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Rebooting the Smash Roster

Rebooting the Smash Roster

If you were in charge of directing a Super Smash Bros. reboot, but could only choose 12 characters for your roster like in the first game for Nintendo 64, who would you choose and why?

By: TheHans255

11/8/2024

First, for those who don't know what Smash is: The Super Smash Bros. series is a series of fighting games published by Nintendo in which players play as mascots from other Nintendo games, such as Mario, Pikachu, Link, and others. The first game for the Nintendo 64 featured a total of 12 characters, and the series has since received five total installments, including the cult classic Super Smash Bros. Melee, and culminating in the most recent Super Smash Bros. Ultimate which features a total of 89 characters, including all returning characters from previous installments and 23 newcomers. The Smash series has also inspired numerous other games, including competing mascot fighters like PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale and wholly original platform fighters like Rivals of Aether.

I first heard this question a few years ago, shortly before the release of Ultimate. Speculation already abounded that Ultimate was meant to be the last in the Smash series, and that any Smash game released after that would likely go in a new direction. This question essentially asks: if you were in charge of that Smash 6 series reboot, with the ability to set up a new roster, create new stages, refresh game mechanics, etc., but for reasons of scope, were only allowed to choose 12 characters from Nintendo's history to include, just like in the original Smash, who would you include?

I've given a fair bit of thought to this question over the years since I heard it, and I figure it's high time to put my thoughts in blog form.

Reviewing Nintendo's Series

The hard part about answering this question in 2024 is simply that Nintendo has far more series than it did in 1999. The original Super Smash Bros. only had 18 years of company history to draw back on (starting from 1981, with the release of the original Donkey Kong for the arcade), so 12 characters were able to fit Nintendo's most popular series more comfortably.

However, this hypothetical reboot would have 43 years to look back on, and in that intervening time, more Nintendo franchises have taken off. According to this compilation on Reddit, Nintendo has no less than 28 franchises that have each sold over 1 million copies:

  1. Mario† (including Super Mario, Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario Sports, Mario RPGs, and other Mario games)
  2. Pokémon†
  3. The Wii series* (including Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Wii Play, and Wii Party)
  4. The Legend of Zelda†
  5. Donkey Kong† (including the original arcade game and the Donkey Kong series originally developed by Rare)
  6. Animal Crossing*
  7. Super Smash Bros. itself*
  8. Kirby†
  9. Brain Age*
  10. Duck Hunt
  11. Splatoon*
  12. Yoshi†
  13. Nintendogs*
  14. Luigi's Mansion*
  15. Wario (including Wario Land, Wario Ware, etc.)
  16. Metroid†
  17. Fire Emblem
  18. Star Fox†
  19. Tomodachi*
  20. Big Brain Academy*
  21. Xenoblade Chronicles*
  22. Pikmin*
  23. F-Zero†
  24. Punch-Out!
  25. Rhythm Heaven*
  26. Kid Icarus
  27. Miitopia*
  28. MOTHER / Earthbound†

All 13 of the series with stars (*) did not have any releases at all when Super Smash Bros. was first released. Pokémon also deserves a special mention here because while it has grown into the most popular media franchise in the world, at the time, it was brand new and still in its first generation. Two others of these series (Punch-Out! and Kid Icarus) only had one game at the time of Super Smash Bros.'s release, but since had other games added onto them. Contrast all that with the just 10 series that have daggers (†), which were the series originally represented in that first game.

We can, however, easily narrow this down a bit, and exclude a few series from roster representation:

This still leaves us with 22 series, though, which means that we're going to have to do some picking and choosing. Smash's popularity is built mostly upon the recognizability of its characters, so I will work mostly to maximize that, but I may also make some decisions to deviate from that if it would help to build a healthier game.

(Note that this post will not go into much discussion of what the playstyles and movesets would be, unless it directly relates to talking about a healthier game. If there is interest, I will go into it in another post.)

So without further ado, let's list our picks!

No-Brainer Picks

These characters are the top picks, from both the top of the best-seller list and serving as great inclusions to a fighting game roster.

1. Mario

Mario himself is absolutely a no-brainer. As the face of not only the most popular Nintendo series, but the most popular video game series in general, no iteration of Smash could possibly make sense without him. Mario would probably also retain the same all-around stats and playstyle present in most of his other multiplayer appearances, though I would likely emphasize his agility more in a moveset created for this game.

2. Pikachu

The face of Pokémon, the most popular media franchise in the world, Pikachu should also definitely be included. There are, of course, other popular Pokémon that could be included (such as Charizard, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Eevee, or Mewtwo), but Pikachu's priority as mascot doesn't really hurt the game any, as its small size and electric power lends itself to a character that moves fast and hits hard.

3. Mii Fighters

Now this is an interesting one, since it isn't exactly a mascot character, per se. However, as I mention above, the Wii is an incredibly important part of Nintendo's history, and the abiilty to create personalized Mii characters represented a tone shift in how Nintendo was regarded and how they interact with their audience. I feel it would be very important, then, to allow new players to import their Mii characters and allow some level of customization to how they would play.

However, like in all their appearances to this point, Mii Fighters would be unlockable. I'm also not entirely sure how I would set up their custom movesets, such using the Brawler/Swordfighter/Gunner trio would essentially amount to 3 characters out of our roster of 12. I'm also mixed on whether or not I would include Mii Costumes that allow Miis to dress up as other characters - while it would certainly allow more character representation, fans who want a full character out of a game are often disappointed to see that character as a Mii costume.

4. Link

Link not only comes from a hugely popular Nintendo series, but represents a premiere zoner playstyle - rather than fight with his agility, as Mario does, Link fights slowly and methodically using his heavy equipment. Link also has a long history of both traditional and non-traditional games to draw on, with his most recent incarnation in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom replacing some of that equipment with various forms of telekinesis.

5. Donkey Kong

As far as representation goes, Donkey Kong is a little tricky. His series is one of Nintendo's most popular over its lifetime, but all of his appearances in games as of late have either been remasters of his previous games, or as second fiddle to Mario. However, I think that Donkey Kong is an essential inclusion because he would represent a heavyweight, grappler playstyle quite aptly - one of his primary methods of attack in Donkey Kong Country is picking up barrels and throwing them at enemies, so it makes sense to have a character that can do that in a platform fighter.

6. Animal Crossing's Villager

Animal Crossing kind of has the opposite problem as Donkey Kong - the series is hugely popular, making it excellent for recognizability, but it is also fundamentally non-violent. In a way, you might also be tempted to consign it to the same fate as Nintendogs, where it can be a stage but should not be considered for roster inclusion.

However, Smash for 3DS/Wii U showed us that the Animal Crossing villager could be included as a viable character, simply by emphasizing the game's focus on resourcefulness. I don't see any reason why we can't do that again, even if the moveset itself changes.

(Though I should note that Isabelle would also be a perfectly fine pick for this slot, and may be a better choice because the Villager is meant to be a bit of a blank slate, which the Miis already fill quite aptly.)

7. Kirby

While we see a decent dip in popularity between Animal Crossing and Kirby, not only is he still plenty popular and relevant, his moveset also provides a pivotal aspect to classic Smash's gameplay: the Copy Ability. Kirby's signature move in nearly all of his games is that he can suck up enemies and copy their powers, and in classic Smash, this translates to copying the neutral special move onto a character that is otherwise small, floaty, and light. (Plus the way he copies the other characters is insanely cute - how could you not?)

I think that in a Smash reboot, I would have Kirby players embrace the Copy Ability more by having him inherit all of his special moves from his copied opponent, not just the neutral special, and would not give him any special moves besides his inhale. Kirby is a low-tier character in all of his games except Smash 64, and I don't think it's quite an accident that that corresponds to when all characters had four different special moves instead of three.

8. Inkling

Finally, for our top picks section, we have Inkling from the Splatoon series. Not only is Splatoon one of Nintendo's new premiere series on the Nintendo Switch, but Inkling also represents a new genre for Nintendo: the third-person team shooter. Inkling's current inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fits decently well with the existing Smash formula, but a reboot would allow Inkling's role to be reimagined and would allow Splatoon's primary mechanic - inking turf to gain stage control - to be a central mechanic to how Inkling plays.

Harder Picks

Now that we have eight solid characters from the top Nintendo franchises, we now need to look at the other series below them and see how we can shape up our roster for the final 4. This will also include some series mascots that I ultimately choose to pass up on, since other mascots below them would do a better job of rounding out the roster below.

Non-pick: Duck Hunt

Looking at the list of franchises, one will note that I have already skipped Duck Hunt to reach Splatoon. This is because, although Duck Hunt has more lifetime sales numbers, all of those sales numbers can be attributed to one game bundled with the NES and later resold on the Wii. Simply due to the issue of series relevance, a roster size of 12 simply doesn't have enough space to include Duck Hunt.

Not that Duck Hunt doesn't make a fantastic inclusion in general, though. Duck Hunt is indeed very important to Nintendo's history in the States (video games had a highly negative consumer stigma in the US in 1985, so Nintendo bundled the NES with Duck Hunt and R.O.B. so that it could be sold as a toy instead), and Duck Hunt's current representation in Smash (including both the duck, the dog, and the person behind the TV with the light gun) is a very creative one that I would want to reintroduce to a larger roster. (I might change up some of the moveset and gameplay, though).

9: Yoshi

While ostensibly a Super Mario character, Yoshi also has a popular series in his own right, with very different platforming, combat mechanics, and aesthetic to how Mario usually operates. Classic Smash represents this by drawing heavily from Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's Story, and I imagine that reboot Smash would do the same thing while also including his newer games.

Another good reason to include Yoshi is that he is a very good choice as a base roster character. As I mention above, the Miis would likely need to be unlockable in order to avoid exposing too much complexity right at the start, so Yoshi could replace them in the initial lineup of eight.

10. Luigi

Now, we get to Luigi, Mario's brother. In classic Smash, Luigi is mostly a clone character to Mario, which is understandable given the context available to Luigi at that point. However, since the first game's release, Luigi has since seen the release of Luigi's Mansion, a series of adventure/horror games where Luigi uses a backpack vacuum and flashlight to fight ghosts in a sprawling mansion. What makes him particularly exciting is due to Luigi's Mansion 3's inclusion of Gooigi, a gooey clone of Luigi made of ectoplasm and coffee, Luigi could be our 12 character roster's implementation of a puppet fighter, summoning him to fill the same role that classic Smash fills with characters like the Ice Climbers.

Of course, since most people know Luigi from contexts where he plays very similarly to Mario (such as the Super Mario games and Mario Kart), Luigi should probably still be mostly a clone to Mario with higher jumps and slipperier controls, much like how he operates in Super Mario Bros. 2 - The Lost Levels, and it should be possible to play Luigi well at least at a casual level while ignoring Gooigi.

Non-pick: Wario

At this point, we already have four representatives from Super Mario out of our 12 characters, so I don't think it's necessary to include Wario here. He'd likely come back in a 24-character roster, though.

Non-pick: Samus Aran

While Metroid is an excellent sci-fi series and also offers a much different tone from Nintendo's other games, we're at the point in roster selection where I would want to prioritize gameplay variety over series inclusion. Samus Aran's fighting style in the Metroid games revolves almost entirely around projectiles, making her a zoner character, and we already have several of those in the form of Link, Inkling, and possibly Villager.

11. Marth

Now, we get to Fire Emblem, and for that series' inclusion, I turn to an interesting fact about the series from an interview with Sakurai. He had actually intended to include Marth, the protagonist from the original Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, in Smash 64, as a swordfighter that emphasizes technique and finesse, as opposed to Link's strong and direct swordplay. He was ultimately unable to do so due to time constraints (the four unlockable characters had to reuse models from the starting eight), but intended to include Marth from the start in Melee.

Especially with how he ended up being implemented in Smash, with his attacks doing more damage if you hit opponents with the tip of his sword rather than the hilt, I would have to agree with this reasoning, and thus would want to include Marth in this roster as a counterpart to Link. There may be some things I would want to change about Marth's special attacks, but the emphasis on technique through hitting tippers would be the same.

Of course, with Marth, it's fair to note that there are plenty of modern Fire Emblem games that have sold more than Marth's game and would thus be more popular around the world. It might also be a good idea to take a character from a later Fire Emblem game, such as Awakening's Lucina or Three Houses's Byleth, and give them a similar moveset with tippers.

Non-pick: Fox

I would actually not include Fox in the game categorically, at least in this initial roster of 12. Fox is, of course, a very fun character to play in classic Smash, especially Melee, and is a major aspect of how fans view classic Smash. Choosing not to include him, then, in this hypothetical Smash reboot would signal unequivocally to fans that this game is, in fact, a reboot.

Plus, unfortunately, Nintendo has failed to make the Star Fox series relevant these days. Fox's initial games for the SNES and N64 were very good and immensely popular, but Nintendo hasn't really done much with the series except retell that story over and over again, and hasn't even released a new game on the Switch other than as part of a tie-in for a toys-to-life game by Ubisoft.

Of course, because Fox is still a popular character and very important to Smash's current identity, not being able to include him suggests that limiting ourselves to such a small 12-character roster might just be a bad idea, and expanding ourselves to 16 or 18 characters might be better choice due to Nintendo's rich history to draw from.

Non-pick: Shulk

Shulk would certainly be a creative and valuable pick with his Monado arts, which would likely be implemented in reboot Smash as stance changes like they are in classic Smash. However, we already have two swordfighters, possibly three with the Miis, and there is a pick below this in the list that would offer far more creative strategy.

12. Captain Olimar

That's right, we have Captain Olimar from Pikmin as our final pick. Unlike the other characters on this list, since Olimar comes from a series of real-time strategy games, he doesn't actually fight directly at all, but instead relies on building and giving orders to an army of minions called Pikmin. Olimar in classic Smash already does a decent job of replicating this mechanic by relying on plucking and throwing Pikmin to build power for his specials and Smash attacks, and a reboot of Smash could take him even further with the ability to station Pikmin at locations or give them independent orders (though it's likely he would have at least a few hand-to-hand moves he could use to defend himself).

Non-pick: Captain Falcon

Captain Olimar makes 12, but since F-Zero comes right after Pikmin in the best seller list, I should address it. Since Captain Falcon is essentially just a face associated with a car in the original F-Zero, the Captain Falcon we know and love today, complete with his iconic Falcon Punch and "Show me your moves!" taunt, is a wholly original Smash invention, to the point where the original source material has adopted it back. Captain Falcon is a fan-favorite character in the Smash series due to these traits.

There are good reasons not to include him in a 12-character roster of Nintendo characters, mainly because the characters listed above are not only more relevant with their home series, but also provide a good sense of character variety. Like with Fox, excluding Captain Falcon would also signal that this new Smash is definitely a reboot. However, I can't help but feel it would be a real shame to leave him out when he is such an iconic part of Smash itself, which is number 7 in that best-seller list. So, like with Fox, leaving out Captain Falcon also suggests that 12 may just be too limiting.

Final List

As with the original Smash, I would list the starting eight characters in release order, followed by the four unlockable characters. They are:

  1. Mario from the Super Mario series
  2. Donkey Kong from the Donkey Kong series
  3. Link from the Legend of Zelda series
  4. Yoshi from the Yoshi series
  5. Kirby from the Kirby series
  6. Pikachu from the Pokémon series
  7. Villager from the Animal Crossing series
  8. Inkling from the Splatoon series
  9. Luigi from the Super Mario/Luigi's Mansion series
  10. Marth from the Fire Emblem series
  11. Captain Olimar from the Pikmin series
  12. Mii Fighters from the Wii series

Imagining Relaxed Constraints - 16 Characters

Admittedly, the exclusion of some of these characters is still bothering me a bit, what with those characters still representing large series, even if legacy, and being so iconic to classic Smash. There are also wide gaps in prominence vs. actual representation for some of the series in this roster - for instance, Pokémon, the second-most popular Nintendo franchise, is only represented by one character, and the Mario series also has several sub-franchises, such as Mario Kart and Mario Party, that outsell some of these full franchises being represented here.

I imagine if I were directing this reboot, I might try to convince the executives to increase the time and financial budget so that we could include at least 16 characters, rather than just 12. If such a request were granted, here are the characters I would choose to include now that we have room.

13. Peach

As mentioned with Wario, we already have four Mario universe reps, so pulling a fifth rep for a list of 16 is still a bit of a stretch. However, if we're allowing ourselves to dip into the Mario universe a little more due to its sheer popularity, then another character comes to mind: Princess Peach.

In classic Smash, Peach has an agile moveset that strongly resembles her gameplay in Super Mario Bros. 2, including her ability to hover and to pluck and throw vegetables. While being a black sheep of the original Super Mario series, Super Mario 2 has gone on to influence many aspects of future Super Mario games, such as Super Mario 3D World and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. While I might make some adjustments to some of her other moves (for instance, in preparation for a possible Mario Party-focused rep, I would remove Toad from her moveset), I think that a representation of Super Mario 2 would be good to keep in a larger roster.

Another interesting Mario universe inclusion is Bowser, mainly for his influence from the Mario RPGs. In every Mario RPG except for one, Bowser is an excellently written character, both as a main villain, and as a reluctant ally or side villain facing another main villain. Bowser is also just a big scary boy with fire breath and dangerous bulk, serving as a nice complement to Donkey Kong's grappler playstyle. The main reason I would choose Peach over Bowser is due to how similar Bowser would end up being to our next pick.

14. Charizard

A series as big as Pokémon having only one rep is just kinda sad, and having it just be Pikachu means that it only represents one fighter archetype. While Pikachu is the series mascot, Charizard is arguably more popular, and is also a nice polar opposite to Pikachu - slow, massive, and hard-hitting.

Classic Smash includes Charizard as part of a stance character known as Pokémon Trainer, allowing him to be switched out with Squirtle and Ivysaur. That would likely be too out-of-scope for a roster this small, and while it could be good to include in a sequel to this reboot, leaving out the Trainer might also give us the ability to recreate this by using a true tag mechanic, where each character has separate stocks and hit percentages.

15. Captain Falcon

Yeah, I'd bring back Captain Falcon. He's a Smash original, the crowds love him. Honestly, even if we were limited to a 12-character roster, he's number 13, and he would be subbed in if any of the characters in the initial list of 12 didn't work out.

16. Samus Aran

And for this last one, I would likely bring back Samus Aran. Metroid is still a relevant series for Nintendo, with Metroid Dread releasing on the Switch in 2021 and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond in 2025, and with an increase in roster size, the roster would certainly have room for a more dedicated zoner character like Samus, especially one as agile as she is.

I know that there are other characters I could also include with an expanded scope, but I don't think I would push for more than 16, simply because adding more characters also means balancing them against all of the existing characters and increases the complexity quadratically (if not more). However, I should note that as proposed, there would really be 18 characters total, since the Miis would likely need at least 3 character archetypes for the customization to make sense.

Thoughts on Gameplay Changes

This essentially concludes the post - in a future post, I may go over some of what I might like to do in terms of gameplay changes. However, a few ideas immediately come to mind upon seeing this roster, and also just thinking about a reboot in general:

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