Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a game featuring 86 characters on the roster, mostly thanks to its “Everyone Is Here” theme. Of course, it’s worth mentioning that if you were to count Pyra & Mythra separately, as well as the Pokémon Trainer as three distinct Pokémon (Squirtle, Ivysaur and Charizard), that number technically rises to 89.
However, it turns out that Masahiro Sakurai briefly considered going a different route with the Pokémon Trainer. More specifically, he almost used a slightly different set of Pokémon to represent the trio.
Additionally, Sakurai even wondered if it’d be worth it to make the Pokémon Trainer. Instead, he considered if it’d be better to simply design three separate character slots rather than a three-in-one character like the Pokémon Trainer.
“I was unsure if I should really make Pokémon Trainer. After all, it’d require putting in the work of three different characters and if you’re going out of your way to add three, then maybe it would be better to pick three others instead…” — Masahiro Sakurai
“I was unsure if I should really make Pokémon Trainer,” said Sakurai. “After all, it’d require putting in the work of three different characters and if you’re going out of your way to add three, then maybe it would be better to pick three others instead…”
Ultimately though, Sakurai concluded that the concept of the Pokémon Trainer would offer players unique strategies that wouldn’t really be available for other characters. There’d also be nothing stopping players from simply maining one of the three characters if they wanted (though the “fatigue” system of Super Smash Bros. Brawl does go against that idea).
“But, for people who played him there were those who, for example, mained Charizard and depending on the situation they’d swap to Squirtle temporarily, that was the ideal,” continued Sakurai. “Since you were changing between them, I thought that it wasn’t really much different from including three different characters separately.”
In the end, it was decided that the Pokémon Trainer’s lineup would consist of Squirtle, Ivysaur and Charizard. However, this actually wasn’t the first team that the developers brainstormed for the Pokémon Trainer.
At first, we considered having them all in their first stage evolutions or even in their final forms.” — Masahiro Sakurai
“At first, we considered having them all in their first stage evolutions or even in their final forms,” declared Sakurai.
In other words, we could’ve instead either had Blastoise, Venusaur and Charizard, or Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Charmander for the Pokémon Trainer’s team.
“This was because I realized that the second stage ones often tend to be somewhat forgotten,” continued Sakurai. “In this case, that’d be Ivysaur.”
Of course, the developers could’ve made all three Pokémon in their second stage forms. This would result in the lineup being Wartortle, Ivysaur and Charmeleon.
“But, we really wanted to have Charizard. I then thought that Squirtle stands out more than Blastoise does, and realized that by separating them by evolution stages we’d also be able to go from small to medium to big which hits a nice balance.” — Masahiro Sakurai
Ultimately though, Sakurai felt like having Charizard was a must-have due to its iconic status within the Pokémon franchise. This would result in the team having Blastoise as being part of the team, but Sakurai felt like Squirtle stood out more than Blastoise. Funnily enough, this seems to suggest that the no member of the Bulbasaur evolution line is necessarily seen as being more important than the others, meaning that the team were fine just settling for Ivysaur as the middle evolution.
This line of thinking led Sakurai to conclude that it would be better to have the Pokémon Trainer’s three members being of different evolution stages to better represent the Pokémon series as a whole. After all, the “evolution” process makes up a big part of the identity of the Pokémon games.
“But, we really wanted to have Charizard. I then thought that Squirtle stands out more than Blastoise does, and realized that by separating them by evolution stages we’d also be able to go from small to medium to big which hits a nice balance,” said Sakurai.
Even with all of this planned out, some development time also had to go to the fourth member of the Pokémon Trainer team — the Pokémon Trainer himself!
“As for the Pokémon Trainer himself, we had to make sure that he was always on the screen on every stage so we had to add platforms on many of them, it was actually pretty unreasonable for just one character, haha,” concluded Sakurai.
Like the Ice Climbers, the Pokémon Trainer had to be cut from Super Smash Bros. 4 due to technical limitations of the Nintendo 3DS. This resulted in just Charizard becoming a playable character within that game, with a new down special known as “Rock Smash.”
When Pokémon Trainer returned in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, so to did Squirtle and Ivysaur, but Charizard ended up losing access to his Rock Smash down special. It’s interesting to imagine how different Pokémon Trainer might’ve ended up in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate had the development team decided on different Pokémon within the evolutionary lines, or if they had simply kept the three Pokémon separate from the beginning (with unique down specials such as Charizard’s Rock Smash).
The Nintendo Switch 2 was released rather recently. We imagine that a new iteration within the Smash franchise will eventually be launched for the new console eventually considering the success of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but we’ll likely be waiting a good while considering that Sakurai is currently busy with the development of Kirby Air Riders.
Regardless, the opportunity for Bulbasaur, Charmander, Wartortle, Charmeleon, Venusaur and Blastoise to join the roster in any capacity has probably passed at this point. There’s not much that these sort of Pokémon would be able to do that their alternate evolutions don’t already do.
Furthermore, Masahiro Sakurai tends to pick Pokémon from the latest Pokémon Generation with every new entry. Greninja was the only Pokémon newcomer for Super Smash Bros. 4 while Incineroar was the new addition for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
More than likely, Sakurai will continue this trend for future Super Smash Bros. entries. It’s also worth mentioning that it already feels like most of the iconic Pokémon from Generation 1 are already included within the Super Smash Bros. roster already (Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Mewtwo, Squirtle, Ivysaur and Charizard).
A special thanks goes out to Nicholas “MajinTenshinhan” Taylor for his translations of GSLA Famitsu summaries.