(First of all, please no roster lists. Those kinds of threads quickly become tedious.)
So it seems clear that the first calendar year of Switch will come and go without a port of Smash 4 unless Nintendo was holding back a major surprise at e3, which feels unlikely. This game had been rumoured to exist for a long time, with the usually reliable Dr. Serkan Toto tweeting the following back in January 2016:
The point of the Wii U ports (Zelda, Mario Kart, Pokken, Lego City Undercover etc) was to get a decent software library up and running in Switch's first year - and it has been a great success without which I feel the console would have failed. Yet there's no sign of Smash, and a Wii U port arriving in the 2nd year would feel lame, delayed, too late. Smash 4 will be 4 years old next September, after all.
On the other side of the coin, the point of the ports was also to recycle expensive games that didn't have a large enough audience on Wii U to justify them in the end. But that's not the case for Smash 4 as it sold a ton on 3DS. It's not as imperative for them to port this game as it might have been for Mario Kart 8 - most Nintendo fans had a 3DS if not a Wii U. Most Nintendo fans probably already bought and played this game in some form. So between no port appearing so far and the rationale for the port not being as strong I feel like the assumption that a port is coming has been thrown into considerable doubt.
So at this point, there seems like multiple options.
Option 1: Straight port of Smash 4 - This is what many of us expected this year. Maybe you get HD versions of all the 3DS stages. Maybe there's an extra character thrown in. But it's a port, and 99% of it is the same. Perhaps you expect a surprise annoucement this year, and for it to slot in as Nintendo's black friday game. Or maybe you expect it at that slot next year. It'll be a 4 year old game by then. Perhaps Nintendo uses e-sports to try and energise the fans, but most of us have played this one to death by now.
Option 2: Added content to make it Smash 5 - I think this is now a real possibility. They take the Smash 4 engine - the core game - but add enough characters, stages and new modes that they can legitimately call it Smash 5. Say 10+ characters and 10+ stages, plus a reworked single player mode and better netcode. The gameplay is the same, most characters are the same, but it's called a sequel, not a port.
Option 3: Smash 5 built from the ground up - They dump the Smash 4 engine and build an entirely new game with new core gameplay, as they have done for each Smash game so far. This would take an exceptionally long time and be a lot of work. They would have need to have started this years ago after Smash 4 released.
So my question to you is:
a) What do you expect Nintendo to do, and
b) What do you want Nintendo to do?
If you've got evidence of whatever rumours or what have you then fire away.
As for me, I'm afraid to say but I still expect option 1 - a simple port - and for it to arrive for holiday 2018. What I'd want is option 3 for holiday 2019 or later if needs be. I have no interest in playing more Smash 4, even with new characters or stages. In fact, the bigger the roster gets the less I enjoy it, so I'd love to see a reboot with a far smaller roster. I understand that goes against the fanservice wishes of the hardcore smash fans, though. But I know from playing with casual gamers in my family that being faced with a large roster with 75% characters they don't recognise vs a smaller one where they know 50%+... the bigger roster does not make it more appealing, and I feel the same. There just aren't any more characters left that are appealing enough to the casual gamer that their inclusion into the game would make it better rather than worse imo. I'd rather see work go into the modes and stages themselves, some of which were desperately poor in Smash 4.
So it seems clear that the first calendar year of Switch will come and go without a port of Smash 4 unless Nintendo was holding back a major surprise at e3, which feels unlikely. This game had been rumoured to exist for a long time, with the usually reliable Dr. Serkan Toto tweeting the following back in January 2016:
The point of the Wii U ports (Zelda, Mario Kart, Pokken, Lego City Undercover etc) was to get a decent software library up and running in Switch's first year - and it has been a great success without which I feel the console would have failed. Yet there's no sign of Smash, and a Wii U port arriving in the 2nd year would feel lame, delayed, too late. Smash 4 will be 4 years old next September, after all.
On the other side of the coin, the point of the ports was also to recycle expensive games that didn't have a large enough audience on Wii U to justify them in the end. But that's not the case for Smash 4 as it sold a ton on 3DS. It's not as imperative for them to port this game as it might have been for Mario Kart 8 - most Nintendo fans had a 3DS if not a Wii U. Most Nintendo fans probably already bought and played this game in some form. So between no port appearing so far and the rationale for the port not being as strong I feel like the assumption that a port is coming has been thrown into considerable doubt.
So at this point, there seems like multiple options.
Option 1: Straight port of Smash 4 - This is what many of us expected this year. Maybe you get HD versions of all the 3DS stages. Maybe there's an extra character thrown in. But it's a port, and 99% of it is the same. Perhaps you expect a surprise annoucement this year, and for it to slot in as Nintendo's black friday game. Or maybe you expect it at that slot next year. It'll be a 4 year old game by then. Perhaps Nintendo uses e-sports to try and energise the fans, but most of us have played this one to death by now.
Option 2: Added content to make it Smash 5 - I think this is now a real possibility. They take the Smash 4 engine - the core game - but add enough characters, stages and new modes that they can legitimately call it Smash 5. Say 10+ characters and 10+ stages, plus a reworked single player mode and better netcode. The gameplay is the same, most characters are the same, but it's called a sequel, not a port.
Option 3: Smash 5 built from the ground up - They dump the Smash 4 engine and build an entirely new game with new core gameplay, as they have done for each Smash game so far. This would take an exceptionally long time and be a lot of work. They would have need to have started this years ago after Smash 4 released.
So my question to you is:
a) What do you expect Nintendo to do, and
b) What do you want Nintendo to do?
If you've got evidence of whatever rumours or what have you then fire away.
As for me, I'm afraid to say but I still expect option 1 - a simple port - and for it to arrive for holiday 2018. What I'd want is option 3 for holiday 2019 or later if needs be. I have no interest in playing more Smash 4, even with new characters or stages. In fact, the bigger the roster gets the less I enjoy it, so I'd love to see a reboot with a far smaller roster. I understand that goes against the fanservice wishes of the hardcore smash fans, though. But I know from playing with casual gamers in my family that being faced with a large roster with 75% characters they don't recognise vs a smaller one where they know 50%+... the bigger roster does not make it more appealing, and I feel the same. There just aren't any more characters left that are appealing enough to the casual gamer that their inclusion into the game would make it better rather than worse imo. I'd rather see work go into the modes and stages themselves, some of which were desperately poor in Smash 4.
