Sakurai the Sword Swallower (Pyra/Mythra in Smash) by Mast3r-Rainb0w
Wow, Sakurai sure loves his swords, doesn't he? Since he loves them so much, I think he could make a great professional sword-swallower.
Jokes aside, both Pyra & Mythra are in Smash now. All I can say about that is good for you Xenoblade fans out there. Also, Rex is the new Smash 4 Chrom, btw. (RIP)
NiI’d like to start this post by saying this is all my own personal opinion. I respect all feedback, be it positive or negative, so feel free to message me anytime!
Fair warning, there’s a lot of characters I’m not familiar with, so please go easy on me!
I’ll present my #10 echo fighter and then my #10 newcomer until we reach number one, each with a paragraph describing why I want them. Let’s start with...
ECHO #10 - KEN (Street Fighter) (Echo of RYU)
I haven’t played a lot of Street Fighter, but I do know that Ken is a fan favorite of the series. I can’t see any third party characters getting a unique rep (RIP Chun-Li) so the best thing would be a Ryu echo fighter. The only person who I feel deserves that role is Ken. As stated before, I’m a novice to Street Fighter so I can’t name any differences between the two, but Smash Bros. would be a fantastic way for me to see these differences.
NEWCOMER #10 - RAYMAN (Rayman)
Remember when Artsy Omni made that fake leak of Rayman in SM4SH? I was one of the many people who thought it looked too real to be fake. Nearly everything about the leak looked real, and the fact that there was a Rayman trophy in the game only lead me to believe it further. With his detached limbs, I could see Rayman having one of the longer grabs in the game, with his hands and legs flying far from his body to deal some damage.
ECHO #9 - FUNKY KONG (Donkey Kong Country) (Echo of DONKEY KONG)
I’ve been playing a lot of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and with the Switch port adding a fifth playable character in the form of Funky Kong (only in Funky Mode), he’s gaining a new following that he hasn’t had before. Rather than rolling in his dash attack like Donkey Kong, Funky could ride his Surfboard. If not a dash attack, it could work similar to Wario’s bike where it will disappear for a bit if it’s destroyed. His recovery could involve him surfing upwards, too!
NEWCOMER #9 - REX AND PYRA (Xenoblade Chronicles)
I haven’t gotten around to beating Xenoblade Chronciles 2 yet, but I really like the dynamic between these two. I don’t have much to say about them, they’d probably function semi-similar to Shulk but not close enough to be an echo fighter. Rather than giving Rex alternate costumes, each costume could be a different sword rather than Pyra.
ECHO #8 - IMPA (The Legend of Zelda) (Echo of SHEIK)
Using her Hyrule Warriors appearance, obviously. She’d play as a fast moving just low damaging attacker like Sheik, but I could see her dash attack and other moves using her sword like she does in Hyrule Warriors.
NEWCOMER #8 - SPRINGMAN (ARMS)
So I’ve heard that Sakurai is primarily drawing from the Smash Ballot back in SM4SH, which means we may not being seeing any ARMS characters in the base roster. The game may have been underwhelming, but Nintendo rarely releases new major IPs, so bringing in a character from ARMS may help with sales. As Springman is the primary posterboy, he would fit best into the roster. Similar to Rayman, he’d have long range due to his spring-like arms.
ECHO #7 - NINTEN (Earthbound) (Echo of NESS)
I know absolutely nothing about this character because the only Earthbound/Mother game I’ve played was Mother 3, but I’d love to see another representative of the series. Seeing as Ness and Lucas were the protagonists of Earthbound 2 and Mother 3, I see no reason to not include the protagonist of the first game in the series.
NEWCOMER #7 - DECIDUEYE (Pokémon)
I’m going to be quaint. I don’t want Incineroar to be our Gen. 7 rep. It may be easier to implement than an owl with a bow and arrow, but we already have Greninja to represent a water starter and we have/had Charizard to represent a fire starter, so I would much rather have our first grass starter in the form of the unique Decidueye. He’d have a fantastic recovery due to his being an owl, but his kit would be primarily ranged based. You could take a lot of his movement from his Pokkén Tournament incarnation.
ECHO #6 - ISABELLE (Animal Crossing) (Echo of VILLAGER)
Isabelle’s assist trophy has not (at the time of making this) been reconfirmed, so I believe there’s a strong possibility that she’ll make it as our second Animal Crossing representative. She’s quickly become one of the most popular characters of the series and with her very expressive faces, I’m sure Sakurai can make her into one of the cutest characters we have.
NEWCOMER #6 - FAWFUL (Super Mario)
Nintendo seems to have forgotten about the Mario & Luigi franchise, which saddens me because they were my favorite games. Fawful is an important character in Superstar Saga, Partners in Time, and Bowser’s Inside Story, even being the main antagonist in the third. He could be a very unique fighter, using his head-jetpack-thing for his recovery and his final smash could be the Dark Star Core.
ECHO #5 - VIRIDI or MEDUSA (Kid Icarus) (Echo of PALUTENA)
Viridi is a fan favorite who could echo Palutena, but rather than using general light magic, Viridi could focus on more nature-based magic. Another echo of Palutena could be Medusa. I’m not quite sure what a moveset for her would be like, but more villains is a must.
NEWCOMER #5 - SKULL KID (The Legend of Zelda)
Apparently there’s a lot of people who believe Skull Kid is confirmed already? I don’t know if I’d go that far, though I admit the proof is very believable. I don’t know what a potential moveset for Skull Kid could be, and his final smash probably wouldn’t be the Moon, as it’s an assist trophy now. But who knows, maybe it’s possible?
ECHO #4 - SHADOW (Sonic the Hedgehog) (Echo of SONIC)
Shadow just makes sense to me. We know third party characters are open to echo fighters, and Chrom showed us that “echo” doesn’t mean “exact copy”. Shadow could echo Sonic but keep his unique dark and edgy attitude. He could be a stronger but slower Sonic who skates on his shoes and uses the power of the Chaos Emeralds for his attacks, with Chaos Control and other emerald-based powers. No guns though.
NEWCOMER #4 - PAPER MARIO (Super Mario)
With five games to take from, the Paper Mario RPG series is a classic and loveable series to Nintendo fans. While the recent games have failed to live up to what The Thousand-Year Door built, the series still has a strong following. He could use jump based moves and his hammer would be an integral part of his moveset. Various partners from the series, like Goombella, could also be part of his moveset.
ECHO #3 - OCTOLING (Splatoon) (Echo of INKLING)
Now that we know that not all Octoling are evil, this may be their chance to make it into the lime light as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. The major problem I see with the Octoling is how to differentiate between their ink and the Inkling’s ink. Plus I just really want an Octoling amiibo.
NEWCOMER #3 - MONSTER HUNTER (Monster Hunter)
I have never played any Monster Hunter games and to be honest they just aren’t my cup of tea, but since Rathalos is in the game as both a boss and an assist trophy, I’d be kind of upset if we didn’t get a hunter as a character.
ECHO #2 - DIXIE KONG (Donkey Kong Country) (Echo of DIDDY KONG)
Another fan favorite character that I’m honestly surprised hasn’t made it yet. Her hair could whip forward like Shantae’s does in the Shantae games, and it could also be used as her recovery, working the same as Donkey Kong’s, low height but long distance.
NEWCOMER #2 - GENO (Super Mario)
I haven’t played Super Mario RPG personally, but I’ve seen my friend play a bit of it and I know how popular Geno is. With his appearance as a Mii Costume in SM4SH, I don’t think it’s unreasonable that Sakurai put him in. It seems like all those who got Mii Costumes have made it in as playable characters (except Ashley, RIP).
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Amaterasu, Banjo-Kazooie, Chibi-Robo, Chorus Kids, Dillon, Elma, Isaac, Leon Kennedy, Lloyd Irving, Marx, Quote, Tetra, and Wonder-Red
ECHO #1 - DARK BOWSER or MIDBUS (Super Mario) (Echo of BOWSER)
Psst, hey. Fun fact. This is actually my most wanted character in the entire list. Even more than my #1 Newcomer. Dark Bowser is the final boss of Bowser’s storyline in Bowser’s Inside Story, happening the same time as the Mario Bros. fight the Dark Star Core. He’s bigger than Bowser and a lot tougher. He breaths blue/purple fire among other powers, and I plan on making a whole separate post dedicated to why I want this character in Smash Bros. For now, I’ll just leave you all with Dark Bowser’s battle music.
NEWCOMER #1 - BANDANA DEE (Kirby)
Bandana (Waddle) Dee has become a stable character of the Kirby franchise, usually being a boss character or a playable character, his popularity rivals that of King Dedede and Meta Knight. He could throw his spear as a neutral attack, and spin it around for his recovery like he does in Star Allies. If you want to see what this looks like in action, I suggest checking out some gameplay of him in Super Smash Flash 2 (Please ignore Goku, he’s never getting in).
Decided to try my hand at that whole “Most Wanted Characters” thing +stages. Would like to talk about them, but I’ll do that under the cuff.
Sonic was my main back in Brawl, and Greninja was my other main in Smash 4. I really love what they did with Super Sonic’s Final Smash, even if it ends up making him a worse fighter. And I really hope that Greninja turns into Ash Greninja upon his final Smash. I pretty much just mained Sonic because I’m a huge Sonic fan, but I ended up really liking Greninja.
My secondaries could definitely extend to other characters, but I stuck with these three because why not? Really hyped for Pokemon trainer to return, because I felt like that actually made Charizard better. Then again, he keeps Flare Blitz, so how much better he’ll be we’ll see. Shulk’s inclusion also got me into Xenoblade, and I look back and love what they did with him.
Elma is the most likely character to me because of the time frame of the game’s development being back in 2016. Now, granted, I do think that they’re going use the ballot to largely decide the new roster this time around, but I still think Elma has a good chance, just because her game was out in America around the time of development, and out in Japan long before. She’d be really cool to add in, and I think they could get away with using her as a Xenoblade X rep as opposed to just a Xenoblade character. Think like Wario in comparison to Mario.I’m not sure if she’d fit my playstyle, but it’d be amazing to have her.
Shadow is the most likely Echo to me. I’d be totally hype for him as a character. I really just want more Sonic representation in Smash, that’s a big reason why I got Brawl in the first place. (Melee’s roster looked really boring to me as a child)
I more support Lycanroc as an opposition as opposed to supporting him for himself, but I think he’d be pretty cool to have, We have two quadrupedal characters, but neither of them are fast attackers like I’d imagine Lycanroc would be.
Rex and Pyra is the main duo character I want to be in the game, which I’m hoping they got added ate in development. I loved Xenoblade 2, and really want them as playable. I’ve also seen plenty of people say they think Pyra should be a background element like Pokemon trainer, but I disagree. That’d be really lame, even if it is more feasible. No, I want them to be like Ice Climbers, except instead of wanting to desync them, you want to keep them as synced as possible. I know this would do murder on him as a viable character, but I don’t care, gimme my Anti-Ice climber swordsman and his anime waifu. I also really hope that they don’t censor Pyra’s outfit, or if they do, they don’t do it like Tumblr and manage to keep all of the cool pats. Pyra’s weird for me, I don’t register her design as a sexual one for some reason, so all I see when I look at her is a badass adorable design. And nearly every tumblr ”Fix” of the design ruins it in some way or another.
Shantae is also a character I’d love to see. Especially if they took inspiration form her Pirate’s curse incarnation. That one was my personal favorite in terms of design and moveset. keep her dances, obviously, but also include the saber, the gun, , everything like that. out of all the Indie characters who have a shot at the game, she’s probably the biggest, because she’s widely popular in Japan.
Shovel Knight, on the other hand, is a character that needs the Ballot to win. Which I actually think has a decent shot of happening, considering how many people voted for him back during the ballot. Obviously not everyone, but a lot of people did it. So I seriously hope he gets in, he’d be super fun to play as.
Lana and Cia are probably the most “What the fuck” type characters on this list. They’re not a duo or switching characters. They just both use the same moveset and are different skins of each other, ala Olimar and Alph. It’d add a Hyrule Warriors rep, add some female characters, and add in a villain. I think she’d be really fun to play as.
And Malos is just a character that I want mainly as an echo to Shulk. It’d add in a villain and an easy one for Xenoblade.
My Least Wanted newcomers come in two flavors. Waddle Dee and Toad I don’t want in because I feel both franchises are represented well enough, and I feel like it’d just look like they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel. I know both characters kinda deserve the right not to be looked at like that, but it really would look like it.
And I kinda hope Decidueye doesn’t get in because everyone’s penciling him in as the “Surefire Pokemon rep.” Part of what made Greninja’s reveal so cool was that we weren’t expecting it. We were expecting Mewtwo, not some random starter pokemon. That’s lightning in a bottle that I don’t think they’d be able to repeat twice. I know he would fit in pretty well, but right now, I’d rather a more out there character form Gen 7.
My stages (Which I added because that’s probably what I’m the most hype for) are simple. Uraya and Primordia for Xenoblade X and 2. The Altar of the Sunne/Moone for Sun and Moon. the other two I more want because I think they’d be really cool for stage hazards.
Imagine a Salmon run stage that starts out as a medium sized stage and all of the Boss Salmonid come in as mini bosses. Nothing too distracting, but something you can take care of. Then the idea of high tide and low tide being incorporated by making the stage a big or small stage would really be cool.
And Metropolis would be amazing because you could have an Infinite Boss fight, or even have the stage take place in Null Space for certain parts. Really, though, I just hope for a Sonic stage that isn’t Green Hill or Chemical Plant.
Figured I'd try drawing Rex and Pyra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 since I love that game and they're easily the two characters I wanna see the most in Smash Bros for the Switch. (though I made a mess out of the sword)
