Third time is the charm! After...
Echo Estimations
Echo Estimations #2
... we will discuss potential Echo Fighters once more, grooming and expanding our list of potential characters that could become Echo Fighters. Since the last time we finally got Ken (60ε) confirmed as Ryu's Echo Fighter, while the Black Knight got deconfirmed as an Assist Trophy.
The same essentially happened to Ribbon Girl, because Spring Man will only be an Assist Trophy in the game as well. Poor ARMS. (Though, technically Ribbon Girl could become her own thing. Out of all characters in ARMS, she fits Smash the best with her multi jump ability. Plus, she is as much as a poster child as Spring Man and even sings the title song.)
But right now we should assume that every other potential Echo Fighter won't see the light of day as well, because the upcoming Fighter's Pass DLC won't include any Echo Fighters. It will be all new ones. Still, Nintendo could release some new Echo Fighters in addition, either as free updates or some cheap separate DLC, to appease certain fan requests and to keep the player base happy or even to promote current and upcoming games on Nintendo Switch. Echo Fighters require much less development efforts than a new fighter, so it's potentially something that Sakurai's team could do in between the five upcoming DLC fighters.
So, let's go through our list of potential Echo Fighters one last time, this time sorted by their hypothetical numbers:
- 02ε) Funky Kong
- 11ε) Black Shadow or Blood Falcon
- 16ε) Impa
- 17ε) Hilda
- 35ε) Mega Charizard X/Y
- 36ε) Dixie Kong
- 54ε) Medusa or Viridi
- 63ε) Jeanne
- 64ε) Octoling
Funky Kong is probably one of the less likely candidates here, considering that Dixie Kong hasn't even made it into the base game herself. If they do an Echo Fighter for the Kongs, it certainly will be the Diddy / Dixie combo. She is easily one of the most requested Nintendo characters at this point.
All in all it would also be thinkable that one of the DLC Packs will revolve around Tropical Freeze and introduce any of the remaining Kongs from that game as a unique fighter, including Cranky Kong. But of course such a DLC could go hand in hand with a free Echo Fighter as a promotion...
If Nintendo ever wanted to do something more for F-Zero in Smash (or in general), adding an Echo Fighter to Captain Falcon would probably be their choice, seeing how the franchise is practically dead at the moment. Either Black Shadow or Blood Falcon would fill this role quite perfectly.
Moving on to The Legend of Zelda, the biggest disappointment was certainly the lack of a new unique fighter from the series. An Echo Fighter could be a consolation price for Zelda fans, where Impa would probably be the more meaningful one, but Princess Hilda would probably be more interesting and a nicer visual match. However, if they are planning to release Skyward Sword HD on the Nintendo Switch next year, Impa with her Skyward Sword design could be a nice promotion for that title. So, Impa is the likelier candidate of the two.
A newcomer on this list would be Charizard's Mega Charizard X or Y evolutions. This is an interesting case, because he would be listed as an Echo Fighter of the Pokémon Trainer, but only be an Echo Fighter of Charizard alone, bringing the standalone Charizard from Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U with his infamous Rock Breaker move back.
Both Medusa and the Octolings are cases, where the fighters could end up as semi-clones similar to Isabelle, less so in case of the Octolings, more so in case of Medusa. Viridi is another alternative as Medusa's Echo Fighter, who could potentially even use some of Palutena's lost moves, while Medusa would be closer to the overall body shape of Palutena.
Last but certainly not least, we have Jeanne as Bayonetta's Echo Fighter. Since Bayonetta still had her Jeanne alt, she felt quite unlikely for the base game, but updates and DLC tell a different story. In fact, if there were to be more Echo Fighters as download, she would be the likeliest candidate, considering that she basically was Bayonetta's Echo Fighter in their games and considering that Nintendo might want to promote Bayonetta 3 with such an addition.
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