Friday, November 2, 2018

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Zelda Contents for DLC?

The short answer: no.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will feature five packs of DLC, where each pack contains a new fighter, a new stage and some additional music. This is quite similar to what was offered for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U, where some characters like Bayonetta or Ryu came together with their own stage and some songs. The big difference is that there seemingly won't be any standalone fighters except for the Piranha Plant, nor standalone stages. (And there won't be any Mii outfits, but they probably didn't sell much anyway.)

We should assume that each individual pack will form a themed unit, where the fighter, the stage and the music are all from the same game or franchise. Much like Bayonetta, the Umbra Clock Tower and several music tracks from the Bayonetta games. There is no reason to assume that one pack will have a Zelda character and a Metroid stage, though this particular combination certainly would be awesome.

And this puts Zelda in a difficult position, because there only will be nine new stages and one of them is already the Great Plateau Tower. They also re-designed Link based on Breath of the Wild and they brought back Young Link, so from the perspective of the Smash development team they are most likely done with the Zelda franchise, where they probably should focus on other IPs.

Also, with Skull Kid out of the picture, because he's still an Assist Trophy, there aren't that many potential characters left. Well, there's still this guy:


Tingle. And I would find it hilarious, if he made into Smash Ultimate as a fighter. He even used to be my most wanted at some point before Smash 4. But the outcry would probably be bigger than it currently is for Piranha Plant. And he doesn't really have an interesting stage to come with him. They could do the Tingle Tower from the Wind Waker, but it probably would end up quite similar to the Great Plateau Tower, just in the same setting as the Pirate Ship. (Alternatively they could go with the Rupee Tower from Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, but this would effectively turn him into his own franchise like Wario.)

The Pirate Ship also excludes Tetra as a possible character now, because that would have been her home stage. Impa could be still a thing, but she honestly was never that interesting, nor popular, plus she would have been an ideal Echo Fighter for Sheik, but there won't be any Echo Fighters in the paid DLC (unless maybe one of the new characters comes with an Echo like Simon and Richter).

Well, it still could be that Nintendo might release a couple of Echo Fighters as free DLC or as a separate DLC Pack. There would be lots of good potential here, like Dixie Kong for Diddy Kong or Jeanne for Bayonetta, which also probably would be the best shot at one more Zelda fighter in the form of either Impa or Princess Hilda.

But this is a big "IF", so overall we shouldn't expect anything for Zelda in the upcoming Smash DLC.

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