How I Would Reboot Super Smash Bros. (Part 1: Mario franchise)

Super Smash Brothers is a huge franchise, and with its creative mastermind behind it, each entry keeps getting bigger and bigger, and the newly revealed entry in the series looks to continue to grow it. There is just one problem: this will not be able to continue forever. Eventually, Sakurai will leave the series in other hands, and the roster will be unreasonably large at that point. What happens then? The roster will likely be condensed in a sort of reboot for the series. Let's examine how I would handle this, series by series, starting, of course, with Mario.

If I were at the helm of this hypothetical reboot, I would select characters to represent different aspects or eras of their franchises. For Mario, the titular hero would likely appear for his platformers, but a problem arises: he has two distinct types of platformers, being 2D and 3D; which would he represent? The 3D side would be the ideal choice, given how in most of his 3D platformers, Mario is the only playable character. His moveset (which would be tailored to this aspect of the franchise) would likely include the combo of attacks from Super Mario 64 as his basic attack, F.L.U.D.D. for his down special (just as it is now), a launch star as a recovery (inherited from the cut Rosalina), a pounce from a brief cat suit transformation as a neutral special, and Cappy as a side special (though he would only be able to capture opponents with shields broken). As for his final smash, he would likely employ Cappy for it; perhaps the T-Rex or Bowser? Also, he would likely have his builder outfit (from Mario Maker), Dr. Mario, his new tennis outfit, and a few outfits from Odyssey as alternate costumes.

With Mario representing the 3D platformers, who better than Luigi to represent the 2D ones? He has been playable in almost every 2D platformer in the series, with him only being in two less of them than Mario. His moves would rely on power-ups much more than Mario, considering that fact that the 2D platformers are far more reliant on them. He would likely keep the fireball as his neutral special, along with maybe the cape as his side special. His recovery would likely be a boost from the propeller mushroom, and his down special would probably be the hammer bro suit from Mario 3. Finally, his final smash would likely remain the same as it is now, being the poltergust, considering how Luigi's Mansion otherwise has no representation in Luigi's moves.

This next one is going to sound crazy, but hear me out; I would add Waluigi in as the representative for Mario Kart, Mario Sports, and Mario Party. Why him? He came from Mario Tennis, has almost exclusively appeared in the three aforementioned series, and might just be the only Mario character wacky enough to pull off a moveset based off of them (Wario might also be wacky enough, but he has his own series to represent). Speaking of the moves, he would likely feature a tennis serve (where inputing along with the serve does extra damage) for his neutral special, a dice roll from Mario Party (which would work akin to Mr. Game&Watch's judgment in which higher rolls are more effective, only replacing the hammer with a dash forward) as a side special, an item box from Mario Kart (which gives him an item from that series at random) as a down special, and as for his recovery, I'm not sure; maybe he could have something based on a specific mini game from Mario Party. His final smash would be a Super Strike from Super Mario Strikers, though the new Super Shot from Mario Tennis Aces could also work. Finally, the alternate costumes would include his outfits from Strikers and Aces, a couple of costumes from Mario Party 2, and recolors to resemble Mario, Luigi, and Wario.

The final character I would pick from the Mario franchise would be one to represent the RPG spin-offs. This character would use attacks from Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi, and Mario + Rabbids. Which character would that be? That's really up in the air. I have figured out some candidates, though. One character would be the highly requested Geno from the original Super Mario RPG, but other than high demand, he has very little going for him (the moves would make little sense with him, and the rights to him are tied up at Square Enix). The next candidate would be Paper Mario; he would be the most likely, since being an alternate Mario, he could sensibly use his abilities, and there are not any rights complications. The only thing that would hinder his inclusion would be the fact that the style is already in use, with there already being Mario and a 2D character in Mr. Game & Watch. Meanwhile, Fawful from the Mario & Luigi series would also be a candidate, boasting his fan-favorite personality, along with his historic use of tech as a justification for his moves. Yeah, it's a flimsy excuse, but at least he does not have any rights complications. The last candidate for this slot would be Beep-O from the recent Mario & Rabbids: Kingdom battle. While they would have to work out the rights with Ubisoft, Beep-O could build a moveset around switching between the Rabbid versions of Mario (with moves from the Paper Mario series), Luigi (with moves from the Mario & Luigi series), and Peach (with moves from her own game), though if custom moves are to return, this switching would bring its own set of issues. If I had to rate these four characters from least likely to most likely, it would be Geno, Beep-O, Fawful, then Paper Mario. Whichever one works for the character concept.

While this concept likely will not come to fruition in the upcoming game, that doesn't mean that it won't ever happen in some form, and while it may not come in this form, it is still enjoyable to speculate about it. What about DK, Yoshi, and Wario? Well, Super Smash Brothers lists those characters as their own individual franchises, so more on those franchises here. Until then, what do you think of what I have so far?