Your mission - reboot Smash

[Fabulously Olivier]

In the far flung future, Sakurai has earned a comfortable and fulfilled retirement, along with a life-sized Smash trophy in his honor. You are now the director of Smash and have been tasked with rebooting the franchise. What is your roster? What new mechanics are you using? What new modes? What other exciting twists do you have in store?

 

My design principles are as follows:

 

Embrace Simplicity of Controls

Stick solely to the base control scheme that sets Smash apart from more technical, combo-based fighters. No special input nonsense.

 

The only new inputs would be the Shield Special and the Grab Special. The shield special (already present on Inkling) would be used for Counters, character swaps, reflects, heals, special mechanic refills, etc. Every character would have one. The Grab Special would provide you with an alternative throw, pummel, grab shield (useful for team battles), or other helpful mechanic, and would vary by character.

 

Embrace Multi-Character Movesets:

Recombine characters such as Zelda & Sheik, Samus & ZSS, etc. Add new team-based movesets, especially where Pokemon is concerned.

 

Embrace Alts, Axe Echoes

Turn all echo fighters and semi-clones into alternate costumes and use this as a means of expanding the roster without bloating it.

 

Add New Sidescrolling Cooperative PvE Mode

These massive sidescrolling stages would be procedurally generated using random combinations of pre-built tilesets (akin to the way Warframe handles procedural generation). Stage builder would also be available for this mode. This mode can be played, solo, local co-op, amiibo assisted, and online multiplayer, and would provide an endless source of friendly fun with lots of loot.

 

Add New Minigame Party Mode

New mini-games, akin to those of Pokemon Stadium and Mario Party franchises would also be available, In fact, some classics from the Pokemon Stadium franchise would return alongside new minigames. These can be played solo against the AI & amiibos, local multiplayer, and online.

 

Rebooted Roster

Of course, I'm aware this section is going to be personal and contentious. We all want different things. With my roster, I wanted to clean things up on the Nintendo end, consolidate characters, keep most of the current third parties, and add some more. 

 

My roster includes 30 Nintendo first party characters, and 20 third party characters. This expands to 47 Nintendo first party reps when one includes the multi-character movesets below, and substantially more counting alternate costumes. 

 

Nintendo:

 

Mario/Yoshi/Donkey Kong:

1. Mario

 

2. Luigi

Redesigned moveset with greater emphasis on Luigi's Mansion.

 

3. Peach (alt. costumes - Daisy, Pauline)

 

4. Bowser

 

5. Donkey Kong

 

6. Yoshi

 

Legend of Zelda:

7. Link

 

8. Zelda & Sheik

 

9. Ganondorf

Redesigned moveset around Hyrule Warriors. Alternate costume is Wind Waker, with cartoon versions of attacks.

 

Fire Emblem:

10. Marth (alternate costumes - Ike, Chrom, Lucina, Roy, Leif, Lyn)

Redesigned moveset replaces Dolphin Slash with Aether and replaces Shield Breaker with Quick Draw.

 

11. Byleth

Moveset places him in background like a Pokemon Trainer. Claude and Dimitri utilize new movesets. Edelgard uses a modified version of Ike's current moveset. Byleth can interact with the battle through specials that rewind time (shield special) and strike foes with his/her extended Sword of the Creator (grab special). Byleth also has 3 different final smash animations, in which he/she performs a team attack with whichever lord is in play.

 

12. Robin (alt. costumes - female Robin, Celica)

 

Pokemon:

13. Pokemon Trainer Red

Moveset utilizes Pikachu, Charizard, and Greninja. Final Smash = Snorlax

 

14. Pokemon Trainer Blue

Moveset utilizes Squirtle, Arcanine, and Pidgeot. Final Smash = Gyrados

 

15. Pokemon Trainer Green

Moveset utilizes Ivysaur, Blaziken, and Gardevoir. Final Smash = Jigglypuff

 

16. Giovanni

Moveset utilizes Meowth, Mewtwo, and Incineroar. Final Smash = Rhyhorn 

 

17. Cynthia

Moveset utliizes Togepi, Lucario, and Milotic. Final Smash = Garchomp

 

Metroid

18. Samus & Zero Suit Samus

 

19. Ridley

 

Star Fox

20. Fox (alt. costumes - Falco, Wolf, Slippy, Peppy)

 

Animal Crossing:

21. Isabelle (alt. costume - Tom Nook)

 

Xenoblade Chronicles:

22. Rex (alt. costume - Shulk)

Moveset is a reverse of Pokemon trainer. Rex fights while his three blades support him and change his weapon/moveset. Chosen blades in spoilers below, as I know how sensitive the Xenoblade fanbase can be to these things. 

Spoiler

Pyra - Shulk's Monado moveset, tweaked

Roc - dual scythes moveset

KOS-MOS - ether cannon moveset

 

Mythra - final smash

 

 

Kirby:

23. Kirby

 

24. Metaknight

 

25. King Dedede

 

Bayonetta:

26. Bayonetta

 

Splatoon:

27. Inklng

 

Retro Games:

28. Punch-Out - Little Mac

29. Ice Climbers - Ice Climbers

30. Kid Icarus - Pit

 

Capcom:

31. Megaman - Megaman (alt. costume - Megaman X)

32. Devil May Cry - Dante (DMC3 default, DMC5 alt costume)

33. Street Fighter - Ryu (alt. costumes - Ken, Akuma)

34. Monster Hunter - Monster Hunter (male and female costumes with multiple armor sets each)

35. Ace Attorney - Phoenix Wright (alt. costumes - Miles Edgeworth and Apollo Justice)

36. Resident Evil - Leon Kennedy (alt. costume - Jill Valentine)

 

Sega:

37. Sonic - Sonic (alt. costumes - Shadow, Silver, Knuckles, Tails)

38. Persona - Joker

 

Bandai Namco:

39. Pac-Man - Pac-Man (alt. costume - Ms. Pac-Man)

40. Tales - Lloyd Irving (alt. costume - Yuri Lowell)

41. Soul Calibur - Nightmare (alt. costume - Siegfried)

 

Konami:

42. Castlevania - Simon (alt. costumes - Richter and Trevor)

43. Metal Gear Solid - Snake

 

Square Enix:

44. Final Fantasy - Cloud Strife 

45. Dragon Quest - Hero

46. NieR Automata: 2B

 

Activision Blizzard:

47. Crash Bandicoot - Crash Bandicoot

48. Spyro the Dragon - Spyro

 

Microsoft:

49. Banjo Kazooie - Banjo & Kazooie

 

Arc System Works:

50. Blazblue - Ragna & Jin

Edited December 17, 2019 by Etheus

[Hanes]

14 hours ago, Etheus said:

with the battle through specials that rewind time

broken? Actually how does that even work? Everything just goes back to a few seconds before? That actually sounds really worrying because a better skilled player may have outmoved you but you just go back and get him anyways. It seems very dumb.

[Fabulously Olivier]

33 minutes ago, This boi uses Nino said:

broken? Actually how does that even work? Everything just goes back to a few seconds before? That actually sounds really worrying because a better skilled player may have outmoved you but you just go back and get him anyways. It seems very dumb.

I was thinking along the lines of what Shulk or Bayonetta already do with their counters. Canceling knockback would be a step too far (or could perhaps only cancel a second's worth of knockback and only after the player regains control), but healing and status effect (burn removal) would be fair. 

[Flere210]

The first thing i would do is to split almost completely casual smash and competitive smash, even to the point of certain moves being vastly different in the 2 modes. For example, something like the warlock punch makes sense in casual when you can use it to deny an area or by hitting an opponent that cannot defend themselves, but for competitive it could use being a bit faster and weaker so it can actually hit a decent opponent. 

I'd need sometime to make a roster, but i am likely going to Thanos snap even more and spam even more alts. 

[eclipse]

Subspace Emissary is now a permanent feature - as DLC.  The base SE is free, and contains all the base/unlockable characters.  DLC characters have their own chapter, and SE will update itself whenever someone purchases that character.

In other words, those that liked SE can download it, and those that are in Smash solely for the competition can ignore it.

[Fabulously Olivier]

15 minutes ago, eclipse said:

Subspace Emissary is now a permanent feature - as DLC.  The base SE is free, and contains all the base/unlockable characters.  DLC characters have their own chapter, and SE will update itself whenever someone purchases that character.

In other words, those that liked SE can download it, and those that are in Smash solely for the competition can ignore it.

I do like SSE a lot, and don't feel that World of Light is a good substitute. And my new co op mode was meant to emulate that (in an endlessly replayable fashion) from a gameplay perspective. As far as story goes, having the SSE as a premade version of that mode would also be very welcome. 

[vanguard333]

I would place great emphasis on the fact that this is a relaunch of the series: we're rethinking everything and rebuilding it from the ground up: keeping what's good and discarding what isn't, while also bringing in new things that are still Smash Bros. at heart. 

Not everyone would be able to return, but everyone who's back will be reworked from the ground up. The idea being to have their movesets more closely resemble their games while still being great to play. 

 

Now, the biggest new thing is a story mode different from Adventure Mode or Subspace Emissary while keeping the aspects of those that played to the series' strengths. 

The main gameplay is a combination of a world map to select a location, and 2D side-scrolling. A bit like Subspace Emissary, but with a better-utilized world map. There is an emphasis on exploration and combat. 

The main story is a bit different from Subspace Emissary or World of Light. Where those ones try to be very grand in scope with this massive threat and all that stuff, this one starts off at least as more down-to-earth and personal in scope. It even features the characters facing off against each other as a very big part of the story, and where Subspace Emissary did that through shadow bugs and World of Light did that through spirits and freeing the fighters, this one instead has the actual fighters fighting other actual fighters. It will still have aspects of it that are grand in scope, but the characters' journeys are just a bit more personal. 

I can't really get any more specific than that as I would need to put a lot of thought and time into it. But the idea is that this would best emulate the competitive aspect of Smash Bros. and be more appealing to those who normally don't care for these story modes, while also having what made those previous story modes so well-loved. 

[Lightcosmo]

3 hours ago, eclipse said:

Subspace Emissary is now a permanent feature - as DLC.  The base SE is free, and contains all the base/unlockable characters.  DLC characters have their own chapter, and SE will update itself whenever someone purchases that character.

In other words, those that liked SE can download it, and those that are in Smash solely for the competition can ignore it.

This would be amazing! 100% support this idea.

[NinjaMonkey]

Rebooted Roster

The current roster plus Dixie Kong, Captain Syrup Krystal, Medusa and Phoenix Wright, minus Pichu, Lucina (Mart alt), Roy (same), Chrom (same), Sonic, Cloud, Ken, Ryu, Terry, Joker, Cloud, Snake, Toon Link.

Edited December 18, 2019 by NinjaMonkey

[Flere210]

I think i have chosen a roster of 30 or so characters. I mostly cut the third party support because those things will be added as either DLC or i  Rebooted Smash 2 and i added several "transformations".

DISCLAIMER: i am going by the realistic assumption that Rebooted Smash will come out in the mid 2020s, meaning the gaming landscape would be different and Nintendo will try to advertise newer games. I am reserving certain slots for characters that does not exist yet but will most likely exist there. I am not going to speculate on how those characters looks or play beyond surface level(for example i may say Gen 9 grass starter because we lack one, but this is under the assumption that the gen 9 smash starter is smashable and not something like Serperior.) 

MARIO

1)Mario

2)Peach

3)Bowser

LUIGI'S MANSION

4)Luigi

PAPER MARIO

5)Paper mario

YOSHY

6)Yoshy & Baby Mario

DONKEY KONG

7)Donkey kong

8)Diddy Kong & Dixie Kong(tag teaming is a staple of DK games and i decided that Diddy and Dixie are the best option to represent that)

9)King K. Rool

WARIO

10)Wario

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA

11) "modern" Link(moveset based entirely on botw, botw 2, and a future Zelda if one is released).

12)"classic" Link

13)Zelda & Sheik

14)Ganondorf & Ganon(The human form will use either Ghiraim or 2 greatswords and dark magic, resembling various boss fights in the 3d era, the Ganon form would be the pig demon from the 2D era whit a Tridend and dark magic)

METROID

16)Samus Aran

17) Ridley

KIRBY

18)Kirby

19)King Dedede

20)Meta Knight

POKEMON 

Here i am going to cheat and use trainers.

21) Red: Pikachu, Venusaur, Mewtwo (things he use on the manga)

22) Green/Blue in the west: Charizard, Scizor, Greninja(Red is not Ash, and i have no interest into putting Y here, so i have to put Greninja somewhere and he kinda fit Green. The other 2 are from his manga team.)

23)Cynthia: Garchomp, Lucario, Gardevoir(she lacks suitable pokemons and i want at least one pokemon per gen

24) N: Zoroark, Decidueye, either cinderace or whoever the gen 8 breakout pokemon was(N entire Schtick is that he change team as much as he change underwears, so i just gave him Zoroark and whatever was not represented yet)

KID ICARUS

25)Pit

26)Palutena

F-ZERO

27)Captain Falcon

28) Black Shadow(f-zero only deserve one spot imo, but people are atached to Falcondorf, so here is the best option for that.)

FIRE EMBLEM

29)Tiki

30)Marth(half of the swordlord as alt)

31)Ike(the other half of swordlord)

32)Robin(Celica and Anna alt)

33)Edelgard(Hector and any suitable emperor alts)

34)if that exist, Lance using FE17 Lord/Avatar(Ephraim and Dimitri alts)

STAR FOX

35)Fox McLoud(falco and wolf as alts)

PUNCH OUT

36)Litlle Mac

XENOBLADE

37)Xenonlade 3 protagonist(by 2025 neither Shulk neither rex would be relevant)

SPLATOON

38)Inkling

RETRO

39)Mr. Game & Watch

40)Ice Climbers

FREE SPACES FOR NEW NINTENDO IP RELEASED BETWEEN ULTIMATE AND REBOOT

41)???

42)???

43)???

I thin 3 should suffice.

GUEST CHARACTERS

44)Sonic

45)Bayonetta

46)SMTV protagonist

47)Someone from FF that is not Cloud but i can't pick one

48)Simon Belmont(every vampire killer's user ever as alt)

49)Ryu

50)Banjo & Kazoie

 

Lol i put way more characters that i initially tought.

 

 

 

[Fabulously Olivier]

You know, I hadn't actually considered having Diddy and Dixie as an Ice Climbers style tagteam. I like that.