Nintendo's Switch 2 is well past its first year, and its growing software lineup is already shifting the conversation around what comes next for Super Smash Bros. The fighting franchise has always acted as a snapshot of the hardware generation hosting it. Each installment pulls straight from recent releases, tweaking familiar fighters and pulling fresh mascots from whatever games hit big.
With games like Donkey Kong Bananza and Splatoon Raiders now in players' hands, that snapshot looks very different from what arrived on the original Switch.
Veteran characters lead the discussion. Donkey Kong has carried the same moveset since the Nintendo 64 era, but Donkey Kong Bananza gave the character a distinct toon redesign and wholesale mechanical changes. Rather than leaning on thirty-year-old ground pounds, an updated DK could rip up chunks of stage terrain to surf across platforms or fling at opponents. Bananza forms offer ready-made material for an overhauled Final Smash, with room for a Pauline cameo to match the recent adventure.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond creates a similar opening for Samus Aran. While Samus has long been a staple of the roster, Prime 4 introduced psychic powers and steerable projectiles through the Control Beam. Equipping her with those skills or dressing her in the Vi-O-La Suit would bring the bounty hunter up to date without gutting her zoning identity.
Then there is Yoshi. In Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, the dinosaur borrows powers from creatures in puzzle-platformer stages. Translating that into Smash could mean throwing dart-like Peckadees or scattering status-inflicting Scatterpuff spores, breathing variety into a fighter whose kit has barely shifted over several console cycles.
Beyond retooling old fighters, newer Switch 2 titles make compelling cases for debut contenders. Splatoon Raiders introduced The Mechanic, whose toolkit goes well beyond standard ink guns. Equipping the fighter with the Splatchet, Bombloons, and the Booyarang — while letting players swap ink tanks mid-match to cycle gadgets, would offer a rhythm unlike any Inkling currently in the game.
Smaller releases and long-running spinoffs also present options. The commercial weight of Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream makes a case for replacing aging Mii Fighters with customizable Tomodachis. Rhythm Heaven Groove offers an overdue route for Karate Joe to join as a flat 2D brawler whose attacks gain power when timed to the arena beat. Even spinoffs like Pokémon Pokopia highlight how broad the modern library has become.
Nintendo hasn't announced a new Super Smash Bros project yet. But as the Switch 2 catalog stacks up, the roster practically designs itself.
GDFiled by The Games Desk
Consoles, handhelds, PC gaming and the platforms and hardware behind them.
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