Smash Newcomer Precedent
Here be dragons!
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I understand
 | This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes. |
Based off of this xkcd. For Melee, I'm basing order off of when characters appeared in the E3 reveal trailer, and also the dates on this website. For Brawl I’m going off when characters appear in order of the trailers here, and then when Dojo articles for the other newcomers were published.
Feel free to correct stuff or fill in stuff I haven't thought up of yet. The "No fighter is from [franchise name]" ones I feel are cop-outs so if you can think of something more creative for those that would be smashing.
- No new fighter has ever been added to Smash… until Peach.
- No fighter has ever been the antagonist of their series… until Bowser.
- One slot, one fighter… until Ice Climbers.
- No newcomer has ever been a Zelda character… until Sheik.
- No fighter can transform into another fighter… until Zelda.
- … until Ganon.
- There has never been a Fire Emblem character in Smash… until Marth.
- No newcomer has ever been a Pokémon… until Pichu.
- No fighter has ever originated from a spin-off game… until Dr. Mario
- No newcomer has ever been a Star Fox character… until Falco.
- A legendary Pokémon has never been a fighter… until Mewtwo.
- No fighter has ever debuted in Smash before the game they debuted in was released… until Roy.
- … until Young Link.
- No fighters are Smash-original characters… until Mr. Game and Watch.
- No newcomer has ever been a Kirby character… until Meta Knight.
- No fighter is from Kid Icarus… until Pit.
- No fighter has ever originated from a Wii game… until Zero Suit Samus.
- … until Wario.
- No fighter has ever been from a third-party franchise… until Snake.
- No fighter has ever originated from a GameCube game… until Ike.
- One slot, up to two fighters… until Pokémon Trainer.
- Rareware creations can’t be fighters… until Diddy Kong.
- All fighters have appeared in games released outside of Japan… until Lucas.
- SEGA characters can’t be fighters… until Sonic.
- No fighters are from Pikmin… until Olimar.
- … until King Dedede.
- … until Lucario.
- Fighters must be game characters, not hardware… until R.O.B.
- … until Toon Link.
- … until Wolf.
- No fighter is from Animal Crossing… until Villager.
- No fighter is from a Capcom franchise… until Mega Man.
- … until Wii Fit Trainer.
- Only one princess per series can become a fighter… until Rosalina.
- Assist Trophies deconfirm a slot… until Little Mac.
- … until Greninja.
- … until Palutena.
- No fighter is from a Namco franchise… until Pac-Man.
- There are no female Fire Emblem reps… until Lucina.
- No Fire Emblem rep has ever wielded magic… until Robin.
- No fighters have British accents… until Shulk.
- A fighter's child has never been a fighter themselves… until Bowser Jr.
- … until Duck Hunt.
- No newcomer has ever originated from another fighting game… until Ryu.
- Square Enix characters can’t be fighters… until Cloud.
- No DLC characters have been women… until Corrin.
- Fighters can't wear glasses… until Bayonetta.
- No fighter has originated from a Wii U game… until Inkling.
- Large characters can’t be scaled down for Smash… until Ridley.
- … until Daisy.
- … until Simon.
- … until Richter.
- … until King K. Rool.
- … until Dark Samus.
- … until Chrom.
- … until Isabelle.
- … until Incineroar.
- … until Ken.
- None of Bowser's minions have ever been fighters… until Piranha Plant.
- … until Joker.
- … until Hero.
- Characters owned by Microsoft can’t get in… until Banjo.
- SNK characters have never been fighters… until Terry.
- No fighter has ever originated from a Switch game… until Byleth.
- … until Min Min.
- No fighter has ever originated from an indie game… until Steve.
- … until Sephiroth.
- … until Pyra and Mythra
- … until Kazuya
- Characters owned by Disney can’t get in… until Sora