Smash Ultimate almost had additional Pokemon and Zelda fighters

Super Smash Bros Ultimate has one of the most impressive rosters for any game in history, but it’s crazy to think about all the potential characters who nearly got in and it turns out, Nintendo’s flagship fighter nearly had some extra Pokemon and Zelda fighters.

The big selling point with Smash Ultimate was the whole “everyone is here” tagline that saw every character from previous games reunite for the Switch spectacular. This included characters many thought were just one-offs such as Pichu, Young Link and Solid Snake.

Now, with Smash Ultimate set to finalize its roster with the remaining two DLC fighters, it’s interesting to think about the characters who could have made it in and how Brawl’s cast could have been bigger itself.

Brawl was the first Smash game to introduce third party fighters, but it also nearly saw four completely new characters added, who would surely have made their way to Ultimate if they’d actually been developed.

As Source Gaming discusses, Brawl has a group of cut characters called “The Forbidden Seven.” In addition to Roy, Mewtwo and Dr Mario who have game files that suggest they were cut during development there are other fighters referenced in the game as well.

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These fighters are all brand new and would have undoubtedly been added to Smash Ultimate if they appeared in Brawl and weren’t scrapped.

One fighter from Melee who lacks data in Brawl is Pichu and some hidden file names suggest this is because Plusle and Minun were supposed to take his place.

The fighter name “Pra Mai” seems to match up with the Japanese names of the Pokemon (Prasle and Mainum) and could easily have fit Pichu’s design if replaced.

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Basically, the two would have worked similar to how Toon Link replaced Young Link, but sadly, we never had the two make it to the roster.

Another fighter who was cut was Dixie Kong, a character who was actually originally part of Diddy Kong’s moveset and act as a tag team.

However, Sakurai and his team just couldn’t get the fighter to work properly and she was cut, having Diddy Kong be his own stand alone. But with work being done on Dixie, she too is a member of the Forbidden Seven.

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Last is an interesting situation in the case of Toon Zelda and Toon Shiek. It would seem that with Toon Link being added, Sakurai wanted to turn Zelda into a toon fighter as well, but because of her transformation mechanic from back then, it would have meant a Toon Sheik too.

Amusingly, Sheik already received a huge appearance overhaul to match Zelda’s Twilight Princess look so the idea of a Toon Sheik with a Wind Waker design could have been amazing.

Still, the idea of having two additional Zelda characters in Ultimate is amazing and it’s a bit of a shame that the series hasn’t seen a new fighter since Toon Link in Brawl.

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There are other characters cut from the game too, but considering these seven have files left over, it’s clear they stand a cut above the rest with how close they were on making it to the final roster.

Who knows, though, maybe they’ll get a second chance with two more DLC packs still to come in Fighters Pass Volume 2.