by Goose » Sat Sep 23, 2006 9:53 pm
As a raging Nintendo fanboy, I was pretty adamant about not allowing non-Nintendo characters in the Smash series, but the recent addition of Snake (and likely others) to the Smash line-up has slowly but surely changed my view, and here's why...
Smash Bros. is a fun and unique celebration of Nintendo's history, as it basically pays homage to itself. That said, would Nintendo really be what it is today without Mega Man or Metal Gear on the NES, or even Sonic the Hedgehog as a worthy rival for Mario during SNES/Genesis era?
As I said, Smash Bros. is a celebration of Nintendo, and important characters in gaming that had a strong influence on Nintendo's history should therefore be included. The two non-Nintendo characters that most strongly influenced Nintendo (albiet in very different ways) have to be Sonic and Mega Man. Mega Man's influence is obvious, but Sonic's is more subtle, as without the Sonic series its unlikely that the greatest of console wars would have been so intense as it was. I say it is the greatest not so much from nostaglia, but because of the sheer quanity of outstanding games for both systems, and the overall excellence that both Sega and Nintendo achieved during the 16-bit era. There's also Sonic's exploits on the Gamecube, Game Boy Advance (The Sonic Advance series in particular), and Nintendo DS to consider.
While Smash should remain focused on Nintendo's long history of interesting and lovable characters, there's no denying that Capcom, Sega, Konami, Squaresoft, and others have had a profound effect on Nintendo's history, and they should be represented in Smash Bros. to reflect this. Off the top of my head, the characters who would fit the bill of this are as follows...
Sonic the Hedgehog
Mega Man
Simon Belmont
Terra Branford
Crono
Solid Snake
Bomberman
Popular characters from these respective series are always available as well (Tails or Protoman, for example), and you could always go a bit more obscure with characters like Goemon or Billy and Jimmy from Double Dragon. There are some borderline characters too, like Earthworm Jim or Viewtiful Joe, so maybe they'd have better luck breaking into the Smash series after the door has kicked in by the likes of Solid Snake and hopefully others.
...and am I allowed to take my own art thread off-topic? >_>
The Art Goose