History FranchiseOriginalSin / SuperSmashBros

[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros This star-studded slamfest]] has not gone without some long-lasting problems; some of these [[FranchiseOriginalSin have been around]] ever since Captain Falcon [[VideoGame/FZero still had an active game series]].

*** One particular aspect complained about is how ''Fire Emblem'' having this many playable characters means it outnumbers series such as ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'', ''Franchise/DonkeyKong'', and ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' in terms of fighters. ''Fire Emblem'' outnumbered these series in ''Melee'' too, as Samus, Donkey Kong, and Kirby were the sole fighters for their franchises (as was the case in ''64'') while ''Fire Emblem'' had both Marth and Roy. However, the proportional difference between their number of fighters was a lot smaller (having half of what someone else has isn't too bad when the other person only has two things), Roy was a MovesetClone thrown in at the last minute which made it even easier to discount him, and ''Brawl'' mitigated these franchises' playable character counts discrepencies via the introductions of Zero Suit Samus, Diddy Kong, and Meta Knight/King Dedede respectively (while Roy was dropped for Ike). It wasn't until ''3DS/Wii U'', which increased ''Fire Emblem''[='s=] character count to six while leaving ''Metroid'' and ''Donkey Kong'' at two each and ''Kirby'' at 3, that the difference between these series' (and others') fighter counts compared to ''FE''[='s=] grew to a point where it couldn't be as easily ignored, and despite the ''Metroid'' and ''Donkey Kong'' franchises trying to catch up in ''Ultimate'' with the additions of Ridley, Dark Samus, and King K. Rool, ''Fire Emblem'' still had a big lead overall. It's even worse for ''Kirby'', which hasn't gotten any new playable reps since Brawl with the only notable addition since being Marx's boss battle in Ultimate, which also yielded further accusations of Sakurai's favoritism towards games he made. There's also the matter of series like ''Yoshi's Island'', ''VideoGame/WarioWare'', and ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'', all of which have only one representative each (those being Yoshi, Wario, and Sonic respectively) despite their longevity.
* Cinematic/Cutscene [[EveryoneHasASpecialMove Final Smashes]] became this in ''Ultimate''. Back in ''Brawl'', only ''one'' character had a Cinematic Final Smash (Captain Falcon) while all the others had more varied and unique Final Smashes, so no one complained. Then, in ''Smash 4'', five newcomers had Cinematic Final Smashes (Mega Man, Shulk, Duck Hunt, Bayonetta and Corrin) and the number rose to six characters with Cinematic Final Smashes, but fans didn't mind the UniquenessDecay as there were still characters with different Final Smashes. Then, ''Ultimate'' made Final Smashes faster, which caused many old Final Smashes to be replaced or redesigned, which led some veterans (Yoshi, Fox, Falco, Wario, King Dedede, Wolf) to have Cinematic Final Smashes, and then, most of the ''Ultimate'' newcomers came with Cinematic Final Smashes. Take note that of the 24 ''Ultimate'' newcomers, ''16'' of them have Cinematic Final Smashes (Ridley, Simon, Richter, King K. Rool, Incineroar, Joker, Hero, Banjo and Kazooie, Terry, Byleth, Min Min, Steve, Sephiroth, Pyra, Mythra and Sora), [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks something that made some people get tired of these]], calling them lazy and/or uninspired. It doesn't help that many of them are mechanically identical and very easy to dodge due to the predictable hitboxes the starting attacks have.

** [[AssistCharacter Assist Trophies]] and Mii Costumes tend to be viewed as this. When they were first introduced in ''Brawl'' and ''3DS/Wii U'' respectively, they garnered praise for including characters that weren't playable in the base game, as they were generally thought of as a nice consolation prize. Additionally, most Assist Trophies were characters that wouldn't have stood a chance of being playable anyway, such as [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1 Lakitu and his Spinies]], [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing Mr. Resetti]], a group of VideoGame/{{Excite}}bikers, and some [[VideoGame/NintendoWars Infantry and Tanks]], while most Mii Costumes were based on characters that were in the game anyway, like Mario, Wario, and Meta Knight (the only real exception being Barbara the Bat from ''Daigasso! Band Brothers''). However, after ''For 3DS/Wii U'' and later games began to incorporate [[DownloadableContent DLC]], Assist Trophies went from being appreciated for letting other characters fight in battle to being treated as one of the worst fates that can happen to any character. It's generally considered a death sentence due to the (unconfirmed, but widely believed) notion that a character being added as an Assist Trophy or Mii Costume means they won't be made playable within the same installment (meaning fans of these characters would need to wait indefinitely for the next ''Smash'' game to come out before getting their hopes up again); though Assist Trophies and Mii Costumes ([[VideoGame/PunchOut Little Mac]] in ''Smash 4'', and [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing Isabelle]], [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry King K. Rool]], and [[VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy Dark Samus]] in ''Ultimate'') and one Poké Ball summon ([[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Charizard]] in ''Brawl'') ''have'' gotten promotions before, they've never been promoted within the same game they were already an Assist or Costume in. This wasn't helped by many highly requested characters with lots of name power, such as [[Franchise/StarFox Krystal]], [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Shadow, Tails, Knuckles]], [[VideoGame/GoldenSun Isaac]], VideoGame/{{Bomberman}}, [[Franchise/FireEmblem Lyn, the Black Knight]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX Zero]], [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight Alucard]], VideoGame/ShovelKnight, [[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia Lloyd Irving]], [[VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes Travis Touchdown]], [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry Dante]], VideoGame/{{Shantae}}, [[Franchise/{{Doom}} Doom Slayer]], and ''especially'' [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Waluigi]] and [[VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG Geno]] only making it into ''Smash Bros.'' as Assists or Mii Costumes, leaving many players to [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter lament the moveset potential of multiple fan favorite characters]] who get stuck in these non-playable capacities. The only Mii Costumes that generated any praise were [[VideoGame/{{Undertale}} Sans]] and VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}, but they had other factors that made them well-liked.[[note]]Both of them are faithful recreations of popular indie characters that come with a music track (Shantae has a track too, but doesn't fit the "faithful recreation" criteria and was already a Spirit), the latter was released alongside the [[BaseBreakingCharacter divisive]] Byleth, and the former is '''''[[FountainOfMemes Sans]]'''''.[[/note]] When the March 2020 Nintendo Direct announced that an ''VideoGame/{{ARMS}}'' character would join the fight as DLC, fans of these characters began hoping for the already-an-Assist Spring Man or the already-a-costume Ribbon Girl to get upgraded just to prove that Assist Trophies and Mii Costumes ''can'' be promoted without waiting an installment, but unfortunately didn't turn out to be the case when the fighter was revealed to be Min Min.

* {{Comeback Mechanic}}s are contentious in [[UsefulNotes/FightingGameCommunity the FGC]] in general, mainly being perceived as features that punish players for being good while rewarding bad players, but they're even more controversial within the ''Smash'' fanbase. The first character to have this kind of gimmick would be Lucario in ''Brawl'' with its [[GatheringSteam Aura]] [[SituationalDamageAttack mechanic]] but a) [[MechanicallyUnusualFighter it was the only character in the entire]] ''[[MechanicallyUnusualFighter Brawl]]'' [[MechanicallyUnusualFighter roster who operated as such]]; b) Aura was not that much of an issue, [[RocketTagGameplay being a double-edged sword that required Lucario to be at very high percentages in order to reliably score a KO, which would in turn leave it vulnerable to easy KOs]]; c) Aura is something Lucario is known for in its home series; and d) the mechanic helped to set it apart from Mewtwo, a ''Melee'' character many perceived Lucario to be a replacement for (similar to Roy being swapped out for Ike). Later installments would garner complaints for upping the number of Comeback Mechanics, either making them exclusive to new characters or implementing them across the board:

** Another reason for the contention is that the stage comes from ''VideoGame/SonicLostWorld'', a more {{contested|Sequel}} game that, while having its fans, is nowhere near as popular as other ''Sonic'' games to draw stages from, and felt like it was included to promote a Creator/SonicTeam-created game that was released exclusively for [[UsefulNotes/WiiU Nintendo]] [[UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS hardware]][[note]]At least prior to the PC port released a year after ''Smash Wii U''[[/note]](note how ''Lost World'' is listed as Sonic and Dr. Eggman's second game on their Trophies and how the Deadly Six, the antagonists of the game, have their own Trophy in the Wii U version of ''4''). A similar situation happened in ''Brawl'', where a lot of content came from the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}-exclusive ''VideoGame/SonicAndTheSecretRings'' (between Sharha and Erazor Djinn being among the Stickers, being the second game listed on Sonic's Trophy, being the source of his in-game design, and "Seven Rings in Hand" being used as his Classic Mode/All-Star Mode roll-call track). However, due to being Sonic's first appearance in ''Smash'', the game also heavily promoted [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 the very first game]] (among the games to provide more direct moveset origin, Stickers of Classic Sonic's American and Japanese designs, the only game to get two music tracks, and the stage itself), making the ''Secret Rings'' promotion less obvious.

** [[AssistCharacter Assist Trophies]] and Mii Costumes tend to be viewed as this. When they were first introduced in ''Brawl'' and ''3DS/Wii U'' respectively, they garnered praise for including characters that weren't playable in the base game, as they were generally thought of as a nice consolation prize. Additionally, most Assist Trophies were characters that wouldn't have stood a chance of being playable anyway, such as [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1 Lakitu and his Spinies]], [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing Mr. Resetti]], a group of VideoGame/{{Excite}}bikers, and some [[VideoGame/NintendoWars Infantry and Tanks]], while most Mii Costumes were based on characters that were in the game anyway, like Mario, Wario, and Meta Knight (the only real exception being Barbara the Bat from ''Daigasso! Band Brothers''). However, after ''For 3DS/Wii U'' and later games began to incorporate [[DownloadableContent DLC]], fans started treating Assist Trophies and Mii Costumes as SecondPlaceIsForLosers, rather than [[SecondPlaceIsForWinners Winners]]. It's generally considered a death sentence due to the (unconfirmed, but widely believed) notion that a character being added as an Assist Trophy or Mii Costume means they won't be made playable within the same installment (meaning fans of these characters would need to wait indefinitely for the next ''Smash'' game to come out before getting their hopes up again); though Assist Trophies and Mii Costumes ([[VideoGame/PunchOut Little Mac]] in ''Smash 4'', and [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing Isabelle]], [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry King K. Rool]], and [[VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy Dark Samus]] in ''Ultimate'') and one Poké Ball summon ([[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Charizard]] in ''Brawl'') ''have'' gotten promotions before, they've never been promoted within the same game they were already an Assist or Costume in. This wasn't helped by many highly requested characters with lots of name power, such as [[Franchise/StarFox Krystal]], [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Shadow, Tails, Knuckles]], [[VideoGame/GoldenSun Isaac]], VideoGame/{{Bomberman}}, [[Franchise/FireEmblem Lyn, the Black Knight]], [[VideoGame/MegaManX Zero]], [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight Alucard]], VideoGame/ShovelKnight, [[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia Lloyd Irving]], [[VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes Travis Touchdown]], [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry Dante]], VideoGame/{{Shantae}}, [[Franchise/{{Doom}} Doom Slayer]], and ''especially'' [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Waluigi]] and [[VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG Geno]] only making it into ''Smash Bros.'' as Assists or Mii Costumes, leaving many players to [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter lament the moveset potential of multiple fan favorite characters]] who get stuck in these non-playable capacities. The only Mii Costumes that generated any praise were [[VideoGame/{{Undertale}} Sans]] and VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}, but they had other factors that made them well-liked.[[note]]Both of them are faithful recreations of popular indie characters that come with a music track (Shantae has a track too, but doesn't fit the "faithful recreation" criteria and was already a Spirit), the latter was released alongside the [[BaseBreakingCharacter divisive]] Byleth, and the former is '''''[[FountainOfMemes Sans]]'''''.[[/note]] When the March 2020 Nintendo Direct announced that an ''VideoGame/{{ARMS}}'' character would join the fight as DLC, fans of these characters began hoping for the already-an-Assist Spring Man or the already-a-costume Ribbon Girl to get upgraded just to prove that Assist Trophies and Mii Costumes ''can'' be promoted without waiting an installment, but unfortunately didn't turn out to be the case when the fighter was revealed to be Min Min.

** Another reason for the contention is that the stage comes from ''VideoGame/SonicLostWorld'', a more {{contested|Sequel}} game that, while having its fans, is nowhere near as popular as other ''Sonic'' games to draw stages from, and felt like it was included to promote a Creator/SonicTeam-created game that was released exclusively for [[UsefulNotes/WiiU Nintendo]] [[UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS hardware]] (note how ''Lost World'' is listed as Sonic and Dr. Eggman's second game on their Trophies and how the Deadly Six, the antagonists of the game, have their own Trophy in the Wii U version of ''4''). A similar situation happened in ''Brawl'', where a lot of content came from the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}-exclusive ''VideoGame/SonicAndTheSecretRings'' (between Sharha and Erazor Djinn being among the Stickers, being the second game listed on Sonic's Trophy, being the source of his in-game design, and "Seven Rings in Hand" being used as his Classic Mode/All-Star Mode roll-call track). However, due to being Sonic's first appearance in ''Smash'', the game also heavily promoted [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 the very first game]] (among the games to provide more direct moveset origin, Stickers of Classic Sonic's American and Japanese designs, the only game to get two music tracks, and the stage itself), making the ''Secret Rings'' promotion less obvious.

** {{Counter|Attack}} has been a staple of nearly every ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' character's moveset since ''Melee'' as a nod to their series' battle flow, with Peach also having a variation in the form of Toad. However, whereas only five fighters ''total''--and no more than four per game--in a cast of 25+ had access to moves of that nature between ''Melee'' and ''Brawl'' (Marth, Roy, Peach, Ike, Lucario), the amount suddenly doubled in ''For 3DS/Wii U'' (Lucina, Little Mac, Palutena, Greninja, Shulk, Mii Swordfighter, Corrin, and Bayonetta), and ''quadrupled'' in ''Ultimate'' (Daisy, Chrom, K. Rool, Incineroar, Joker, Sephiroth, and Sora). This greatly reduced the novelty of the move, frustrating players who had to endure fights that devolved into Counterfests and bypassing potentially more inventive attacks that could've been used in their place, the most blatant cases being [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry King K. Rool]] and [[VideoGame/Persona5 Joker]] in ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate Ultimate]]'', who had new moves made up out of whole cloth (respectively, Gut Check and Rebel's Guard[[note]]Though it is loosely based on the guarding mechanic from its user's home series and it turns into the game-accurate [[AttackReflector Makarakarn/Tetrakarn]] once he fills the [[LimitBreak Rebellion Gauge]][[/note]]) that are counters, even though their home games weren't exactly lacking in potential alternatives. Some characters have justifiable reasons for having a counter [[note]]Lucina and Chrom are ''Fire Emblem'' fighters and [[MovesetClone Echoes]] of Marth and Roy respectively, Daisy is an Echo of Peach, a cross-counter is a genuine skill for a boxer like [[VideoGame/PunchOut Little Mac]], Greninja gets Substitute (a move it can legitimately use in [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} its home series]]), Shulk's Vision is a {{pragmatic adaptation}} of his CombatClairvoyance in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'', Bayonetta likewise uses [[BulletTime Witch Time]] from [[VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}} her]] [[VideoGame/Bayonetta2 games]], Incineroar has Revenge (a move it can learn via breeding in the ''Pokémon'' series), Sephiroth uses Scintilla from ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'', Sora's counterattack is an essential part of [[Franchise/KingdomHearts his series']] defensive play, etc.[[/note]], but there were lengthy debates about who actually deserves to keep the move and sarcastic remarks that [[SerialEscalation everyone might as well have Counter in the next game]].

* Regarding the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' stages in ''Ultimate'', many fans have taken issue that both of Sonic's stages are of the GreenHillZone archetype, with one coming from a [[VideoGame/SonicLostWorld more contested game]]. Both of these come from two sources the series has long done.
** Using the most common type of level to base a stage on goes as far back as ''Melee'', where the ''Mario'' series would use the grass areas of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'', ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', and ''VideoGame/SuperMario64''. Even more would be added in later games based on ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand'', ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros2'', and ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosU''. Additionally, stages receiving similar aesthetics for new stages continued as early as the transition between games (the Mario castle stage of ''64'' was replaced with a new castle stage, the Great Fox stage was replaced by a new Great Fox stage, the ice stage of Ice Climber was replaced with a new ice stage). However, the bigger series have generally had more stages added of different aesthetics (such as the ''Kirby'' series getting a replacement Green Greens based stage and a new stage based on the Fountain of Dreams). With the ''Sonic'' series only receiving one new stage in ''Wii U'' and Green Hill not returning, the return of both stages finally being in the same game makes the lack of difference more apparent.
** Another reason for the contention is that the stage comes from ''Sonic Lost World'', a more contested game that, while having its fans, is nowhere near as popular as other ''Sonic'' games to draw stages from, and feels included to promote the lasted Sonic Team created game on Nintendo (alongside being Sonic and Dr. Eggman's second game in trophies and a trophy based on the Deadly Six). A similar situation happened in ''Brawl'', where a lot of content came from ''VideoGame/SonicAndTheSecretRings'' (between Sharha and Erazor Djinn being among the stickers, being the second game in Sonic's trophy, the source of his design, and "Seven Rings in Hand" used as his Classic Mode/All-Star Mode roll-call track). However, due to being Sonic's first appearance in ''Smash'', the game also heavily promoted [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 the very first game]] (among the games to provide more direct moveset origin, stickers of Classic Sonic's American and Japanese designs, the only game to get two music tracks, and the stage), making the ''Secret Rings'' promotion less obvious.

* Cinematic/Cutscene [[EveryoneHasASpecialMove Final Smashes]] became this in ''Ultimate''. Back in ''Brawl'', only ''one'' character had a Cinematic Final Smash (Captain Falcon) while all the others had more varied and unique Final Smashes, so no one complained. Then, in ''Smash 4'', five newcomers had Cinematic Final Smashes (Mega Man, Shulk, Duck Hunt, Bayonetta and Corrin) and the number rose to six characters with Cinematic Final Smashes, but fans didn't mind the UniquenessDecay as there were still characters with different Final Smashes. Then, ''Ultimate'' made Final Smashes faster, which caused many old Final Smashes to be replaced or redesigned, which led some veterans (Yoshi, Fox, Falco, Wario, King Dedede, Wolf) to have Cinematic Final Smashes, and then, most of the ''Ultimate'' newcomers came with Cinematic Final Smashes. Take note that of the 24 ''Ultimate'' newcomers, ''16'' of them have Cinematic Final Smashes (Ridley, Simon, Ritcher, King K. Rool, Incineroar, Joker, Hero, Banjo and Kazooie, Terry, Byleth, Min Min, Steve, Sephiroth, Pyra, Mythra and Sora), [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks something that made some people get tired of these]], calling them lazy and/or uninspired. It doesn’t help that many of them are mechanically identical and very easy to dodge due to the predictable hitboxes the starting attacks have.

** Another reason for the contention is that the stage comes from ''Sonic Lost World'', a more contested game that, while having its fans, is nowhere near as popular as other ''Sonic'' games to draw stages from, and feels included to promote the lasted Sonic Team created game on Nintendo (alongside being Sonic Dr. Eggman's second game in trophies and a trophy based on the Deadly Six). A similar situation happened in ''Brawl'', where a lot of content came from ''VideoGame/SonicAndTheSecretRings'' (between Sharha and Erazor Djinn being among the stickers, being the second game in Sonic's trophy, the source of his design, and "Seven Rings in Hand" used as his Classic Mode/All-Star Mode roll-call track). However, due to being Sonic's first appearance in ''Smash'', the game also heavily promoted [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 the very first game]] (among the games to provide more direct moveset origin, stickers of Classic Sonic's American and Japanese designs, the only game to get two music tracks, and the stage), making the ''Secret Rings'' promotion less obvious.

** Another reason for the contention is that the stage comes from ''Sonic Lost World'' a more contested game that, while having its fans, is nowhere near as popular as other ''Sonic'' games to draw stages from, and feels included to promote the lasted Sonic Team created game on Nintendo (alongside being many character's second game in trophies and a trophy based on the Deadly Six). A similar situation happened in ''Brawl'', where a lot of content came from ''VideoGame/SonicAndTheSecretRings'' (between Sharha and Erazor Djinn being among the stickers, being the second game in Sonic's trophy, the source of his design, and "Seven Rings in Hand" used as his Classic Mode/All-Star Mode roll-call track). However, due to being Sonic's first appearance in ''Smash'', the game also heavily promoted [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 the very first game]] (among the games to provide more direct moveset origin, stickers of Classic Sonic's American and Japanese designs, the only game to get two music tracks, and the stage), making the ''Secret Rings'' promotion less obvious.

** Another reason for the contention is that the stage comes from ''Sonic Lost World'' a more contested game that, while having its fans, is nowhere near as popular as other ''Sonic'' games to draw stages from, and feels included to promote the game (alongside being many character's second game in trophies and a trophy based on the Deadly Six). A similar situation happened in ''Brawl'', where a lot of content came from ''VideoGame/SonicAndTheSecretRings'' (between Sharha and Erazor Djinn being among the stickers, being the second game in Sonic's trophy, the source of his design, and "Seven Rings in Hand" used as his Classic Mode/All-Star Mode roll-call track). However, due to being Sonic's first appearance in ''Smash'', the game also heavily promoted [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 the very first game]] (among the games to provide more direct moveset origin, stickers of Classic Sonic's American and Japanese designs, the only game to get two music tracks, and the stage), making the ''Secret Rings'' promotion less obvious.