#i hope people like the captains as much as i do when pikmin 4 comes out

[belowthesundial]

not me checking the tags of a character everyday only to see nothing

[ghost-ofstarman]

pikmin 3 - rerouted [chapter 4]

Drake’s face was beaming as he unfolded his blueprints. Today was going to be different, the always-rainy skies of Koppai had cleared up for this important moment in his life, the sun on his skin motivated him more than ever and his scout probe had finally been drafted. It was time to begin work.

“Look, Alph. This is what I’ll be calling a SPERO. Koppai’s a little worried about our food situation and they need me to send these scouts out into space to find more for us, it’ll take no time at all,” he proudly informed his very small grandchild, flattening the edges of the paper with his calloused, gloved fingertips. “Whoa, really?? Can I help?” “Of course you can! That’s why I brought you here, you’re more useful than your siblings and parents, that’s for damn sure. Grandpa’s finesse isn’t what it used to be so it’s nice to have someone around who understands the importance of engineers in this world. I could use a bit of your effort every now and then.” “What do you mean?” “About your family?” “Yeah…” “They don’t have the same brain capacity as us. You may like them and your father may be my own son but they’re fated to work office jobs the rest of their lives, there’s no creativity in that. That’s why I don’t stick around people like that, they’re a waste of my time and they’re a drain on yours. Move out as soon as possible to remain focused on your work.” Alph looked down at his feet and rocked back and forth in place, debating, “But I like all people. I don’t want to be alone!” Drake shifted his gaze from his newly drafted blueprints to the grandkid fidgeting beside him. “I wanted to like all people too, kid. I really did. They just don’t understand us, they’re entirely different people. They aren’t really thankful for what we do, they don’t question their surroundings or appreciate science. They just eat up all the cheapest garbage we can manufacture and pretend like they care about the stuff we pour our heart and souls into creating, they’d rather us make their coffee machines run faster than develop more fuel-efficient spacecrafts for longer expeditions. I didn’t want to be alone either but as it is, creativity just isn’t enjoyed by this planet. Nor Hocotate, Dunite, even Sorna is only interested if technology means it’ll make them look like they’re bigger and more intimidating than they really are.” Alph had no idea what half of this meant but his child mind interpreted it in the simplest way possible. “But you’ve found engineers like us, why don’t you hang out with them?” he asked, tugging on his grandfather’s long sleeve on tiptoes. Drake turned back away from him and slammed his hand on the table, a cup of chalk pencils toppling over and spilling onto the floor. His previously brightened face had now contorted into a scowl in an instant much to Alph’s shock. “They’re no friends of mine. They just want to control and change all that I do for them, if I’d shown them the SPERO blueprints they’d rip it apart both figuratively and literally because it’s not up to their worthless government-approved standards. The stars gifted me with these two hands to create anything I wanted and hell, I’m going to do it.” Alph’s ears lowered and he backed away a bit in case things got out of hand; he hated when Drake got like this. He complained about being lonely, complained about people being interested in his work, he was never happy and all Alph wanted to do was understand his reasoning for being such a hermit. “Please don’t get mad at me. I’m just trying to help…” “…” “Why won’t you tell me what’s wrong?” “It’s not of your concern. You’re too young, you wouldn’t understand.” The older man hung his head and drew in a deep, slowed breath. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me,” Alph reached back over and touched his grandfather’s arm once more in an effort to get him to be more comfortable with being more open around him. Much to his surprise, Drake whipped around and shoved the tiny hand from his shirt, raising his voice, “What if you can’t help me, huh? Nothing you do or ever manage to do will ever ‘fix’ my problems, kiddo. You’re starting to piss me off, I really thought I found something special in you. Don’t rot your brain with useless sympathy for someone who doesn’t need it, I didn’t let you stick around for you to guilt trip me. I’ve got a job to do and THAT’S what I need help with, if you can’t apply your 'helpfulness’ there then get your sorry ass out of my house and don’t come back. You can sit in that house with the rest of them and let your intelligence go to waste just like your father for all I care!” Alph noticed Drake had gotten eerily close to him stepping closer and in a more intimidating fashion with each new string of spiteful words, backing him up into a corner.  –

Alph’s big eyes welled up with tears and he slid down onto the floor, back flattened against the cold steel wall. “I’m sorry, grandpa, I really am, please stop!” he wept, covering his face up with his hands and knees. Drake’s own eyes widened and he took a few steps back. Everything in Alph’s vision looked like a runny watercolour mess of what it once was like when he’d look down at the puddles pooling in the streets of Koppai. Spreading his chubby fingers out of the way of his vision, he could make out his grandfather with his hand over his mouth in an apologetic fashion bending over to help him up. For the first part of the time they spent together, Drake had been volatile and quick to raise his voice but looking back, Alph would hesitate to say he was abusive. He’d never lay a finger on him and was only as irritable as he was due to not many people respecting his space in the past and Alph toeing the line a bit too often, he’d finally just snapped back into reality and understood he’d terrified this child just for asking questions. The anxious kid heard a sigh emitted from his now humbled grandfather’s throat and picked up some apologetic words, “No, it’s not…it’s not you, Alph. I’m sorry, come on, get back up…you didn’t tear your little skirt, did you? Oh…I’ll…I’ll send you back home to get you cleaned up. I’m sorry, I’m really sorry, okay? It’s not your fault. It’s hers.” --  Alph woke up with a feeling that could only be described as being strangled. His forehead ached and his skin felt like solid ice, spine frozen into place. He heard a muffled vocal noise sounding a bit like the word “ouch” when he decided it was time to forcefully open his eyes to see what was happening. After the few instants of blinding light, Beck was standing above him with a newly bloodied nose. “Why’d you DO that?!” he whimpered, hobbling backwards. Alph’s hands shot up to his face once he realized what he’d done, he woke up from his dream and jolted straight up like he always did after nightmares. “Oh!! Oh, no! Quebec, I’m so sorry, can I get you some bandages or something?” Alph begged for forgiveness from his accidental victim. He once again just got a laugh and was replied to with, “Are you an assassin? Just killing me slowly each day we talk or something? Stars above, I’m gonna be in a wheelchair by the time you take off. Oh…right. That’s what I came in to talk about.” Beck sat down on the bed next to Alph, inhaled sharply and continued with, “launch day’s been moved from two weeks to…two days.” Alph’s heart seemed to stop for a few silent moments. “Two days? Why two days, what happened?” “It’s Delton. We looked into our food supply to see what went wrong and saw copious amounts of pesticides tainting the fruit, we’ve been having an issue with productivity and morale lately which we chalked up to stress but it turned out to be our poisoned food taking its toll on us. Aaaand also probably stress, too. Personally I would’ve rather a few of the fruits go rancid from insects than this. Everything that could possibly be going wrong is going wrong and our allies have just about run out of fruit we can buy from them. No amount of pokos is going to save us, you guys need to go ASAP before something happens. Delton’s alive but he’s not going to get better for a long time, his liver’s shot and his motor skills are probably going to be really janky. Not…the best affliction for a medic to be having." The news hit Alph like a ton of bricks. Did Charlie and Brittany know? Alph had only been here a few days and yet like Beck had said, everything was going array out of the Koppaites’ control. He wasn’t ready for space travel in just two days, he didn’t even think he was ready for space travel in a couple of weeks.

"Captain doesn’t even know how to fly the ship yet, Brittany’s got some work to do when it comes to the juicer and we don’t have another space-trained medic yet, do we?” Alph protested. Beck knew all of this was true, he hated to be the bearer of bad news but as a planner it was part of his job. Another part of his job was assembling the crew but his fellow planners were stumped on who to pick, they’d released an emergency broadcast calling for another medic with space training to be chosen for the flight. No responses yet. “We know, Alph. But too much has gone wrong so far and his job was a bit expendable as-is so if we have to leave without a medic, that’ll be that. The most important people are you and Brittany, believe it or not; Charlie’s just there for the publicity and to make Koppai feel like if a successful military guy’s involved it’s definitely going to go right. Delton was just the first option we had suggested to us. You need to leave very soon so we can go back to our families and hope for the best. If this really is the end, I don’t want it to be spent be cooped up in a tomb underground, I want to be with my parents and sisters,” sighed Beck. Alph felt a lump in his throat emerge as tears pricked up in his eyes. No, this wasn’t going to be the end, it couldn’t be. Everyone in this base was so…hopeless, he couldn’t have been the only one who still had faith the mission would be a success. He knew the poison in their systems was what was tainting the moods of everyone involved in the mission but he figured at least Beck could use some motivation. “No, that’s where you’re wrong. It’s not the end, all of you people keep dragging yourselves down. We’re going on the mission, I poured my heart and soul into that ship like my grandpa did and we’re going to bring back all the seeds we could possibly cultivate on this planet of ours. We can’t just give up now, we may be too far away for contact but you’ll know it deep down when we start finding fruit. You’ll feel something in you the moment we get our hands on a fruit seed and think, hey, maybe that freckly weirdo was right. Maybe I’m not gonna die in a hole in the ground and I’ll get to have the family I always wanted to because I won’t be working my butt off for the government trying not to starve.” Alph stood on top of his bed and turned up his chin, adding, “and you’ll have us to thank for it. Even Delton for just wanting to go to begin with, he almost let himself fall fatally ill just because he wanted to go on this mission so bad.”

Beck looked up at him with glossy eyes and flashed a quick smirk.

“Kid, I hope you’re right. I take back what I said about you being just like your grandfather, I think I like you more.” –

The hallway to Delton’s room was flooded with scientists attempting to get in and check on his condition; medics, planners and engineers alike. It seemed even the most distant people from him wanted to check up on his wellbeing, he was quite important to their mission after all. Thankfully, Alph’s small figure allowed him to slip through the crowd and enter the room while only apologizing for bumping into people four times. Charlie looked sunken as though he hadn’t budged an inch the entire night while Brittany was in the back of the room observing Delton’s every move with a look of concern diluted by guilt. Alph at first gingerly approached her to check up on how the medic was doing. “Alph…the fruit, it’s all..,” she started, only for Alph to put a single finger up to her lip. “I know. It’s going to be okay, as long as we have the captain here to help us we’ll get through this. You and I may be new to this but that doesn’t impair us more than just not being used to space flight, we’re perfectly capable of doing anything else any other botanist or engineer could do!” he motivated with a smile. She gave one back, he seemed to be doing well in the cheering-up department today. Maybe he could test this out on Charlie? He tenderly wrapped his arms around Brittany to ease away her somber emotions, leaned back away after a peaceful few seconds and made a careful route over to his captain. “Captain? How’s Delton doing?” he gently murmured as not to startle the very much exhausted-looking man. “Huh? Oh…he’s really tired. Er, I’m tired, he just wants to be alone. Don’t talk to him. These people are being a huge bother to him, you think you could shoo them out?” Charlie muttered with his hand clasped over his mouth, elbow on lap supporting the near-falling weight of his upper body. Alph examined Delton’s figure and vitals before asking everyone to leave the room for his crew members’ sake; he looked as pale as marble but the red accents of his flesh stood out more than ever. Although conscious, his breath was slowed and he hadn’t moved an inch the entire time Alph had been in his vicinity. He didn’t look particularly fragile but you could tell he was afflicted heavily by the mix of poison, chemicals and medicine in his system from a mile away. Later or tomorrow, they’d be performing the tests to determine the identity of the substance which had previously soaked into his bloodstream in order to find a proper cure. Upon looking at the illness-stricken medic, Alph couldn’t have wished for the diagnosis to come sooner on his behalf.

The short engineer made his way to the center of the small room and announced in his usual optimistic high pitched voice, “Everyone! Delton wants to be left alone and is really crowded, please give him some space unless you’re a doctor. Now isn’t the time for standing around feeling sorry for him, the best thing you could do is work on your jobs and make sure our launch is as successful as ever!” The crowd averted their eyes from Delton to Alph (much to his anxious worry) but soon dispersed to perform their respective tasks. Alph looked back to Delton for approval; he was met with a slow, stiff motion of the taller’s hand. Charlie noticed the sudden motion and went to guide his hand into the shape of…the hand signal he’d given him the previous night. Alph wasn’t as amused as he’d previously been but Delton and Charlie seemed to enjoing themselves, Brittany let out a soft giggle from the back of the room as well. “What…are they going to…do with me..?” Delton hoarsely whispered as soon as the room once again had fallen deathly silent in response to the predicament the crew members found themselves all in. Oops, if Alph hadn’t shooed out all the planners he might have had a definite answer to that question. Hindsight is 20/20, as they say. “They said they’ll have to leave you. I’m so sorry, Delton. They’re trying to find a replacement somewhere on Koppai for the launch in two days,” Brittany cut in before Alph could answer. Despite Delton’s hair being in his eyes, everyone in the room could sense them grow wide in shock. “Repl..ace? Me? What about…Charlie, will he still go?” The surprise in his weakened voice was as audible as his shock was visible. Charlie’s sad eyes aligned themselves with where Delton’s should’ve been as he responded, “I’m still going. I have to go, they say I’ll be granted retirement from the Koppaite space rangers if I make it back in one piece, remember? That was the reason I was going in the first place.” Delton’s ears lowered from their previously somewhat raised position and he let out a cough. “You hear that, buddy? No more fighting, no more guns, I can bring you on a nice vacation with me somewhere nice and we’ll bring Elizabeth along too.” “How…will I know if…you’re…-” “You won’t know how I’m doing. The planet’s too far away for any of our communications to reach to. No-one will, try not to talk too much. And don’t self-diagnose yourself again while I’m gone, you’re a medic, you of all people are SUPPOSED to go to the doctor when you’re sickly,” Charlie snapped, protectively tucking Delton into his blankets further. From this brief exchange, Alph was already piecing together a timeline of what he knew about Charlie’s history and what he’d been learning from listening. “Fine. Just…do it for us. Don’t let it be a…fruitless mission. Ayyy,” Delton quipped in his shaky, sickly manner. It wasn’t until he let out another awkward hacking cough when Charlie sighed and patted his overheated forehead in disappointment. “Don’t use your energy on shitty puns, buddy. Get some sleep. Maybe you’ll be funnier when you wake up. But probably not, sleep’s never helped you before,” he teased back. Delton sighed and leaned back further into his pillow. He hoped to the stars and everything beyond that his friend and his new crew would be fine without his protective mannerisms, awful jokes for boosting morale and impulsive health check-ups. He wouldn’t even be able to yell at Charlie for bandaging up his open wounds with duct tape, wouldn’t able to stick his favourite duck band-aids onto his scrapes and if another incident like what happened in their third battle against Sorna or when he was off his meds too long occurred, Charlie wouldn’t have anyone to clean him up and repair his dire wounds before something…unsavory happened. His lip quivered at the thought, he didn’t want to lose his last friend just because he’d drank some bad juice and couldn’t stick around to protect him. He’d tried to stow away all of his festering grief in the past and only let it out in short outbursts directed to unfortunate, curious individuals; one more loss in his life and he’d be a trainwreck of a Dunesian-Koppaite. “Charlie?” The captain’s head was still turned to his friend’s direction in anticipation of his inevitable last response despite him just telling him to shut it and get some rest. “What is it?” Silence. Alph and Brittany didn’t dare say a word and intrude on their intimate moment together. “Can you…hold me?” “Hold you, what, like pick you up?” “…no. Hug me, you big…hulking idiot,” corrected Delton. Charlie stared in silence for a few seconds before slowly, carefully going to caress his friend. He likely wouldn’t see him for weeks, maybe months so he made sure to make it count. The two rookies watched from the back, yearning for a friendship where they could insult the other to their face only to hug them in near tears a second later. The simulated sunlight of the base’s lighting system outside the blinds of the medical bay windows shone upon the two’s cold, rigid skin and made them feel that if only for a second, everything was going to be okay. Charlie closed his eyes and drank in the feeling, it was going to be a very long time before he could feel like that again. Maybe even never with the way the mission was going so far.

GALACTIC DATE: 20XX Entry 4 Day 3 of preparation

Nothing’s going according to plan. It’s very stressful for me to have just arrived a few days ago and already having everything go wrong but I’ll keep my head up high, this mission is important and even though launch date was pulled from two weeks to two days, I’ll be giving it my all. I had another bad dream last night, I don’t get why I’m having so many lately other than anxiety finding its way into my subconsciousness. I won’t bore you with that; today we checked up on Delton, he’s conscious and can speak but he looks like he’s in a lot of pain. He’s not talking that much and has to take breaks because he’s really tired but we can still understand what he’s saying. It’s interesting seeing him go from the bitter individual I thought he was into this odd, pun-making guy! So much can change in a switch of circumstances, I suppose. Captain’s still as lethargic as ever and Brittany’s very upset over Delton’s illness, he seems to be doing better than both of them mentally despite his fragile moods. I’m sure everyone will start feeling better once we’re out in space, I’ve always dreamed of becoming an astronaut so I know I’ll have an unstoppably great mood as soon as we break through Koppai’s atmosphere! Today I went over how to use the juicer with Brittany and reviewed the controls of the ship with captain Charlie. It was pretty dull so I won’t talk about that but what I did want to bring up is what I learned about the two just from talking. Brittany’s single, lives alone without any pets, has always wanted to be a botanist and is also an artist who supposedly can’t draw people very well but can make some pretty sick nature pictures. She has four older siblings and four younger siblings and her parents overlooked her pretty badly (same, Brittany, same). She’s closest to her aunt Bea in the way that I’m closest to Drake, she’d visit her a lot but she’s more of the smothering grandma type instead of the loner grandpa who hates his family type like Drake. When I asked her if she had any romantic interest in anyone, she tensed up and said yes but I wasn’t allowed to know who. From how she was acting around Delton, I can safely assume she’s into tall, nerdy guys who tell bad jokes and scream at people. Charlie is single as well but seems to have no romantic interest in anyone. The “Elizabeth” he mentioned earlier turned out to have been his pet duck. He refused to tell me anything about his family and he doesn’t seem to have any hobbies or other friends which isn’t surprising. So many people on this planet and none of us seem to know each other anymore…it’s the stress getting to us and the need to work all day to stay alive. When we come back with the fruit and seeds Koppai needs, everyone will get back to being friends again! He’s as popular as he is because he’d never killed anyone and helped win the war with words alone, something very admirable to me who thinks all lives have value even if in the military, the sad truth is they’re not told the enemy is just as alive and emotive as us and are just told if you really have to shoot, just to do it. He’s only 30 years old and yet he looks forward to retirement, he really doesn’t like violence. I don’t like violence either, there’s something both of us can agree on! I’d say today was pretty alright in terms of getting to know my crew, I barely knew them beforehand but now I know a decent amount of information about them. I hope to get to know them more! It’d have to be during the mission, though, because on the way there we’re put into stasis and the ship is on autopilot until it detects something we have to manually take care of or we’re approaching our destination. It’s to conserve as much energy as we can until it’s time to begin our work. Thankfully Brittany’s more confident in her fruit juicing skills and Charlie seems to understand how piloting the ship works a bit better now, we’ve only got until the day after tomorrow to take off. The rest of our day was pretty quiet, we drank our tainted juice in silence and some people just didn’t have any at all. Zeta and Beck came over to try and cheer the few of us up but the mess hall was completely quiet aside from us bantering with the two. Quebec didn’t want to talk about his own personal life, said he was as average as could be and there was nothing to possibly know about him other than he just wanted to help people and be part of something important. He says he surprisingly has no brothers or sisters but his parents were still around. Zeta told of his many siblings and himself getting into trouble when they were younger, it was funny hearing about how he’d once poorly tagged government buildings in an effort to be “cool” and yet was now working as a government planner and was as lawful as ever! I even got to tell the story of how I lost one of my front teeth to the others. My grandpa was handing me tools to return to the toolbox after a long night’s work. We were both tired and didn’t entirely know what we were doing so I, like an idiot child, stood directly behind him when he was turning around to give me an oversized wrench I probably couldn’t carry back with my small frame anyway. WHAM!! Right in the FACE! He smacked me at full-speed directly in the mouth and I fell over in shock, he picked me up and looked me over to see if anything had been damaged and he noticed most of my tooth had been entirely broken off! He took me to the dentist a week later because it kept cutting my tongue and they just took the rest out, expecting it to be a baby tooth due to my apparent age. I was quite young but…it wasn’t a baby tooth, it was the real thing and grandpa knowing nothing about teeth meant he couldn’t back me up. So now I’ve got this missing tooth I’ve grown to love. Koppai may have the most advanced technology on this side of the galaxy but our healthcare isn’t entirely the best..! Brittany told about the time she accidentally fell down some stairs looking for the glasses she’d dropped somewhere on them. I felt bad for her at first but she was laughing so hard the entire time I couldn’t help but join in. She’s got this adorable snortly laugh where she makes a high pitched giggle, snorts, and then laughs harder at her own weird noises. Even captain thought it was funny! His laugh is awfully quiet and short but I appreciate it to the fullest extent I can every time I hear it, it doesn’t sound like it’s a very common occurence from what I’ve been told by the others. She also has a lot of mishaps with her drawings, she talked about how many pens she’s lost and an approximate tally of how many times she’s thrown her drawing pads because they smudged her drawings (it was around a million, I don’t doubt it). Captain tried to think of something funny but he ended up just grossing us all out and making things awkward again. He spoke of a time during the Sornese wars when he was watching Delton work on someone who’d came in with a necrotic, bullet-stricken hand (don’t look that up) that ended up falling off while being grabbed by him. Instead of freaking out like I’d figured he would, or like any NORMAL person would, he just showed it to captain Charlie and said something like, “I heard you wanted to give me a HAND with what I was doing but since you’re not a medic, I can’t put my FINGER on what it is you’d want to help with.” Captain thought it was pretty funny but, uh…war humor isn’t entirely our cup of tea. Even Beck couldn’t laugh at that one. He wound up just talking about Delton for a while and how worried he was, Brittany kept giving him a look like a guilty dog and I think she blames herself for the poisoned fruit being a botanist and all. Don’t worry, Brittany, it’s not your fault!! We’re just not the best at planning as a species. It’s very obvious Charlie cares deeply for Delton and Brittany definitely has an interest in him whether it be romantic like I think it is or just a very strong friendship. I can’t make an judgements yet but he seems to be a pretty solidly nice guy, he just has some issues he needs worked out. I just wish the two of us could’ve talked more, I still get a nervous gut feeling when I’m around him but it’s just because of my anxiety I think. The mess hall was a bit less timid after that, people seemed to be having a small amount of fun and comfort in talking to each other about dumb things that had happened in their lives. I’m not one to be full of myself but I’m starting to think now that I’m the only positive one in here, I’m the one making things less sad in times like these. Maybe I should run for office, Koppai could really use more positivity in these dark times… We went on the simulations again before we went to bed. I’m getting more used to them albeit not very much, captain’s still there for me to calm me down but I’m scared to know what’ll happen if in the future he’s not. At least Brittany seemed to be having fun on them despite getting crazy dizzy. The government’s still trying to find a new medic, no-one’s answered to them yet and they might have to pull one from the staff here if no-one turns up. I’m quite worried but like I said, I won’t give up anytime soon! We’ve got to find the fruit, I’ve gotta see what space looks like and I’m going to make captain feel better about himself. To whoever’s reading this, I hope that we made it back safely, you already know our names and you’re only reading this for the historical value, not because of an accident in the launch or…something worse. Someone out there IS reading this…right?

Today’s haiku:

The future is not as hopeless as it may seem. Believe in yourselves. (Because I believe in you too)

[smashingatsonicspeed]

Returning Franchise/Groups Thoughts

Before I start talking potential newcomers (Though I will at least touch on it a little here) it’s time I give my thoughts on what could happen with each of the series that were in Smash 4 and if anything changes in representation. I’ve said before that I don’t expect too many cuts so most of this is mainly that franchises are keeping where they are but I’ll still try to make a special note with each one

Mario

I don’t really expect anyone in the Mario series to get cut. They’ve pretty much nailed the representation for the most part with the original characters they’ve gotten. Maybe Dr. Mario has a shot at being demoted to alt, but depending just how much ported over the roster ends up. He might stay anyway.

I also suspect that unless Captain Toad (Or any variation of Toad) is a Newcomer in this Smash. We won’t be getting any more Mario characters. No offense to supporters of Waluigi, Paper Mario, or Daisy. But I don’t think it’s time for them.

Yoshi

Yoshi’s probably going to remain solo. The only candidates that could feasibly be a 2nd Yoshi rep is the Baby Mario Bros. and Kamek. Neither of which I think are that popular really

Wario

I also think Wario’s going to remain solo. There’s going to be some hope for Ashley thanks to Warioware Gold. But realistically I think the only chance Wario gets a 2nd rep is if they decide to cheat the system a little and count Waluigi as a Wario rep.

Donkey Kong

Obviously both DK and Diddy will return. And this is also one of the franchises I suspect will just have to get a rep in this game. Whether it be King K. Rool, Dixie Kong, or even both

Retro (That is Mr. Game & Watch, Duck Hunt, and ROB)

I assume all 3 retro characters will return. With a good chance the Ice Climbers take their long awaited return assuming 8 Player Smash doesn’t cause trouble with them. As for any new retros, who knows. They seem to pop up one each new game. So maybe Takamaru will get to join this time around or something. But who knows what Sakurai will have in mind here

Zelda

Everyone from the previous game should return here. Only questions is if Shiek will return to being a transformation or not. Link is obviously going to be BOTW styled but will that mean any moveset changes? We won’t know until we see actual footage of Link. Zelda will probably also be BOTW styled. Though Ganondorf didn’t have his Gerudo form in BOTW. So either they stay with his Smash 4/Twilight Princess design, make a What If BOTW styled Ganondorf, or even make him in Hyrule Warriors style. As for any new characters, I think by now any chances of a character that isn’t some alternate version of the trio isn’t going to get playable. Those hoping for any of the guardians will probably get the same disappointment that those people hoping for Skill Kid, Midna, or Impa got.

Metroid

Samus and Zero Suit Samus will obviously return. Though like Shiek the question is if they remain separate characters. But of course what is always going to be a big topic discussion is if anyone’s joining. Obviously Ridley’s going to be debated once again. But I think a dark horse (no pun intended) could be Dark Samus given Metroid Prime 4 is coming. Dark Samus would definitely be much better received then Dark Pit was. Even if Dark Samus turned out to be somewhat cloned from Samus. It’d at least be something. Even if it’s not the big bone that Ridley would be.

Kid Icarus

I don’t think they’ll be adding more. Much like Dr. Mario, maybe Dark Pit gets demoted to Alt. But as much as I’d like that there’s an equal chance they’ll keep him around anyway. I suppose another question would be about Palutena’s Custom Moves. We don’t know if Custom Moves will return. Given the DLC characters were not given any, that may be a sign they’re on their way out. And if Palutena’s stuck with her default Smash 4 moveset? That’ll suck for Palutena players, because some of her actual good moves are hidden in those.

Fire Emblem

Ah yes the franchise almost everybody complains about their representation. I think for the most part everyone in the previous game will return. Yes even Lucina, Roy, and Corrin. If Dr. Mario and Dark Pit get demoted maybe Lucina does too but I just don’t know. Lucia’s actually kinda popular. And they bothered to bring back Roy from Melee so I don’t know why they’d leave him out again. And I feel Corrin’s a bit of an early bird. He/she would of probably been a newcomer for this game, but instead he got into Smash earlier then we thought he/she would. I think that because I suspect everybody comes back, we may get no more additional Fire Emblem characters this time just to give it a break. Maybe the next Fire Emblem’s protagonist gets in through DLC but otherwise I don’t expect any new Fire Emblem characters from the get go.

Kirby

All Kirby Characters should return being Sakurai’s pride and joy. Don’t know if it’ll get a 4th character or if it’s even necessary to have one, but if they do. It’s probably Bandana Waddle Dee

Punch-Out!!

Little Mac will likely remain solo. Don’t see them suddenly adding another. That is unless… Mike Tyson enters the ring O: (Nah, I’m kidding. Though it would be hilarious)

Star Fox

This one’s going to be a little difficult to figure out. I think both Fox and Falco are safe. But the question is if Wolf will finally make his come back after missing out on Smash 4. Star Fox Zero didn’t do as well as some hoped, so there’s ground for maybe Star Fox remaining where it is. That said maybe they’d save Wolf for DLC to have that hype return like Mewtwo and Lucas was for many. Any other choices likely already missed their chance. Including Krystal.

Pokemon

Pokemon is the franchise that has historically had the most cuts within Smash. So this is incredibly hard to predict. The Pokemon company has been said to be actually a little difficult for Sakurai to deal with. For now I think everyone that was in Smash 4 should return. With the likeliest newcomer being Decidueye to complete the fire-grass-water trio that has left a hole ever since Pokemon Trainer being cut down to just Charizard. Possibly a Gen 8 newcomer for DLC.

Earthbound

Ness and Lucas should be here to stay. Don’t think there need to be any additions from here on out

F-Zero

Captain Falcon without any new games still will remain the only F-Zero character. And that’s just fine.

Animal Crossing

I think Villager stays solo. Though a small chance that maybe Tom Nook, Isabelle, or even Mr. Restti comes into the picture.

Pikmin

If there was any chance Pikmin was going to grow beyond Olimar. It’s too late as Alph is simply an alt. So other then maybe other Pikmin characters also being Alts. Olimar will be solo. Though the real question is how many Pikmin will he have this time. He could have only three at a time in Smash 4. But up to 6 in Brawl

Wii Fit

If there’s any chance at all that for the first time a new series is cut for a reason other then 3rd party issues (Metal Gear) and technical problems (Ice Climbers) then Wii Fit would probably be first on the chopping block. But I doubt they cut her out as much as some will probably be clamoring for it.

Xenoblade

I highly expect Shulk to make it back. And a good chance he’s joined in with Rex from Xenoblade 2. Shulk will likely be the Marth of the Xenoblade franchise I feel.

Miis

I think they are more likely to return in some way. Though admittedly custom moves at least leaves them a little bit in Limbo. But I just don’t see why they’d cut them. The Miis allowed for those who are young (or young at heart) to include real-life characters, impossible ones, or extremely unlikely ones to at least kinda satisfy them. It’d be kind of disappointed to go to this game without that option to create your fighter. Even if Custom Moves is largely removed, I hope the Mii Fighters still return and maybe they’re the only characters with Custom Moves. Even if that comes into conflict with Palutena.

3rd Parties

Now this is the interesting part. I think Sonic, Megaman, and Bayonetta are absolutely safe. All 3 of them have had significant releases or upcoming releases on the Switch. Plus they’d all risk alienating the fanbase should either of them be dropped because they were all included by fan demand of some sort. I think Pac-Man and Ryu are in the middle in they probably will return. I think even if Namco isn’t helping out as much as they did with the last one Pac-Man may stay anyway and if they get Megaman might as well get Ryu again too but they have some degree of doubt compared to the 3 I already mentioned. Cloud’s probably the most likely 3rd Party to leave only because I heard Square can be stingy (I mean we did only get two songs for Final Fantasy. Which is kinda ridiculous). But given that Square isn’t at odds with Nintendo right now and the Switch is selling well. I don’t see why Square wouldn’t love the free promotion for Cloud whether or not the FF7 Remake comes to the Switch. While the risk is always there, I think we’re slightly more likely to actually keep everyone along only because 3rd Parties have gotten huge. Heck, I wouldn’t even be surprised if by the time development has finished and all the DLC released. We have 10 or more 3rd Party characters playable. As for likely newcomers? I think the most likely BASE GAME 3rd party is probably Rayman. While Crash Bandicoot might be a strong DLC candidate.

And that’s all for now, if there’s something that’s announced that leaves some evaluation I may do another post like this. Probably at least a post based on this when the base game’s roster has been revealed when we know who’s returned for the base game and who didn’t. Coming next I will start covering potential newcomers and/or veterans that weren’t in Smash 4 in posts of their own soon enough.