat into the ring and share my predictions for the remaining four Smash DLC fighters before E3 comes along and horribly dates my predictions (Spoilers, it didn’t). I mean I was one of the few people rooting for Joker to get into Smash, so maybe luck will be on my side this time. Probably not, but hey this is just for fun and I’ll be happy with whatever we get as long as it’s not Fortnite guy.
Erdrick
Series of Origin: Dragon Quest
Frisk
Series of Origin: UndertaleWhat can be said about Undertale that hasn’t already been said? The game is one of the biggest indie success stories of all time, not only being one of the rare examples of a Kickstarter-project-gone-right, but also becoming a huge online phenomenon almost overnight. The game has spawned one of the most dedicated fandoms of any video game ever, producing a seemingly endless amount of fan content ranging from pretty cool to… let’s just say incredibly bizarre. This isn’t just in North America either, the game also has a massive Japanese following. The game outsold Dragon Quest XI during its first week on the Japanese PlayStation store and the game’s creator even worked on a Japanese wrestling promo in the game’s style. Given the game’s massive success across the globe, it should go without saying that if any indie game were to be represented in Super Smash Bros., it’d most likely be Undertale. Most people would be quick to point towards Sans and the main Smash candidate due to his overwhelming popularity, and while I will admit that the idea of a Smash trailer starting with “Megalovania” is hilarious, Frisk is still the game’s main protagonist and has a better chance of making it in as a result. The only potential problem here is that Frisk isn’t much of a fighter due to Undertale’s main mechanic being focused on sparing your enemies instead of fighting them. The game literally goes out of its way to make you feel like an awful person for killing someone, especially if you end up doing a Genocide run. It might seem a tad bit contradictory to put a pacifist in a fighting game, but if Sakurai can make Isabelle work as a fighter, he could probably find a way to make Frisk work. I think the best way to go about it would be to make most of their moves based on the various ACTs they can perform throughout the game to pacify their enemies, making their whole gimmick centered around killing their opponents with kindness. It’s far from a conventional moveset, but Smash is far from a conventional fighting game, so that kind of fighting style would fit in perfectly. Regardless of what they end up doing for an Undertale character, at least we can all agree that getting Undertale music in the game would be pretty awesome. If Smash Ultimate ends up being the first game to feature “Mass Destruction” and “Death By Glamour” in the same soundtrack, it’d be pretty safe to call it the best game soundtrack ever made.Frisk should look like this in Smash! pic.twitter.com/9gddrswWGQ
— cereal @ Persona 4 & DQ3 (@Dry_Froot_Loops) June 21, 2019
Leon Kennedy
Series of Origin: Resident Evil
Banjo & Kazooie
Series of Origin: Banjo-Kazooie
Addendum
So E3 came and went, and with it came the reveals of two of the newest DLC characters: The Hero from Dragon Quest and Banjo & Kazooie. I’m surprised that two of my big predictions ended up being right, though there were some things I was wrong about. I assumed Erdrick would be the only Dragon Quest protagonist since they’ve been the face of Smash speculation for months, but that ended up not being true. Instead we ended up getting the Luminary from Dragon Quest XI, with Erdrick and the protagonists from IV and VIII making up the alternate costumes. In hindsight, it makes much more sense for Luminary to be the main hero instead of Erdrick, since Nintendo has really been pushing the Switch port of Dragon Quest XI. Banjo being revealed at E3 was another huge surprise, because I expected them to be the last big bombshell to cap off the Fighters Pass. Either way, both Hero and Banjo look really fun and I can’t wait to try out both of them when they release. Now that we know about Hero and Banjo being the next two fighters, where does that leave my predictions for Frisk and Leon? At this moment, nothing has happened that would drastically affect either’s chances, so a lot of the stuff I said still stands. In fact, now that we better understand the direction Nintendo is taking with the Fighters Pass, I feel more confident saying that these two would fit perfectly with their vision. What I mean by that is that every character on the Fighters Pass so far has the potential to draw in new demographics into Smash. Joker appeals to JRPG fans and PlayStation owners, Banjo appeals to Xbox fans and adults who might not have owned a Nintendo console since the N64, and Hero appeals to a majority of the Japanese population. Keeping all that in mind, it would be safe to assume that the rest of the DLC will continue this pattern and end up appealing to whatever demographics Nintendo hasn’t covered yet. If Joker was added to appeal to PlayStation owners and Banjo was added to appeal to Xbox owners, then Frisk would definitely be the character that would appeal to PC gamers. While Undertale has since been ported to numerous consoles, the game got its start on Steam and did a lot of fourth-wall breaking stuff that could only be accomplished on PC. The game is also notorious for the online culture surrounding it, being one of the best examples of a game becoming popular primarily through word of mouth. Very few games have as large of an online presence as Undertale does, and with development on Deltarune finishing sometime in the next few years, that presence isn’t dying down anytime soon. I expect the next DLC character will aim towards a more casual/younger demographic, and given the wide audience Undertale has managed to reach, Frisk would be the perfect candidate to draw in that huge fandom. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Leon would cater to the broad group of gamers who primarily consume triple-A, M-rated titles. While it could be argued that something like a Call of Duty guy would cater to that same demographic, Resident Evil has the benefit of being one of the most influential horror franchises of all time. Aside from helping shape the survival horror genre into what it is today, the series is often credited for the zombie horror revival of the late 1990s and 2000s. Acclaimed screenwriters such as Alex Garland of 28 Days Later fame have cited Resident Evil as one of their primary influences, and it’s very likely that without the series, the infamous zombie craze would’ve never happened. Not a lot of video game franchises can say they’ve had that huge of an impact on the pop culture landscape, and if Smash is looking to represent the biggest video game icons of all time, then a Resident Evil character is a must. Another thing helping both Frisk and Leon is how much Nintendo has been pushing both of their franchises lately. Both Undertale and Resident Evil are frequently highlighted on the Switch’s eShop and advertising. The console port of Deltarune’s first chapter was revealed during a Nintendo Direct and they even set aside some time during E3 to showcase a commercial for Resident Evil 5 and 6 ports. I don’t know about you, but something has to be going on if Nintendo is encouraging teenagers to trespass on private property to promote the game where Chris Redfield punches a boulder. It also helps that getting the rights to Frisk and Leon should be relatively easy, since Sakurai’s already worked with Capcom for Mega Man and Street Fighter content, and Undertale being independently developed means that Toby Fox is the only person that needs talking to for rights. I know every supposed “leaker” and their uncle who works at Nintendo claims to know who the next Smash character is, and while I won’t claim that my predictions are 100% correct, I feel like there’s enough evidence to make a claim towards Frisk and Leon coming to Smash. If Nintendo is truly looking to expand the game’s scope and bring in new players, then these two only make the most sense. That said, even if my predictions end up being completely false, I still look forward to seeing what the next characters have in store.Sources: IGN, Dual Shockers, Polygon, YouTube, Huffington Post, Images: Dot Esports, Polygon, Nintendo Life, Featured Image: Katherine Simon