Yacht Club explains why Shovel Knight isn’t a Smash Ultimate fighter yet

Shovel Knight is one of the most beloved indie games in recent memory and well-deserving of being an assist trophy in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. However, for Yacht Club, they feel the character could be full fighter.

In an interview with fanbyte, Shovel Knight director and Yacht Club founder Sean Velasco discussed the possibility of the character joining Smash Ultimate, and his status as an assist trophy.

According to Velasco, it was “never really in the cards” for Shovel Knight, who debuted on the Wii U and 3DS, to be fleshed out as a full fighter.

While the developers crafted a potential moveset for him internally, Nintendo only came to Yacht Club pitching the idea of their beloved character becoming an assist trophy.

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Velasco has a few theories about why his creation hasn’t become a full-fledged fighter yet. For one, Shovel Knight isn’t a true second party Nintendo character and he isn’t exactly a super prominent household name in the industry like Sonic, Ryu, Pac-Man and other third-party fighters.

“Maybe in the next Smash or in the Smash 10 years from now, when Shovel Knight’s like a grandfather figure in the game industry, maybe he can be a playable character,” Velasco said.

Regardless, he still considered having the character in Smash at all an “honor” and is open to more crossovers.

“We’d been very, very lucky and super fortunate to have as many cool cameos and for Shovel Knight to have had the success that it’s had,” he went on. “We’re going to keep on trying and keep on trying to make Shovel Knight as big as possible and get those bed sheets and that cereal.”

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Speaking of the next Smash Bros title, there’s nothing currently set, according to series creator Masahiro Sakurai: “I can’t say for sure if the Smash series will continue. The people at Nintendo who are in charge of the series and I am not thinking about the future at all.”

In the same column, he said there’s no plans for more DLC characters after the six in Fighters Pass Volume 2 are released.

Hopefully, we end up getting more Smash games (and DLC) in the future, but if this truly is the last the franchise has to offer, it’s certainly going out with a bang.

(H/T ComicBook)