The Majestic Twelve - DLC Ideas for Smash Bros WiiU/3DS

Recent news came out in regards to Sakurai’s decision about DLC after Mewtwo. While fans don’t seem to agree 100% on what he means, the exact phrasing I’ve been told is that, “We have nothing planned as far as DLC.” This doesn’t mean there WON’T be DLC sometime down the road. Articles generally all seem to agree that Mewtwo is going to be Nintendo’s and Sakurai’s experiment with DLC in Smash to see how that goes first before committing to anything further. 

And while I commend them and their reasoning for doing so (not wanting to make people feel they cut content from the game to BE DLC), I can safely say that the game is chalk-full of content that such a worry comes off as nothing more than silly at this point. But still, I would like to know that while nothing is solidly PLANNED for DLC that Sakurai at least has SOME idea of what he might want to do for future content updates. Below are my top twelve ideas of what I’d like to see as far as content updates/DLC goes. Directly… to you. 

#12 – New Stages – Not really necessary, but it would be nice to have more stages to play on. The roster of stages in Smash Bros Wii U feels significantly smaller (until you consider that most/all stages have a Final-Destination version). There is room for more stages to appear and, furthermore, you can even bring old stages back (Brinstar Depths). But of all the DLC ideas, this is probably the least necessary just because we have a fine roster of stages as it is. Not to mention that, at the moment, I can't think of any interesting ideas for new stages aside from bringing back old ones that looked great, such as the Metal Battlefield from Smash 64. All that being said, the other ideas on the list are far more interesting.

#11 – Mod Support – While something I would much rather see than the bulk of this list, this is actually lower simply because we know how Sakurai is. We know how Nintendo is. They don’t like people messing with their product, even if said people aren’t making a profit off of it. It’s sad, but that’s just how they operate. I could do a whole top twelve list on reasons why the ability to mod games is an overall net good for the games, fans, and industry as a whole (and probably will). But to keep it short, it allows people to make a portfolio of work in terms of game design without the additional hassle of making a full-game. It’s like practice, so to speak. And said practice can help extend the life of a game YEARS beyond the base game (look at GTAIV on PC).

#10 – Smash Tour Updates – More subsequent plays of Smash Tour has made me come to realize that while it’s a fun mode to play, it does have some flaws that will not appeal to everyone. The various types of smashes (Battering Smash, Explosive Smash, etc) have their item spawn rates set WAY too high (and Galiga Smash is terrible). Not to mention the inability to pick which fighter you want to use before each match is kind of a problem. I get the idea is to promote using new fighters and getting used to them, but that’s difficult to do in matches with crap items spawning too much. You should at least be able to pick your fighters because there’s still a risk of losing them and leaving you with ones you weren’t as excited to play with anyway. Again, not a bad mode, but some tweaks are certainly needed to let it really shine.

#09 – Additional Stage Bosses – I like Ridley’s addition to Smash (even if I wanted to fight AS him). I like Metal-Face’s addition to smash. Even Yellow Devil is cool (on the WiiU version at least). But you know who’s missing? Dr. Robotnik as a Sonic stage boss. Whispy Woods as a Kirby stage boss. Even Petey Piranha or King Boo would have been nice to see as a stage boss. Yes, an additional option to fight with or without a boss on a stage would be good, but more bosses in general should be done too. Speaking of which…

#08 – Additional Game Modes – While the modes we have are great, Target Blast isn’t anywhere near as good as “Break the Targets” and I want that mode back. Same goes to Race to the Finish and Board the Platforms. Even the return of the “Boss Battles” would be cool and certainly be a welcome addition when you can put in new bosses to boot. And new modes in addition to that would be built to add even more life to the game.

#07 – More Custom Stage Options – The biggest downgrade from Brawl was the stage editor. It lacks a lot of the unique items from the original game, building a stage is an easier task, but it’s harder to make anything that really feels or looks as good as anything the Brawl Stage Editor could do. Even the lack of things to put in a stage is depressing (no falling blocks, ice blocks, spikes, or rotating-platform-wheel). DLC addition more options for stage builder would be more than welcome.

#06 – Campaign Mode – I know we have “additional modes” already, but an actual Campaign Mode is something a little different as it requires a little more effort to cobble together. I’m not necessarily asking for something as big and elaborate as Brawl’s SubSpace Emissary, but I would like something with a little more meat than Melee’s Adventure Mode. Not that either one of those were altogether bad, but Adventure Mode got old after subsequent playthroughs and SubSpace Emissary just got old because it was so repetitive. I get why Campaign mode isn’t in the main game, because Sakurai didn’t like the internet leaking the cutscenes online. To that, I say, I get the annoyance, but it’s something you have to basically accept since there’s really no way around that.

#05 – Custom Fighter Moves – I appear to be in the minority when it comes to the custom fighters being the best thing in the game. Fine. But I’m still going to harp on about how they should have been given more focus or attention because they are the best aspect of the game, adding more hours of play time to both unlocking and experimenting with them. To hell with the game balance, I want my Ganondorf to be faster to keep up with the pack. That said, two alternate moves per character is fine, but more options would be fun. Sure, ridiculous, but since you won’t allow these characters online anyway, you don’t have to worry about stupid issues like balancing them out perfectly. Alternatively, I guess you COULD provide online support for the custom characters and then I would probably stop complaining about this.

#04 – Mii Fighter Options – Again, I feel like I’m in the minority here, but whatever. I like the options of swords, arm-cannons, and fists but I want more options for how a Mii Fighter fights. Why can’t we have a Hammer Mii? A Crossbow Mii? A Bo-Staff Mii? And why are the outfits in such a small quantity, but we have a fuck-ton of different hats? I’m not hating on the Mii Fighter, I think it’s a good start. But that’s all it is, a good start. There’s lots of room and potential for more to be done and these kinds of options would go a long way from making each Mii Fighter a person makes feel more unique. (Also, Scythe Mii).

#03 – Character Skins – If there’s any one thing we should have learned from Brawl-Mods, it’s that Characters Skins are not all that difficult so long as you don’t get ridiculously complex and stupid with them. Not to mention the ability to have other character as alternate costumes of existing characters makes matches more entertaining and fun. Would you rather play a match as Old-Man-Style Ganondorf or as Nightmare from Soul Calibur over Ganondorf? Would you rather play as a slightly darker version of Sonic or as Shadow the Hedgehog? Would you rather play as a different pattern of Duck Hunt or would you rather just have Banjo Kazooie? This is how Lucina, Dr. Mario, and Dark Pit (especially) should have been done and I think this could be a fun way to vary up matches as the game goes on.

#02 – Veteran Characters – This is fairly obvious, right? We have Mewtwo making his comeback in spring. We have Dr. Mario back already. DLC to bring back Snake or even Ice Climbers (in the WiiU Version at least) would be great. Bring back Wolf too while you’re at it. I get the notion that you don’t want to put up DLC that makes it look like you’re just selling us cut-content… but whose fault is it the content was cut in the first place? All joking aside, fact is, Smash Bros WiiU does feel like a full game with lots of content. Bringing back old favorite characters isn’t going to hurt your game’s image by any means Sakurai, but help it. People who feel shafted at the loss of a favorite character will be happy, it’ll add even more diversity to the roster, and (like all DLC) can help extend the life of the game.

#01 – NEW CHARACTERS – Again, not a hard option to figure out. More fighters, the better. Again, with the same logic above, the idea isn’t to provide content to a content-weak game, but to extend the life of a content rich game WELL beyond the years it’s expected to live anyway. And new characters to learn every so many months would go a long way. Ideas to include? Travis Touchdown from No More Heroes, Simon Belmont from Castlevania, Ray 01 from Custom Robo, one of several Assist Trophies would make great characters, and… hm… I had a name that made perfect sense… she’s a more than capable fighter… a new Nintendo exclusive character/game. And from a game that could use the boost in attention through Smash to help make her game get more notice… geez… what was her name again… Mayonetta? Clayonetta? Gayonetta? No… that isn’t right. I’m sure there is already an image that basically spells out my idea and exposing this joke for what it is, so I won’t keep going.

Those are my top twelve ideas for Smash Bros DLC. If you are Sakurai and want further help on these ideas, feel free to contact me at evacstation@gmail.com. Alternatively, if you’re just here to read the content and liked what you say, please be sure to like, subscribe, and share this with as many people as possible. See ya next time!