Tuesday, June 06, 2006

More Non-tendo Characters for Wii Smash Bros

[News] [Computer Gaming]

Joystiq has brought my attention to news that Solid Snake will NOT be the only new non-Nintendo character making an appearance in the forthcoming Super Smash Bros Brawl for the Wii. Apparently a further one or two third-party characters will appear in the game. (link)

Speculation has Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega), Mega Man (Capcom) or someone from the Soul Calibur roster (Namco) as frontrunners. Sonic and Mega Man clearly have the history and the close relationship with Nintendo to make them likely choices. A Soul Calibur fighter doesn't really fit the atmosphere of SSB but it would make some sense given Link's appearance in the Gamecube SC2. A close runner up fan favourite is Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil.

For what it's worth, my money's on something from Squeenix's stable. What with the PS3 looking so shaky, Square-Enix are definitely not going to want to be tied in to being Sony's poster child right now, and tossing Sephiroth or a chocobo into something like SSB not only will win them points with Nintendo but will also help build (or rebuild) a Final Fantasy fan base among the Nintendo loyal.

Anyone have any alternative bets?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

They may as well do what Soul Calibur missed out on. Cloud in a fighting game! Duh!

Then again, for all I know he showed up in Soul Calibur III. I just couldn't believe how badly Sony missed the boat on that one in Soul Calibur II though.

Greg Tannahill said...

Cloud in a fighting game doesn't AUTOMATICALLY equal a great gaming experience, as anyone who's played Ehrgeiz can attest to. SC3 had no "special guest" characters, by the way, although it did feature a roster including pretty much every other character who'd ever appeared in a Soul Calibur game.

I don't think Cloud is likely for SSB, simply because he's never appeared on anything but a Sony console. My prediction is on a three hit combo at Tokyo Game Show - Nintendo announces the original Chrono Trigger will be available from WiiConnect through the virtual console, Creative Labs announces Chrono as a playable character in SSB Brawl, and Squeenix announces that a new Chrono Trigger game is in development for the Wii. Everyone wins.

Anonymous said...

It may not make the game experience better, but he's at least a recognizable entity. In Soul Calibur II the X-Box had Spawn, the Gamecube had Link, and PS2 had some old fart I've never heard of.

Put Cloud and some other FF characters in a game and the FF Fanboys will buy it out of hand.

Anonymous said...

In the tradition of SSB and as a link to those old school arcade4 games, they should clearly include Pacman. Just think of the possibilities!