Super Smash Brosis one of the most enduring fighting franchises in history, and for many modern fans,Super Smash Bros Ultimateis the definitive entry in the franchise. It brings back literally every character that’sever been in aSmashgame, plus it has the widest selection of stages thatSmashhas ever offered. It’s great to see a game that’s so welcoming to the game’s previous guests. The game is still adding characters, too, so it’s constantly becoming more inviting. Fans ofSmash Ultimateare still hoping that all kinds of characters will join the ranks of the game and expand its roster.
The latest addition of Pyra and Mythra actually does something important forSuper Smash Bros Ultimate’s roster, though. There’s not a lot of playable women inSmash.Although there’s tons of popular characters that seem like shoe-ins for Nintendo’s fighting game celebration of the video game industry, many of them have yet to receive an invitation. Pyra and Mythra are a pretty significant step in the right direction. However, Nintendo still has a ways to go. Since there’s still a couple character slots left in the second Fighters Pass, one would hope that Nintendo has some more female representation lined up.
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Smash’s Many Memberships
It must be acknowledged thatSmashwas conceived at a time when there was significantly less female heroes in video games. Samus was the only female character to appear in the firstSmashgame for the Nintendo 64. Since then,Smashhas slowly expanded the number of female fighters with every new game, but there’s always more men being added than women. For instance,Meleemore than doubled the amount of playable characters, but Zelda, Peach, and Nana from the Ice Climbers duo were the only women introduced to the game.
Nintendo has done significantly better in recentlySmashgames in this regard.Several recentFire Emblemprotagonistshave all been playable in their female variants, and other newcomers like Isabelle, Bayonetta, Rosalina, and more have added to the game’s list of female fighters. Even so, women are still vastly outnumbered by men inSmash Ultimate.Many more men than women have been added to the game over the course of its DLCs. It’s hard to say if Nintendo will opt to do a third Fighters Pass; it’d certainly be a lucrative opportunity if it did. It’d also be a good opportunity to add more female representation to such a popular and visible game.
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Enduring Candidates
There’s tons of characters thatSmashshould consider inviting. For instance, Lara Croft is one of the most famous women in gaming. She’s come back to the forefront recently with a very successful line of games aiming to revive the character. Considering how influential Lara Croft is, it’s frankly surprising that she hasn’t shown up inSmashso far. Other historically significant women in gaming that seem like good picks forSmashareResident Evil’s Jill Valentine or Claire Redfieldand even Chell fromPortal.
Recently many more games have been starring women, much to the benefit of the game industry.Horizon Zero Dawnstars the huntress and engineer Aloy, whose mastery of a broad range of weapons seems very easy to develop into a moveset.Controlprotagonist Jesse Fadenuses a wide range of guns and psychic powers that would also make her a strong and unique fighter inSmash.Apocalypse survivalist Ellie fromThe Last of Usis another great option. Clearly there’s no shortage of options when it comes to adding women toSmash. It’s more a matter of Nintendo choosing to invite these people.
Introducing two female characters at oncewith Pyra and Mythrais a pretty big step in the right direction. Even so,Smashhas a long way to go as a franchise if it wants to diversify.Smash’s future is a little uncertain, considering how bold an undertakingSmash Ultimateis; it might be that Nintendo keeps supporting the game with DLCs for many years. If so, it has many more chances ahead of it to put more women inSmash.The game industry has lots of strong protagonists to offer. Nintendo would be wise to acknowledge them by giving them invitations to such a hugely influential game.
