The Next Smash Bros. Needs to Be More Than New Characters
Another giant roster is not enough. I want a real Nintendo RPG with connected worlds, a party of four, recruitable fighters, and Smash matches as the battle system.
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The short version
- Keep traditional multiplayer, but make a full Nintendo RPG the main campaign instead of the extra mode.
- Build six large worlds, a four-character party, RPG equipment, and Smash matches that begin naturally as enemy encounters.
- Unlock fighters through real side quests, then keep playing for superbosses, stronger gear, and cooperative world events.
Every Smash game leaves me wanting more
Every Smash Bros. game since Melee has left me wanting more.
Not more characters. Smash already has more characters than I ever expected to see in one game. I want more from the part of Smash that I actually spend most of my time playing: the single-player game in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Melee gave me the outline of what I wanted. Its Adventure Mode took you through the Mushroom Kingdom, the Underground Maze from Zelda, Brinstar on Planet Zebes, Corneria, the F-Zero Grand Prix, Icicle Mountain, and other pieces of Nintendo history. It was not a full story, but it felt like a trip through Nintendo's worlds.
When Brawl was announced, I was hopeful that Nintendo would take that idea and build a complete adventure around it. The Subspace Emissary was bigger and had some great cutscenes, but the campaign still felt like a side mode attached to the multiplayer game. I just could not get immersed in it.
Ultimate did the same thing to me. I was excited for World of Light, but once again, the single-player mode felt like something built around the edges of Smash instead of a fully developed Nintendo adventure. Random challenges with item upgrade combinations just are not an adventure.
Smash has spent years selling us a bigger roster. I think that formula has reached its limit. The next game does not need to make its main pitch another pile of new fighters. It needs to deliver Nintendo fans into the worlds of Nintendo while keeping the actual Smash Bros. combat intact.
I want the next Smash Bros. to be a full RPG.
Make the campaign the main game
Imagine turning on the next Smash Bros. and seeing Hyrule, the Mushroom Kingdom, Corneria, Yoshi's Island, Zebes, and a Fire Emblem kingdom on the title screen. They are not pictures behind a menu. They are real places in the same connected game, and something is going wrong in all of them.
You press Start. Traditional multiplayer is still there, complete with the giant roster, stages, items, local matches, and competitive options people expect. But it is no longer the only thing in the center of the screen. The main option says Start Campaign.
A cutscene opens with Mario fighting enemies in the Mushroom Kingdom. You take control and enter the first Smash match. When the enemies are defeated, the game does not send you back to a menu. The camera opens into a full 3D world around Peach's Castle. Peach is there. Toads are running around in a panic. You control Mario and move through the kingdom yourself.
A Toad is being attacked. You run over, the encounter becomes another Smash fight, and after you win, the game returns you directly to the world. The Toad thanks you and points you toward the castle.
When Mario reaches Peach, he finds Bowser being controlled by Master Hand. Beating Bowser frees him, but it also reveals that the same thing is happening across Nintendo's worlds.
The next major stop is Hyrule. Link is already fighting off groups of enemies when Mario arrives. After Link joins the party, you can switch between him and Mario. By the end of the Hyrule chapter, Mario, Link, Peach, and Zelda are fighting a Master Hand-controlled Ganondorf in Ganon's Castle while Master Hand watches them struggle.
That is the game I want: open Nintendo worlds where enemy encounters turn into real Smash Bros. matches.
Six worlds are enough—if they are real worlds
Nintendo should not try to build a separate open world for every character. That would either make the game impossible to finish or reduce every location to a short background.
I would rather have six large worlds that feel complete: the Mushroom Kingdom, Hyrule, a Fire Emblem kingdom caught in a war, a very large Yoshi's Island, Corneria, and Zebes—with Brinstar, Norfair, Tourian, and other Metroid locations connected into one hostile world.
Six worlds are enough to make the game feel huge without spreading everything too thin. Each one can have its own movement, puzzles, enemies, music, towns, side quests, and bosses.
Hyrule can include fields, villages, ruins, and small Zelda dungeons. Corneria can finally be explored on foot before the party reaches the Great Fox. Zebes can feel dangerous from the moment the party lands. Yoshi's Island can be much larger than one bright platforming area, with forests, mountains, caves, and frozen regions. The Fire Emblem world can be built around a real war, armies crossing the map, and a dragon under Master Hand's control.
Other Nintendo series do not need to disappear. They can be represented through large optional regions and side stories. Luigi's Mansion does not need an entire open world. It needs one great mansion and a reason to explore it.
Build a party, then switch at any time
The main group should begin with the original Smash crew: Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox, and Pikachu. Peach and Zelda should join early because they are already part of the opening story.
You choose four characters for your active party. Each direction on the D-pad is assigned to one of them. Press left and you are Link. Press up and you are Zelda. Press down and Donkey Kong takes over. The change should happen immediately, whether you are exploring a field or standing in the middle of a Smash battle.
That makes party construction matter. Link can be built around physical attack. Zelda can use equipment that increases magic strength. Donkey Kong can wear high-defense gear and use an item that attracts enemy attention, turning him into the party's tank. Another player might build Mario as a balanced fighter or turn Samus into a ranged powerhouse.
The equipment does not need to replace the Smash move sets. It should make the characters you already understand stronger in different ways: Strength, Defense, Magic Strength, Magic Defense, status effects, aggro, recovery, and other standard RPG ideas applied to Smash combat.
This progression stays inside the campaign. Competitive multiplayer remains balanced and separate.
Unlock characters by finding them
The active story cast can remain focused while the recruitable roster becomes enormous. The best way to unlock those extra characters is through side quests.
You travel to Luigi's Mansion and save Luigi. Now he joins the party. Captain Falcon challenges you to a drag race. Beat him and he joins. You break into a research facility and release Mewtwo.
Falco's Arwing has crashed. You find him under attack and begin a defense mission. Keep the enemies away long enough, and Falco becomes playable. The Ice Climbers are lost somewhere in the frozen mountains of Yoshi's Island. Diddy and Dixie Kong are hiding in a barrel in the woods. Beating controlled bosses such as Bowser and Ganondorf eventually unlocks them too.
My favorite idea might be Young Link. Somewhere in Hyrule, you find the Ocarina of Time inside a chest. Link plays it, a portal opens, and Young Link walks through. It is ridiculous, it makes sense by Smash Bros. standards, and it would be a great reward for exploring.
Every recruit does not need a two-hour story. Some can be funny, some can be difficult, and some can be hidden well enough that players discover them weeks later. The point is that characters should feel found and earned instead of appearing in a shop or random post-match challenge.
Let these characters become a real group
The crossover should matter outside the fights too. Nintendo has decades of characters who have barely been allowed to interact.
Pikachu could sit on Mario's shoulder as if Mario were its trainer. Zelda and Samus could immediately respect each other and always be seen talking around camp. Link, Fox, and Yoshi could become best friends without any of them saying a single word.
There is also a huge amount of comedy available without turning every character into someone who constantly makes jokes.
Imagine Master Hand preparing Birdo as the next controlled boss. Then Samus does something completely insane in the cutscene—blows apart a machine, walks through an explosion, or drops a much larger enemy in one shot. Birdo looks at Samus and simply runs away. There is no boss battle. Birdo wants no part of this.
Those small scenes would give the game a personality that a giant character-select screen cannot provide. Mario and Link should not just stand beside each other in promotional artwork. They should travel together, fight together, and react to what is happening in each other's worlds.
Give Master Hand control of Nintendo's biggest bosses
Master Hand is the obvious reason these worlds are being pulled together. It can take control of the strongest villains and use them to break each kingdom before the heroes understand what is happening.
The major boss list could include Bowser, Ganondorf, Beast Ganon, Ridley, Andross, and a massive Fire Emblem dragon. Birdo can be the failed boss encounter after seeing Samus.
These fights should create scenes Nintendo could not make anywhere else. Mario and Yoshi stand beside Link and Zelda in Hyrule Field against Ganondorf. Link fights Andross aboard the Great Fox. Samus helps defend Peach's Castle. Fox and Yoshi fight side by side through Corneria.
Defeating a boss breaks Master Hand's control, frees part of that world, and can eventually make that former enemy recruitable. A freed Bowser joining the party against something even worse would feel earned because you fought to get him back.
Keep the story short and make everything around it huge
The main story does not need to be 80 hours. Make it somewhere around 10–20 hours so most people can actually finish it. Then fill the worlds with optional content.
Side quests unlock fighters. Hidden dungeons contain equipment. Repeatable Smash courses build experience. Nintendo-style minigames break up the fighting: a short 2D Mario stage, an Arwing mission, a Zelda dungeon, a Mario Kart race, or a few WarioWare challenges.
Characters should not have a meaningful level cap. Let me grind a favorite party until it is absurdly strong compared with the normal campaign. Then place superbosses in every world that require those levels, the best equipment, and real mastery of Smash combat.
The more Smash courses I complete, the larger the available boss fights become. Beating one superboss can unlock another tier, better equipment, or a fight built for a completely different party.
As someone who likes Smash but does not play competitive online, this would finally give me a reason to keep playing. I would know that every match was building toward cooler gear, harder bosses, and another character I wanted to develop.
Make story mode work for one to four players
The campaign should support one to four players.
If Nintendo uses a normal behind-the-character open world, one player could control exploration while the others join as soon as a Smash encounter begins. That would work, but there may be a better option.
A full 3D top-down view could keep all four party members on screen at once. Each player could explore, fight smaller enemies, and move naturally into the Smash battles together. I am not locked into one camera system, but I want the campaign to work as a real cooperative game rather than treating extra players as an afterthought.
Give players cooperative events without forcing competitive play
Nintendo could also run occasional cooperative events. A kingdom is invaded by hundreds of enemies, or a gigantic boss appears and players around the world are called in to stop it.
Each group fights its own Smash encounters, but every win contributes to the same goal. As the community makes progress, new boss phases open, locations are saved, and special equipment becomes available.
The important difference is that everyone is fighting together. People who do not enjoy competitive Smash can still bring the characters they have spent weeks developing and help defend Hyrule or the Mushroom Kingdom.
The main story and important equipment still need to work offline. These events should add spectacle, not make the RPG dependent on servers forever.
Smash needs a new reason to exist
The next Smash Bros. can still add characters. It can still be one of the best multiplayer games Nintendo makes. I am not asking Nintendo to remove any of that.
I am asking it to stop treating single-player as the extra mode.
Melee made me believe Smash could become a journey through Nintendo. Brawl and Ultimate gave us larger campaigns, but neither became the full Nintendo adventure I kept imagining. Another game built mainly around the size of its roster will leave me wanting more again.
Give me a real campaign. Give me six Nintendo worlds worth exploring, a party of four I can switch between instantly, characters hidden behind memorable side quests, equipment worth finding, and bosses powerful enough to justify the grind.
Let Mario and Yoshi fight beside Link and Zelda in Hyrule Field. Let Link fight Andross on the Great Fox. Let Pikachu ride on Mario's shoulder, and let Birdo run away from Samus.
The next Smash Bros. needs to be more than new characters. It needs to be the Nintendo RPG I have been waiting for.
If Nintendo built it, which four characters would be in your party first?
Nintendo, you can have this one for free... Please?