Truth be told I’m not a big fan of the Smash Bros. series. Like a lot of people my age I grew up in the fighting game renaissance and sort of overdose on the genre around the time the first Marvel vs. Capcom came out. That said, I do very much enjoy watching matches, seeing skilled players pit the stars of Nintendo’s iconic characters against each other.

But each new installment makes me kind of sad as well because the characters I want to finally see do battle never get added to the roster. Someone was apparently clamoring for Mr. Game and Watch and the dog from Duck Hunt, but not for…


Starman
Easily my favorite wrestling game of the 8bit era was Pro Wrestling, and I wasn’t alone. It was actually the number one video game in America for two straight months. They had a pretty eclectic cast of characters to choose from but I always picked the pink warrior with the deadly flying cross chop. Not only does Starman come complete with a nice combination of high flying attacks and grapple moves, he could call on other wrestlers from the game like The Amazon to tag in. 


Geno and Mallow
I know that we are unlikely to ever get a true sequel to the wonder that was Nintendo’s collaboration with Squaresoft, Super Mario RPG. That was a once in a lifetime tag team effort of awesomeness. However, just because the two companies don’t want to get together like that again is no reason to let the characters Squaresoft created die. Capcom allowed Smash Bros Mega Man, Namco loaned them Pac Man and Monolith Soft even allowed Shulk. Don’t tell me that Square Enix today couldn’t be persuaded to let Mallow and Geno out of exile. 


Tin Star
The Super Scope 6 never caught on like the original light zapper did, which sucks because Battle Clash should definitely have become a franchise. More lighthearted in tone and suitable for Smash Bros would be Tin Star from the game off the same game. The honorable robot sheriff of East Driftwood was knocked as a character by critics at the time for his corny humor and cartoonish buffoonery, but that sort of thing is perfect for an ironic comeback. 


Nester
Now virtually forgotten, Nester was once a mascot for Nintendo second albeit very, very distantly) only to Mario. He appeared in a popular comic strip in Nintendo Power and even a few of his own games like Nester’s Funky Bowling. His biggest role was as Lark in Pilotwings 64, and bringing back the old boy would be a fantastic way to incorporate a Pilotwings fighter as a result. 


Mike Jones
Bar none the most criminally underused Nintendo character is Mike Jones from the StarTropics games. If you never played them it was basically Zelda if Zelda had been written by Jimmy Buffet. Mike traveled across a variety of tropical islands fighting monsters with his enchanted yo-yo and other weapons, even eventually traveling into space. He comes equipped with a huge arsenal to draw from, everything from magical baseball cleats to a ray gun, and a Smash Bros appearance would be the perfect testing ground to see if anyone might be interested in finally seeing a StarTropics 3.

Did we miss anyone you would like to see in the next Smash Bros. game?