Cutting Half the Smash Roster OBJECTIVELY Correctly 

“I don’t think anyone is capable of doing this incorrectly” Cuts Mario

“I’m only cutting entire franchises as a last resort.” *immediately cuts Ice Climbers with no hesitation*

Videos like this are why I'm convinced Smash Bros will never cut half of Ultimates roster. I could totally see 25 cuts max but everything else would be too severe.

”The characters responsible for the series most pivotal reveals haven't gone anywhere” King K. Rool: *sad croc noises*

The fact that Jigglypuff's Classic Mode was about the Original 12 speaks volumes about her impact in Smash over her own franchise.

BRO SEEING META KNIGTH BEING CUT WAS PAINFUL (i prey for the kirby trio to never leaves)

There’s no such thing as the perfect cut, the moment you cut just one single character, you’ve cut someone’s main. No matter what you do, there will always be more disappointment then those happy.

Pokémon got robbed here. “I’m not bias” nah you don’t dump charizard and then dump mewtwo as soon as you have 7 echo fighters in your lap.

"The OG's are immune" Thank frickin god, if Fox actually didn't appear again it would have been the last straw after the lack of starfox in the switch era.

Keeping only gen 1 pokemon is most definitely not an authentic representation of the franchise. Pokemon has grown so much since gen 1 and keeping only characters from the first game(s) is ridiculous.

16:04 Lists mostly gunner costumes *Proceeds to pick brawler*

I surprisingly agree with everything but the Meta Knight cut. So iconic for his brawl status. He was so broken he was unofficially banned in every friend group I had 😂

When you fight for your friends but no one fights for you

Gnw cannot be cut, he’s been in every game since melee and nearly his entire identity came from smash, it’s basically his home at this point

Brawl gave Metaknight a legacy in Smash. Too iconic to cut

Bro didn't even explain why Roy's gotta go, bro just said "aight get out". 😭

SEEING SEPHIROTH GET CUT FELT LIKE I WAS STABBED BY HIM

Losing Meta Knight was a major hit to me, but Mac was like loosing a limb

I'm sorry, but cutting G&W and Mewtwo before cutting Bayo is instant-admission-to-psych-ward level bonkers

The pain in my chest I felt while watching this was immeasurable. Meta knight? META KNIGHT? Ive always believed that kirby needs MORE reps, but seeing him getting cut left a scar.

the biggest problem with these videos isnt how correct or incorrect they are, is that there is no way they are cutting that many so every attempt is clearly wrong.

The thing is, I think it's more important that we focus more on the nintendo side of the roster than what people think about. I understand that guest characters are important and are what drive the hype for every new smash game, bur whenever someone makes one of these cut videos they always want to try to keep the biggest names like cloud, joker, or sora. I know their important for gaming as a whole and representing any franchise in smash is a big deal but I strongly believe keeping a lot these characters as one time inclusions would leave a better legacy for them, and would keep the roster feel fresh for any other potential inclusions for the next smash game.

Main obvious thing I would do is cutting more third parties and not seeing the original 12 as sacred, but I respect your perspective. When you cut literally every pokemon beyond Jigglypuff, it just boils down to Jigglypuff vs Mewtwo anyway.

“You can’t do this wrong” gives 2 characters from the first generation of the most successful fictional franchise ever, but keeps fucking minmin

as a young link main, understandable.

keeping min min (in baby mode) and cutting sephiroth is wild

Sephiroth be like: You can't get rid of me if Cloud stays. I ALWAYS come back you insignificant being.

Bro saying that only top franchises keep 3 or more reps after cutting mewtwo feels wrong

This felt like watching that one World of Light trailer where everyone get picked off one by one all over again. Really solid choices though, but personally I'd cut Ridley over Little Mac just because I've never liked how weirdly tiny Ridley is. This video must have been very painful to make, I salute you sir

If I have one really big critique with your list,I personally feel you kept too many 3rd Party characters. yeah yeah I know Smash is considered this big celebration of gaming and what not, but at the end of the day it's still a Nintendo crossover game featuring guets. And no matter what, all the 1st and even 2nd Party characters should get priority. I don't mean to say that you can't have any at all, but I do feel like a majority need to be booted. With that said, fun thought experiment.

I respect the people who has the balls to actually call the cut they created objective and put rules to make it so.

Nintendo will cut most of the 3rd partys.

I was ALMOST about to admit this is the best "cut the roster in half" video, until you cut Pokemon Trainer. And then Diddy Kong. And then R.O.B. And then it just went downhill from there.

Ike is the most popular Fire Emblem character BY FAR, and he's treated as a huge deal in modern FE games like Awakening, Heroes, and Engage. Greninja and Lucario got 1st and 2nd place in a recent official pokemon popularity poll. The former had also won another official poll prior and his home region, Kalos, is getting a new game next year, and the latter is pretty much a secondary mascot for the series and will get shoved into just about anywhere GF/TPC can put him in. Another heavily popular character in her home series is Rosalina, and Mario can definitely afford 5 veterans in the next game even if it suffers heavy roster cuts. Finally as a more personal opinion, I would like the next smash game to focus more on Nintendo characters again. Yes the guest characters are cool and hype but I feel that most are fine as a one time special event. I would keep no more than 7 of them for the next game, and we'll probably get more 3rd party newcomers anyways. Still, always fun to see people's takes on what the next smash roster could look like :)

Lucas has already lost enough.

“We gotta leave the triforce trio” Proceeds to leave the only link who canonically does not carry the triforce

fun thought exorcies although i do find it funny how many youtubers attempt to cut the roster to pre brawl sized proportions which would probally kill most interest in the series

look… this isn’t BAD. but… man, it hurt like hell.

It’s crazy how we cut Lucina just to put Lucina back in and cut Byleth.

How does someone not call Ike iconic, I thought he was the most iconic, most recognizable Fire Emblem character at this point

if they HAD to cut characters for a reboot for whatever reason, this is good. however i do think that a new smash bros would *try* keep the characters nintendo own themselves at the very least, and just ditching the crossover characters. (we would get new ones of course)

Watching you cut fighters was the most stressful thing I've watched in awhile lol.

Kinda hypocrite to say the Kirby trio together is too iconic to take anyone away, and just smack Diddy Kong away. Also, Sephiroth and Cloud are in my opinion, redundant with Sora around. One "Classic Arcade fighting game" representative would be enough for me as well, keep Ryu and get rid of Kazuya, Terry and Ken

They should cut all of the characters besides the Miis

Cutting Sephi over Min Min is actually mental 💀

The next game is Super Smash Brother. Mario is the only fighter.

I loved this until the very end when I looked at the final roaster and realized almost half of it is characters people universally dislike fighting against

Cutting Mewtwo whilst keeping Simon/Richter, Mii Brawler, Pit/dark Pit, is objectively incorrect

I'd sooner cut Joker and Terry then any Nintendo reps.

My biggest pet peeve is when people portray their personal opinion as a Objective fact

I heavily disagree with cutting Meta Knight. It had a massive smash legacy with how broken it was in Brawl. So many tournaments banned him

- Lucario has also had perfect attendance in Pokémon since Gen 4 & his popularity rivals that of the Gen 1 'Mons, with Greninja being the #1 Pokémon period. Your Pokémon picks in general are too Gen 1-heavy. - Animal Crossing is big enough for both Villager & Isabelle to stay, and the latter is WAY too popular with the masses. - Pyra/Mythra represents the best-selling entry of Xenoblade. - In terms of coming down to the wire, wouldn't cutting Robin & having Lucina rep Awakening make more sense? And yeah, I agree that they aren't cutting the roster in half. 50 characters (counting newcomers) is the absolute floor in my eyes, especially with Studio S seemingly developing Smash again alongside Sakurai for Smash 6 based on some job listings.

If Greninja is cut that’s objectively wrong. Will update once I finish the vid

Cutting 41 characters is insane. I understand cutting characters that have identical movesets within the same franchise. But the fact that you said "robin is safe" and then at the end go "robin is probably the most replaceable" is wild.

It's kinda interesting that you cut characters that were made more iconic by Smash over like... Min Min, Joker, Simon/Richter, or Terry.

YOU CAN'T CUT R.O.B! He's _iconic!_ Smash Bros. is one of the only reasons people even know he exists, and he was _very_ important for Nintendo's history. If not for R.O.B. Nintendo would have had a lot more struggle getting a foothold in the western gaming market. If Smash Bros. is about representing video game history, then R.O.B. has to stay, even if just for the novelty of it. I would say he's up there with Captain Falcon and Ness for being iconic characters remembered through Smash Bros. more than their games of origin.

Realistically I feel like if they're cutting for the next game, they'd only cut 3rd party characters, but add other new 1st party characters

People keep talking about there being no way the next Smash game actually makes cuts as drastic as this popular thought experiment, but my big theory for the announcement trailer of the next Smash game is it being "Nobody is Here" that essentially recreates the "Everyone is Here" trailer playing in reverse and the base roster of the game explicitly excluding any character that has been playable before in the franchise (until maybe some free DLC a while after the game's launch to bring back the staples anyway), focusing on making trophy characters, alternate versions of character not tied to the established moveset legacy, and other such examples playable instead.

I'm 100% saying it, Puff and Yoshi are BLESSED by first twelve privellege in this list. You could make arguments for quite a few reps who got who could also be cut in favour of another one in smash, such as Ness and Lucas, but even he's now a (sort of) fan favourites and largely known because of smash, it wouldn't be the same without him, I feel even he's far less replaceable than Yosi and Jigglypuff. But seeing MEWTWO get cut before Puff, one of the most iconic Pokémon surpassed by the puff is wild. Pikachu, he's the icon of the franchise, he's almost as untouchable as Link or Mario.

whos gonna tell them they had a typo in "the pefect cut"

I'll give my opinion as quick as posible, we asume all chatacters keep their current playstyles. We go back to Melee's roster (we recombine shiek and Zelda), then we cut the clones(Pichu, Dr, ylink, falco) and Mewtwo. We then add Ike, Inkling, K. Rool, Dedede, Ridley(as a superheavy), Lucario and maybe Banjo. And then we have 5 slots for brand new chatacters. And finally, we re work ganondorf into something playable

Cutting shiek and greninja and not keeping one seems evil

I can see Joker and Bayo getting cut, for Joker once the p6 protag comes out they might wanna push him/her

I was surprised at how much I agreed with this list until the echo fighters came in. I was happy to let ALL of them go because your baby mode roster was actually super good representation wise

I refuse to believe you cut Robin and Meta Knight BEFORE Min-Min

my only critique of this roster is that it’s gone from nintendo featuring other franchises to an almost equal representation of both. truly only the most iconic characters made the cut which i feel kinda goes against the premise of smash utilizing a wide roster of nintendo characters.

Cutting Diddy Kong and Sephiroth with no hesitation is criminal

I have an assumption that Echo Fighters actually do matter when it comes to cutting characters. They still take work to put in the game and had to be negotiated for. But since they were later inclusions, I expect they're a low priority for the team. If anything you'd cut the Echo Fighters first and not replace them, but they could either come back as their own unique Fighter or they continue to be clones if there’s time to include them. Still, I like your presentation and thought process. It's just impossible to judge which characters to cut until we hear anything about a new game.

Sure rosalina (my fav) got cut but atleast you are right when you say best princess, WHICH SHE IS!

It's sad that people want a Smash game so bad, that they're willing to build hype around cutting half the roster. You know what? There's too many RU-vid content creators to watch in any given week. Let's start deleting multiple channels, starting with people we don't like, followed by people we never heard of!

Protendo: I generally disagree with decisions that amount to: "Cut every Fire Emblem character except for Marth." also Protendo: *cuts every Fire Emblem character except for Marth (and Lucina) anyway*

I can clearly tell that you are unfamiliar with Pokemon, as you break rule 2 with it. You kept Pikachu, Jigglypuff, and Mewtwo while cutting Pichu, PT, Lucario, Greninja, and Incineroar. You kept 3 Gen 1 pokemon and nothing else. Mewtwo is cool and all, but he was cut before (twice if you wanna count Smash 4's base roster), so he isn't necessary for Smash's identity. As for who would replace him, it is down to Lucario and Greninja due to their popularity. Given that you cut the only other Ninja on the roster in Shiek, that is who I am leaning to.

Keeping Min Min and taking away Sephiroth just feels criminal. No way you actually believe that keeping Arms Franchise representation is better than keeping a second FF Franchise representative in the game, when I would argue there are and will always be way more FF fans than Arms. Additionally we know FF is here to stay, its been around for decades and has many reiterations loved worldwide, people grew up with the game and even to today they are still releasing FF7 remastered versions like Rebirth. Whereas Arms has 1 reiteration, only got a lukewarm reception and then quickly fell out, plus min min as a character itself is cheeks and there are more people that hate her character design than there are those who love her/main her. Sephiroth on the other hand as a character alone is hype, has the cool factor and is loved by many because of the story and lore behind him, now I've never seen people out there liking Min Min because of her story or lore. That's why I think your criteria is flawed, keeping characters based off franchise representation alone is not a good way to go about it, popularity as a character alone should be a variable that trumps any other argument. Just think about how many people grew up knowing Sephiroth as a character versus min min... That alone gives you the answer, Min Min gets scrapped because she is unpopular and Sephiroth stays because he is extremely popular. End of argument!

I jumped up from my seat and clapped my hands when Robin got cut.

“Ridley is almost one of the largest icons in the smash bros bubble” Almost… too large for smash?

Any list that by default says the original 12 should stay is automatically no where near being as close to objectively accurate, solely because it justifies Jigglypuff staying, who I would consider to be the least deserving (none clone/echo) fighter to stay in the game. Lucas I'd also argue deserves to be sole Earthbound rep more than Ness does but that I at least can see a good opposite argument being made.

I don’t understand if your counting the Pokémon trainer as 3 characters (wich is wrong because they take up one slot) then can’t you just choose one of them to keep?

Combining echo fighters into existing characters as high tier (unlockable) skins would allow all echoe fighters to be technically cut while keeping them on the roster.

Worst cut is meta knight

Great video. I just have one question. You mentioned needing to cut 7 more after putting the echoes back, but Chrom was cut regardless because of Roy already being cut, yet 7 unique characters were cut instead of 6. Why was that?

from my understanding those pokemon poll results that got greninja as "the most popular" are dubious. voting was segmented by regions and everyone was allowed to vote for a pokemon from each region. Kalos aka greninjas regions is well known for having by far the least amount of pokemon in it. So he was in significantly less competition for a vote than his other top tiers

Dedede smoking the fat metaknight pack

my guy you listed FOUR mii gunner (sans cuphead doom guy geno) outfits as an example of why a mii should stay, then cut gunner?

Ice Climbers are so unique. And Sheik is an iconic Smash character

18:04 I actually think Steve is way more of a can’t go back character, more than 1/10 people *IN THE WORLD* bought minecraft and that in smash?

On the topic of FE characters: each console is represented in the roster by the main fighters since all but the Wii U had a fire emblem game on it. Marth is here for the NES, SNES, and DS, Roy is here for the GBA games, Ike is here for the Gamecube, Robin is here for the 3DS, and Byleth is here for the Switch. By this logic, if the next console comes out and we get a new Fire Emblem and Smash game around the same time, we may get a new fighter to replace Corrin from Fire Emblem 18 in the roster since Corrin’s console is already represented by Robin.

First roster cut to half video that I perfectly agree with, well done! It's always refreshing to see someone that ACTUALLY takes into account just how much Smash loses as a crossover game by cutting even a SINGLE franchise from it, I've seen far too many people say things like "easy cut Steve he's so broken!" That it infuriates me. Entire stages, items, music and spirits get cut when you get rid of a franchise, it really isn't that easy. That said, after "baby mode" I do think there were a few weird priorities like choosing to cut G&W and Little Mac while keeping Ridley and DeDeDe, or cutting the pokémon roster down to two, but other than that it was great!

All three mii fighters should at least stay, considering they represent the archetypes of characters in the game. Although they should turn gunner into a mage.

I agree that you need more than one or two FE characters to represent FE properly, but my bigger problem with FE representation isn't the quantity, it's how bad a job Smash does in showcasing that franchise's identity. ...The problem is Smash isn't currently doing a good job of it with 8 characters. Robin (to showcase weapon degradation and magic), a sword user (Marth, sure), an axe user, and a spear user to represent the weapon triangle is I think the ideal way of showcasing Fire Emblem (So... Cut 6 of the current FE roster - Maybe 5, Byleth at least has moves for all sides of the triangle, and then add two new Fire Emblem characters for the other two corners of the weapon triangle) Your pokemon cuts have three issues - You made it Gen 1 only (bad for franchise rep), you dropped the character(s) who actually represent how Pokemon plays (bad for franchise rep), and Incineroar is Smash's only grapple focused character, giving him a playstyle that's otherwise missing among Smash's roster (bad for the roster variety) Alucard would be the better _Castlevania_ rep, signifying the transition from largely linear platforming games to lending it's name to half of the Metroidvania genre name, and might have allowed a more diverse moveset. Simon is the better _Castlevania as it pertains to Nintendo_ rep since his games were NES and SNES, and Alucard's game was PS1.

Removing all the non-gen 1 Pokémon reps definitely feels very wrong. Like I’d probably keep at least one.

I did the same thing, but brought it down to 28 fighters (including removing echoes). The vision was to create a cast with the aim of bringing more new faces than old ones, which was really fun, but similarly difficult. I salute you, brutherr

We better get Freddy Fazbear as compensation if this is the roster.

_I would fight for Dr. Mario..._ In fact, I think there's NO REASON to cut him from the roster at all, for the simple fact that _he's a clone fighter._ He's easy as heck to implement because 90% of everything is reused from Mario. He's my favorite character (yeah laugh it up) and he wouldn't realistically be stealing anyone's spot on the roster. Echo Fighters and clones are basically extras. Sure they could _technically_ just make him an alt costume, but then he would lose what makes him actually fun to play as. I don't care if he's considered one of the worst characters, he feels so satisfying to play as imo (aside from his lackluster recovery). He feels like a heavier version of Mario, and he hits _hard,_ which is why I like him. If the next Smash Bros. had more customizability for stats and hitboxes, and gave every character custom moves like the Mii Fighters (like a better/more-original version of what they did in Smash 4) then I would be okay with it (so long as Mario has a Dr. Mario alt costume and custom moves to match).

ROB deserves to stay. He literally SAVED the video game industry, ya don't just cut him. No, I'm not biased, and no, I do not have an authentic Japanese ROB on my shelf making me say this...

Not cutting echo fighters from the get go is actually so dumb, unless they rework them they are just a waste of space in the roster, all of the franchises could’ve been kept

I would’ve cut Terry and Kazuya, they’re cool don’t get me wrong, but not super needed when Ryu already represents fighting games pretty well Also to me, the Miis are a package deal, get rid of one or two of them, might as well get rid of all of them

Pokemon is a weird one because it's representation is... odd. There's four gen 1 pokemon, two gen 2, one gen 4, one gen 6 and one gen 7. Odd choices all around. It's missing gen 3 randomly and its gen 2 pick is just bad. So when dealing with pokemon, there's 3 choices. 1-Smash Reps: Smash reps are weird, since it means Pikachu, Jigglypuff and Mewtwo are the picks, as shown in this video. This doesn't actually represent the games all that well, having only gen 1 pokemon and including JIgglypuff. I get people say 'original 12' but original 12 feels super strange to me when the roster gets cut this much. Like, Jigglypuff doesn't even really have the captain falcon legacy, and I'd argue Falco is more well known as a smash character than Puff. Puff is literally carried by Hungrybox as a smash character. Keeping Jigglypuff has very little merits outside 'original 12', so comes down to how you feel about that argument. I'm not super into it. Mewtwo is a more solid choice, where melee fans were able to get the whole world into such a frenzy over the (at the time) nobody Lucario taking over him that he got added as smash 4 dlc. He's not really a relevant pokemon pick if you're looking at just 3, but he's for sure the best smash pick. 2-Pokemon Games reps: When it comes to actually repping the games, the two obvious picks are Pikachu and pokemon trainer. Even if pokemon trainer is cut to just charizard, I'd argue he's more important than either Mewtwo or Jigglypuff. Pokemon trainer is a super important rep as it's YOU, is the only fighter that actually represents what Pokemon actually is. If this was about time, sure but if it's just the best of what we have, Pokemon trainer feels like a must for me. This leaves the third rep for Greninja or Lucario, both of which are incredibly popular NON-GEN 1 Pokemon, which the game would have to include. Both are used as often as popular and both are normally pioneers for the series. lucario was basically Ash's ace in the last anime season despite being from 4 gens prior. Greninja got his own form. If we could only have 3, I'd honestly assume it would just be a new pokemon (Tinkaton currently but who knows), but ignoring looking to the future my money is on Lucario simply because dude is everywhere. Pokken put him on the box art, pokemon unite has him as a base roster and he basically repped mega evolution in a gen where Charizard and Mewtwo got 2. 3-Popularity: Whoever is most popular. This again comes down to the same 4 after Pikachu, since it depends on who you personally think is more popular. Greninja got first on a poll released during his height of relevancy in the anime and games, so who knows if that's still the case. Charizard is every genwunners wet dream, which might be enough to be considered for smash since smash fans and pokemon fans aren't one to one. Lucario won't die, and will be the face of pokemon outside gen 1 for who knows how long. Mewtwo is the face of legendaries and what they represent. I think all smash rosters have to acknowledge one of these three tennants when making the pokemon roster, or else they fall into the smash community trap of thinking Lucario is obscure furry bait, Greninja is the 'most popular pokemon' and Mewtwo and Jigglypuff are gods that everyone universally needs to be in the next game because we have proof that people would be upset. ... Oh and also Lucina over Marth YEAH I SAID IT

Honestly to god seeing Sephiroth get cut felt like getting stabbed by him

I'm seeing some complain about some of the cuts you made, and they're pretty much proving your point on how difficult "perfectly cutting the roster" is. I was a bit surprised at some of these cuts as well, but with the purpose of this video, and how more painful the cuts became after going out of baby mode, they make sense. This might not even be what happens with a cut roster like you said

I'd argue that keeping sheik is actually a better choice than keeping ganon because ganon is essentially an echo of falcon, and even if he's gotten more of his own identity over the years and realistically will never be cut cuz he's ganondorf, solely from a gameplay perspective I'd rather have a completely original character in sheik over ganondorf. Or they could make zelda and sheik the same character with down b again