Semantic Nonsense: A new speculation has appeared!

The Internet once again lost its collective mind last week when the final fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s first fighter pass was revealed to be from the current-gen Fire Emblem title, Three Houses.

These people must be new to Smash. There was never, ever any chance that a representative from the new Fire Emblem wasn’t making it into an actively growing Smash roster. I’m sure before the end of the year, these same people will also bemoan the obvious and inevitable inclusion of a Pokemon from Sword and Shield in the second Fighters Pass.

Still, I wouldn’t fret just yet. Another six fighters are coming, so you can all have another crack at Goku and Shrek and whoever else hasn’t already been released as a Mii costume or assist trophy. So, with no more miniconsoles on the horizon, let’s speculate on that fighter’s pass instead. And before you blow up the comments, remember: I don’t deal in lists of things I want (Mike Jones, Zero, Lyn, Kunio, Segata Sanshiro, Captain N), I deal in lists of what I expect to happen

Rillaboom

We’ll just get this one out of the way. The one I’m most certain of for the reasons stated above. The real question is whether they add some of the Galar pokemon to the pokeballs.

Like Greninja (water) and Incineroar (fire), Rillaboom is the top evolution of a starter (grass). Its giant tree-stump-drum should be a great source of inspiration for Masahiro Sakurai making its fighting style stand out.

Fulgore

We’re starting to run out of the biggest fighting game series that can contribute a fighter. I doubt representation from Mortal Kombat or Dead or Alive is any more likely to be done justice in an E10 game than Mai Shiranui.

But with Nintendo and Microsoft being such good friends of late, I would not be surprised for fighting games’ representation in this pass to include famous (at the time) Rare/Nintendo collaboration Killer Instinct. Look for Sakurai to accidentally make a C-c-c-c-combo breaker down+B move horribly broken.

Siegfried (with, perhaps, a Nightmare echo?)

And let’s toss a second proper fighter in, too. Namco has been loaning Nintendo a LOT of manpower for the series. That’s one (big) reason their mascot, Pac-Man, made it in to Smash For. With third parties getting multiple character slots and a sudden influx of fighting characters, it only makes sense to slip in an advertisement for their own flagship fighter.

But since we probably can’t count on Tekken participating, we’ll have to settle for Bandai Namco’s other flagship fighter, the Soul series.

And no, it can’t be Ivy. Keep up with the pattern recognition, now.

While I’m not expecting an echo fighter to be the the extra sixth fighter in the second Fighters Pass, I can hear it happening so, so vividly in my imagination. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Rex

I’m going to break my rule on Mii costumes for one fighter. And it isn’t Geno. Or Haihachi. Or Sans. Look, just let me tell you once instead of you asking me 10 times, okay?

Rex, the protagonist of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, makes the list because Sakurai singled him out as a character he would have included in Ultimate’s roster had Xenoblade Chronicles 2 been released before Ultimate’s roster been finalized. While Sakurai also mentioned this to be the fate of representation from Arms, the Xenoblade series is still active while Arms has no future plans.

On the other hand, Sakurai might consider the matter closed with the costume having been included in the first Fighters Pass. Therefore, of all the characters I’m listing here, I am least confident of Rex.

Akira Howard

Nintendo really hyped up Astral Chain for PlatinumGames, and it’s been delivering solid reviews and cash (Director Takahisa Taura mentioned sales were ahead of expectations).

Akira also can scratch a few Smash tropes. It allows for a non-Fire Emblem (non-Wii Fit) genderswap character, and having a Legion on hand will allow for a new fighting style in the game.

I assume this will be the most modern character that makes the lineup, given that the six fighters have already been chosen and Sakurai’s comments on Baleth and Rex seem to indicate they need a lot of access to a character’s native gameplay to maintain his quality standards.

Waluigi

Ha! Just kidding. We’d get Spring Girl as a fighter sooner than Waluigi. Moving on,

Jill Valentine

Capcom has learned to play ball with Smash Bros. and by all accounts is loving it. And Capcom is really, really pushing Resident Evil of late. Having Jill Valentine land in Smash right when Resident Evil 3 remake is hot off the presses? I’ve heard of stranger advertisements.

(like having the first DLC character be for a game that’s not even on a Nintendo system…)

Jill would be the only full-fledged female fighter for all the DLC, but that’s not the deciding factor in me giving the nod to her. If not for the Resident Evil 3 remake’s timing, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Leon Kennedy instead. He has a place in Nintendo history what with the surprise Game Cube exclusive Resident Evil 4, which will surely be remade for 2021 or 2022.