Saturday, May 19, 2018

The Champions in Super Smash Bros. Switch?

Following my previous post about newcomers in the upcoming Super Smash Bros. game for Nintendo Switch, specifically Ridley, I want to talk about another group of potential characters for Nintendo's all-star fighting game: the Champions from Breath of the Wild!


Revali, Urbosa, Mipha and Daruk. So far there haven't been any rumors about them being playable and I would most likely deem such rumors as "fake", but you see them quite often in fan-made rosters, where usually only one of these characters gets picked, because four additions to the Zelda team or any franchise would simply be too much.

However, for me the Champions are a four-pack. It's either all of them or no one. For the same reason I wouldn't expect one of the Champions being added to Hyrule Warriors right now as a 30th character. It's much more likely that they all will be added at once in an upcoming sequel.

As for Super Smash Bros. I would expect them as trophies in the least, maybe even four additional Assist Trophies that can be used as items in the game. As new fighters I don't think they would have a fair chance, considering that so far they are one-shots in the series. Other one-shots like Midna or Ghirahim also only made it in as Assist Trophies and you shouldn't expect them to be upgraded to playable characters now, where they aren't as relevant anymore.


Who else could be a Zelda newcomer?


Overall I don't really expect any newcomers for Zelda, to be honest. Focus should be on reworking the existing characters, where Link will certainly see some new stuff based on Breath of the Wild and where especially Ganondorf could use an overhaul. Though, it's also possible that Ganondorf simply gets capped, considering that he was just a glorified Captain Falcon clone and hasn't appeared in the series since Twilight Princess in 2006. But I would prefer, if no characters get cut this time, clones or not. Clones can always become more differentiated.

With character additions to Smash it should always be main characters, where the Zelda series doesn't really have much more to offer other than Link, Zelda and Ganondorf. Some would expect Impa as an addition, but she's usually a secondary character with very different faces from a young Sheikah woman with fighting potential to a stout lady to a very old lady...

Toon Zelda was originally also planned for Super Smash Bros. Brawl (source) and if Princess Zelda gets a Breath of the Wild overhaul, they might give Toon Zelda the classic Zelda gameplay, where the Phantom move would even make more sense, while Toon Link could play like the classic Link. It would also be nice, if Toon Link wasn't so alone on the roster, but on the other hand we haven't seen Toon Zelda since Spirit Tracks...

But if they are adding more toon characters, then Toon Ganondorf could be used to finally offer a variant of Ganondorf, who isn't a Captain Falcon clone.

They could also bring back Young Link, however, together with the Great Bay stage based on Majora's Mask 3D. Young Link was already featured in Melee and they could turn him into Fierce Deity Link as his Final Smash, which would be pretty badass. He also could be another classic Link alternative, so there's that. They brought back Roy, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a return of Young Link at some point.


As for stages, other than bringing back classic ones like Termina Great Bay, I would expect a Great Plateau stage in Super Smash Bros. on Nintendo Switch. Maybe they could also do a Lorule stage based on A Link Between Worlds, but if Great Plateau is done well and we get some good classic stages, I will be happy. I would find it more important to have a better stage editor this time.

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