Smash Bros. x Fire Emblem again?

The newest fighter to join the star studded cast of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (SSBU) Is… Byleth? Another Fire Emblem character? Really? Byleth, from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, marks the 8th, and hopefully the last, Fire Emblem character to join the fight. Of all the characters in the world ranging from Mario to Banjo & Kazooie, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s developer has been known to favor the Fire Emblem series. I get it. Characters like Marth and Ike are absolute smash hits (pun intended) as fighters. However, once we got six other characters with similar movesets, it got pretty old. Stylistically, Byleth is different and their moveset is different, being more than just a swordsman like all of their Fire Emblem companions. Byleth wields several weapons and despite having a larger reach than most, early analysis of the character projects poor performance overall.

Byleth was requested heavily as a Fire Emblem character, if we HAD to have one. At least with the addition of this character, now you can play 8-player smash with completely different Fire Emblem characters, not just different versions of the same one. More importantly, where’s the justice for Waluigi? The character is only represented via an assist trophy while all of his Mario Bros. companions are represented with playable characters. A piranha plant was added as a fighter… sorry Waluigi. SSBU also has representation of third party characters such as Final Fantasy’s Cloud or Persona 5’s Joker. It seems like the game has endless possibilities for characters, but I guess Fire Emblem prevails again.

SSBU should definitely look towards newer concepts for characters. Please no more echo fighters, because echo fighters might as well be a different character color. I’m sure there are plenty of licensing issues with games outside of the Nintendo family like the often requested Kingdom Hearts, but the Nintendo family has plenty of untapped characters. Imagine the Champions of Hyrule as a Pokémon Trainer like character, switching between the four of them. I would personally love to see Captain Toad screwing everyone up with his tiny hitbox. Outside of the Nintendo family, what about Crash Bandicoot? Or Goose from Untitled Goose game? There are so many MISSED opportunities for either hilariously entertaining or diversifying characters. Game developers should be throwing their characters at Nintendo, “Here, use them for free. The advertising would be great.” I think the community is in agreement, Fire Emblem was overplayed about 3 characters ago. Byleth will probably be a let down. And again, justice for Waluigi anyone?