"Mawwiage...Mawwiage is what bwings us togevvah, today..." Truer words have never been spoke. Marriage is a truly excellent concept, both for people and for ideas. It is no secret that I am beginning the early planning steps of a marriage (thanks Tara!), but this post is not necessarily about this kind of festivity. I shall be getting to my own plannings in further posts. No, this one (judging by the title) is more of an idea marriage...
I would be hard pressed to find a geek or nerd who didn't enjoy crossovers in fiction, even on the most superficial of levels. Indeed, the popularity and lucrativeness of crossovers can be seen in movies like Aliens vs Predator and Freddy vs Jason, but also within other genres as well. Comics do it from time to time (almost too often sometimes...), and we gamers get the occasional video game crossover, too. I would argue that one of the best crossover (read: idea marriage) games, across the board, would have to be the Super Smash Bros. series. It's got everything in there: nostalgia value, great gameplay, kick ass graphics, and religious adherence to the characters. And so, in honor of this great marriage of video game ideas, concepts, what have you, I give you:
The Witteman's Top Ten List of Characters That Should Be In The Next SSB Game (Seriously)...
A bit of criteria for this list o' mine: No outside franchise characters (No Marvel, DC, movies, tv, etc...), No characters ORIGINATING from a head to head fighting game (No Street Fighter, Mortal Combat, etc...), and No Final Fantasy Characters (There are just too many to choose from, etc...). Anyways, on to the list...
#10 - Hailing from Mario 2 (and marking the only villain on the list), it's
Mouser! Yes, this bomb chucking rodent-in-shades pestered Team Mario back in 1988 and would make an excellent addition to the SSB villain gallery of today. Unlike the other heavy...um...heavies, Mouser is light on his feet and hard to catch, making him a foe to be reckoned with. Plus, King Wart bears too much of a resemblance to Bowser. The only marks against him is that Mouser is a fairly obscure villain (unseen as an actual villain since Mario 2) and his move set is very limited, forcing developers to flesh Mouser out beyond his inception(kind of like how they did with Capt. Falcon, yes?). Despite that, this villainous rat is very in-theme with the Smash Bros. series and would meld quite well with the other characters within...
#9 - What can be said about
Toe Jam & Earl? They're pretty weird, that's what. Fortunately for us, they have been a lot of fun, too, and would fit in nicely with the other Smash Bros. characters, albeit in that 'hanging out with your weirdly cool cousin' kind of way. This quirky duo has the potential to expand on a concept used by other characters; the multiple character per player. The player would control either or Toe Jam OR Earl at a time (read: Ice Climbers), BUT a command could switch between the two, opening different move avenues (read: Pokemon Trainer or Zelda/Shiek). Here's the thing, though: Developers would practically have to invent the ENTIRE move set for TWO new characters from scratch and, in truth, the popularity and pure knowledge of Toe Jam & Earl may be too low for execs to give their ok on the idea. Never the less, these two funky aliens deserve a place in the SSB ranks for, if nothing else, their odd coolness that most long time gamers realize...
#8 - Now here's a character (and a franchise) that needs to be returned to its rightful owner.
Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden can trace his ancestry all the way back to the NES and has stayed the main character of the series ever since (impressive since he's been ported to Sega then to XBox...). Ryu has quite the bag of tricks (as any good ninja should)to bring to the Super Smash Bros. table (throwing stars, fire circles, shadow helpers, wall climbing/clinging[UNIQUE!]), making him a off-the-bat hard hitter. Plus, Ryu's a friggin' ninja, man! That being said, the man is not perfect. He is a non-cartoon human character (making the feel closer to the 'real', thanks Snake...)who is, more often than not, out for blood (read: a Grim and Gritty dude). Sure, he has fought monsters, but Mario or Kirby never took it to an opponent the way Ryu does. However, that aside, Ryu is still a major contender for a Super Smash seat; more than worthy to meat the other Bros. in combat...
#7 - One of the coolest and quirkiest character concepts is that of
Earthworm Jim(If you don't know, look it up, foo!). You don't get much more 3rd party than you do with this guy. With his totally tricked out battle suit (including a blaster), the ability to use his wormy body as a tool, and a myriad of worlds to draw from, EJ's got skills to rival any of the current Smash Bros. There is a question lurking, however: Is there enough interest in the character to include him in a SSB game? It seems he hasn't made much of an appearance since 1999 and any newer games appear to be either cancelled or 'In Production'. Plus, the addition of Jim does push the risk of taking Smash Bros. in a new direction (don't ask me which one), and there are those out there you may not want to take that risk. But when you have a character like Earthworm Jim, a surreal, ridiculous, and downright fun character, it is a risk that is worth taking...
#6 - Another character originating from the NES of yore,
Simon Belmont first shined as the protagonist in the original Castlevania and, while the series has branched out from its humble beginnings, I would argue he still the most recognizable hero from the series, if not at least the most nostalgic. Any old school gamer has probably played the early Castlevania games and should remember the HUGE inventory Belmont can acquire. With this in mind, and adding to it the plethora of thematic elements to Simon, his moves should be easy to come up with. Not that Belmont is without his flaws. Much like Ryu Hayabusa, he is 'human'; i.e. not a cartoon like Mario or a fantasy character like Link. Speaking of Link, these two share many similarities (item tossers, ranged attackers, a whip...), which would require Simon to be tweaked so that he wasn't just a cheap, knock-off Link clone. Because when you get down to it, the great vampire slayer from Castlevania is no mans clone...
Next: The Top Half...
