The Super Smash Bros. franchise started out as the dream crossover between iconic and popular Nintendo characters. Super Smash Bros. Brawl shocked the world when one of Metal Gear Solid‘s most important protagonists, Solid Snake, suddenly appeared at the end of the game’s reveal trailer. Konami’s Metal Gear franchise had little to do with Nintendo as a whole; the first game appeared on the NES/Famicom, but was an altered port from the MSX2. The (original) sequel never appeared on a Nintendo console, and instead was given Snake’s Revenge. The Nintendo Gamecube received an enhanced port of Metal Gear Solid years after it’s original release. The reason behind Snake’s inclusion is Kojima personally requested he be put in Super Smash Bros. Melee. The game was too far in development, but he got his chance with Brawl.
Konami has another property that is closer to Nintendo than Metal Gear and nearly any other 3rd-party franchise: Castlevania. I’m not a huge fan of the series, but I really, really want it to be involved with Super Smash Bros. My reasoning thus follows:
1. The Franchise Started and Thrived on Nintendo Consoles
I did state this already in the first paragraph, but it means nothing without context. This section does not include spin-offs.
The series debut was in Japan on September 26, 1986. It was originally released on the Famicom Disk System (with the MSX2 borrowing it instead) and was localized in American and Europe the following two years on the cartridge-based Famicom. It received strong sales and critical acclaim. Naturally, it spawned two sequels: Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (1987) and Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (1989). There was also two Gameboy titles.
The Super Nintendo enjoyed the exclusivity of Super Castlevania IV (1991). Nintendo consoles suffered a drought of Castlevania titles due to competing consoles taking the sequels as exclusives, but managed to receive a third and final Gameboy title, Castlevania Legends (1998). Before the 20th century ended, the series had it’s first two 3D games appear on the Nintendo 64: Castlevania and Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (1999).
The franchise received many titles for the Gameboy Advanced and Nintendo DS and one for the 3DS.
Lastly, Simon Belmont was the protagonist of the first two games, making him the most historically relevant.
2. We Would Get Amazing Music
The Castlevania franchise is known and often praised for it’s soundtracks. It is no wonder; the music is thrilling and fits the current environment/situation.
From the first game. It really gives you a sense of a new and daring adventure. Fitting for a pilot title.
The sequel ups the ante with the most famous track in the series. It’s more exciting and up-beat to encourage the returning hero to once against purge Dracula once again. There are many remixes to this theme, and I encourage you to look some of them up.
Last example I’ll post. A random YouTube commentator says it well:
3. It Would Reunite the Captain N Cast
Okay, so this one is not exactly favorable since it was a terrible show that somehow butchered simple characters. It would still be cool for the novelty and laughs.
4. He Could Be a Really Fun Character
When it comes to Sakurai, move sets rarely end up as expected. This is evident with Rosalina’s puppeteer-esque abilities, and Ganondorf being a wanna-be Captain Falcon (he’s still cool though). Nevertheless, Simon has plenty of options. The image above is a good example of how some of his moves could work.
Simon would likely have several long-ranged standard attacks. He might end up as a zoner because of this and his special attacks focusing on small projectiles. Conversely, he could play like Marth by having his moveset being quick but weak whip attacks. One ability from some of the games is that, even if it got in, probably won’t work with the Smash 4 engine, is when if you hold down the attack button, you can move the chain around in 360 degrees. One of Sheik’s attacks was sort of like that in Melee and Brawl, and could catch opponents:
Conclusion
Simon Belmont is overshadowed by characters such as Wolf, Snake, and Ridley, who should be taking up plenty of ballot votes. His 3rd-party AND newcomer status make him an unlikely pick for this game. Regardless, I hope people who’ve read this start supporting the character’s inclusion… or one of the other Belmonts.
Or Alucard.
Or Goku.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Castlevania_media#Video_games
http://castlevania.wikia.com/wiki/Castlevania_Wiki
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