How well represented is Pokémon in Smash? 

For anyone wondering, it's definitely worth watching the bonus spirit video in the description.

Its worth mentioning that despite the pantheon of ledgends that are possible summons, seeing them in most rulesets is much more rare than seeing ordinary pokemon. Its more rare for them to come out of a pokeball, and while its gaurenteed from a masterball, masterballs spawn a quite a bit more rarely than pokeballs do.

i'd love if they added Iris for a gen 5 rep she'd be a rep for gen 5, a gym leader, a champion, dragon types, and both an axew and a dragonite

Not going to exaggerate and say "when the world needed him most he returned" but I appreciate that you're back, at least for now. I hope everything is going well in your life at the moment.

This is a good video but conversely I do have a problem with how Smash prioritizes the anime over the game's canon. In a crossover that supposedly that only wants game content, Mewtwo and Lucario are outright their anime counterparts, Red's trophy has little to do with him and served as another excuse to reference the anime and Ash, Misty's trophy is of her anime counterpart, etc. The game's canon is awesome and it deserves the same amount of love the anime gets, heck more than that IMO.

I don't necessarily think that adding more Trainer characters has to mean that they're either a sequel to Pokémon Trainer's 3-switchable fighters design or that they need to fight directly like a Pokémon Ranger might. I think the Pokémon Masters approach of having a trainer with one Pokémon with a moveset designed around their trainers' personality and role in the series could be a very engaging approach to implementing more human characters. For example, if you wanted a Pokémon villain to make the roster, let's use Giovanni as an example, you could analyze that character's role in their series and individual game, and determine what Pokémon fighter would best represent what makes that villain so interesting. My personal concept for Giovanni's moveset was to give him Rhyperior as his primary Pokémon, as the level of intimidation and power the Pokémon exudes matches his status as a mafia boss very well, as well as the fact that its bulky frame and potential for super-armor as a core part of its kit thanks to its protective plating makes it likely that Giovanni would use it as a bodyguard of sorts, rather than a partner, helping to portray Giovanni's contrasting philosophy with Red/Leaf about the relationship that Pokémon and people should have. Whereas Pokémon Trainer encourages their Pokémon to not give up and supports them when they win, Giovanni uses Rhyperior as a tool for its personal gain, causing a high degree of callousness and sadism in Rhyperior's behavior in its animations. Whereas Red/Leaf give their Pokémon a moment to rest through sending out the next one whenever their previous stock was taken, Giovanni sends Rhyperior back out immediately after a KO to make up for its failings. Whenever Giovanni wins, the credit Rhyperior is given for the win is minimal at best, barely appearing in the victory animations at all. The key is to analyze what the trainer's relationship with the Pokémon would be, how the trainer's personality would affect the Pokémon's, and how to showcase that through gameplay and aesthetics. As for portraying villains as a concept in Pokémon rather than just the individual, the hook that defines Giovanni's Rhyperior from adding any other Rhyperior could be a Down B wherein Giovanni summons a Team Rocket grunt, who then sends out a weak, unevolved Pokemon to act as an easily conquerable assist to the player, mostly serving as a distraction to the opponent to either open them up to an attack, or to gradually wear them down as they struggle to approach. This can help showcase Giovanni's callousness as an individual while also giving the feeling of having to wade through grunt after grunt as you storm the evil team's base, before ultimately managing to confront the evil leader themselves, and having to manage your Pokémon wisely so that you're in good shape when you finally approach them. There's a lot more potential in the inclusion of trainers in Smash than what's been established thus far, as well as what people give them credit for, and this Masters-style implementation is far from limited to what I've relayed here. I honestly think it's a shame no other attempt beyond Pokémon Trainer has been made to try implementing more core aspects from the Pokémon series, especially when there's such potential functional intrigue in doing so. Fleeting mechanics like Mega Evolution and Z Moves have been implemented through Final Smashes, and Mewtwo is a good selection to show how Legendary Pokémon function, albeit with a somewhat flawed execution moveset-wise, but there's little beyond that, and it tends to make the portrayal of this franchise feel somewhat hollow and surface level to me.

Another thing about Charizard Is that he has appeared in every smash game in someway just like Ridley and King Dedede.

I've always thought Gen 3 was criminally underrepresented. Doesn't really have much at all.

Great video! As a huge pokemon nerd I appreciated your obscure references. For me the most EGREGIOUS thing is definitely the fact that not all fighters has shiny forms?? Like, they have the whole color swap thing for costumes and there is an extremely popular game mechanic in pokemon that is literally just a color swap, and they don’t include it??????

THANK YOU FOR TALKING ABOUT THE LACK OF TRAINER REPS. I really wish we could’ve had some champions and even important story characters like Lillie as spirits. I also thought about having Lusamine as a boss, with you fighting her fused with the Nihilego. Some people were upset that they couldn’t straight up fight her as a half-Pokémon, so I feel fighting that form head on would be great consolation.

The transition edit you did at 2:27 is absolutely incredible! Anyways, as a Pokken player (was pleasantly surprised to see you bring it up!) I've always thought it's roster and broader representation of the series was really good, and have been sort of confused why so many Pokemon fans don't seem to think so: Looking just at the roster, you have almost every type represented (sans normal and rock); a wide variety of body types (including the expected bipeds, dragonic/monsterish ones, "chibi" ones, quadrapeds, objectmons, etc,); every generation as of when Pokken DX came out, and most notably, a wide range of Pokemon at different levels of popularity: You have the obligatory marketing mascots (Pika, Zard, Lucario, Mewtwo), some really popular ones (Garchomp, Blaziken, Gardevoir, etc) more niche favorites (Weavile, Scizor, Machamp, etc) some total left field choices (Chandelure, Aegislash, etc) some of the most popular non Kaiju sized legendries (Suicuine and Darkrai), Braixen for fans of the anime and... another demographic, and even representation for key fighting game archtypes: Lucario is a Shoto, Shadowtwo is a superpowered dark boss form, Croagunk is your joke character, Sceptile is your ninja character with a subsitute counter and an izuna drop, etc. Even the movesets and stages in Pokken have a lot of interesting references: Moves tend to have their actual effects represented, like how Chandelure's Hex move does more damage the more debuffs the enemy has, or how Mewtwo's Hyper beam has a huge amount of recovery (or endlag, in smash terms) frames with him momentarily collapsing, mirroring it's effects in the actual games. Gardevoir's super attack has her creating a black hole, as a reference to one of her dex entries, etc. There's even anime references! Lucario's bone rush move in Pokken is based on the anime depiction of it, likewise Charizard's siesmic toss is as well! And of course, Pokken also has it's own human characters, too, even if I don't think any of them are really that memorable aside from maybe Nia due to overexposure as the commenter on menus and in the UI? You're a Smash channel, of course (though I'd love to see you branch out, you clearly have a love for Halo as seen in your first video and I don't think there's enough analytical content about the series outside of dedicated Halo channels, for example) but if you do ever wanna cover Pokken, tons of us in our competitive scene and community would be willing to help! I did some community organization and planning and actually do regularly work with channels on videos (albeit mostly on mesoamerican history and archeology rather then Pokken!) I'm Majora__Z on tiwttr

I think Pokemon Trainer is a gen 3 rep. Firered + Leafgreen came out while Brawl was in development, and the female trainer wasn't even in the gen 1 games.

I feel like a much easier justification for gen rep to bias early is "The generations build on each other, gen 1 mons didn't just show up gen 1 and then never again after."

Thanks for the video. I wish they made Gardevoir as an echo of Zelda. That would be a good way to give Gen III SOM representation. Also, it's so weird that out of all the Brawl bosses they picked Galleon as the one to return in this game. Considering the fact that Brawl Rayquaza is literally in Ultimate already, it's really strange that they didn't made him a boss again. I wish they had an extra pair of bosses in World of Light, being him and Kraid, who's already in Brinstar Dephts.

I think another note for gen 1 representation is that when Smash 64 was released, only gen 1 existed at that time. I don't mind a swath of old-school Pokemon content like Saffron City, but I think new Smash content should have a balanced rep of every gen - maybe a tad biased towards the newest one at the time.

am I the only one who thinks Ultra Necrozma would have been a great final boss for Incineroar's classic mode?

It's a shame Incineroar didn't come with a stage, I was really expecting a stage that went through Ultra Space.

It is weird the crustle is the only rock and only bug type in Pokémon Unite.

I actually have what I think is a cool idea for more Pokémon representation in Smash when you play as any Pokémon character in the game and perform a down taunt 10 times a Pokémon professor from the same generation the Pokémon who summoned them came from will show up at the bottom of the screen and give a Pokédex entry explanation for each character in the game. For example if you use Incineroar's down taunt 10 times and he's fighting Mario Professor Kukui will show up and give you a Pokédex entry describing Mario.

Say what you want about Unite, I'll probably agree. But I think it's doing the best job at representing average Pokemon in any spin-off. Sure alot of it's characters are "Special" but then there's Random Pokemon like Mr. Mime, Cramorant, Crustle, Tsareena, Duralodon, Azumarill. These aren't special, they aren't fan favourites, game freak probably doesn't care that much. But they're still here, because at the end of the day every Pokemon has fans and is in some way important to this series.

Pokémon representation in Smash really is a subjective take, all things considered. While things like Gen I's representation in Smash could be argued as justified because it's 'where the series began' and it's the most recognisable, it's also by far the most overdone and, even from a character design point of view, the most 'basic' selections of monsters, in a series that's nearing Jojo levels of ridiculous abilities Also, bit of a fun fact, Red, Leaf and the Rocket Grunts aren't the only Human characters from the main series referenced in Ultimate, in a very 'blink and you'll miss it' type thing, Diantha can be spotted on one of the TV screens on Prism Tower

I still wish they'd made Ditto a playable character (where you just mirror-match whatever the enemy picks but with the chewing gum material)

For gen 3 I personally wanted sceptile which would have made since in smash 4 since oras came out at the same time. Gen 5 character should be zoroark ( I think he could have a really cool moveset) and for gen 8 it would probably be any of the starters.

“Or ghost type if we assume greninja turns ghost type after using shadow sneak, But we know that greninja has battle bond” Me: likes the video

There is a playable dragon type. Charizard’s final smash in 4 is Mega Charizard X

Clearly, the reason rock gets shafted is because it's the biggest weakness of Everyone's Favorite Pokemon: Charizard, and that's why Nintendo hates it.

Was well worth the wait for your syle of comedic analysis, and looking forward to your concept's and variety to come.

i love the moveset idea videos. good to have u back dude!

I greatly appreciate you playing Jiggly Punk from Masters while talking about Jigglypuff, nice touch

This answers all the questions I didn't ask. Great video!

Great video! This was a fun experience to watch! While I do agree that the Pokémon representation in Smash is pretty dang good, I also agree that they could’ve done a lot more with it. …The Rock-type thing really is baffling. (Also, each S and Z sound in this video sawed off a chunk of my hearing)

I just wish they had more music from the Pokémon side games, like from Mystery Dungeon especially

If we're talking about underrepped franchises, Yoshi outsells Starfox, Metroid, Earthbound and Fire Emblem, but alas _one fighter_

That was a good video, I'll check out your other content later. Subscribed

It is a shame that gen 3 and 5 are disregarded in these games since they are fan favorites, for me the lack of gen 5 specially hurts since it is my favorite

As a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon fan, I don’t necessarily need Grovyle as a fighter(though I certainly wouldn’t object either); just remixing and including some of the music would be delightful. On an unrelated note, I’m rather surprised there isn’t a grab based on a Pokeball in the game yet; even the wiggling animation of the opponent mashing is canonically accurate.

Good stuff. Very informative.

Hitmonchan/hitmonlee/hitmontop pokemon trainer swapping ability would've been amazing. Hitmonchan would be a little mac clone then a speedy kicker and hitmontop an excellent counter and reflector. Alternatively sawk and throh.

Put a giant smile on my face seeing another upload from ya, your humor always results in a good time! I really want Team Rocket in the game. I understand and agree with the conclusion that Pokemon focuses on the monsters to contrast the humanoid casts of the other Smash series, but at the same time Jessie, James and Meowth are more popular and iconic than most of those series overall! It baffles me that such strong character designs haven't been taken advantage of in Smash yet

Good to see you back.

Missed Potential Spirits Champions - Yes, all of them. Lance, Steven, Cynthia, Leon, the whole shebang. These are the strongest trainers in their respective regions. Gym Leaders - Not all, but surely some of the bigger names. Brock, Misty, Whitney, Clair, Norman, Iris, Clemont, Korrina, all who have some greater importance or popularity that goes beyond them being a boss fight. Rivals - Blue, Silver, Wally, N, Gladion, Marnie Villains - Giovanni, Cyrus, Ghetsis, Lysandre, Guzma, Lusamine Side characters - Oak, Bill, Lisia, Ingo & Emmet, Emma, Lillie Spinoffs - Todd Snap, Rangers, Wes & Rui, Tim Goodman

Decidueye’s expression on the thumbnail just says it all for me

I think somewhere, Kirby has been confirmed to indeed have bones

Not even 30 seconds in, and I already know I'll like this video because it was made by a fellow Ice Climbers enjoyer.

I REALLY appreciated your nerdy pedantry because I make the same point about Greninja all the time lol

Someone definitely watched Everything Everywhere all at Once

About time we see you again

Wow, I had no idea how incredibly lacking Rock-type representation is! That's pretty interesting

Still bitter that Sakurai picked Incineroar over Decidueye. Grass starter rep to balance out the roster plus Spirit Shackle would have been a fun move to see with a trap or slowing mechanic. I’d also love to see his base attack using razor leaves, leafage to attack at a distance

Yup it's totally April. But for real tho glad ur back even tho I wasn't here when you dissapeared

Really, the only problem with the Pokémon rep is the over saturation of Gen 1. Sure, it's the most iconic generation and the start of the series, but does it really justify having 6 reps while every other generation only has 1. It's like how Fire Awakening has 3 reps while every other Fire Emblem game only has 1.

I still would love Sceptile,Lycanroc(Rock Wolf’s now a Champion in Alola anime) & Zoroark. I agree Mario Kart,Mario Sports,& Mario party got songs & pngs but Colosseum,XD,Mystery dungeons,Conquest,Pokken,Rumble & Ranger got shafted was weird

Great video. Glad to have you back! Also, while I respect that you're holding the Tetris video back, I can’t say I understand why. The world and powers that be engage in very upsetting things that negatively impact said world's denizens, but it's not like the existence of a certain significant aggressor nullifies its history and place in the world, you know? I guess what I’m saying is. War exists. Russia exists. Why on earth should we feel in anyway obligated to abstain from remaking Advance Wars or celebrating Tetris due to the uncorrelated fact that War and Russia are currently existing at the same time in this moment in time? Don't feel obligated to answer lol. As I say, I respect your desire to be discreet. Just something I felt like getting off my chest for whatever reason :P

Man, i just want grovyle/sceptile in Gen 3 got shafted imo

Shadow Mewtwo could have its own Moveset.

Gen III - 0 Fighters - 0 Stages - 2 Songs - 5 Pokéball Pokémon Why did they do this to my favorite gen🥲

This was a really great and interesting video, it’s surprising the lack of Rock types but damn this is pretty good representation I think the bias towards Gen 1/Kanto is likely because of Nintendo/Pokémon Co. and less to do with Sakurai and the Smash team It’s not Smash’s fault that TPC loves Kanto

Me: gets recommended this guy Me: who the heck is he? Him: i will be talking about Pokemon this whole month Me: AAAAAND YOU HAVE MY ATTENTION

Of Rock types from gets not included in the line-up aggron, crustle, and maybe cleavor would be interesting to see as playable fighters in some alternate universe where they're adding more pokemon fighters

It only seems like the first pokemon are so widespread because they have had more years for merchandise. The other Pokemon get plenty and will get more.

cynthia trainer with garchomp, spiritomb, milotic would be phenomneal

Ok so I have had a personal idea of one particular Gen 5 Pokémon making it in: Archeops. I need to see my goofy ahh bird lizard

Why is it that the two generations I have fond memories of aren't represented as fighters?

i'm gonna be thinking of "Thanks Aboma!" for a long time.

Ironically, Incineroar was kind of the PERFECT pick... Sakurai added him because he was biased and liked the design, but little did he know, Incineroar would become one of the most commonly used Pokemon in competitive play the following few games. His presence in the competitive Pokemon scene is insane.

Funny thing about Pikachu's Shiny alt is that it was added in Smash 64 Before Shinies were even a thing! Also additionally, I may be misremembering, but I'm pretty sure Jigglypuff was technically a Shiny until Smash 4.

If they include more pokemon and stages. I hope they'll reference more side games. As Mystery Dungeon, Snap, Unite, Pokemon Go and Pokepark, Card games. And I would love Jessie and James as Mii fighters. And it would be fun if one of the moves got changed so uou throw a Pokeball instead of a bowling ball(or what evs it is). I also hope they include a pokemon with a fun gimmick. And If I would choose a fighter. I would choose Eevee and its Eeveelution. It should work as Shulks Manado but it last longer. You can become any of the Eeveelutions and every Eeveelution has its own move set. Or just every Eeveelution is used in every special and none special move to represent all of them. And Smash move should be all Eeveelution standing beside Eevee and using the Eevee special Z move. That would be dope!

Pun for Part 6: "Where We Go Next"

If we get any more smash games, here are the Pokemon representation I nominate for Bug, Rock, Ghost and Dragon types (the most lacking types). 1. Golisopod. It's famously Guzma's ace so it has clout in that sense, but it's also VERY strong and loved, and would work very well as a heavy brawler, similar to Bowser. 2. Kleavor. Look, I know that's a wild suggest for multiple reasons, but consider this: What is one of the most common complaints about modern smash? Too. Many. Swords. So why not add the newest badass rock type with AXE HANDS? 3. Hisuian Typhlosion. Yet another hot take- But I think it would be massively unique and a very fun fast, medium-ranged Attacker. 4. Salamence. Gen 3 has little to no representation at all in Smash, an there are NO psuedo-legendaries. If there was, I think it should be one who would bring a completely unique body type to smash. Imagine crawling on all fours as a huge, 7-foot long dragon. Yeah, it'd be another slow brawler, but smash doesn't really have many of those at all.

The lack of humans is entirely my favorite part about Pokémon's representation in Smash. It's part of why Pokémon Mystery Dungeon stories are so great. If I wanted to see a human, I'd get up and walk to an adjacent room and see one of my two favorite humans. Also Pokéfloats is a localization thing, it's actually some weird Pokémon Subspace. That being said it's the best stage in the entire series.

Missed opportunity to have each Pokemon Trainer skin represent a different set of generations...

Almost 1000 beloved characters… and Alolamola. Alomomola: 😥😥😥😢😢😢😭😭😭😡😡😡😩😩😩

I was very surprised that none of the trainers were spirits in the game, especially Prof. Oak

Red: Yes Squirtle: could be PokeBall Ivysaur: nope, make it bulba Charizard: Fine, stop using it though gamefreak Pikachu: the mascot so obviously Pichu: reference only please Eevee: kinda wish was playable, with z crystal and dyna for final smash. Suicuine: I only reference because of Pokken Gen 3: needs a playable rep Mewtwo: see Charizard Lucario: finally completely appropriate Gen 5: Oshawott can be an echo of Squirtle Greninja: see Lucario Incineroar: see Lucario Gen 8: Cinderace maybe Jigglypuff: stays for comedy Music: Gen 1: no, stop Gen 2: not enough rep Gen 3: perfect Gen 4: Lucario has the best classic ending Gen 5: Gym leader, elite 4, and the original N theme please Gen 6: Lumiose was a good surprise Gen 7: missing Hau's champion theme Gen 8: needs rep and seeing as Megalovania is an official part of Nintendo history, battle tower theme. Also Lord Dialga or Palkia themes. Stage's : Gen 1: Stop hogging the series your the foundation Gen 2: Tin tower or Mt. Silver please Gen 3: *Ahem* ORAS sky tower Gen 4: you could add Cynthia's arena Gen 5: Honestly perfect Gen 6: I don't see any other location good enough Gen 7: Champion peak, or Necrozmas arena. Gen 8: Eternatus, Battle tower, and the sights of the crown tundra would be good. Arceus: spear pillar could be rebuilt as Dialga reverses time and become a 3 tier stage. Wow never thought I'd ever praise gen 8.

THE LEGEND IS BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

I dream of the day that Xurkitree gets added to Smash Bros, with all the same vibes as Piranha Plant, but I know it will never happen... 😔

i remember praying for the alola starter leak to be true because then i could pray for incineroar to be in smash (and getting the amiibo) . After that kind of luck i can't really complain (even if i wanted an Alola stage)

This is what Markpiler was asking for

11:44 you're right, mine is cinderace sometimes

Honestly if Deoxys was a playable fighter that would have been so cool. An example being able to switch between its multiple forms.

Doing stuff with the spin-offs is easily the thing I want to see Smash implement the most. I don't even need a character or stage (although that'd be nice), but like some music or a costume please? I remember when Ultimate was about to release, and the music list leaked. We didn't have any context of what the music was outside of it's name, so when "Sky Tower" leaked, I remember a lot of PMD fans going nuts thinking it was based on the final main story dungeon of the Rescue Team games. It ended up being based on Kirby's Sky Tower, which hurt. It's especially weird when you learn that the PMD composer worked on Smash Ultimate, and was even in charge of some pretty important songs for the game, like Galeem's boss theme. In fact, I'm pretty sure on Smash's website, they'll tell you what games certain composers are known for, and PMD gets directly referenced there. Surely it wouldn't be that hard to get one song in the game, right? It's baffling.

No Chesnaught :despair:

It's odd that Pokemon go isn't reped when FE hero's has at least 1music track

Its so funny how the only people that hate Incineroar are pokemon fans while everyone else loves him.

Gardevoir, Flygon, Sceptile are all good Pokémon I’d wouldn’t mind in smash but I do think that Flygon is unfortunately the least likely of the 3 due to sceptile being a starter and Gardevoir being basically one of the most beloved non starter Pokémon of all time

The entirely manmade stages thing has always been super weird to me. Like, I don't think of cities when I think of Pokemon, I think of routes and caves and oceans. But somehow Smash has never had a stage showcasing any of that. Even stranger is that there are so many manmade stages in Smash from other series' that you think they'd be eager for anything that could provide something different, and here's Pokemon with so much potential and... nothing. It's on par with how strange it is that Zelda doesn't have a stage in a dungeon. A route stage with tall grass and wild pokemon seems like such an obvious and fitting add. Please.

I’ll forever push that the Pokémon trainers too be stuff like spirits or maybe even assist trophies

The main thing that strikes me as odd is that while Mario has Sonic - none of Pokémon's three rivals have a representative. Which is even weirder cause Nintendo pushed Yokai Watch super hard, Bandai Namco own Digimon (one of Bandai's two big V-Pet franchises which they have been pushing harder and harder in recent years), and Joker was chosen over Jack Frost despite Jack being the franchise mascot for the more Nintendo associated part of that multiverse.

I always thought that pokemon like dragonite, genger, garchomp, gardevoir arent playable even though theyre more popular than most starters. Also a gen 3 pokemon would be the perfect opportunity to add a weirder mon to the roster, like flygon or breloom

for next smash game we need a wacky pokemon fighter something unexpected lets have a muk or a shuckle something random

Though not really saying much that I didn't know, this was an entertaining recap of content and its variety to watch, especially with your great editing and frankly hilarious humor. However, I'd like to throw my two cents, if we can even call it that ('cus I just know I'm gonna write a paragraph like I always do. '^^). - I think as far as types go, it makes sense to focus on the ones they do, even if the missing ones can have some pretty notable candidates (like Gengar and technically Decidueye for Ghost). Likewise for evolutionary state, though I can't help but feel that the small "mascot-like" unevolved forms still tend to get shafted postBrawl and thus overwhelmed by the general perception of a Pokemon newcomer having to be some "badass" humanoid final evolution (in aesthetic at least, meaning even Mewtwo applies despite not being part of an evolution line at all). Going back to the types for a second, most Pokemon who "make it big" in most senses of the word simply tend to not be Bug, Ground, or Rock anyways, while Ghost and Dragon (and to a lesser extent Fairy) tend to have issues of their own to work out that make them hard to really make into most pieces of content. - The generational playing field is DEFINITELY uneven, and it's a shame. While for most region it can hardly be helped due to their smaller number of new Pokemon to fill in the spirit and Pokeball lists of their own, their spirit lists mainly focusing on legends, myths, and a few oddball (including starters and unlucky movie stars) hurt the 5th gen the most due to, as you said it, its all-new lineup of Pokemon (which it has more than even Kanto), and even without taking out the "duplicates of existing Pokemon" (like Blitzle to Ponyta), you're still left with a huge amount of new faces that are not allowed any publicity in this way at all even with spirits. Likewise for Poke Balls. This is part of why I always felt that despite others also having candidates, Unova is the most in need of something to balance it out, and with how reluctant Smash is to give content from past games especially in Pokemon's case, it'd be hard for it to do that if there isn't a dedicated character to associate that content with (which in Unova's case there ain't. Cynthia's theme in Sm4sh could've had the extra push from Lucario, but Black/White straightup might as well have nothing on the roster and terrible consolation prizes everywhere else [including a stage that's basically a copy-pasted Spear Pillars with some unfitting cameos beyond the obvious two]) - Joining with the previous comment, the human characters are particularly prominent in the 5th gen, being more developped as characters regardless of their roles, which is part of why N is such a fanfavorite (because the whole games's lineup of new characters is very beloved in the first place. Heck, a minor character from a battle facility got brought back in Legends and now HE'S amongst the most popular ones of THAT game). This make it sting even harder when Smash's acknowledgement of the human characters is so minimal (with contrast not being a very good excuse in terms of spirits, considering how many of those are nonhuman in literally more than half of the series in the game; Pokemon shouldn't be compensating for only, say, Fire Emblem and Kingdom Hearts), because it feels like a metric ton of wasted potential, especially for a series that claims it focuses on "video game history" (and the human characters of Pokemon are at their biggest heights of popularity in the games, as shown by N being amongst the top ones still despite a less than favorable anime appearance). Of course, it also stings for every other gen AND the anime, given both of those still have plenty of characters people love to remember (as evident by Pokemon Masters getting greenlight at all for the games; if it were an unprofitable idea it'd definitely have been shot down considering how much TPC likes profit). [Side note: an obscure piece of content regarding the Trainers that you missed is that Kalos Champion Diantha appears on the screen at the bottom of Prism Tower sometimes] - The spinoffs definitely need some level of acknowledgement as well. Anime aside since it is considered somewhat of a "main" type of media (albeit an "alternate universe" of sorts), the biggest references to spinoffs are a PNG of Detective Pikachu (which is from the game but might have been pushed by the movie) and a move dating back to the card game (which is barely a "spinoff" as it is considered also kind of a main media of the series). Highly beloved spinoffs games full of ressources that could have been used or acknowledged in Smash are all completely absent. No music/costumes/spirits from Go, no costumes from Unite, no music or stage for PMD (despite its highly beloved status), no music from PokePark... the list goes on and on and on, it's practically endless and such a glaring waste of potential assets that could help represent how massive of a scope the series has and how much these creatures actually mean to people as a result. Instead what we have is Pokemon pretending it's some humble thirdparty monster collection series that shoves maingame content in our face (and can't even do THAT right either). - The stages are... mainly just ok at best imo. Spear Pillars and Saffron City are highlights in their accuracy, but ultimately it does feel bizarre that for a lineup of mainly wild monsters, most of the stages are manmade structures that other characters would be using instead. Giving PMD or PokePark a stage would be the easy solution to this, if it weren't for the spinoffs getting shafted to hell and back (see above). Another option would be pulling something less "big" and more "random", like the Abundant Shrine from Unova which I did use in a hypothetical Fighter Pack once. - Music-wise, the series is very mid. A lot of its remixes after Brawl didn't really get great reception, and the series is too afraid of just taking the songs from the games as is that we always end up with a rather small amount of new songs every game. Even without spinoffs, it's a huge shame because games like Black/White who are notorious for their amazing OST just end either being ignored or getting given flak in Smash because the remixes suck (and the songs are far too few to compensate for how badly they get received). Even disregarding that Kanto has the most songs (bar giving Kalos some extra stuff due to ORAS even though that's Hoenn [though Zinnia is arguable]), it's a shame because the rest of the regions after Sinnoh kind of just get shafted over and over again (and even Sinnoh itself wasn't immune, see the Cynthia remix they added one Smash game too late). In conclusion: Add the Pokemon Professor from Unova, with the unevolved starters that can each be taken on their own as well. Still great at the holy type forecast of starter triangle (and would make the small 'mons more fresh than "Kanto feat. Pichu"), can come with plenty of spirits of less "big" Unova Pokemon (there's a ton to pull from in gen 5) for spirits and Poke Ball summons, gives amazing content to an amazing set of games (and that's despite me starting with gen 4 instead; I just find gen 5 so much better both as I grew up AND in hindsight), another human character to give spotlight to (plus an opportunity to also use that to give us more human spirits and maybe costumes?), the Unova starters are the stars of PokePark 2 and somewhat PMD3 (and in turn that also means there's a chance spinoff content can just come alongside the whole pack), potential for an "earlygame" or otherwise more "wild" stage to fit with the Professor (or spinoff stages for how the starters themselves are important in their spinoffs), more music from two highly beloved OSTs (one of which includes songs from past games; and that's ontop of the possibility of it bringing back past games's OSTs instead of just focusing on the one or two latests; AND the possibility of spinoff music ontop of it), and still highly respectful of an actual part of the og source materials (them being the games and anime). ;) Edit: shinies would be nice to have as well, be they as costumes for the roster or random appearances on the cameos and pokeball summons. Also since this is an interesting vid, I hope you don't mind if I share it on my Twitter acc (which is dedicated to Unova for Smash). ^^

Holy Shit, you’re back

we really should've gotten grovyle specially since we haven't gotten decidueye but at least they made incineroar amazing rather than a clone of any other brawler in the game

If Pokémon ever added another representative, it would probably either be a Gen 8 Pokémon, Grass starter, or Gengar. Maybe another Ghost type, but I don’t think anyone’s beating out Gengar in terms of popularity.

Here's hoping for poketember?

Please polish my bald head

Why do you have an issue with Alomomola? Alolamola is a pretty funny-looking Pokemon and I love it

The Pokémon Generation distribution, it’s a mess, especially that 6 or the 10 fighters are kanto, and that they removed chikorite as a pokeball. Honestly miss having the Unowns coming at ya once summoned out, Nerfing Luigi’s Aeroblast when it looked so much better in melee. In fact, quite a bit of old Pokémon were more fun and less like a annoying like the Vulpix twins, Fletching, Inkay, fucking Goldeen, Eevee really does nothing interesting besides being cute in a high res model (especially if it’s not near anyone), and Moltres is still just sitting there (poor thing). Pokeballs in ultimate just seems less appealing than assists, since they do a lot more that just sit there as a small hazard gimmick.

wish they made each pokemon from pokemon trainer there own ultimate like i wanna see maga charizard x people

i think they did a good job representing various gens. gen 1 has mewtwo, pikachu, jigglypuff, and the starters, gen 2 got pichu and didnt get any starters probably due to the amount of pokemon in smash already. gen 3 was made during the 7 year hiatus of smash, and gen 4 was made just before brawl and led to lucario being added, which was a popular pokemon from gen 4 and had its own movie. gen 5 had no representation bc again there was a smash hiatus and xy was made just in time for smash4 development and sakurai chose greninja bc he felt it would fit the most in smash. gen 6 had incineroar bc primarina would be hard to execute and decidueye was already in pokken + incineroar was easier to make a character out of.