Smash Significance Part 4: Isabelle

As we work towards the tail end of the base roster reveals, we are now hitting our penultimate Direct before Ultimate launched.  This was a pretty interesting case, as this Direct was originally scheduled for September 6, 2018, but was postponed a week to September 13, 2018 as a result of a natural disaster in Japan.  As a result, speculation only grew more and more over that week since there was now confirmation that a Direct would be dropping soon.  The big questions brought with it, though, were if a Smash reveal would be featured and what character it would be if so.

Surprisingly, this was a fairly polarizing question since some thought it was a pretty easy prediction, but others thought there weren't many reveals left and they would all be saved for one final Smash Direct.  Of course seeing how this reveal played out, it seems that it was always planned to be a part of a general Direct.  That said, let's talk about the second to last "unique" newcomer in the base roster, Isabelle.

Part One: History

Isabelle first debuted in 2013's Animal Crossing New Leaf, released on the 3DS.  Since then, she has climbed the ranks and is now up there with the Villagers and Tom Nook as the face of the franchise.  At the time, many were predicting her inclusion in Ultimate's roster as an echo fighter for Villager, as a result of her importance to the Animal Crossing series, as well as because of the fact that echo fighters were being pushed very hard in the pre-launch days.

Outside of Smash, there was also very heavy speculation towards something else Animal Crossing-related.  As stated earlier, New Leaf was released in 2013, but that was the last core game in the series going into that Direct.  Though there were side projects like Happy Home Designer, Amiibo Festival, and Pocket Camp released since then, many fans were craving a new entry in the series and after every passing Switch-era Direct, the speculation and desire only grew more.

Going into this Direct, speculation towards these things would increase, also being amplified by the question as to whether or not the way the March Direct ended was the new normal or if that was a special one-time thing.

Then the Direct came.

Part Two: The Reveal

The September 2018 Direct took those expectations and blew them out of the water.

Literally the first thing shown after the familiar intro animation was a trailer for Luigi's Mansion 3, already bringing the Direct pretty much up to par with the previous one (though it's kinda hard to beat a surprise new Smash game).  Afterwards, the Direct went on pretty much like usual.  There was a small selection of 3DS games, a hefty amount of switch games (new and ports), but for the most part, there was no sign of Smash.  Eventually, towards the end of headlines, Smash was featured, however, it was only the announcement of the rumored Switch hardware bundle.

Then the end of the Direct hits, and we get the tease of one more thing.  Well, not exactly.  It was moreso just a tease that the Direct was not over yet and to stick around until it was completely over.  That already raised some flags for me since it seemed like we were about to get multiple announcements.

So yeah the trailer starts, and I was already thinking Animal Crossing, though I also had a feeling it might have been Isabelle for Smash.  Once Isabelle got the letter, I was pretty much like "yeah ok, it's Smash.  That's neat."

Then that trailer ended and transitioned to the Tom Nook bit at the end.  My first thought was Tom Nook as an echo, but pretty quickly that turned to half expecting it to be an actual Animal Crossing announcement, which it ended up being.

Part Three: My Thoughts

Roughly half a year before this reveal (Would have been the month before the Inkling reveal if I'm not mistaken), I was on My Nintendo and noticed that New Leaf was one of the discounts offered at the time.  Because of this, I decided to finally dip my feet into the Animal Crossing series, as there was plenty of talk about it at the time, and it felt like a Switch entry was pretty much inevitable at that point.  While it wasn't my favorite game in the world, I still absolutely loved it and completely understood the hype around the series.  At that point, I was completely down for an Animal Crossing Switch reveal.

After Ultimate was officially announced, people also started talking about potential echo fighters, with Isabelle being one of the main ones in the spotlight at the time.  I would mentally take note of this, and this altered my reaction to the reveal.

When this Direct did come around, I was starting to have some suspicions about a new game in the series being announced.  Most of the big Nintendo IPs had already been covered up to that point, and it had been 5 years since New Leaf was released.  It just felt like time, so when the trailer opened up with Isabelle scrambling around the office, I immediately got extremely hyped for a new Animal Crossing.  I did start expecting it to be a Smash trailer though, and as soon as she got an invitation, I was just like "oh, yep."  I was excited though, even though, like many other fighters beforehand, this wasn't exactly a character on my personal wishlist.  I was honestly more excited about the prospect of a new Animal Crossing at the time, and after a brief thought of Tom Nook potentially being revealed as an echo after the Isabelle trailer ended, I was more than happy with what we got in that Direct.

The Animal Crossing series has only gained more and more steam since it first started and New Leaf and New Horizons collectively signify a peak in the popularity of the series.  With Isabelle becoming the retroactive mascot of the series as of these games, it's only fitting that she is properly represented as a fighter in Smash.