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Predict the 5 DLC characters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

04 November, 2018 By sligeach_eire | Comments: 25

So we know that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be getting 5 DLC fighter packs, they'll be rolling out next year through to February 2020. I thought it would be fun to see if we can predict who the 5 characters will be and we can look back on this when they are announced to see of we got any right. I'll go first, in no particular order:


  • Chun-Li from Street Fighter
  • New Pokemon character from the upcoming main game next year, this to me is nailed on
  • Minecraft character, possibly Steve and Alex as an alternative
  • Skull Kid. Someone from Zelda anyway
  • Banjo Kazooie, you never know, I changed my mind at the last second, from Waluigi to them.

I feel like Ubisoft deserve some recognition for being Nintendo's best 3rd party supporter for the past decade at least. And they've made exclusives. They stood by Nintendo, when most others left during the hard times. I might swap Rayman(with possibly Rabbids support) for Banjo Kazooie.

Though you never know with Sakurai, he's let his personal friendships influence choices in the past, so he could well pick for example another Square Enix character, even though I personally don't believe they deserve any recognition. There's also a possibility of Banjo Kazooie being added. Microsoft getting the bulk of the DLC fee might help persuade them to let it happen. Waluigi and Rayman would be my other 2 wildcards. Waluigi, if people want him that bad, then Sakurai might make them at least pay for all the harassment to get their wish. Or Sakurai could stay local and pick Japanese companies and characters like Geno and Goku. All the characters in SSB are owned by Japanese companies. Sorry, this might seem a bit jumbled, as I changed a vote at the last second.

So who do you think will make the cut? Pick your 5 and place other possibilities below.

Posted Under: Consoles Forum | Last Comment by: by 1_21_gigawatts 06/15/2019 11:46am
gloop
Mon Dec 03 18 11:42am
Rating: 1

Just going to post my wishlist real quick

Louie (Pikmin)
Donkey Kong Jr.
Dixie Kong
Geno
Banjo and Kazooie

Those are my most wanted, but there are still others I'd take. Wario land and Ware could use some characters and I wouldn't mind Poochy or Kamek joining. I'd also like to see Paper Mario, SkullKid and Tingle.

seansneachta
Mon Dec 03 18 03:59pm

I’m going to go down the angle that the DLC fighters will double as advertisements of upcoming games.

So I think we’ll get....

A Donkey Kong character (If DKCR3 is in the works)
A Metroid (Prime 4) character
A Gen 8 Pokemon

And two more from unannounced games Smile

blade_master
Mon Dec 03 18 04:25pm

Currently, I only have two guesses:

1. A character from Fire Emblem: Three Houses (maybe the female that is narrating the trailer)
2. A gen 8. Pokemon

I know people on the internet would rage, but I would be alright with those 2 choices.

casey
Tue Dec 04 18 12:26am

As much as I'd like it to be a lesser-known characters like Wonder Red or Saki or Ray MKIII (RIP assist trophy states) I expect Nintendo is going to be going with picks from stuff that made them money.

-Rex from Xenoblade 2
-Alfonse from Fire Emblem Heroes
-Agent 8 from Splatoon 2
-The Prince from Dragalia Lost

IDK who to pick for slot 5. Ryu Hayabusa or Yoshimitsu would be no0brainers due to Nintendo liking their respective parent companies if their names weren't too similar to characters already in the game.

winter
Tue Dec 04 18 07:31pm

I'm keeping my predictions pretty vague because there's so many factors that could affect who ends up being chosen, but I'm thinking something like this:


  • A Xenoblade 2 character. Maybe Lora, maybe Jin, maybe Mythra/Pyra... but not Rex, because it'd be weird to bundle the season pass with his Mii costume in that case - feels more like a consolation prize imo.
  • A Kirby character. Probably Bandana Dee but Magolor might have a shot as well.
  • A first party from a currently unrepresented series. Fingers crossed for Rhythm Heaven but could just as well be a retro character or even an "oddball" pick in the vein of Wii Fit Trainer.
    • (Or maybe the protagonist from The Last Story 2 if that rumor ends up being true, but that feels like a big "if" at this point.)
  • Someone from Dragon Quest. Erdrick seems like the obvious choice, being more or less the series' "Marth" and in many ways the archetypal JRPG hero. That said I think the protagonists from DQ4, 5 or 8 could also be possible, or even the DQ11 hero in order to promote that game.
  • Another third party... KOS-MOS, Lloyd
    • (or Yuri), Jibanyan, a Dark Souls character, someone from Persona... maybe even Geno. Who knows, but those are who I'd guess to be some of the top contenders.
    Whoever they pick I think they'll most likely be from a Japanese developer, as much as everyone else seems to expect a Microsoft char.

Even if I'm completely wrong I can't wait to find out who they are though! Hopefully they'll at least reveal the first one soon.

backup368
Wed Jan 02 19 10:27pm

Someone from Dragon Quest. Erdrick seems like the obvious choice, being more or less the series' "Marth" and in many ways the archetypal JRPG hero. That said I think the protagonists from DQ4, 5 or 8 could also be possible, or even the DQ11 hero in order to promote that game.

It's not Nintendo's job to promote another company's game for them. They can choose a Dragon Quest character if they feel that that character would lead to more fans to purchase Smash bros. Ultimate.

Outside of Final Fantasy, though, Lara Croft would be Square Enix's most popular character.

winter
Thu Jan 03 19 07:35pm

What I said was, that could be a reason they'd pick the DQ11 hero over other DQ heroes. It's a big-name game coming to Switch so it's not like they don't have anything to gain from promoting it. We obviously don't know for sure but I'd bet Joker was chosen (at least partly) to promote a coming Switch port of P5 too.

Lara is popular, sure, but let's not forget Smash is a Japanese game and the DLC fighters were specifically chosen by Nintendo. Dragon Quest is huge in Japan - probably even bigger than Final Fantasy. And, according to VGChartz, most main DQ games seem to have sold better in Japan alone than what most Tomb Raider games have done worldwide. Tomb Raider barely sells in Japan, either. No way they'd go for Lara over a DQ character.

backup368
Thu Jan 03 19 10:52pm
(Updated 1 time)

Then therein lies a problem because their consumer base is not just from Japan. How well does Japan know Shovel Knight or Shantae? Because they have appeared in the game so far.

Dragon Quest is a big deal in Japan. Dragon Quest series sold 76 million copies worldwide, and I can see why there are reasons why Nintendo would want to choose a character from that game.

However, Lara Croft is just a character with global recognition. She has multiple Guinness World Records due to her popularity. It should be no real surprise that Square paid top dollar to buy out Eidos Interactive so that they could own the Tomb Raider IP and make money with it.

The best-selling Tomb Raider game is 11 million copies sold. On the list of best-selling Square Enix games, this is only 2nd all time behind FF7. The best-selling Dragon Quest game is Dragon Quest 3, which only sold 6.5 million copies worldwide. It is also just 15th all time, with 5 Tomb Raider games selling more.

Plus, how different is the Dragon Quest fanbase from Final Fantasy's when Final Fantasy is Square's largest RPG series? How many more fans are there to gain from a Dragon Quest character?

winter
Fri Jan 04 19 12:16am

Shovel Knight was published by Nintendo in Japan, which is likely the biggest reason he got to be an assist trophy at all. And Shantae only has two spirits, presumably as a sort of consolation price for doing well in the ballot.

Like, yeah, of course they keep the worldwide market in mind. I believe Sakurai has stated this as the reason why Takamaru isn't playable, for instance. But that goes both ways too, I think - they wouldn't include someone who's only known in the west either. Little Mac and Ridley have been said to have been included with western fans in mind, but it's not like Japanese fans didn't know about them. Lara on the other hand does seem to be relatively unknown in Japan, especially with Nintendo fans.
Tomb Raider also doesn't have a lot of Nintendo legacy in general and the last one on a Nintendo console was over a decade ago, so why would Nintendo choose to promote them by putting her in Smash?
Don't get me wrong, I'm a Tomb Raider fan myself, I just don't think Smash is the right place for it.

Just because DQ and FF are both RPGs doesn't mean they're the same fanbase, either. Of course there are people who like both, but there's still a lot of difference between them too. It's like comparing Mario and Sonic, Street Fighter and Tekken, etc.

backup368
Fri Jan 04 19 02:13am

The idea is not to promote Tomb Raider, the idea is for Nintendo to use Lara or other 3rd party characters to promote Smash Bros. The point of getting all these characters is to attract all their fans. Nintendo isn't trying to benefit other company's IPs, but want those IPs to benefit their bottom line.

I think that appearing on 5 Nintendo consoles is not bad at all. That is more than Metal Gear, Bayonetta, & Street Fighter. Hardly any of those franchises appeared much on Nintendo consoles too for the same reasons that Tomb Raider didn't. Nintendo didn't have the type of hardware that developers needed to make the games that they envisioned. Tomb Raider has definitely appeared on Nintendo consoles more recently than Banjo-Kazooie did.

Square basically has two halves to their market: Their RPG community & their western community. If you already have the RPG community interested in Smash Bros. having another character that appeals to them will not do much, and it certainly wouldn't appeal to that other half of Square Enix's fanbase.

winter
Fri Jan 04 19 10:38am
(Updated 1 time)

They're doing both. Of course Joker is attracting a lot of Persona fans to Smash, but at the same time his inclusion is giving a lot of attention to Persona and introducing those games to a new audience. Same goes for any other third parties they add.

Snake was included as a personal favor from Sakurai to Kojima, and likely wouldn't have returned if not for the whole "everyone is here" thing. Even then, Metal Gear has been around since the NES, and the first MGS had a GameCube-exclusive remake.
Bayonetta only has three games, of course she hasn't been on as many consoles. But Nintendo is the publisher for two of them, plus she got in as the ballot winner in the first place.
Street Fighter has a much bigger legacy, in particular with Street Fighter 2 being a big SNES title both in Japan and the west.
Tomb Raider, on the other hand, has only had relatively minor games on Nintendo, not selling too well and being generally regarded as inferior versions.
And Banjo-Kazooie isn't in Smash (nor do I think they should be) so that argument makes no sense. Though even then, they did have their two biggest games on N64, and have a lot of nostalgia with Nintendo fans that Tomb Raider doesn't.

Remember third party characters are a mutual agreement too and Square Enix likely has more to gain from promoting DQ than TR right now, especially on a Nintendo platform.

backup368
Fri Jan 04 19 12:47pm

All Nintendo cares about is what helps them, not what helps other companies. Yes, it helps the developer & their games get recognized, but that is not the end goal for Nintendo.

Snake and Bayonetta are why Nintendo is stepping into to pick the DLC characters this time around. As far as I can tell, the "ballot" was predetermined because the winner of it just so happened to A. Have a game that came out for the Wii-U & B. Be a character that Sakurai has a strong lust over. Color me surprised, Sakurai gets what he wants.

Again, how is that the developer's fault? They didn't purposely make their games "inferior", they had to work with what they were given.

I only mentioned Banjo-Kazooie because that is who people often mention who they want before or after they make the same argument about how it's been a long time since Tomb Raider was on a Nintendo console.

Well then good luck trying to give Tomb Raider fans a reason to purchase the game. There are likely many Dragon Quest fans that have bought Smash Bros. Ultimate already because of Cloud, so trying to appeal to them feels like stepping over dollars to pick up cents.

winter
Fri Jan 04 19 04:12pm

But getting the Switch port of DQ11 extra attention would benefit Nintendo, same for a potential port of Persona 5. It's not like they only gain from first party sales, and building good relations helps them in the long run too, so of course they want to help the other developers.

I never said it's anyone's fault, but it's still a fact, and Tomb Raider has a relatively small legacy on Nintendo platforms as a result. Besides, look at Final Fantasy for comparison: Nintendo hasn't been getting the main series games since FF7 for the same reason, but they've still been getting lots of excellent spinoffs and side games to make up for it.

There's the actual DLC sales to take into account as well - like you say, many Dragon Quest fans have likely bought Smash already, so that's a lot of people to sell a DQ character to. Lara, with relatively few Nintendo-aligned fans, probably wouldn't sell nearly as much.
And, again, third party characters are a mutual agreement - from Square Enix's perspective, why use Lara when a DQ character would likely be much more profitable for them?

backup368
Fri Jan 04 19 06:44pm

Well why do that for just one developer and not all developers? The Switch is supposed to be the game console to develop for and buy now. Games like Diablo 3, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, Doom, Dark Souls, etc. that can sell fine on their own. So why is a Smash Bros. character necessary if you don't want the character to market Smash Bros.?

That doesn't matter. Persona and Metal Gear do not, either.

You aren't looking at the big picture then. You're expecting that Nintendo use the DLC to market the $6 each DLC whereas other companies have used DLC to market their $60 product. There are guest characters from other fighting games like The Walking Dead's Negan in Tekken 7 who doesn't come from any sort of video game. Do the executives at Namco care at all about how well that show does? No, they want viewers of that show to buy the game. As I said before, Nintendo can see something in Dragon Quest enough to benefit them, but if the goal is to get more copies of the game sold, you need an icon like Lara because Dragon Quest doesn't have a face of the series to compare to her.

winter
Fri Jan 04 19 11:14pm

Again, they market both Smash Bros and the other franchise.

And, also again, Metal Gear is irrelevant since Snake was included as a personal favor.
Megami Tensei on the other hand started out on Nintendo and has pretty much always had a presence, though many of them didn't get localized. They even had a crossover game with Fire Emblem. And even if you're focusing in on Persona in particular, they at least have the Persona Q games on 3DS, plus a Switch port of P5 is heavily rumored (but still unconfirmed).

And I think you're the one not looking at the big picture, because again, it's both.
Comparing to Tekken is irrelevant too because Namco isn't a console maker, whereas Nintendo obviously has a bigger business to worry about as well.

Wed Dec 05 18 07:14pm

Who I want it to be:

- Dixie Kong
- Bandana Dee
- Captain Toad/Toadette
- Sylux
- Dr. Coyle/Twintelle

Who I think it will be:

- Bandana Dee
- Minecraft Steve
- Slime from Dragon Quest
- Fire Emblem 3 Houses rep
- Gen 8 Pokemon.

sligeach_eire
Thu Dec 06 18 12:22pm

Twintelle is a good shout. It would promote ARMS and she'd be a female boxing counterpart to Little Mac. And that @$$, expect plenty of screenshots if it happens.

1_21_gigawatts
Thu Dec 13 18 08:38am
(Updated 1 time)

Two are the Piranha Plant and Joker.

On December 20th we'll get a "huge announcement" for Travis Strikes Again so it could be Travis Touchdown.

For the remaining two I say Rayman and Monster Hunter.

iondall
Thu Dec 13 18 11:32am
Rating: 1

Piranha Plant isn't part of the fighters pass, he is separate, so only Joker is confirmed

fylo
Tue Dec 18 18 01:07am

Ok. Since I already have the characters I wanted, and I'm enjoying them very much let me make some conjectures.

- No Xenoblade X music.
- Bethesda has mentioned they've talks of Smash Bros.
- I think there's a chance one of the cut levels could be expanded so Poke Floats 2 will be the stage of any new pokemon they decide to add.
- A character from Overwatch could warrant a reveal similar to the one of Joker.
- A character from Ubisoft could be possible if anything just for the support and synergy Ubisoft has made with Nintendo.

reynard
Tue Jan 01 19 05:32am
(Updated 2 times)

I predict 3 more random third party characters designed to shill their own franchise ports that have very little (if any) historical relevance to Nintendo.

And one god damned Rabbid.

masterofmonster
Wed Jan 02 19 07:06am

Assuming all are third party, I expect/wish/etc for

-Joker because confirmed

-Tracer cuz' she'd be awesome and Overwatch turns out is awesome. Started the game 2 years too late, hah.

-Papyrus if Indies gets a single rep. Really fun character and can have a very unique moveset

-Rabbid Peach because Mario + Rabbids was awesome and Rabbid Peach is a very fun character. Can use a lot of unique things from the game.

-Banjo because, well, Banjo. Would, if so, be the final reveal, I feel. The reactions would be great because I am sure Sakurai would absolutely nail the character.

backup368
Wed Jan 02 19 10:20pm
(Updated 1 time)

Chun-Li from Street Fighter

Chun-Li would be pointless. You already have Ryu in the game to attract Street Fighter fans.

New Pokemon character from the upcoming main game next year, this to me is nailed on

Yes, because Nintendo seriously needs help selling Pokemon...

Banjo Kazooie, you never know, I changed my mind at the last second, from Waluigi to them.

And what would Nintendo gain? Any and all fans of these characters have already purchased Smash Bros. The only company that would gain from such a move is Microsoft.

tanookimike
Sat Jan 19 19 04:09am

Who I'd want them to add:
1. Banjo-Kazooie
2. Muddy Mole
3. Deoxys
4. DK Jr.
5. Ryu Hayabusa

Who I think they'll actually add:
1. Joker (duh)
2. Dimitri (Fire Emblem Three Houses)
3. Hero (Dragon Quest)
4. Gen 8 grass starter Pokemon
5. 2B (Nier Automata)

1_21_gigawatts
Sat Jun 15 19 11:46am
(Updated 4 times)

My predictions for the 2 remaining characters are:
- Isaac
- Rayman

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