Top 10 Smash Ultimate DLC Character Candidates (Take 2)

Anticipation is in the air. After what seems like a drought of news from the big N, lots of gaming fans are hoping to get a Direct video presentation from them soon, to give them info and announcements on their upcoming titles. Sure to be included among this is the reveal of the next DLC playable character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. 

The last time I guessed at candidates for SSBU additional characters, I managed to get two of them right. (Banjo-Kazooie was #3 on my old list and Erdrick/Arusu, my #9, was included with other main characters from Dragon Quest to create Hero.) While my other picks on that list may still be viable, my opinions on who may be likely to be announced have changed a bit.

So, with rumors saying that a Nintendo Direct might be coming soon (and a presentation dedicated to Smash just recently confirmed), it seems like a good time to update my Smash predictions. Same conditions as before, I looked at different characters being mentioned and tried to figure out their chances of making it into the roster. Also, only one character per franchise.

Let’s do this. Here are my picks for the Top 10 Smash Ultimate DLC Character Candidates (Take 2).

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10. Ring Fit Athlete (Ring Fit Adventure) 

Nintendo is no stranger to using Smash to promote their recently released or upcoming games. Corrin’s inclusion as cross-promotion for Fire Emblem Fates had people complaining about the number of Fire Emblem characters in the roster. But another recent potential case of cross-promotion may come in the form of the Ring Fit Athlete, the main character of Nintendo’s recent motion-control fitness game Ring Fit Adventure. Playing along the lines of Wii Fit Trainer, she could use her exercise ring to perform different attacks that would make her a unique character. Her association with the color orange could even fit her into “Color Theory”, a method some Smash fans have been using to try to guess at the fifth Smash DLC newcomer. (More on that later.)

9. Dr. Coyle (ARMS)

She made the top five the last time I made a Smash DLC candidates list and despite being knocked down a few slots since then, I still think the main villain of Switch year one title ARMS has a chance of making it into Smash. With this unorthodox fighting game successfully selling over a million copies, Nintendo fans thought ARMS was a shoo-in for Smash. Then, the game came out and it turned out most of the cast were in as spirits with the game’s Mario, Spring Man, made into an assist trophy. However, there are still a few characters that haven’t been included at all, including this mad scientist who is behind most of the events that happen in game.

8. Dante (Devil May Cry)

We may already have three Capcom reps in Smash, but that isn’t stopping fans of the Devil May Cry series from getting their hopes up for their favorite demon slayer, especially thanks to recent developments. When Hideaki Itsuno, the current director for Devil May Cry, was asked in an interview about Dante’s chances for getting into Smash Bros., he said that the Devil May Cry series needs to be on Nintendo platforms first. Since then, Devil May Cry 1 and 2 have been released on the Nintendo Switch, with 3 confirmed for a Switch release with some special added content. Along with the tweet that announced the game, there were also some dates given hinting that something special would be coming in January and February before the game’s release, with a special highlight given to January 16. A Smash announcement, perhaps?

7. Doom Slayer (Doom)

One of the most highly requested western characters for entry into Smash, The Doom Slayer, also known as Doomguy, is the main character of the classic PC shooter Doom and its 2016 remake, which got ported to the Switch. The series also got some of the older games in the series ported to Nintendo’s current console and the latest game in the series, Doom: Eternal, is releasing on multiple platforms, including the Switch. With his current level of relevance with Nintendo and the series’ legacy pioneering shooters in gaming, there is a strong argument for letting this demon-hunting space marine join the roster of Smash, even if a lot of his trademark violence would have to be toned down to fit within the game’s rating.

6. Crash Bandicoot (Crash Bandicoot) 

Another western character, Crash Bandicoot also has a strong argument for why he could be included in Smash. Even before the releases of the N-Sane Trilogy and Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled on the Switch, the Crash Bandicoot series has had a few games releasing on Nintendo platforms, most notably on the Wii after Activision bought the rights to the series. The character’s history with Nintendo goes back even further to when he was Sony’s platforming mascot, even outright mocking and challenging Nintendo, stating that he was going to take them down. Pulling in another of Nintendo’s former big rivals, he would fit right in alongside Sonic in fighting Mario directly.

5. Sephiroth (Final Fantasy)

By now, lots of players have noticed the lack of Final Fantasy related spirits in Ultimate. The series that brought us Cloud has brought nothing new to Smash and some think that Square-Enix is holding back on any more content unless they can charge an extra price for it. Well, a good excuse to charge for a bunch of iconic Final Fantasy songs and spirit characters would be to wrap it up with a new stage and a new playable character. Since Final Fantasy VII is the game chosen as the series’ front-runner here, then a good compliment to the game’s main hero would be the game’s main villain, the one-winged angel, Sephiroth. He would be able to use his huge sword, several kinds of Materia, and incredibly powerful attacks and transformations to battle (or at the very least, attacks that heavily reference them if you don’t want them filling the screen).

4. Arle Nadja (Puyo Puyo)

Earlier, I mentioned something called Color Theory. Some Smash fans noticed the background colors of the pictures for the game’s current downloadable characters and noticed that no one so far has used orange as their color and that the fifth character might be related to the color in some way. I mentioned earlier how Ring Fit Athlete could fit this theory under those terms and Crash could as well, but a third character who could fit this theory is Arle Nadja, an iconic character from the puzzle game series Puyo Puyo. This character has also been referenced by fans as possibly relating to pictures that Sakurai has posted of Smash Ultimate that may reference her. Also tying into her chances are the success of Puyo Puyo Tetris on the Switch and the recent release of Super Puyo Puyo 2 on the Super Nintendo section of Nintendo Switch Online.

3. KOS-MOS (Xenosaga)

The android main character of Xenosaga, the sister series to Nintendo’s Xenoblade Chronicles, has seen some theory action, similar to Arle earlier. A different character theory deals with a picture posted to Twitter by Sakurai showing Mario, all of the DLC characters so far, and Daisy posing for the picture. Daisy being the odd one out has people speculating that she is standing in for the fifth Fighters Pass character. Some believe that KOS-MOS could be the one Daisy is standing in for as the character may be a nod to KOS-MOS’s past life, Mary Magdalene. Her addition to Smash would also add a second Bandai Namco rep as well as (technically) another Xeno series rep. 

Speaking of Bandai Namco reps though…

2. Jin Kazama (Tekken)

In my last Smash Candidates countdown, I placed Heihachi Mishima, the main recurring villain from the Tekken series, as my number one most likely character, with Tekken being one of Bandai-Namco’s biggest current series. While I still think that a Tekken character is highly likely to make the roster of Smash Ultimate, Heihachi is no longer that character. That distinction now goes to his grandson, Tekken protagonist Jin Kazama. The fact that Namco doesn’t have any characters in the roster besides Pac-Man despite helping to develop the game hasn’t gone unnoticed by fans of the game and Tekken being another hand-to-hand fighting series would mean that a character from this series would fit in with characters like Ryu, Ken, and Terry. What puts Jin over Heihachi however is that Jin, especially with his Devil Jin form, would have more abilities to differentiate him from other characters rather than having just another plain martial artist.

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Before revealing the number one pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Monster Hunter (Monster Hunter) – The customizable main player character of the popular Capcom series, where Rathalos already made it into the game as a boss.

Yuri Lowell (Tales of Vesperia) – The Tales of RPGs have seen successful releases on Nintendo platforms and while people are calling for Lloyd from Symphonia, Tales of Vesperia is the more currently relevant title on the Switch.

Ori (Ori and the Blind Forest) – This could possibly count as adding the long-awaited indie game rep as well as a second Microsoft rep. Plus, Ori has been used in platform fighters before, being a guest fighter in Rivals of Aether.

Master Chief (Halo) – The flagship character of Microsoft and the Xbox consoles, his inclusion would be a large sign of a partnership with Nintendo and Microsoft, as well as representing a large part of gaming history.

Steve (Minecraft) – This could possibly be the best case for an indie game rep, more than perhaps any other game series, seeing how big Minecraft is around the world and how dominant of a force it has become in gaming and pop culture.

Neku Sakuraba (The World Ends With You) – A cult hit RPG exclusive for Nintendo platforms that got a re-release on the Switch, with many fans hoping for a sequel.

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1. Travis Touchdown (No More Heroes)

Whether he’s the next character or not, his major presence with Nintendo shows that Travis Touchdown, protagonist of the M-rated hack-and-slasher No More Heroes, may eventually make his way into Smash. Apart from an updated re-release of the first game on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, all past and current games in the No More Heroes series have been released on Nintendo platforms. The series is considered such an attention-grabber for Nintendo that it was included in its announcement for the Switch console and No More Heroes III is a highly anticipated title for it. With such a big brand association with Nintendo the best thing to solidify it is for the Crownless King to follow in Bayonetta’s footsteps and step into the arena with some of gaming’s greats.

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What did you think of this list? What characters do you want to see added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate? Make your voice heard in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!