We Need to Talk About Nintendo's DLC Smash Character Choices

With the most recent announcement that the newest Smash Ultimate DLC will be the generic cube characters (Alex and Steve) from Minecraft, we really need to talk about what Nintendo is doing and why.

Every new Smash character is going to have someone who likes them, but it’s been extremely clear for a long time now that Nintendo doesn’t actually care what the majority of Smash players want when they choose who to put in the game.

Nintendo… why are you the way that you are? First, let’s talk about Nintendo’s goals, then discuss whether they should be doing something different in regard to Smash.

Nintendo’s First Factor: Marketing

I know people who loved the Fire Emblems games from way back in the day, but I don’t think it’s controversial to say that the placement of Marth and other Fire Emblem Characters in Smash is what really allowed the series to take off in popularity. This ability to generate PR success in other titles was both a blessing and a curse for the Smash Brothers franchise. Nintendo realized, slowly at first, how much of a marketing tool Smash could be. Once they knew, it began to consume the way they looked at the series. Nintendo’s obsession with using Smash as a marketing tool was one of the first major factors that started to shift their analysis away from picking characters players actually want in the game. Case in point, Byleth. If Nintendo has a new title that almost no one cares about, but wants to force people to notice, a mystery slot on that Fighters’ Pass you paid good money for might turn out to be a disappointment at your expense.

Nintendo’s Second Factor: Attempting to Expand the Player Base

Another key of new character selection by Nintendo is whether Nintendo believes that the character is from a game with a large enough player base to draw new players into Smash by association. Case in point, Minecraft. I know of no one who thought that a character from Minecraft somehow deserved a place in Smash. While the game does have some form of “combat,” what Nintendo is really after is the young player base of Minecraft. As with the Pokemon games, Nintendo is acutely aware they need to keep cultivating the next generation of gamers so they can milk them for the rest of their lives. As games continue to grow more focused on instant adrenaline, dopamine, and cheap game additions that bleed wallets with DLC, the core of Nintendo’s tactics is looking a lot like the strategy of the tobacco industry.

Nintendo’s Third Factor: Saving Money

Nintendo loves to fill the fighters’ pass with characters they can obtain the rights to or implement cheaply. This factor usually involves Nintendo selecting a character from a dead or dying franchise and then framing the choice as “we’re doing the players a favor by selecting a classic character.” This is how Banjo and Terry ended up making the cut. This isn’t always a bad thing. There were many people who welcomed the addition of Banjo. The problem is that Nintendo has a very good handle on which classic characters are most popular with Smash player base, but chooses whatever they want instead while acting like they did it for the players.

Are Nintendo’s Current Strategies For Character Selection a Good Idea?

Nintendo seems to think so, but I strongly disagree with their current approaches.

When Smash Ultimate was first released, Nintendo was basically begging players to trust them by blindly buying the Fighters’ Pass before they knew who any of the DLC characters would be. Nintendo aims to have at least one character the player base can be excited about, but then they fill the rest of the pass with whatever garbage they want because they already have your money.

By turning Smash into a hollow marketing husk, they risk losing or eroding the existing player base. Trying to draw new players into Smash is generally a good idea. However, making gimmicky choices like Minecraft can also serve alienate the more serious Smash players. Ultimately, it’s a gamble whether a bad character pick from a game with name recognition will net more players than it loses, but an additional risk Nintendo ignores is the robustness of the competitive scene. If Nintendo picks bad characters and draws bad players while losing skilled ones, Nintendo will lose hype and engagement from the competitive scene that it so often takes for granted. I feel Nintendo is just being lazy at this point, instead of doing research into which new series could both draw in new players and make the existing player base happy.

Photo Credit: Nintendo

Author Username: Noah Ulaine