Nintendo completed the biggest roster in Super Smash Bros. history last year when it revealed Sora to be the last member of Ultimate's Fighters Pass. It was a terrific reveal and it was all very exciting. However, after the thrill of Sora being added to the game subsided, we were all left feeling empty inside. After three years of deliberating, discussing, and sometimes downright arguing over who would and should be added to the Smash roster next, it was all over.
Rumors started to circulate that perhaps it wasn't really over. That Nintendo was having us on and it would drop a new fighter out of nowhere, or even add a whole new pass. It took a few attempts from Smash director Masahiro Sakurai to tell us that was definitely not going to happen before we finally accepted our new reality. That Smash discourse was over. No more asking for Rayman. No last hope that Bandana Waddle Dee might make the cut. No hope for Waluigi.
When Smash fans were finally able to accept there are no more fighters on the horizon, they turned their attention to another game. Another Nintendo game. Insiders began to claim that Mario Kart 9 was coming and that it would include more characters from outside the Mushroom Kingdom. A Super Smash Kart if you will. Then it happened. Nintendo broke major news about Mario Kart's future, except it wasn't a new game. Nor was it the reveal that new characters are coming to the current game. Just tracks. 48 of them from throughout Mario Kart's 30-year history.
I say just, that's actually very cool, as most other people watching the reveal appeared to agree. Once again though, after that excitement subsided, Smash fans eager for some fighter discourse realized a hole remained in their hearts. So where do we turn now? No more Smash, no more Mario Kart drivers, nothing that will result in characters from various games competing against each other coming from Nintendo at all.
In that case, it might be time for us to start pestering one of Nintendo's rivals. Not PlayStation, although a modern-day PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale could be very cool, but Xbox. Nintendo has had the foundation for games on which its characters from various IPs could meet and compete for decades. Xbox, on the other hand, hasn't had that luxury. Master Chief battling against one of the cars from Forza does sound funny on paper, but it's not exactly enough to base an entire game around.
The landscape has changed drastically though, and Xbox now has a lot more popular IP than a Spartan and a car. Microsoft decided to kick off the year by coughing up almost $70 billion for Activision Blizzard. That deal alone contains enough IP and characters from various games and worlds to create Xbox's very own take on Super Smash Bros. After years of people nagging Nintendo to try and get their hands on Crash and Spyro, Xbox could finally say enough and add them to its own fighting game. Characters from Overwatch could join the fray. Tony Hawk is welcome too. Hell, even add the creepy soldier thing from Candy Crush Saga.
Activision isn't the only pot from which Xbox could pull potential fighters. Let's not forget it also owns Bethesda now. Put Vault Boy on the roster. A Skyrim stage with dragons flying overhead as you take an arrow to the knee. It could even be the perfect place to promote a game like Starfield at no extra cost. Throw elements and characters from the game in there and attract players that might not have been interested otherwise. It might be a little late for Starfield since that should hopefully be here soon, but future exclusives can be flaunted through this hypothetical Xbox Smash clone.
The one stumbling block Xbox will need to be wary of should it come up with a Smash Bros. of its very own is timing. Smash Ultimate's reveals coming to an end clearly wasn't a surprise to everyone. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl and Warner Bros' MultiVersus have somewhat flooded the market right now when it comes to Smash clones. Fans have been critical of both too, even though the latter hasn't launched yet, as they are being inevitably compared to Smash, a fight they'll never win. The same will happen to Xbox if it ever creates a cross-IP fighting game of its own, so should it decide to do so, it's going to have to be really, really good.
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