In the weeks leading up to E3 2021, everyone knew Nintendo would reveal at least one of the last DLC fighters forSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate.Although Nintendo kept the contents of its Nintendo Direct at E3 secret, it was only natural thatSmashwould have a presence at the conference. As fans expected,Super Smash Bros. Ultimatewas the first thing to come up. Nintendo revealed Kazuya Mishima, the famedTekkenstar, as the penultimate character joiningSmash Ultimate.Considering how importantTekkenis to fighting game history, it only seems natural that Nintendo’s industry-uniting fighting game would invite Kazuya to join in on the action.
The response may not have been exactly what Nintendo expected, though.Tekkendefinitely has a lot of fans, and Kazuya is more than worthy of a position on theSmashroster. However, Kazuya’s fans didn’t demand an invitation for him as vocally as fans of Crash Bandicoot, Master Chief, and many others have been.Tekkenfans may have rejoiced at the invitation, but overall, theSmashcommunity wasn’t as elated by the DLC reveal as they could’ve been. Nintendo fans andSmashfans specifically need to learn something from this situation. Since there’s only oneSmash Ultimateinvitation left, fans need to temper their expectations and remember that Nintendo’sSmashpriorities are different from theirs.
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Nintendo’s Smash Ultimate Priorities
In spite of how prolificSmashis, fans don’t historically have a ton of input on where the franchise goes. When it comes to adding new characters, Nintendo almost always does what it wants, rather than asking fans for their opinions and seeing what it can do. Famously Nintendo put out a poll for the Wii U and 3DS versions ofSuper Smash Bros.,which let toBayonetta’s inclusion inSmash.Overall, though, fans have only been able to watch, wait, and speculate.
What watching Nintendo pick and choose new characters has shown is that Nintendo doesn’t operate on the same wavelength asSmashfans. Quite a characters added by Nintendo were long requested by fans ahead of then, from Banjo and Kazooie to Mega Man to King K. Rool. For the most part, though, Nintendo’s choices don’t align with to the high profile characters that different parts of theSmashfandom ask for. Rather than focusing solely on fan demand, Nintendo habitually chooses characters that it seems to want to recognize internally, like the fighting game legends Terry Bogard fromKing of FightersandKazuya Mishima fromTekken.
Fans need to keep Nintendo’s unpredictableSmashinvitations in mind ahead of the lastSmash UltimateDLC. There’s no doubt that debate around the very last slot will heat up as it draws nearer. After all, there’s so many worthy characters in the game industry that should be inSmash,but there’s only room for one more. Although fans will have ideas of who is worth saving last forSmash Ultimate,the community needs to remember that Nintendo probably has different ideas about what kind of character is worth saving for last in the second and seemingly final Fighters Pass. Therefore, fans need to temper their expectations ofwho the lastSmashfighter will be, or else they might magnify their own disappointment.
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The Unpredictable Future of Smash Ultimate
Although tempered expectations are healthy, one can also never underestimate Nintendo’s capacity for delivering surprises. Kazuya joiningSmashwas a big surprise, but the reveal ofMetroid Dread,the first 2DMetroidgame in nearly 20 years, was definitely a much bigger surprise. Nobody suspected that Nintendo was working on a fifthMetroidgame. Nintendo is equally capable of shocking fans withSmashfighter reveals, as it did whenPersona 5’s Joker got added to the game at the start of the very first Fighters Pass. There’s still a chance that Nintendo has figured out who fans want inSmashthe absolute most and plans on adding them to the game in the last slot. Still, fans can’t count on that possibility either.
Nintendo is enigmatic, and generally very good at keeping its projects secret. Although lots of leaks claimed to reveal demanded characters over the years, they’re frequently shot down when a realSmash Ultimatefighter gets revealed and defies fan expectations. At this point, it’s too late for every beloved character to make it toSmash,soSmashfans should probably start making peace with the fact that their favorite character’s chances of getting aSmashinvitation are slim.Unless Nintendo announces a third Fighters Pass, the end of the road is ahead. Maybe Nintendo will invite more characters that missed out when anotherSmashgame rolls around.
