Questions About The Smash Roster Choices in Previous Games

[Randoman]

People don't really talk about Sakurai's roster choices for SSB64 as much as the other three games, so I thought I'd ask some questions about the SSB64 roster. I'm doing this since I'm planning to make a list of sorts regarding all playable Smash characters, and the reasons (or likely reasons if we can't find solid sources) as to why Sakurai chose them/made them secret characters/gave them a certain kind of moveset/etc.

I got this idea after thinking to myself "lots of people complain about so and so being added" or "so and so not having moves that are more in tune with their original games" or "so and so got in while this character didn't" so I thought a complilation of each playable character that made it in and the reasons for their inclusion would help alleviate that to an extent. I decided to make the list starting with 64 characters and ending with Wii U/3DS characters, though I ran into some questions that I wanted your guys' input on.

Skip To Here if You Don't Want to Read My Intro and Want to Go Straight to Question Answering:

Do you think Sakurai chose Luigi as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 64 more for his iconicness and popularity as a character or because he's easy to make playable since he had Mario as a base character to use and both Mario and Luigi play similarly in most spinoffs they appear in?

Do you think Sakurai chose Jigglypuff as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 64 more for her popularity in Japan and her iconicness among the original 151 or because they had Kirby to use as a base and it'd be easy to use Kirby's model to make Jigglypuff a playable character?

Do you think Luigi and Jigglypuff were made secret characters in order to keep the series representation of the default roster balanced, or do you think there's another reason? Both characters (especially Luigi, who's arguably only 2nd only to Mario in terms of being recognized worldwide among the SSB64 cast) are really well known (though Jigglypuff admittingly lost a good chunk of her popularity over time)

Why do you think Sakurai made Fox as a starter character yet he made Captain Falcon as a secret character? Both only had two games at the time (not counting cancelled games, Bandai Satellite games, or the like).

What characters have you heard/read about being planned but cancelled for Super Smash Bros. 64?

My answers:

I'd say that Luigi's inclusion was 85%-90% due to his iconicness and popularity while 10%-15% of it was due to him being easy to design since they had Mario as a base and Mario and Luigi play similarly in most spinoffs they appear in. I mean, next to Donkey Kong, Luigi's had the most seniority of the Mario cast. And even if it was only as player 2, he showed up as a playable character in many games before SSB64.

I'd say that Jigglypuff's inclusion was 35%-40% due to her iconicness and popularity while 60%-65% of it was due to her being similar to Kirby model wise and being an easy character to make. Though Jigglypuff is popular, I definitely wouldn't say she's more popular than Meowth or the three Kanto starters, at least during the time SSB64 was released.

I think Luigi and Jigglypuff were made secret characters in order to balance out the series representation of the default cast. I mean, I really can't think of any reason why Luigi of all people would be a secret character. I mean, Luigi's definitely more well known and recognized than Kirby or Fox (and I'd argue Luigi is more well known than Link and even Pikachu, though I know some that would disagree). As for Mario and Luigi being similar and having the clone being locked at first, they didn't do that for Street Fighter's Ryu and Ken and that's the game that popularized the fighting genre. People even compared Mario and Luigi's Smash fighting styles to Ryu and Ken's, especially in how they differentiated the two's fighting styles in later games.

Regarding Fox being starter and Captain Falcon being unlockable, I don't have any concrete answers. At the time, both had one SNES game and one N64 game. Though supposedly, Star Fox at the time was a lot more popular than F-Zero, so maybe that played as a factor. Also though this may count for very little, Fox had a cameo in Stunt Race FX while Captain Falcon didn't.

The "concrete" cancelled characters I've heard about in SSB64 were Bowser, Mewtwo, and King Dedede. I've heard from lesser reliable sources that Peach, Wario, Meowth, and Pit were also considered, and also from one source that Lucas was even planned for SSB64, due to him being playable in the eventually cancelled (at the time) Earthbound 64.

[BANRYU]

I've heard rumors that Bubbles from Clu Clu Land, Balloon Fighter, and even Banjo & Kazooie were being considered as playable fighters in the Smash roster, though B&K is most likely a rumor since they're 3rd party. (Even so, how awesome would that have been? Banjo & Kazooie are so iconic for the N64 era and would have had shittons of potential before Rare was bought by Microsoft, making it basically a non-possibility for all time now lol.)

As for Fox VS Falcon, I can only imagine that it was because Fox was simply a more iconic, more popular character. Characters like that are naturally bound to be on the main roster, rather than secret characters. Ever notice how a bunch of the new characters in Brawl are mainly starting roster members? I think that's moderate evidence of the principle.

As for the Jigglypuff thing, I think you had it pretty solidly; regarding Luigi, I'm inclined to think that it was more for the same reason as Jigglypuff in terms of being easier to work off of since he was a Mario clone, and less due to his popularity. In the later games, his popularity is absolutely the main factor, but I don't think Luigi had much of a popularity situation before Luigi's Mansion gave him a more concrete personality.

Either way, I prefer to think that Luigi and Jigglypuff existing as clones in the first game were a clever solution to a lack of budget that would have been needed to add a character like Meowth in. They were certainly well implemented enough, and while no one will question that Luigi undoubtedly belongs in the series at this point, at least Jigglypuff was popular at the time. (As I said in the main SSB4 thread I could argue that Jigglypuff stopped being relevant around the time of Melee if it had any relevance to begin with, but that's a different discussion). Anyway, I'm sure it wasn't out of blatant laziness or anything, it probably just seemed like a clever solution at the time, assuming my hunch is correct. That's probably why there are so many clone characters in Melee as well; the period of development for Melee was a LOT shorter than that of Brawl, so it makes sense that variety would be a bit thin in the cast.