We’re more than one year into Nintendo’s Switch 2 era, and the hits keep on coming. Games like Donkey Kong Bananza, Pokémon Pokopia, and Splatoon Raiders have helped to reinvent Nintendo’s most reliable franchises. The extent to which things have changed may not be apparent yet, but they’ll be crystal clear once Switch 2 gets its all-but inevitable next Super Smash Bros. game.

Beyond being a great fighting game series, Super Smash Bros.’ best quality is its role as a time capsule. Each new game takes a snapshot of the current state of Nintendo’s most popular franchises, tweaking characters to represent their most recent evolutions. The Switch 2’s Super Smash Bros. game already has a lot to work with in that respect. If Nintendo is looking to tweak the roster to create parity with its recent games, we could see some big changes to old characters and some long overdue franchise representation. Consider this as much of a wishlist for roster changes as a list of early predictions for what the next Super Smash Bros. will look like.

Splatoon has always felt like a series that doesn’t have much Super Smash Bros. potential outside your basic Inklings. The newly released Splatoon Raiders might just change that. Fans on the Splatoon subreddit have begun yearning to see the shooter’s protagonist, The Mechanic, in Super Smash Bros. and I can see why. The character’s wide arsenal of gadgets open the door for a tricky character that plays nothing like a traditional Inkling. I could see the Splatchet, Bombloons, Booyarang, or virtually any tool........

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