TSR's Super Smash Bros Thread|SWITCH HYPE TRAIN NOW BOARDING

[recme]

All three of these franchises are mega popular, and not just with gamers. Star Fox isn't getting any representation probably because it hasn't had a proper game since 2006, Metroid doesn't have any notable characters who aren't Samus or Ridley (and Sakurai has been pretty clear about his opinions on that). When the SSB4 roster was decided upon, the only new DK game to drop was DKCR, which featured Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong. Tropical Freeze didn't show up until SSB4 was pretty deep into development.

But none of these franchises have become unpopular.

sure, these franchises have their fair share of fans, but its not as big as say, mario or pokemon. more slots are going to be given to more recognizable characters. when i played melee back when it was still new, i can assure you that i didnt know who fox, samus, or falcon was until i played that game. sure, other people would've known who they were, but thats not really a lot of people in comparison to mario/pokemon.

At the time of Super Smash Bros.' original release in 1999, F-Zero had two games under its belt and had established itself as an acclaimed high-speed racing franchise. F-Zero X had just released six months before, and the Smash franchise has always been about two things above all else:

1: Popularizing Nintendo's currently developed franchises and
2: Celebrating the generation of Nintendo that had come before it. In the case of Super Smash Bros., which debuted at the end of the Nintendo 64's lifespan, it ended up featuring a nice mix of SNES and N64 representation.

Which is why Ness was a totally relevant character during the game's development. Earthbound rocked the RPG genre with its SNES release, and had done well enough that a sequel had been in development for five years at that point, and had been playable at Nintendo Space World 1999, the same year Super Smash Bros. dropped. Ness was there to celebrate the SNES classic and to raise franchise awareness for its ill-fated successor.

yeah! because i sure do remember earthbound doing so well in the US and getting a sequel in the US!

oh, wait... :\

also, super mario kart sold waayyyyyy better than f-zero. a serious 9:1 ratio over here. the only thing i can say is that smash bros sure did popularize series that weren't well known...