Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: One Left

(This was originally part of the previous post, but I've decided to split things up after some edits.)

Sakurai certainly made it very clear that this is it. The next Challenger Pack will really be the last and ten continuous years of development on Super Smash Bros., together with Bandai Namco, are coming to an end here, where Super Smash Bros. Ultimate had a great run.

I'd personally wish that they'd add one more Echo Fighter, maybe as a bonus for owning all eleven Challenger Packs, but that's wishful thinking. I mainly would want this, because it would re-arrange the current roster somewhat more nicely, with all the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate additions moving to the last two rows and all Fighters Pass Vol. 2 characters on the last line. And this could also fill a potentially interesting gap with for example Dixie Kong or Jeanne.

Also, this would create a perfect rectangle for both the fighter selection in Classic Mode, as well as the stacked character select screen in the Smash mode, where this would make the game look a lot more complete.

Speaking of, those last three slots on the stage select screen will certainly bug me for a long time as well, where I wouldn't mind some extra DLC stages, with a focus on some Nintendo Switch games, like Link's Awakening or Luigi's Mansion 3. They had this for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U with the Super Mario Maker stage, so why not here as well?

As for the last fighter, the music menu has one more space in the bottom right, but like with the fighters and stages this doesn't necessarily have to mean anything and get filled. If they were to keep things completely even between first and third party additions, as well as fighters from new and returning franchises, then the last fighter would have to be from a returning 3rd party, like Sonic (see here). But again, this doesn't have to mean anything, it's just speculation based on patterns for the fun of it.

In any case, the last wave of DLC Mii outfits was "nice" enough to already disconfirm a bunch of popular choices, which was quite the blowout. To be fair, Lloyd Irving or any Tales Of character seemed very unlikely after the reveal of Kazuya, because we're probably not getting two Bandai Namco characters in a row after all this time. And Shantae also didn't seem very likely in any case, but her Mii costume is lovely and even comes with a song. I'm still waiting for a bundle of all Mii outfits, but if I were to buy some of them individually, then Shantae would be a must-have.

The two bigger disconfirmations are probably the Dragonborn and Dante, where especially the latter had a lot of fans. Having both Dante and Bayonetta in Smash for a stylish Hack and Slash duel would have been awesome, but maybe in the next Smash Bros. game...

But it's not like we're out of potential 3rd party additions, where the list is still gigantic. The Master Chief got quite some traction before E3, because Vergeben, the leaker who got most of the base roster right, teased this character. But this was a bust and he even had to apologize for it... Still, this had me thinking that it's weird how Nintendo got two characters from Microsoft (Banjo and Steve), but not Microsoft's biggest gaming icon, the Master Chief. And this would be a huge deal.

As for first person shooters, the Doom Slayer would have the longer history and even a history with Nintendo, where I'm personally more a fan of that choice. Both would be great, however. And then there's the typical list of popular picks, like Ryu Hayabusa, Crash Bandicoot, Rayman and the like, but after Sephiroth and Kazuya it's clear that we should expect the unexpected. Rarely anyone saw these two coming.

When it comes to first parties, you will see a lot of "King Boo" in the predictions, mainly because Luigi's Mansion 3 is one of Nintendo's biggest games in the last years that hasn't gotten a Spirit Event. The same has happened with Fire Emblem: Three Houses and then we got Byleth at the end. And if we're following the release dates from last year, where Steve came out in October, the timing would be perfect for such a spooky choice. After all the spectacle it would also be a rather underwhelming choice, but after Incineroar and Byleth people should be used to this by now.

However, Sakurai also said that the last fighter might take a while, where I'm personally hoping for the Champions from Breath of the Wild as a four-in-one fighter, which would certainly explain his comment. If it really takes longer to develop this fighter, maybe even until the end of the year, there must be a good reason. Of course this is still not realistic, but also not impossible, and would certainly be an amazing finish for all Zelda fans, after not getting any new fighter since Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

(They could even display all four Champions as their own slots on the unstacked character select screen, which would fill the last row more nicely. For the stacked variant and in Classic Mode it would only show one, however.)

There also could be other reasons why it takes longer to develop this last fighter. If they really planned on releasing some extra DLC (like additional stages) at the end, then this would explain a delay as well. Or the character has a complicated mechanic again, like Steve's mining.

And one thing should be clear: that one last fighter won't satisfy everyone.