The Super Smash Bros. series has come a long way to where it is now. Indeed, the latest entry in the series, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, has a roster made up of 86 characters.
This franchise had a more humble beginning due to its starting roster of eight with four more fighters being unlockable. Since then, these combatants have been known as the “Perfect Attendance Crew” as they’ve returned for every entry.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate even manages to stimulate memories for longtime memories through its character unlocking process. Despite how massive the roster is, a player booting up the game for the first time will only have access to the original eight characters, just like in Super Smash Bros. 64.
“There aren’t very many at first, but it is the same amount as the original Nintendo 64 game.” — Masahiro Sakurai
“There aren’t very many at first, but it is the same amount as the original Nintendo 64 game,” said Masahiro Sakurai about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s initial character select screen shortly before the game was released.
Needless to say, these eight to twelve challengers have become iconic for the Super Smash Bros. series. Fighters like Captain Falcon and Ness are now actually more known for their presence in Smash than their own origins.
However, it turns out that there have actually been games in which a few of these challengers were almost cut from. In other words, some of the “Perfect Attendance Crew” came very close to losing their status of having perfect attendance.
First off, it should be mentioned that Marth, Clefairy, Bowser, King Dedede, and Mewtwo were all considered for Super Smash Bros. 64 at various points in development. Some of them even had work done on them before getting scrapped altogether.
Ultimately, it was easier for the development team to reuse parts from the original eight to add the unlockable Jigglypuff, Luigi, Captain Falcon, and Ness. Had any of the other fighters been added, the Perfect Attendance Crew would’ve ended up looking a little different.
This status for Ness was nearly put in jeopardy as early as Super Smash Bros. Melee. Originally, Lucas, the protagonist for Mother 3, was intended to outright replace Ness in Melee. Ness was able to stay in thanks to Mother 3 for the Nintendo 64 Disc Drive getting canceled.
With this in mind, it’s believed that Lucas probably would’ve just reused the moveset utilized by Ness. Since both Ness and Lucas are playable in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Lucas ended up getting some different attacks.
Meanwhile, Sakurai stated during the development of Super Smash Bros. Melee that he didn’t want to disappoint fans of Jigglypuff by cutting her. This seems to stem from how Pichu took the balloon Pokémon’s role as the series’ joke character, which apparently resulted in some of Jigglypuff’s moves receiving buffs.
“The characters that are strongly involved in the main plot had to be characters that were confirmed to be in the game from a fairly early stage… If we had a bit more time, it might have been 4-5 characters, and if we had less time, it might have been zero.” — Masahiro Sakurai
Regardless, Jigglypuff still ended up being nearly cut from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Along with the balloon Pokémon, Wolf and Toon Link were just barely added in time, which is why the three of them don’t participate in the events of The Subspace Emissary.
“These three characters were really on the brink of being cut,” said Sakurai of Jigglypuff, Wolf, and Toon Link. “The characters that are strongly involved in the main plot had to be characters that were confirmed to be in the game from a fairly early stage. But this time, there were characters that were confirmed midway during development, and characters that weren’t. If we had a bit more time, it might have been 4-5 characters, and if we had less time, it might have been zero.”
It would seem that Sakurai saw Jigglypuff as less of a priority compared to other characters at this point in the lifespan of the Super Smash Bros. series. However, the process of cutting veterans started to become more difficult as time went on.
In fact, Sakurai has described this process as being stressful “almost to the brink of death” during the development of Super Smash Bros. 4. This is due to the effect character cuts would have on the players that used them.
“Whether it’s a minor character or a character that is one of the most highly skilled and most played, if that character is removed from the game, the people who live for that character in Smash Bros. are going to have their feelings hurt.” — Masahiro Sakurai
“Whether it’s a minor character or a character that is one of the most highly skilled and most played, if that character is removed from the game, the people who live for that character in Smash Bros. are going to have their feelings hurt,” said Sakurai.
It was likely that this mentality inspired Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s theme of “Everyone Is Here.” For better or worse, however, Sakurai believes that this is something that could only happen once for the series. Having a sequel following up after Smash Ultimate will surely be a difficult thing to oversee.
With how much the series has evolved over time, it’s unknown if the Perfect Attendance Crew will be able to maintain their status going forward. Unless Sakurai is developing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Deluxe for that secret game project of his that he recently mentioned, cuts will inevitably have to happen.
We’ll just have to see how things play out from here, likely once Nintendo is ready to unveil more details about the Switch successor.