Nintendo had absolutely no idea back in 1999 that Super Smash Bros. would go on to become one of the most celebrated video game franchises of its time. Nintendo is a company who has always excelled when it comes to first-party properties and popular mascots, so the concept of mashing them all up into a crossover fighting game is actually quite brilliant.
Now, two decades later, the Super Smash Bros. series remains at the top of the fighting genre and has amassed an extremely passionate following. Each Smash Bros. game reaches for greater heights, but after the sheer amount of excess that’s present in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, many have started to wonder if rebooting and starting over is the only way to move forward now.
10 There Are Too Many Characters
Series like Super Smash Bros. face a fascinating problem that’s only experienced when games are always looking forward and convinced that more content is always the solution. It’s a difficulty that Mortal Kombat has learned to deal with after an increasingly cumbersome roster.
Each Smash Bros. game has added more characters, and the latest entry in the series features a total of 89 playable fighters after all of the DLC additions. Working through a game with that many characters is more daunting than it is fun. It becomes hard to give each character a fair chance when there are so many.
9 A Return To Single-Player Significance
It’s crucial for any fighting game to dominate in a multiplayer capacity, but there are also plenty of fighting titles that still prioritize a robust single-player experience. This is something that used to be more of a priority for the Super Smash Bros. games back during the series’ infancy.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has pushed the series’ multiplayer aspect as far as possible and a reboot could put some added focus on an extended single-player adventure. The highs of Super Smash Bros. Brawl’s Subspace Emissary have yet to be returned to and a reboot could be the perfect opportunity.
8 Gameplay And Other Mechanics Become Secondary To Character Reveals
The Super Smash Bros. series attempts to give the audience a wide range of content that often goes beyond the standard expectations of fighting games. Masahiro Sakurai goes above and beyond in this department, but it often seems like the games get distilled down to an echo chamber where character reveals take precedence over everything else.
The excess of new characters has dominated the conversation with Smash Bros. and it’s allowed other important gameplay features and mechanics to get overlooked in the process. A reset could allow foundational elements to take center stage.
7 The Incorporation Of Spirits To Include More Characters
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate includes a very integral Spirit system that finds a way to feature many more familiar faces from diverse video games. Previous Smash Bros. titles had trophies that reflected other corners of gaming history, but these Spirits go overboard and there are well over 1000 of them to achieve and collect.
At the same time, the inclusion of certain characters as prominent Spirits has allowed Ultimate to have its cake and eat it too when it comes to characters. If the roster wasn’t already so bloated then many Spirits could get proper representation in the series.
6 Fans Still Play The Older Games Because They Prefer The Simplicity
Nintendo has done incredible work with the Super Smash Bros. series, but there’s also been an odd level of gatekeeping when it comes to access to the earlier entries in the series. Nintendo continues to push that audiences play the latest game in the franchise and abandon what’s come before them.
However, there have been dedicated fan communities that host tournaments specifically around the original Super Smash Bros. and the GameCube's Melee, even with revised controls. There’s clearly interest in these earlier entries that aren’t so crowded and a new game that reflects that would excel.
5 It Allows The Opportunity For New/More Game Modes
At the end of the day audiences come to Super Smash Bros. for an entertaining group multiplayer experience, but there were also other modes in the games that could become hidden gems and deeply rewarding. Challenges like Break the Targets and Board the Platforms function as clever ways to help the player master a character’s techniques.
These features shouldn’t be the focus, but a return to more content that provides an individualized experience based on which character is being used is a lot easier when the game’s roster is more manageable and resources can be spent elsewhere.
4 Lazy Shadow Characters & Mii Costumes Waste Characters
Concessions need to be made when a game has a roster of dozens of original characters. Super Smash Bros. has made the decision to simplify this process with a number of “shadow characters,” who feature the same movesets of existing characters albeit with an original design.
This principle has been extrapolated upon with Ultimate’s Mii Fighters, which have a number of different costumes that find ways to work in commonly requested characters like Geno, Shantae, and Dante from the Devil May Cry series. A proper reboot can rebalance all of this with a strong cast that doesn’t need to abuse these lazier design mechanics.
3 Literally Remake The Original Game And Start Over
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has reached such a sprawling place that a reboot makes a lot of sense in many regards, but Nintendo could also decide to keep the existing series going while they also create a faithful remake of the original game, albeit with modern gaming capabilities.
There’s a lot of lingering nostalgia for the first Super Smash Bros., and it’s a title that’s not as readily available as it should be— it seems like it would be a no brainer for the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack, but it isn't part of the first batch of titles nor is it on the list of confirmed games coming to the service later. A remake of this game that’s built from the ground up and not just an upgraded port could do very well.
2 There’s A Large Influx Of Fighting Game Characters
Crossover fighting games have become increasingly popular, as well as the concept of pulling in radical guest characters like Darth Vader or Freddy Krueger to participate in the chaos. Part of what makes Super Smash Bros. special is that the majority of the characters on the roster aren’t from fighting games, so this genre shift is an exciting change of pace in itself.
However, there’s been a steady push to include characters from established fighting series like Street Fighter, Tekken, and Final Fight. These inclusions are fun, but they feel slightly off course from the series’ original aim.
1 Audiences Are Inevitably Upset That Not Everyone Makes It In As A Guest Character
At a certain point Super Smash Bros. will have to accept the fate that sometimes less can be more. It’s not reasonable to complain about overlooked characters when a game only has a dozen figures included in the roster. However, when a game’s stable of talent approaches one hundred, it’s easier for crowds to complain over who didn’t make the cut when so many others have.
This has caused a toxic feedback loop that leaves fans inevitably disappointed, and also sours Sakurai’s relationship with the series. It’s become progressively more taxing for him, to the point where he is constantly threatening to retire from the series and is currently claiming he won't be back to work on another installment if Nintendo decides to make one.
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