The History
Ok so maybe we won't be getting to that point just yet, but anyway, Daisy and Ridley are two characters that were constantly brought up as potential Smash candidates on several occasions, the former of the two especially taking the spotlight. These two characters, however, had glaring issues that seemingly impacted their odds of getting their spot, with many considering Daisy to not be different enough from Peach to warrant getting her own spot in the roster, and the infamous "too big" argument that everyone and their mother brought up whenever someone mentioned Ridley getting into the game (as a fighter, anyway). Speculation on Ridley's inclusion had been ongoing since the Melee days when he was prominently featured in the original trailer/intro for the game, and his popularity as a possible fighter only grew more over the coming years as more games in the series were released.
I actually find it very interesting as it can be somewhat easy to predict when a long-awaited character will finally join Smash, and I really felt that with multiple characters that made it into Ultimate. By this, I mean that there's just some kind of feeling when everyone is speculating that a certain character will make it in and there's just some kind of feeling when that speculation begins to reach its peak. Everyone is talking about the character but also trying to be safe and not go all-in on their inclusion, and it just begins to feel so obvious that this is the direction the game is going to go in. This is how I felt about Ridley. In that relatively short period between the initial Smash tease for Switch and the full reveal at E3 2018, almost anywhere speculation persisted, Ridley's name was bound to come up somewhere, and as it got closer and closer to that Direct where the game would be fully revealed, it just started to feel like now was just going to finally be the time and that the speculation was reaching a climax.
The Reveal
So E3 2018 rolls around and Nintendo's Direct starts. As with almost all big reveals, I distinctly remember the day it happened. I could barely sleep that night knowing that we were about to get information on not only a load of unrevealed Nintendo games, but also a new entry in the Smash series. I especially remember the debates that persisted in the months leading up as to whether it was a port or sequel, but looking back, it was pretty glaringly obvious that it was a new game. I think the only people really thinking it was a port were ones trying to avoid disappointment in case it actually was one.
Anyway, I remember waking up at, like, 6 or 7 that morning because I just couldn't sleep anymore, even if I was multiple hours away from the Direct. I legit had to keep myself occupied so I wouldn't bore myself to death for the next hours, and watching Coco on Netflix for the first time was one of those things.
So the Direct finally rolls around and I'm in a Discord call watching it with my cousin. Let me tell you, the hype levels at the time were unreal. Everyone was watching that morning, knowing Smash was coming and anticipating its reveal. Is it a new game? Who will be cut? What newcomers will there be? These were all questions running through my mind for the preceding months and I was minutes away from finally getting answers.
That was a stressful Direct too, especially with all those unknowns. It felt like Smash would show up at any moment and whenever a new trailer started, the anticipation only grew more. Finally, around the midway point of the Direct, the typical end of Direct sizzle reel shows and afterwards they transition into the second half of the Direct, which was essentially just a Smash Direct.
Sakurai introduces the game and the first trailer starts.
The trailer begins with a new version of battlefield, and a pipe comes up out of the ground, obviously indicating Mario's design in this new game is about to be seen. When he comes up, it is already obvious (as if it wasn't already) that this was indeed a brand new game, and as the trailer progresses, we see a couple returning veterans who were previously cut, such as Ice Climbers (expected, but exciting) and Pokemon Trainer (completely unexpected to me, but still not too crazy).
Then Snake shows up, bringing with him the "Everyone is Here" tagline, and if I could pinpoint any exact moment in that Direct when shit absolutely obliterated the fan, it would be that one.
That's not what we're here to talk about though. Let's get into the newcomer reveals.
So the Direct continues and we see a bunch of changes to different characters. Finally, Lucina and Dark Pit are brought up, introducing the concept of Echo Fighters (or basically clones/semiclones). This is fine. They finally directly addressed the "issue" of having clone characters and gave them a fancy new name to go alongside them. This is only the beginning, however, as we then are led into the reveal of a brand new echo fighter. That fighter was revealed to be Daisy, and while not exactly the most exciting character imo, this brought in a completely new side of speculation and made an entire subsection of fighters more likely to make the cut. Now we know that they are glorifying clones and are willing to add even more. Now even more characters that were simply dismissed as only being able to be a clone are able to join the roster
That was not the only character reveal however, with the next being one of the biggest reveals of the hype cycle.
The Direct continues, and towards the end we are told that because they prioritized bringing everyone back, there was going to be a lower number of newcomers in this game. That's fine, we already got enough as is, but then we are told there is one more announcement.
Now imagine this in the shoes of someone seeing all of this for the first time with the context that most big Smash fans had. First we see a brand new version of the Smash 4 reveal trailer intro, this time having a simple, more minimalist presentation (which imo, adds even more to the hype since it makes everything feel even more unknown and mysterious).
The main trailer begins and we see an overhead shot of a robotic, sci-fi looking bridge over a giant metallic chasm. This, for many, raised suspicions as to who was about to be revealed, only amplified by the next shot where the first things we see on the bridge are Samus's feet.
Honestly, this is one of my favorite reveal trailers because, even though it's very obvious who is being revealed, the darkness within this giant, empty room, accompanied by the silence only broken by ambient sounds and the footsteps of the main three characters creates this tense atmosphere that only makes the sudden bursts of sound caused by Ridley's murders that much more impactful in building the excitement.
Eventually, Mario and Mega Man are taken out, Samus turns around, and a giant figure bursts up from under the bridge, quickly revealed to be Ridley.
This trailer is easily one of the most exciting reveals in Smash history both because it was such a long-awaited character, and because the trailer really does a fantastic job at building the tension and making the reveal that much more impactful.
As someone who has played very little of the Metroid series, I can really appreciate the fact that Nintendo would actually let this character in even after seemingly shooting him down in the past, and whenever I watch the reveal trailer or any reactions to it, I can still feel the sheer hype radiating from the fans who had been wishing for this character for many years beforehand.
Why I like them
Daisy is a character that I have played very little of in the actual game, and though I'm not really huge on her's or Peach's playstyles in a general sense, she is one of the main faces I associate with echo fighters in Smash, and that's a good thing. As I said before, her reveal opened up a completely new kind of speculation. Now that people knew that they were really going to be pushing into the concept of Echo Fighters, the big question was who's next? Chrom, for instance, was now a likely candidate, as it had been stated in the past that his inclusion in Smash 4 was decided against as a result of his being too similar to other characters in the Fire Emblem series. When playing the E3 demo, people noticed Samus's Dark Samus alt was no longer there. Did this mean Dark Samus will be a new Echo? What about Ken? He's already essentially a Ryu clone in the Street Fighter series. He's such an obvious candidate now that echoes are a thing, so is he going to get in. Will Mrs. Pac Man get in? What about Shadow? Maybe Dry Bowser? Why aren't Octolings an echo? How about Isabelle? I could go on.
On the other side of things, I really appreciate Ridley's inclusion for a reason why I appreciate a lot of other inclusions in Ultimate, being that he was such a big fan request and it felt so nice to know that those fans had closure and that they got their most wanted character. Even aside from that, I love playing Ridley in the game. While he isn't exactly one of my mains, I really enjoy his moveset and whenever I play as him in the game it's always a fun match. Overall, he's just a really fun character. His inclusion, similar to Daisy, raised a lot of questions as to who was going to be included in this new game. Now that one heavily requested character is in, are there going to be more? Is this just a one off and every other newcomer is relatively safe? etc.
Overall, I love the inclusions in Smash revealed at E3 2018. Both were big characters that made a lot of people happy and both brought a lot of speculation to the table as to what other characters were going to be included in the game. I think it's safe to say that without Daisy and Ridley, Ultimate would have been very different, both pre-launch and post-launch.
