Throughout the Super Smash Bros. series, there have been a number of characters that have been considered in previous entries that then got scrapped before finally joining the roster later on. This leads us to believe that other characters that have been in the consideration stages could have a chance in future iterations.
However, characters that have been in Masahiro Sakurai’s thoughts twice before seem a little less likely. For example, the chances for Heihachi Mishima feel very low as he was conceptualized for both Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate before ultimately losing out to Kazuya Mishima.
On the other hand, Geno was considered for Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. 4, but never came to fruition for some reason. Considering the number of Square Enix reps in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as well as the recent release of the Super Mario RPG for the Switch, Geno’s chances now feel higher than ever.
There’s one more challenger that was briefly thought about twice, but has never actually been playable in Super Smash Bros. That character is Takamaru from the Japanese exclusive The Mysterious Murasame Castle (it did later get released abroad via the 3DS Virtual Console in 2014).
The Mysterious Murasame Castle was originally released back on April 14, 1986 for the Famicom Disk System. It was also remade into Famicom Mini Series: The Mysterious Murasame Castle for the Game Boy Advance in 2004, though it sported virtually no changes from the original game.
Compared to The Legend of Zelda, The Mysterious Murasame Castle is a pretty obscure game even in Japan. Regardless, Takamaru does have an important place in Nintendo’s history as he is their first samurai protagonist.
Despite hailing from a fairly unknown series, references to the samurai can be found in Captain Rainbow, WarioWare D.I.Y., Samurai Warriors 3, Nintendo Land, and Super Mario Maker 2.
“Which has a higher possibility… The Mysterious Murasame Castle getting another entry in its series, or Takamaru joining the fight in the next Smash Brothers? Both are extremely unlikely (dang).” — Masahiro Sakurai
Quickly after the release of Super Smash Bros. 64, Masahiro Sakurai began secretly polling fans in Japan about which characters that they’d like to see for a sequel under the guise that a sequel wasn’t being planned even though it actually was. As such, this swordsman’s name ended up coming up in one of Sakurai’s responses to fans.
“Which has a higher possibility… The Mysterious Murasame Castle getting another entry in its series, or Takamaru joining the fight in the next Smash Brothers?” said Sakurai according to Source Gaming’s translation. “Both are extremely unlikely (dang).”
At the time, the Fire Emblem series was exclusive to Japan, but Marth and Roy still got added to Super Smash Bros. Melee as the franchise was at least popular. Takamaru, however, wasn’t quite as relevant.
Many years later, Takamaru would actually make his debut in the Super Smash Bros. series, but as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. 4. He would return as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. There also exists a DLC costume that effectively dresses the Mii Swordfighter as the character.
“I thought about having Takamaru as a player character for a second… but it was probably impossible due to a lack of popularity.” — Masahiro Sakurai
During an interview (along with Takamaru’s voice actor in Super Smash Bros. 4), Masahiro Sakurai revealed that Takamaru was once again in consideration for a spot on the roster. This idea fell through as he was still lacking in terms of his popularity.
“I thought about having Takamaru as a player character for a second… but it was probably impossible due to a lack of popularity,” said Sakurai on the subject.
Despite this, the voice actor in Super Smash Bros. 4 (who had his voice clips recycled for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate), Tomokazu Sugita, was thankful for the opportunity to do voicework as Takamaru and seemed oddly hopeful about the character’s future chances.
“Popularity, huh… I made an appearance! I made an appearance! For popularity abroad… I won’t give up,” said Sugita in Takamaru’s voice.
Popularity, huh… I made an appearance! I made an appearance! For popularity abroad… I won’t give up” — Tomokazu Sugita, voice actor for Takamaru in Super Smash Bros.
Ultimately though, the character’s popularity hasn’t changed much since then. For Takamaru’s chances to increase in any meaningful way, a new game in The Mysterious Murasame Castle series would need to be released, but even that doesn’t feel particularly likely.
Indeed, his most modern appearance was actually in the Super Smash Bros. series as an Assist Trophy. Despite all of this, it’s interesting to note that, unlike other Assist Trophies that reference characters with retro backgrounds, Takamaru was given an updated look.
It’s not an uncommon thing for Sakurai to go back on some of the things that he’s said. While the samurai’s odds still feel exceptionally low at the moment, it’s not a complete impossibility.
Notably, Masahiro Sakurai recently informed fans that he had been working on a secret game project in which he originally wrote up the game proposal for back in July 2021 and started development back in April 2022. Curiously, the game has not been revealed yet.
This seems to line up with what Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said of the Switch successor. Nintendo’s new device is slated to be revealed sometime before March 31, 2025.
Needless to say, many are speculating that the secret game project that Sakurai has been working on is a new Super Smash Bros. entry for the “Switch 2.” Traditionally, there’s been a new iteration in the series for every console since the debut on the Nintendo 64.
When this does inevitably happen with the new console, there will surely be some new faces on the character select screen. As mentioned before, scrapped ideas and concepts have a way of making it into the Super Smash Bros. franchise eventually.
We’ll just have to see if Takamaru is able to defy expectations and make it into the next entry, whether that be Sakurai’s alluded to project or another game down the line.